Eating for God’s Glory

He said, “Hey, man, do you want to buy some weed?”

I said, “Some what? Oh!” I said, “You mean marijuana! You’re trying to sell me some marijuana!” To be honest, I was fascinated by that. At that point, I had lived 40 plus years and nobody had ever tried to sell me marijuana. So when this man tried to offer some to me, I was astonished. I asked him, “Really? You’re trying to sell marijuana to me? Do I look like the kind of person who would be interested in buying marijuana?” He looked nonplussed, but I continued. “What is it about me or my appearance that made you think that I’m the kind of person who would ever smoke marijuana?” By this time, some family members were approaching, and I said to them, loudly enough so as many people as possible could hear me, “This guy is trying to sell marijuana to me. Can you believe it? Nobody has ever tried to sell marijuana to me.” Of course the guy closed his door and drove away.

When the world pressures us to adopt its ways, shouldn’t we ask a similar question: When you look at followers of Jesus, what about us makes you think we would ever be interested in adopting the ways of the world? Our God has redeemed us, and He calls us to be different. Do we look like the kind of people who would want to be like this culture? In this culture murder and rape are so common that ours is one of the most violent societies in the world. Families are fragmenting at an unprecedented rate. Multiple teenagers are attempting suicide every day. Depression and chronic stress are so common that sedatives and antacids are the most common drugs sold over the counter. Why would we want to conform to this culture? Before we met Jesus, we experienced that misery and sin. God delivered us, and He is in the process of transforming us so that we will indeed be different. Why would we want to go back? We wisely separate from the ways of the world.

We Seek to Reflect God’s Holiness

God did not tell His people why He chose those particular foods to be designated as clean or unclean. However, He did tell them why He wanted them to be different, holy. In verses 44 and 45 God said twice, “Be holy because I am holy.” Why are we to be holy? Because God is holy, and He wants us to be like Him. We’re to be holy as God is holy. God created us in His image, but the image of God has been marred by sin. The image of God begins to be restored in us when we’re reconciled to God by Jesus and we embrace God and His ways. As we put away sin and draw close to Him, we become holy for He is holy.

In verse 45 God says, “I am Yahweh, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy.” Note the sequence. First, God redeemed them from slavery, then He was their God, then He told them to be holy. The sequence is important, and the same sequence applies today. First, God redeems us. He saves us from sin when we put our faith in Jesus; He comes into our lives and makes us new people by giving us a new nature. Then God tells us, Now that you’re different, act differently. Jesus has made you into new people; act like new people. Be who you are. In your daily life, live out your new identity in Jesus. Be holy.

Compare our salvation and sanctification in Jesus to a wedding and marriage. Before my wife and I were married, we read books together about how to be a Christian husband and wife. We went to pre-marital counseling. We purchased a topical Bible and read aloud all the verses in the Bible that have to do with marriage. Relatively speaking, we were prepared for marriage. However, we were not married until after the wedding ceremony. Just so, people can know a lot about Christianity, but they are not Christians until they personally put their faith in Jesus as Savior. After our wedding ceremony, we were married. We were never going to be ignorant of marriage again, and we were never going to be more married than we were at that moment. We were married, just like people who put their faith in Jesus are saved and reconciled to God. However, I quickly learned that there is more to being a good husband than good preparation and a good wedding. I had to start acting like a married person. The wedding ceremony gave me a new identity—the identity of husband—but once I had that identity I had to start behaving like a husband. I have to be what I am. It’s one thing to be married and to know you’re married; it’s another thing to act married.

It’s the same in becoming holy, as God is holy. When we put our faith in Jesus, God forgives our sin, gives us the gift of eternal life, and He makes us new people. He gives us a new identity—we’re children of God, heirs with Jesus, saints. We’re holy ones from the moment of our salvation. From that moment we’ll never be unsaved again, and we’ll never be more saved than we are at that moment. Becoming holy is the process of becoming who we are. When we come to Jesus, God sets us apart as His, and becoming holy means that we live as those who have been set apart as God’s. That’s the process of sanctification, becoming holy as He is holy. God said, “I am Yahweh, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy.” We seek to reflect God’s holiness.

