Christians have no obligation to obey the food laws of the Old Covenant.
Mark 7
14Again Jesus called
the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.
15Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him.
Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' " [6]
17After he had left
the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18"Are
you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a
man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19For it doesn't go
into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In
saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")
(In saying this,
Jesus declared all foods “clean.”) is
not extrabiblical commentary as I've heard
some people assert. It is the holy
inspired word of God given to us through the writer Mark.
19
Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the
belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? – KJV
19 because
it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?"
(Thus He declared (1)
all foods (2)
clean.) - NASB
19because it does not
enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all
foods?" NKJV
19Since it does not
reach and enter his heart but [only his] digestive tract, and so passes on
[into the place designed to receive waste]? Thus He was making and declaring
all foods [ceremonially] clean [that is, [1]
abolishing the ceremonial distinctions of the Levitical Law]. - Amplified
Matthew 15
10Jesus called the
crowd to him and said, "Listen and understand. 11What goes
into a man's mouth does not make him 'unclean,' but what comes out of his
mouth, that is what makes him 'unclean.' "
16"Are you still
so dull?" Jesus asked them. 17"Don't you see that
whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18But
the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a
man 'unclean.' 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder,
adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These
are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make
him 'unclean.'
|
Romans
14
The Weak and the Strong
1Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on
disputable matters.
2One man's faith allows him to eat
everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The
man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who
does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted
him.
4Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master
he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man
considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
6He
who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord.
He who eats meat, eats
to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to
the Lord and gives thanks to God.
7For none of us lives to himself
alone and none of us dies to himself alone.
8If we live, we live to
the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we
belong to the Lord.
9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he
might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
10You, then, why
do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will
all stand before God's judgment seat.
11It is written:
" 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
'every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.'
"
[1]
12So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead,
make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's
way.
14As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that
no food[2]
is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for
him it is unclean.
15If your brother is distressed because of what
you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your
brother for whom Christ died.
16Do not allow what you consider good
to be spoken of as evil.
17For the kingdom of God is not a matter
of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy
Spirit,
18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing
to God and approved by men.
19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and
to mutual edification.
20Do not destroy the work of God for the
sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything
that causes someone else to stumble.
21It is better not to eat meat
or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
22So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself
and God.
Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he
approves. 23But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats,
because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from
faith is sin.
Colossians 2
16Therefore
do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to
a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the
reality, however, is found in Christ.
1
Timothy 4
1The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the
faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such
teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared
as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain
from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by
those who believe and who know the truth. 4For everything God
created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with
thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and
prayer.
Hebrews 13
9Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange
teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by
ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.
Hebrews 9
9This is an illustration for the present time,
indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear
the conscience of the worshiper. 10They are only a matter of food
and drink and various ceremonial washings--external regulations applying
until the time of the new order. [New Covenant]
1 Corinthians 8
8But food does not bring us near to God; we are
no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
Acts 10
9About noon the
following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter
went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted
something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a
trance. 11He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet
being let down to earth by its four corners. 12It contained all
kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of
the air. 13Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and
eat."
14"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never
eaten anything impure or unclean."
15The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything
impure that God has made clean."
16This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken
back to heaven.
Acts 11
4Peter began and
explained everything to them precisely as it had happened: 5"I
was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw
something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners,
and it came down to where I was. 6I looked into it and saw
four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the
air. 7Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and
eat.'
8"I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has
ever entered my mouth.'
9"The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call
anything impure that God has made clean.' 10This happened three
times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
Although the main purpose of this vision from God
was to convince Peter to go witness to, and associate with uncircumcised
gentiles, it would go against God’s character to do something evil or
unlawful in his sight. We know that
God can do nothing that goes against his character and righteousness. If God still holds that it is unlawful for
His children to eat these animals, then it would be the same as God telling
Peter to get up and engage in homosexual acts or murder or lie or steal. Can you imagine God doing that?
|
Genesis 9
3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I
gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
This proves no
food is in and of itself evil or wrong to eat. God told humans to eat all meat
and plants, with no restrictions. The food laws came later for the physical
nation of Israel only, and only as symbolic ordinances.
We are no longer
in required to obey the old Mosaic law, which has died, but we are now the
Bride of Christ and must obey our new husband not our old.
Romans
7
Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know
the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For
the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long
as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her
husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries
another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is
free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married
another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to
the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him
who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For
when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law
were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we
have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that
we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of
the letter.
Galatians 3:19
What purpose then does the law serve?
It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should
come to whom the promise was made
Galatians 3 makes it absolutely clear that the Seed is Jesus
Christ himself. So the law was put into place until Jesus came and fulfilled
it! Then it is over!
Below is more
evidence that the Old Testament Mosiac Law has been annulled:
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch
as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better
promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no
place would have been sought for another.
In that He says, “A new covenant, ” He has made the first
obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish
away. (Heb. 8:6-7, 13)
But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch
as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better
promises.
A New Covenant
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no
place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them,
He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by
the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue
in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the
LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I
will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his
neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to
their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds[b] I will
remember no more.”[c] 13 In that He says, “A new covenant, ” He has made the
first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to
vanish away. (Heb. 8:7-13)
If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical
priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was
there still need for another priest to come—one in the order of Melchizedek,
not in the order of Aaron? For when there is a change of the priesthood, there
must also be a change of the law.
18 For on the one hand there is an annulling of the former
commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, 19 for the law made
nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope,
through which we draw near to God. (Heb 7:11-12, 18-19)
9 It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts
and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service
perfect in regard to the conscience— 10 concerned only with foods and drinks,
various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.
15For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are
called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a
ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. (Heb.
9:9-10; 15)
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and
has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his
flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. (Eph. 2:14-15)
---
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law,
locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead
us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we
are no longer under the supervision of the law. (Gal. 3:23-25)
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware
of what the law says? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the
slave woman and the other by the free woman.
His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but
his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
These things may be taken figuratively, for the women
represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children
who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia
and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery
with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our
mother. For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no
children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more
are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband."
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At
that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power
of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? "Get
rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share
in the inheritance with the free woman's son." Therefore, brothers, we are
not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. (Gal 4:21-31)
``When you were dead
in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you
alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written
code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us;
he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and
authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the
cross.
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or
drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a
Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality,
however, is found in Christ. (Col 2:13-17)
15 You boast, "We have entered into a covenant with
death, with the grave [b] we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming
scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and
falsehood [c] our hiding place."
16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I lay
a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
the one who trusts will never be dismayed.
18 Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement
with the grave will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you
will be beaten down by it. (Isa 28:15-16,18)
About the Speaker:
