Unclean Food

Everyday we consume food. For many it is three square meals a day, for others it is two or less in the more impoverished parts of the world. The topic of what is clean and unclean to eat has pervaded the Church since the time of the Apostles. Many Jewish Christians claimed that the Levitcal Laws on eating Kosher and no unclean thing must be observed, while the Apostle Paul and other Greek Christians argued that all food is clean. It is incredible that something as common to daily life as food could foster discord and even schism in the Body of Christ. To this day there are those brothers and sisters who claim kosher is important (Seventh Day Adventists in particular) and those who believe we no longer live under the old Levitical codes of food preparation and strictures because we are under a New Covenant and the Old One is obsolete (Hebrews 8:13, Hebrews 8:6). But by what authority do the brothers and sisters who enjoy shrimp and swine make their stand? The answer is Jesus Christ Himself, "Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him. Food doesn't go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer." (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God's eyes.):For it doesn't go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)." (Mark 7:18-19), and "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?," ((Matthew 15:17). For those in the Time of Christ's First Coming this was a hard saying, because most Jews at time observed the Levitical Eating Codes (Leviticus 11, whole chapter, I think reason God added strict Levitical Law Food codes was that Moses and Israelites were going to Canaan where people did bestiality and gross things to certain foods that cause diseases like Aids, and so to protect the Israelites he made strict food codes, in addition they did not have the heating abilities we have now to cook Pork and kill all their worms, nor did they know how to properly remove the cleaning veins of Shrimp and Shellfish. In addition, the Israelites were in wilderness and had no access to certain ovens). This however was not first time that God had changed eating codes, "And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ² The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. ³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. ⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood." (Genesis 9:1-4). If that does not convince you I turn to what the Apostle Peter discovered in Acts, "The next day, as they were on their way and were approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof of the house about the sixth hour (noon) to pray, but he became hungry and wanted something to eat. While the meal was being prepared he fell into a trance; and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet descending, lowered by its four corners to the earth, and it contained all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” But Peter said, “Not at all, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common (unholy) and [ceremonially] unclean.” And the voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed and pronounced clean, no longer consider common (unholy).”  This happened three times, and then immediately the object was taken up into heaven." (Acts 10:8-16). The LORD Jesus reveals to the Apostle Peter that it is acceptable to eat foods that are not clean, those which had been forbidden under the Old Covenant. If the Apostle Peter's revelation is not convincing, shall we read words of St. Paul?, "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ," (Colossians 2:16-17). There is no distinction between what is clean or unclean anymore, for the Apostle wanrs of men who teach that you must abstasin from certain foods, "They will say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth," (1 Timothy 4:3). The reason why it is so important not to get wrapped up in Levitical eating codes is that it places you under the Law of Old Covenant again, which results in something sinister, "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's grace," (Galatians 5:4), "I'll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses," (Galatians 5:3), "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love," (Galatians 5:6). If you are abstaining from certain foods and eating Levitical for salvic (salvation) purposes you are cut off from Christ, but if your abstaining is due to personal conviction, dietary reasons, or even because you live in poor country where you do not have access to proper sanitation and heat to cook certain unclean foods like pork, then that is fine (see next paragraph). The problem is when food becomes a barrier to the Gospel, there is no contingency from Christ that you must eat Levtically, in contrast Jesus as aforementioned made all food clean. 

Food codes have actually fractured the Church in ages past. In fact, the Apostles Peter and Paul parted ways over hypocrisy of Peter, "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹² For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.^{[a] 13} And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴ But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? ¹⁵ We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; ¹⁶ yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified" (Galatians 2:11-16). As a result the two apostles were splintered from each other. While Peter eventually came around, food codes have capacity to cause fissures in Church. The Apostle Paul in his rebuke of Peter and James was not that people can't have personal convictions about food, but that the eating laws of Leviticus which are obsolete under Christ, were being imposed on Gentiles and were even become salvic or part of what Gentile must do to be saved which contradicts the True Gospel which states salvation is found in believing in Jesus Christ not food observances (John 6:40, John 3:16, Romans 10:9-10).
On the matter of personal convictions about eating foods and abstaining from them, the Apostle Paul bottomed out in the following passages: "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. ² One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. ³ Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. ⁴ Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master^[a] that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶ The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷ For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. ⁸ For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. ⁹ For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living," Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. ¹⁴ I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. ¹⁵ For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. ¹⁹ So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. ²⁰ Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. ²¹ It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.^{[c] 22} The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin." (Romans 14:1-9, 13-23). Here the Apostle Paul balances out at individual conscious, that what you decide is clean and unclean is enough, and to not make brother or sister stumble because of what you eat. Now many take this in abstain vein, that if you have Jewish Christian brother or sister, be Kosher, but this goes the other way, if you are visiting natives in another country who eat what you deem unclean, will you abstain from eating unclean foods and so put a barrier between them and the Gospel of Jesus Christ? For this was what Lord Jesus was revealing to Peter on rooftop, because soon after Peter when to Cornelius, a Roman officer's house and would be eating Gentile foods. Eating foods or abstaining from them has nothing to do with Gospel and knowing Jesus Christ. You are not kept from entering heaven and eternal life if you eat crab, lobster, pork, and other alleged unclean meats! 


What is clean or unclean is perhaps not primary place of dispute in church, nay that is reserved for eschatology (end times). However, if we go back to Christ's own instrucitons He has made all food clean, "Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him. Food doesn't go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer." (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God's eyes.):For it doesn't go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)." (Mark 7:18-19). While there are health benefits to Kosher eating, mixing dairy and meat does slow and hinder digestion, we do not need to fear Christ's wrath over eating a cheeseburger. Ultimately, it is incumbent on the individual to decide where their conviction lies. However, we must all be careful of condemning a brother or sister in Christ who abstains from certain foods or who calls all food clean. Let us in least follow Paul's advice in Romans Chapter Fourteen, and I urge everyone consider Christ's own words on this matter. Amen.