A Bite-Sized Theology of Food
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Pastor John, we have a podcast on fasting,
00:00:07.040 | which has proven to be quite popular,
00:00:09.120 | and which is titled, "What is the Purpose of Fasting?"
00:00:11.200 | Episode number 72.
00:00:12.920 | But in this podcast series,
00:00:14.000 | we have not talked much more about food more generally.
00:00:17.400 | Food is such a big part of our lives.
00:00:19.320 | And Pastor John, what does the Bible instruct us
00:00:22.720 | about the right and wrong ways to think about food?
00:00:26.200 | - Well, as I thought about this, Tony,
00:00:28.760 | what seemed to be helpful here
00:00:31.960 | would be to just take five passages of scripture
00:00:36.960 | and bullet them as a kind of
00:00:40.120 | primer on a theology of food,
00:00:46.000 | which will function then as a kind of protection
00:00:49.480 | against idolatries of the misuse of food.
00:00:54.000 | So food's proper and improper place in our lives
00:00:57.960 | growing out of these texts.
00:00:58.920 | So this is very incipient.
00:01:02.200 | What I hope people will do is just take these
00:01:04.080 | and think with me rather than thinking,
00:01:06.960 | this is the end of thought here.
00:01:08.520 | Is this really the beginning?
00:01:10.080 | So I think I've got five passages,
00:01:12.880 | and I'll just mention them in a comment or two.
00:01:14.840 | Number one, 1 Timothy 4, 4 and 5,
00:01:18.920 | "Everything created by God is good,
00:01:21.880 | "and nothing is to be rejected
00:01:24.140 | "if it is received with thanksgiving,
00:01:26.480 | "for it is made holy by the word of God in prayer."
00:01:28.880 | And he's talking there about food and sex.
00:01:31.640 | So food is God's idea,
00:01:34.520 | both its nutritional value and its taste.
00:01:38.120 | We'll see that more in a minute.
00:01:39.720 | It is for believers, not just the world in general.
00:01:44.920 | God made food for his children.
00:01:48.200 | It is not automatically honoring to God.
00:01:51.980 | I say it's not automatic because Paul says
00:01:54.040 | you need to sanctify it by the word of God and prayer.
00:01:58.280 | So food is not ultimate.
00:02:00.920 | It's not the final good.
00:02:02.920 | You have to do something with it
00:02:04.880 | in order to experience it as part of the final good.
00:02:08.720 | You have to, in prayer and in the word,
00:02:12.660 | turn it into something holy,
00:02:15.600 | and then enjoy it with gratitude
00:02:18.400 | as an expression of your embrace of that holiness.
00:02:21.920 | So that's number one.
00:02:23.560 | Number two, Psalm 34, eight,
00:02:26.600 | "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good."
00:02:31.600 | Now, the reason that's important
00:02:34.680 | is because God here is to be tasted.
00:02:38.960 | Now, the only way that we know the meaning
00:02:42.040 | of the word taste is because we have tongues,
00:02:46.440 | we have taste buds, and we have food.
00:02:49.480 | So clearly, food is a type or a shadow
00:02:54.480 | or a pointer or a parable
00:02:58.240 | so that when God is brought into our consciousness,
00:03:02.800 | we will have some appropriate categories
00:03:06.120 | for how we feast upon God.
00:03:09.040 | And the very word feast implies I have feasted.
00:03:12.680 | And if I say, "Taste and see that the Lord is good,"
00:03:16.600 | then I have tasted bread,
00:03:18.680 | and I can know what it means that He's the bread of life.
00:03:20.880 | I've tasted water, and I can know what it means
00:03:24.640 | that He satisfies my thirst.
00:03:28.400 | So what we enjoy in food, we should find in God.
00:03:33.400 | In fact, we should find God
00:03:36.760 | in the very enjoyment of our food.
00:03:40.840 | Number three, 1 Corinthians 6, 12, and 13,
00:03:45.960 | "All things are lawful for me,
00:03:48.840 | but not all things are helpful.
00:03:51.360 | All things are lawful for me,
00:03:53.600 | but I will not be dominated or controlled
00:03:58.560 | or enslaved by anything.
00:04:01.680 | Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,
00:04:04.960 | and God will destroy both one and the other.
00:04:07.800 | The body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body."
00:04:12.800 | That's an amazing statement.
00:04:14.560 | The Lord is for the body.
00:04:16.040 | So food and stomach are not ultimate.
00:04:19.880 | They're gonna be destroyed someday.
00:04:21.760 | Don't treat them as your idols.
00:04:24.160 | If you treat them as gods, your gods are gonna perish.
