The topic of healthy and unhealthy meats leads us to the discussion of a long-term controversy in the Christian church regarding clean and unclean meats. We won’t belabor the point, but beginning with Peter’s encounter with the gentile believers in Acts 10, the question of whether God’s food regulations for the Israelites are required of the Christian is still being debated in some circles today.
As you recall, after Noah and his family come out of the ark, God told Noah that just as all plants had been given for food before the flood, after the flood, animals could also be eaten-but not their blood (Genesis 9:3-4). God gave the Israelites a list of animals that were clean or unclean for sacrifice and food in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, but God does not say that the list was given for health reasons. He just told the Israelites not to eat the unclean animals and that was enough – just because He said so! We are not really told why some animals were designated as clean and some unclean. Why would a catfish or shrimp be called unclean and not a carp, since they are all scavengers? Based on today’s scientific knowledge, we can’t make a case that God restricted the Israelites only from eating harmful meats.
‘Holy and separate’
In Leviticus 11:44-45, God does say that since He is holy, He wants his people to be holy and separate — set apart from other cultures. The distinctions of what the Jewish people were to do and not to do regarding cleanliness (food or otherwise) were to remind them of holiness and who they were as a people to God. The Jewish people had rules about what was clean and what was not clean. No other people or nation did. Those rules separated the nation of Israel from Gentile nations.
Jesus and the disciples were certainly practicing Jews and obeyed the food laws. However, as Christianity began to spread to the Gentiles, some major issues had to be resolved about just how Jewish these new Christians were to be! For a fascinating story about how the Jewish Christians abbreviated the food requirements of the Law for the new believers who were Gentiles, read Acts 15.
For a person who desires to follow Christ, the real issue is one of love. Love seeks to build up, never to tear down or to destroy. “If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no long acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died.” (Rom. 14:15). We are not to be preoccupied with our Christian liberties, but rather with love. Love never causes a brother to stumble, but seeks to strengthen the weak. Today there are Christians who abstain from eating meats that were considered unclean in the Old Testament. If that is his or her conviction, then it should be respected. However, brothers who abstain from eating certain meats should not condemn those who do eat those meats.
As a helpful resource, I have lots of articles on healthy ingredients and recipes that you can implement into your daily life.
If you’d like to dig deeper into my journey of discovering God’s plan for health and wellness, check out my book, Made For Paradise: God’s Original Plan for Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, and Rest.
