What Shall We Eat

WHAT SHALL WE EAT? 

We Are Free!

I do not condemn any Christians if they choose not to eat meat or if they choose to be on a strictly vegetarian diet because they have a right to eat what they want to.  But I do write to Christians to let them know that they are free to eat meat and are not bound by wrong doctrine or by false teachers that would put them under a law that binds them to doctrines of devils that have been around since the beginning of the church as evidenced in the Book of Acts.

Paul writes in 1 Timothy against this doctrine of devils:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;  Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;  

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:   1 Timothy 4:1-4

It is made completely clear by Paul that a command to abstain from meats is a false teaching. So, we must ask ourselves, how logically can this go on in some Christian Churches today? It is truly baffling that there are large Christian Organizations formed around this false doctrine with other wrong teachings that the Apostle Paul preached against. The scripture plainly states that this is from seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, however, I know of ministers in these Christian Organizations that tell their church congregation that it is forbidden by scripture in the Bible to eat meat. Of course when they are asked where this scripture exists in the Bible, they cannot come up with it because there has never been any scriptures commanding us not to eat meat.

Now that it has been clarified that we as Christians can eat meat than another false teaching has to be addressed along with it. Some of these Christian Churches will reluctantly allow you to eat meat but only if you eat clean meat as interpreted under the Law of Moses and not unclean meat.  We are free to eat any meat we desire according to Acts 10:

And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, 11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12 Wherein were all manner of four footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. 15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. 16 This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.   Act 10:10-16

So, taking great care to rightly divide the Word of God and giving honor and praise to the Lord Jesus Christ, We have to acknowledge that we have been given the New Testament in Jesus’ Blood and are not bound by the Law of Moses. Now, I ask why are some teachers of God’s Word trying to bring Christians back under the bondage of the Law of Moses?

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2 

Are we Jews but yet say we are Gentiles? If we were not born a Jew and are Christians saved by grace and mercy through Jesus Christ than this has to end as some Christians are trying to be something they are not. I bless the Jews and Israel but I do not try to live again under a law that was done away with through Jesus Christ. If God freed the Jews that became saved Christians (such as Peter) from having to worry about clean and unclean meat, than why in the world would we, not being Jews, try to go back under the Mosaic Law that we were never under in the first place?

No where in the Bible am I commanded as a New Testament Christian to go back to the eating habits of the Jews which were under the Law of Moses nor am I required to eat just herbs of the field. I understand if you, as a Christian, want to eat what you think is healthy and eat what you desire. However, Christians should not bring condemnation into a church with what they believe other Christians should eat. This is what the Bible states:

Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. 20 For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. 21 It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. 22 Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. 23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.  Romans 14:19-23

You may wonder why a book is written about what you can eat? First, you must understand that if one false doctrine enters into a church and stays, you can guarantee more wrong doctrine will follow. Second, there is a struggle that happens to a Christian when they are torn between a truth and a lie, between a right doctrine and a false doctrine. Romans 14:23 explains that if a Christian is torn between a truth and a lie, they begin to doubt and are subsequently damned if they eat believing that they may be doing wrong. Because this would indicate they have no Faith in the truth of God’s Word. The truth being, that we are free to eat meat clean and unclean. In this scripture (Rom 14:23), being damned is not losing your salvation but paying the price for committing sin because whatsoever is not of Faith is sin. And Third, if the word says I can do it than I believe it and that is accounted unto me for righteousness. If I doubt in myself because I am told on one side that I can eat what I want and on the other side I am being instructed and told the opposite then I have to solve this with what the Bible clearly states. Otherwise, I am stuck between the contradicting opinions of false teachers, doctrines of devils and of the ignorant.  

The Apostle Paul gave us instruction to not offend one another by what we eat and not to condemn each other about it.  

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. 2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.   Romans 14:1-3

We are free to eat meat, however, this caused disputations in the Church even in Paul’s day to the point that Paul said in Rom 14:2: who is weak, eateth herbs. It is hard for some Christians to except this and so we look not to offend our brethren. We do this by eating what is placed before us at their house and not to condemn them if they don’t eat meat. We also look not to be condemned by our brethren if we choose to eat meat for we know this to be the truth from the Word of God.

Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.  Matthew 15:11

Now that I have established that we are free to eat meat, I must now direct your attention to what the New Testament mentions for us to abstain from.

That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.    Acts 15:29

These are our only few restrictions in eating as Christians and they are simple. Don’t eat meat or any food offered unto idols. Don’t eat the blood of animals cooked or uncooked. Don’t eat meat from an animal that has been strangled to death.  The scripture below from the Old Testament states we can eat all meat except you don’t eat the blood from the animal, you drain it out first.

3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.    Genesis 9:3-4

In Leviticus 17:11, it says the life is in the blood of all living creatures, so that is why we don’t eat the blood of an animal and this is why we drain the blood before cooking and eating meat.

It seems that a “healthy eating and living lifestyle” or the “food gospel” has taken over Christians in some Churches to the point that they believe it to be part of Faith to which it has nothing to do with it. They use it as a measuring guide to gauge Faith in all the new Christians coming into the church and as a testimony of their own outward appearance which they demonstrate as their Faith. 

Faith has nothing to do with what you eat, nothing to do with saving the environment, nothing to do with going back to nature and nothing to do with working out in bodily exercise (1 Tim 4:8). Faith comes by studying the Word of God and building a relationship with God in order to grow and advance in anointing and power which scares some Christians, however, it has nothing to do with a “healthy lifestyle”.  The Bible states worry not about what you shall eat or what you shall drink:

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Matthew 6:25

You may not know what your food has been through before you receive it in a restaurant or wherever you are. But do you want to know how to eat what you want and not worry about the effects of bacteria, antibiotics, bad food, fat, cholesterol, poison or even if it was cursed? It is very simple because God instructed us what to do in order to avoid this and God’s Word is perfect and true.  

1 Timothy 4:4-5

For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.  

How about some good old fashioned Holy Ghost and Fire Faith by believing that you have power over the devil and all manner evil. Pray as the scripture states: “Lord thank you for this food and I ask that you bless and sanctify it, in Jesus’ name”!  

This is all you have to do, so be free in Jesus’ name. Amen.