Does Junk Food Dishonor God?
00:00:00.000 | Well, today, Pastor John and I fly west to Portland, along with others on the Desiring
00:00:09.380 | God team for a gathering of our ministry partners in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by the
00:00:15.160 | beauties of the Columbia River Gorge.
00:00:17.780 | I am always looking forward to that trip and certainly looking forward to seeing and thanking
00:00:21.060 | in person a number of financial donors who listen to this podcast and who pray for and
00:00:25.820 | support our labors here.
00:00:27.820 | But before we head out, we have a question about junk food.
00:00:30.700 | A young man writes in to ask it, "Dear Pastor John, I'm from Singapore.
00:00:35.200 | If we are about to eat a meal we know is unhealthy, like fried chicken or fast food that will
00:00:40.140 | not serve our bodies like more healthy food will, should we pray and thank God for the
00:00:45.500 | food or is our praying over this food a phony act because the food itself will wrong the
00:00:50.340 | body he gave to us to care for?
00:00:52.740 | How should we think of gratitude and junk food?"
00:00:56.700 | Oh, good question.
00:01:00.700 | Here's my answer in a couple of sentences, and then I'm going to just kind of ramble.
00:01:08.860 | I want to talk Bible here, but kind of hard, but you'll see if it helps.
00:01:14.060 | Here's my answer.
00:01:15.060 | To the degree that you are justified in eating something, to that degree you are justified
00:01:21.500 | in giving thanks for it.
00:01:23.260 | That's my short answer.
00:01:24.940 | Or to say it another way, to the degree that your conscience is clear in eating something,
00:01:33.100 | to that degree your thankfulness can be offered with a clear conscience.
00:01:37.980 | Or to put it one more way, if your heart is divided, partially approving and partially
00:01:45.060 | disapproving, when you eat something, then your heart is going to be divided when you
00:01:51.420 | attempt to give thanks.
00:01:53.980 | Now see whether or not these passages—I'm going to just refer to a couple of passages—see
00:02:01.580 | whether or not they shed light on the issue.
00:02:05.380 | Consider the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4.
00:02:10.700 | Satan suggests, "Turn these stones into bread.
00:02:15.580 | Jump off the temple.
00:02:16.700 | Bow down and worship me."
00:02:19.700 | Now the first two temptations are based on perfectly legitimate expectations of God's
00:02:26.580 | favor.
00:02:27.580 | God will nourish with bread.
00:02:30.220 | God will keep his feet from crashing into the pavement below.
00:02:33.940 | The Bible says so.
00:02:35.540 | Presumably then, Jesus would be able to give heartfelt thanks for these good gifts of God's
00:02:43.500 | provision and protection.
00:02:45.900 | So go ahead, Jesus, and act in a way that creates an occasion for a great thanksgiving.
00:02:52.900 | And he won't do it.
00:02:54.820 | The possibility of thanksgiving does not carry the day.
00:02:59.140 | In other words, can I do something because I can give thanks for it?
00:03:03.380 | It doesn't carry the day.
00:03:04.380 | The argument doesn't suffice.
00:03:06.620 | There are other factors that make the miracles here unadvisable.
00:03:13.340 | Jesus is on a path of suffering on his way to the cross.
00:03:18.460 | That's what's in front of him.
00:03:19.980 | It's not a path of self-serving miracles.
00:03:24.220 | It does not matter that God's goodness and power might be shown turning stones to bread
00:03:32.100 | and catching the sun as he falls.
00:03:34.980 | It doesn't matter that Jesus could have rejoiced and given thanks for those miracles.
00:03:40.900 | They were off limits because of the path assigned to Jesus.
00:03:47.340 | So I commend that we reflect on that in relation to what's permitted in one sense but maybe
00:03:54.440 | not advisable for other reasons.
00:03:57.980 | First Corinthians 10, think about this.
00:04:00.240 | When Paul was dealing with whether Christians should eat meat that had been offered to idly,
00:04:05.580 | he argued like this, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."
00:04:12.460 | Every food he made.
00:04:14.540 | If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is
00:04:21.980 | set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience.
00:04:27.380 | In other words, the food that is being set before you belongs to the Lord of the earth.
00:04:35.580 | The Lord is your Father and this is a gift from him.