We Celebrate the Fulfillment of the Law by Jesus

In Matthew 5:17 Jesus said, “Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law. When we looked at the first chapters of Leviticus, we saw that Jesus fulfilled every type of sacrifice, so sacrifices are no longer necessary for God’s people. Jesus is the final, once-for-all sacrifice. How does Jesus fulfill the laws in Leviticus 11?

Jesus Provides Redemption

God set Israel free from slavery in Egypt. That is redemption. Jesus sets us free from slavery to the Devil, the flesh, and the world. Like former slaves, we are free! Jesus, God the Son, said in John 8:36, “If the Son sets you free, you really will be free.” As John Donne, the English poet, wrote to the Lord, “Except you enthrall me, [I] never shall be free” (“Holy Sonnet XIV”). Knowing the truth of Jesus’ words also makes us free. Jesus said, “If you continue in My word, you really are My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). Praise His name, knowing His truth gives us freedom from sin, self, and Satan!

Jesus Provides Purification

Leviticus 11 says that if an Israelite touched an unclean animal or a dead animal, that person would become unclean. However, the unclean person need not remain unclean. He could wash his clothes and would be regarded as clean the next day (vv. 25,27-28,31-32,40). In other words, in the old covenant period, God provided directions to become clean. In the new covenant period, Jesus cleanses us. Jesus described our salvation in Him as washing. One night in an upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus washed the feet of His apostles. Peter was reluctant to let Jesus wash his feet, since washing feet was the job of a slave. Jesus said to Peter, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me” (John 13:8). In other words, “To be right with Me, Peter, to have a share in My kingdom, you must let Me wash you.”

All of us are unclean in God’s sight. We are unworthy to be in His presence. Thank God when we come to Him in faith and ask Him to come into our lives, He washes us! That happens when God first reconciles us to Himself, and it happens in the Christian life as He cleanses us from sin. First John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When we confess our sins, God forgives our sins, and He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He does both of those. The song “Rock of Ages” expresses that truth. It says, “Be of sin the double cure / Save from wrath and make me pure.” The double cure—He saves us from His righteous wrath, and He makes us pure. He redeems us and cleanses us. By our sin we earned God’s punishment. Jesus took that punishment on Himself when He died for our sin on the cross. When we put our faith in Him, He takes away our sin, our guilt, and God’s wrath. Then, on a daily basis, He forgives us and washes us.

Jesus Provides Direction

Leviticus 11 shows that in the old covenant period God gave His people dietary regulations—some foods were clean and other foods were unclean. In the new covenant period in which we live, those regulations no longer apply. Colossians 2:16-17 says, “Don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink. . . . These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is the Messiah.” Paul was telling the Christians in Colossae not to allow anybody to push them into following old covenant regulations regarding diet, and 1 Corinthians 10:27 says explicitly, “Eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions of conscience.”

So the old covenant dietary regulations no longer apply, but in the new covenant Jesus does give us direction regarding food. We don’t observe those directions in the hope of becoming one of His followers. No, He redeems us by His grace through our faith. He gives us new and eternal life as a free gift. Then, once He is in our lives, He changes us on the inside so that we want to follow His directions.

Let’s note four directions Jesus gives us in this new covenant age.

We use mealtime as a mission. The New Testament says Jesus ate with prostitutes, outcasts, and notorious sinners like tax collectors. He was criticized for it, but it was part of His strategy of drawing sinners to salvation. Zacchaeus is a famous example. As Jesus passed through Jericho, He wanted to lead Zacchaeus to faith in Him. How did Jesus do that? He invited him to lunch. Once I heard a former Muslim talk about how to reach Muslims for Jesus. Someone asked him about the best strategy to build relationships. His answer was one word: “Food.” Followers of Jesus are separate from the ways of the world, and we do not yoke ourselves to unbelievers in formal relationships like marriage (2 Cor 6:14-15,17). However, for followers of Jesus, food is not used to segregate us from the world; food is used to invite the world to us so we can reach them for Jesus. Use mealtime as a mission.

