Question:
Does God want us, even today, to obey his laws about which food we may and may not eat? Deuteronomy 14:3-21 (NLT) states clearly what those are. Please direct me to verses in the New Testament that acknowledges that law and/or what He says about that for these times.
Answer:
Thanks for the question. The short answer is no. We can say so with authority because Jesus himself gave us clear direction on this very issue. Jesus said in Mk 7:18-19 "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don`t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him `unclean`? For it doesn`t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." [Then, Mark adds this editorial comment so we don`t miss the implication of Jesus` words:] (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.") NIV
The early church took a while to follow the implication of Jesus words, because it`s first members were all Jewish. But it became an issue when the gospel needed to go to the Gentiles. Would the church make all new believers follow Jewish ceremonial law, or would they just be required to believe in Christ and follow him in obedience? The answer from God himself was the latter. Here’s how it happened:
Jesus’ lead disciple Peter, who had a really hard time accepting Gentiles as Christian brothers, got a vision from God. In it, God told him two things: one, that all foods were clean, that the old Jewish dietary code was now obsolete, and two, that God was freely accepting “unclean” Gentiles into the Kingdom of Christ - WITHOUT requiring them to become Jews first. This vision and the subsequent inclusion of the first non-Jewish believers is told in Acts 10. Read the whole chapter, its exciting stuff – a key moment in church history!
This vision was confirmed as universal church policy at the council of Jerusalem a few years later. That story is told in Acts 15. Ac 15:10-11 "Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke [the O.T. ceremonial laws] that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." NIV
Now, at the end of that discussion, the Gentile churches were asked to not eat meat with blood left in it, which is a ceremonial food law. But most scholars believe this was not about making those laws binding again on Christians, but rather to facilitate fellowship between the Jewish and Gentile believers. They could hardly eat together (which was and still is a sign of fellowship) if the Gentiles were violating a key food law in front of their Jewish brothers.
So Romans 14:14 states the principle again very clearly - no food is unclean for a believer. But the principle that follows is that we should not seek to put a stumbling block in anyone`s path. If certain foods violate a person`s scruples and he feels he cannot eat them, then we should abstain in front of that person to not upset them or violate their conscience.
So in Christ, in the New Covenant period, all ceremonial laws of the O.T. have been nullified, including the dietary code of Deut 14:3ff. They were shadows highlighting the holiness of God, the sinfulness (uncleanness) of men, and our need for grace and purity. But Jesus is the reality toward which these shadows pointed.
Now, we can ask, was there ANY value in those food laws other than a spiritual principle teaching the Jews to value what is clean over what is unclean? Actually yes there was, especially for an ancient, pre-scientific, agrarian tribe. If you look at the forbidden foods, the unclean animals are usually omnivores, and scavengers. Pigs, shellfish, vultures etc. These animals eat most anything, often the decaying flesh of other animals or material, and therefore, could often transmit illness if not cooked properly. Pork still carries this risk today, but modern cooking minimizes it. God is always concerned with his people in the law - even the ceremonial parts of it. The same could be said of the hundreds of times God calls for regular ceremonial washing, 3500 years before the discovery of bacteria!