00:04:40.220 | If you receive it from him with thankfulness, it's good whether he has been, whether it
00:04:46.900 | has been offered to idols or not.
00:04:50.380 | Then he continues like this, "But if someone says, 'This has been offered in sacrifice,'
00:04:55.940 | then don't eat it for the sake of the one who informed you."
00:05:00.460 | And then he adds this argument, "If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because
00:05:09.180 | of that for which I give thanks?"
00:05:12.220 | Now, this is relevant to the question, it seems, because it's an argument that isn't
00:05:17.780 | really necessary.
00:05:18.780 | I mean, he just adds it on.
00:05:20.700 | He's already settled the issue, but he adds it.
00:05:24.180 | And what it seems to add is this, if you regard something as questionable, not certainly evil
00:05:32.020 | or certainly good, but something where true believers may disagree with each other like
00:05:40.460 | they were disagreeing in Corinth, then the issue of genuine thankfulness becomes relevant.
00:05:47.900 | Let me read it again.
00:05:49.780 | If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
00:05:56.860 | So my thankfulness is morally relevant here on this questionable issue.
00:06:02.260 | So Paul is arguing like this.
00:06:04.700 | Here is my brother doing something that seems questionable to me, say, like eating something
00:06:09.940 | that I regard as less than most healthy, and he has a genuine heartfelt thankfulness to
00:06:16.100 | God for what he's eating.
00:06:18.580 | Therefore my attitude should be to rejoice that his heart is good toward God, and leave
00:06:28.420 | to God and his conscience whether eating the questionable food is sinful or not.
00:06:34.300 | Let me read that sentence again.
00:06:36.300 | If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
00:06:43.460 | In other words, the thankfulness itself is part of the reason for not denouncing the
00:06:49.820 | action, and that's kind of what our friend was asking about.
00:06:53.540 | The next verse says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the
00:06:59.100 | glory of God."
00:07:00.700 | This is Paul's final criterion for eating every kind of food.
00:07:05.780 | Is my eating of this food an expression for how much I value the glory of God?
00:07:12.580 | I'm content in the glory of God.
00:07:14.500 | I esteem the glory of God.
00:07:16.580 | And this verse speaks to the one who is watching the person eat, as well as addressing the
00:07:23.100 | eater himself.
00:07:24.380 | If the eater is supposed to eat and drink in a way that gives glory to God, then the
00:07:29.820 | watching person is also supposed to assess his eating and drinking in a way that glorifies
00:07:36.740 | God.
00:07:37.740 | And this raises the difficult issue, not only of what is in the eater's heart, but
00:07:44.900 | also what food is really off limits for one who would eat to the glory of God.
00:07:53.300 | And I'm highly skeptical that we can judge with confidence what foods are certainly junk
00:08:01.780 | and what are not.
00:08:04.580 | That may be heresy to some people, but that's my skepticism.
00:08:08.100 | What foods damage health and what foods serve health?
00:08:12.540 | What foods are more or less neutral?
00:08:17.340 | My guess is that when it comes to eating this food or that, we are in greater spiritual
00:08:24.060 | danger of judging people where we shouldn't than we are in physical danger of eating what
00:08:30.900 | we shouldn't.
00:08:31.900 | So, summing up, Jesus says that just because you give thanks for a divine gift doesn't
00:08:39.900 | mean you should take it.
00:08:42.660 | And Paul says, if you can give thanks for something that is not clearly wrong, better
00:08:49.460 | to rejoice in the thanks than to condemn the wrong.
00:08:52.780 | Yeah, very, very interesting connection.
00:08:55.140 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:08:56.600 | And thank you, APJ listeners, for sending in excellent questions and for listening regularly.
00:09:00.980 | We really appreciate it.
00:09:01.980 | To find our archives, read transcripts of episodes, or to ask us a question, go to our
00:09:06.220 | online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:09:11.420 | We addressed the topic of cremation on the podcast back in episode 874.
00:09:15.960 | We addressed the topic of giving the body to science back in episode 406.
00:09:20.900 | But what about if you give your body to science and that program cremates the remains they
00:09:24.980 | don't need or use by way of a standard policy?
00:09:28.940 | That question has not been answered, and it's next time.
00:09:31.260 | I'm your host Tony Reinhke, and we will see you on Monday.
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