We use food to promote fellowship. Jesus gave us a symbol to help us to remember what He did for us on the cross, and the symbol He gave us is a meal—the Lord’s Supper. We often refer to the Lord’s Supper as “Communion” because during the Lord’s Supper we experience fellowship with Jesus in the context of kinship with our brothers and sisters in the faith. It is a communal meal. The second chapter of Acts records the salvation of 3,000 people on the Day of Pentecost. After they came to faith in Jesus, they began to meet together. Acts 2:42-47 describes what they did when they gathered with one another.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.

Then fear came over everyone, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as anyone had a need. Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple complex, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with a joyful and humble attitude of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to them those who were being saved.

Twice those verses state that the first Christians were sharing meals with one another. They ate together “every day,” “from house to house,” and “with a joyful attitude.” If we patterned the contemporary church after the early church, wouldn’t we get together in homes to share food more often? The apostle Paul also wrote in 1 Corinthians about Christians sharing meals with one another. Today, a growing number of churches are using the ministry strategy of small groups. Church members meet in homes for Bible study, Bible application, and fellowship. They share snacks or meals together. They get to know one another as they share food. They “do life” together. Why shouldn’t we do that? Jesus and the early church did it. We use food to promote fellowship.

We stop consumption that causes stumbling. In chapters 8 and 10 of 1 Corinthians Paul wrote about eating meat offered to idols. Some Christians thought that eating meat used in idol worship made them guilty of participating in idolatry. In 1 Corinthians 8 Paul explained that was not true. It was fine to eat meat offered to idols; the idols were nothing. However, he told the Christians in Corinth that they should abstain from eating meat offered to idols if that consumption caused other believers to stumble in their faith.

This is the principle: helping people know and follow Jesus is more important than whether we get to eat what we want, even if what we want is as great as a chocolate donut. People are more important. We do not want to bruise their faith or cause them to stumble. Therefore, we force ourselves to ask hard questions about our eating habits. Do we eat too much? When others see the extra pounds we are carrying, how does that reflect on Jesus and His power in our lives? Could they say, “Does Jesus have the power to deliver His people from gluttony? Evidently not.” How does our over-eating reflect on our discipline? Many church leaders are overweight, and some badly so. Shouldn’t spiritual leaders be disciplined in their personal lives? Obesity is an advertisement for lack of discipline in eating. I write such words in great humility, realizing that I fail in my eating habits regularly. Still, thinking of how our eating affects others should cause us to restrain and discipline ourselves for God’s glory. We stop consumption that causes stumbling.

We subject eating to higher priorities. The fourth chapter of the Gospel of John records that when Jesus and His disciples arrived in the Samaritan village of Sychar, Jesus sat down at a well and His disciples went to get some food. While the disciples were gone, Jesus talked to a Samaritan woman, and when the disciples returned they offered Jesus some food. Jesus told them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” The disciples didn’t know what He was talking about, and Jesus said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work” (vv. 31-34). Jesus was saying to them, “Gentlemen, you’ve been getting some food because that’s what is important to you. I’ve been talking with this woman about her relationship to God because that’s what is important to Me. Doing God’s work is what feeds Me.” That’s was Jesus’ priority. In Matthew 6 He told us to make that our priority:

So don’t worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. (vv. 31-33)

Jesus was telling us to stop prioritizing food and start prioritizing “the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Furthermore, when God and His kingdom are our priorities and food is not, the way we eat will change. We won’t commit the sin of gluttony, because food is just not that important to us. Sharing Jesus with the lost and encouraging our brothers and sisters in the faith is important to us. Eating too much won’t help that mission and may hurt it, so we discipline ourselves. We exercise by pushing away from the table. Also, when we prioritize God’s kingdom and righteousness, we won’t be obsessed with our appearance. That healthy relationship with God, others, ourselves, and food should eliminate the possibility of developing an eating disorder. Our priority is God and His righteousness, not our appearance.

The old covenant distinctions between clean and unclean foods no longer apply in the new covenant in Jesus. However, one way we will be marked as followers of Jesus is the way we relate to food. In 1 Corinthians, in the midst of that discussion about eating meat offered to idols, Paul laid down this principle in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.” We were created for the glory of God, and we were re-created in Christ to give glory to God in everything we do, including how we eat and drink.

Reflect and Discuss