Okay, I admit, I'm baiting you with that title. And it was hard to pick the topic for this post! So many topics, so little time! I will try to post again, sooner! Among the many topics I'll address soon: How to Eat Well on Vacation, Fun Fall Recipes, Balance During Holidays, What Is Disordered Eating?, Eating Well for Life, and much more.
What I really want to address here is how our faith can affect our eating.* If we believe in a sovereign God who saves us from our sins, we want to serve Him, honor Him, and worship Him in all we do. This includes our eating choices and behaviors. Let me be the first to say that Christians can be just as bad as, or even worse, than non-Christians about having a dieting mentality, eating restrictively, and looking down on others for how they choose to eat. So I'd like to apply a few Biblical principles straight from Scripture. There are many verses that teach us about attitudes regarding our eating as well as how we should conduct ourselves about eating. I'm choosing just a few for now.
1. Seeking to honor the Lord means taking care of our bodies.
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." -Colossians 3:17**
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." -1 Corinthians 6:19-20
2. Our bodies were created by the Lord, and we are all beautifully and wonderfully made. Our differences honor the Lord.
"For your formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well." -Psalm 139:13-14
3. As different humans with different bodies, we will have different needs and different preferences. We should not expect everyone to eat the same way that we do.
"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." -Romans 14:3
4. God gives us the freedom to eat whatever we choose to eat.
"For everything {every food} created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving." -1 Timothy 4:4 {See 1 Timothy 4:1-3 for context.}
5. Whatever we choose, our hearts should be honoring the Lord. If we are not, we must self-examine to see if we are pridefully choosing an eating pattern or going against a standard we believe would be right (sinning in our own hearts).
"Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind... 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." -Romans 14:5b,6b
Considering all of these principles, gaining knowledge from real science about what and how to eat can be a good thing. We must be careful about the source we use and read both sides of each issue. Personally, I went through 6 years of a college education and learn through continuing education about the science and research supporting eating by the basic food groups. There is still much research being done and published about nutrition, but the basics have been the same for years and years. We have to be careful to not be overly excited by the latest sensational headline or product. Especially for Christians, we need to seek to do well but keep our hearts and minds focused on honoring the Lord.
I pray this post has been helpful to you today. Please feel free to e-mail me at Julie@PositiveNutrition.net with any feedback. If you would like to learn more about what it means to be a Christian, please contact me, or start reading New Testament Scriptures such as the Gospel of John.
*I write from a Biblical perspective. See my inaugural blog post for what to expect on this blog.
**I use the English Standard Version (ESV). I also support use of the New American Standard Bible (NASB), King James Version (KJV), & New King James Version (NKJV) as these are the most literal translations of ancient Biblical manuscripts.