Concerning Knowledge and Foods. 1Corinthian 8: 1- 13

I asked my Sunday school class whether there are foods that Christians are forbidden to eat, and the answer was a straight no from over 7 responders. Do we have foods forbidden for Christians not to eat?

The simple answer to this question is of course there is, or at least there was. Ask any Christian, however, and their initial answer to this question will probably be an unqualified no. Since everyone in the group purports to believe that the bible is the word of God the No answer was illogical an unconceivable according to me. Lev 11:4

However, that’s the culturally sensitive answer you will get from most Christians. They seem to ignore the fact that it was the eating of prohibited food that perpetrated the fall of man. Adam thought it alright to do as he please and ignore God’s instruction and eat the forbidden fruit (.Genesis 2:16-17). The consequence of his decision has affected all of mankind. In this post biblical age, “Arise Peter slay and eat”, has become the mantra of most Christian churches. It is no secret that Christians love to eat and they will eat whatever food that is before before them and ask no question for conscious sake. Prov. 23:21, Luk.21:34

At some point in its history the Christian church decided to ignore God’s instruction in regards to forbidden foods. The consequence of this decision is that we are now faced with modern day diseases such as obesity, hypertension, COPD, and certain types of cancer including lung, colon-rectal, esophageal, and liver that can be directly connected to our dietary habits. The bible teaches a healthy wholesome and sound lifestyle, which also include good dietary habits. Of course you wouldn’t know it by the way church folk eat, for nothing is out of plate for them.

God’s dietary instructions (Lev 11:13-20) are as important to his people today as they were in the Garden of Eden. Adam caused death to pass unto all men by the very act of eating food which God had instructed him not to eat. This simple fact ought to cause any God fearing person to pause when it comes to choosing what foods to eat. The almost always forgotten and seldom mentioned is the quantity of food we consume gluttony (Deut 21:20) or surfeiting is also forbidden by God. In the quest for a healthy diet how much we eat is of the uppermost importance, even above what we eat.

Why God would forbid any kind of food I don’t know. But according to the bible He did. Christian churches teach that the food laws of the bible are more or less done away with. Thus producing a culture in the church of “arise Peter slay and eat”. Acts 10:13. Are there God forbidden foods?

The question came about as I moderated through the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians chapter Eight. Paul did not say that Christians should not eat meat. He was advising young Christians in Corinth not to eat foods that will become an obstacle to young believers. Paul makes the principle clear, 1 Corinthians 8:13. Our actions can never be based just on what we know to be right for ourselves; we also need to consider what is right in regard to our brothers and sisters in Jesus. This however does not mean that Paul is advocating eating of all foods including the forbidden, NO. God’s criterion for eatable meat is the animal must have split hooves and chew a cud. This being said, I believe strongly that there are foods that Christians are not supposed to eat. They (we) eat them anyway.

Christian Talk and Use of the Tongue - A Christian Viewpoint

We’re talking about something this morning that all of us do every single day. We all talk. Some of us more than others, but many times a day, we breathe air into our lungs and push it through our vocal chords and produce sound waves that our mouths and tongues shape into phonics that we call language. Verbal human expression is a marvel. A mental concept in our mind can be translated into sound waves that convey that concept through the air and into the ear canal and eardrum and down the auditory nerve to the brain so that the concept in my brain becomes a concept in someone else’s brain. Speech is a wonder and we do it every day thousands of times. According to studies, the average man speaks 12,000 words per day. The average woman speaks 30,000 words per day.

One husband was reading about this statistic in the paper and noted to his wife that the average woman speaks twice as many words per day as the average man. The wife replied, That’s because we have to repeat everything twice. The husband said, What? The book of James revolves around two primary motifs, Christian walk and Christian talk.

True saving faith shows its own reality by doing good works. Like heat to fire, good works always go with true saving faith. Anybody feel some heat this week?

One category of faithproducing good works is speech. Talk. The words that I say; the way I use my tongue and the incredible power it has to do good or to destroy. How many tongues do you have? One would seem to be the right answer, but in reality, we all have many tongues. James is going to describe four tongues in 3:112.

The Teaching Tongue (Verses 12)

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. What teachers is he talking about? He is talking about the role of pastor/teacher in the local church. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. (Ephesians 4:1112)

The risen Christ has given spiritual empowerments/gifts to His Church for it to grow spiritually. The most public of those gifts is the gift of teaching and preaching. Teaching entails someone with spiritual understanding of God’s Word communicating that truth to Christians in ways they can both understand and apply to their lives. Good teaching and good teachers are a source of tremendous spiritual blessing to a church. A teaching tongue has tremendous influence. The church at Jerusalem began with the teaching of Peter and the other Apostles. The church at Antioch listed their five main teachers in Acts 13:1, including Barnabas and Saul. Where there are good and godly teachers, there you find spiritual vitality in the church.

Work cited:

1. The new Bible commentary- Lews and Burnes(Editors)

2. Henery Matthews

3. New Revised Stardard Version- Bible