00:04:27.400 | Food is lawful.
00:04:29.720 | That's what Paul says here, but not as a master.
00:04:33.840 | So as soon as food moves from being your servant
00:04:38.840 | to satisfy your appropriate hungers
00:04:42.640 | and send you with thrilled thanksgiving to God
00:04:46.720 | and know that God tastes even better
00:04:49.000 | than anything you just ate,
00:04:50.480 | as soon as it ceases to be that,
00:04:52.200 | it starts to become a master.
00:04:54.280 | And Paul said, "Don't be mastered by anything,
00:04:57.000 | especially food."
00:04:59.160 | So the Lord is for the body.
00:05:01.320 | He's not against it.
00:05:03.320 | That's why he does not want us to be mastered
00:05:06.440 | by anything but himself.
00:05:09.240 | Number four, this is Matthew 6, 17.
00:05:12.720 | "When you fast, anoint your head, wash your face,
00:05:16.920 | that your fasting may not be seen by others,
00:05:19.120 | but by your Father who's in secret,
00:05:20.880 | and your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
00:05:23.880 | It says, notice, "When you fast," not "If you fast."
00:05:27.560 | Fasting is normal.
00:05:30.040 | Why would that be?
00:05:31.160 | Why would God in this age build fasting,
00:05:36.240 | that is the abstinence from something that he created
00:05:40.560 | and that's perfectly good, why would he do that?
00:05:44.720 | And I think he did it because it's a way of saying,
00:05:47.880 | I am not mastered by my delight in my food.
00:05:52.880 | I am mastered by my delight in God,
00:05:56.520 | and I want to intensify that.
00:05:59.400 | And one way to intensify it is abstaining
00:06:02.760 | from alternative pleasures so that,
00:06:06.280 | without calling them evil at all,
00:06:08.280 | I can just say, God is better, God is better.
00:06:12.400 | And so I think we should say with our bodies periodically,
00:06:16.480 | and there's no New Testament rule here that I know of
00:06:19.080 | that tells you how often to fast,
00:06:21.600 | but periodically say, I love you, God.
00:06:24.520 | I love you more than I love food.
00:06:27.720 | I need you more than I need food.
00:06:29.980 | I want you more than I want food.
00:06:31.920 | You taste better to me spiritually
00:06:35.840 | than food tastes to me physically.
00:06:38.200 | So that's number four.
00:06:40.260 | And finally, Matthew 4, 3 and 4.
00:06:43.920 | The devil said to Jesus, if you're the son of God,
00:06:46.960 | command these stones to become loaves of bread.
00:06:49.920 | And he said, it is written, man shall not live
00:06:53.040 | by bread alone, but by every word
00:06:55.280 | that comes out of the mouth of God.
00:06:57.320 | Our final nourishment is not material food,
00:07:01.020 | but spiritual food.
00:07:03.180 | We need the word of God vastly more
00:07:07.300 | than we need physical food.
00:07:08.960 | I think everybody who has time to eat breakfast
00:07:11.080 | in the morning and no time to have devotions should ask,
00:07:14.560 | does he really believe that?
00:07:16.880 | The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life.
00:07:20.580 | And so the word that mediates the love of God
00:07:24.480 | is more important than life-sustaining food.
00:07:28.840 | In the end, everyone is controlled by appetite.
00:07:32.140 | Either an appetite that glorifies God
00:07:35.660 | by showing he's our supreme satisfaction,
00:07:39.660 | or an appetite for food.
00:07:41.900 | That would then be an idolatry,
00:07:44.120 | because it would seem to say that food
00:07:46.260 | is more satisfying to me than God.
00:07:49.460 | So concluding exhortation to us all,
00:07:53.060 | let's cultivate a taste for God,
00:07:56.900 | an appetite for God and his word
00:08:00.100 | that out satisfies everything.
00:08:03.660 | - Yes, amen.
00:08:04.500 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:08:05.600 | And speaking of food, we'd love to hear
00:08:07.640 | other food-related questions from you.
00:08:09.560 | Email those to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:08:13.540 | So what is fasting and what is the purpose of fasting?
00:08:16.220 | We tackled that way back in episode number 72 of the series.
00:08:19.420 | If you'd like more information, you can check it out.
00:08:21.980 | And next time we're back and we're talking about sin
00:08:24.700 | and the speed limit.
00:08:26.140 | Is it wrong to drive five to 10 miles per hour
00:08:28.620 | over the speed limit?
00:08:30.500 | We'll talk about that tomorrow.
00:08:31.600 | Until then, I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:08:33.020 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:08:35.580 | (upbeat music)
00:08:38.160 | (upbeat music)
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