What Percentage of Your Spiritual Battles Revolve Around Your Taste Buds?
Acts chapter 10 says: 9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
There are multiple levels of Scripture. We believe that Scripture was recorded as it was and put in the Bible for a reason. Passages seldom exist by themselves; they usually connect with another passage or theme elsewhere in the Bible. We do believe that the current context of a particular passage is where you start and must take precedence, but different things going on in one passage means that there is the opportunity to connect and reinforce God’s message for us.
Acts 10 is one such passage. The current context is in regards to Peter bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles, a proclamation from God that His message was for all people. But, it does not end there. God uses the vision of clean and unclean animals, along with the command to eat to reinforce Jesus’ proclamation of all foods being clean. St. Paul will add to it about our liberty in eating and advising us to let no one judge us by the food we eat.
We have a lot of liberty when it comes to what we eat. And we should be able to enjoy the glorious recipes and tasty creations that people like Emeril have blessed us with. The question is, has our liberty caused us to make too many unwise choices?
Our bodies are easy to neglect when life gets busy. I don’t have time to cook at home. I don’t have time to eat right on my lunch break. It’s cheaper to eat off the Dollar Menu. It’s just a few dollars that’ll save me precious minutes or more. These are all rationales we have used; I wrestle with these rationales all the time, especially when it’s busy in the morning and I forget my lunch at home.
God cares about our bodies. He created us so intricately that the human body still baffles scientists and doctors. He created our bodies to be able to right a lot of the wrongs we do to ourselves, but God has not called us to use that as a crutch or an excuse. We are not meant to have the mentality that we can do whatever we want to our bodies because some pill or surgery will correct our disregard for God’s creation. Yes, your body is part of God’s creation, and that means it too must be managed wisely.
I believe our taste buds are both a glorious blessing but also a test. Is the authority of God or our taste buds going to win? Favor vs. Flavor.
Be thankful that God in Christ Jesus declared all foods clean, a worthy part of His creation. It gives us even more of an opportunity to enjoy what God has created for our pleasure. But know that it is a difficult thing to stay in balance and glorify God with our bodies. Don’t be so burdened by the Law that you are afraid to eat that piece of cake. But declare a holistic approach to how you will glorify God with your body, honoring Him and celebrating your freedom. Amen.
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