Acts 10: Do not call anything impure that God has made clean
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| Photo credit: RitaE | Pixabay |
About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
Acts 10:9-15
There's so much that can be said about Levitical food laws and their setting aside in Jesus. I can't possibly talk about everything, so I'm going to talk about one of the most obvious applications: food itself.
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. (Colossians 2:20-22)
“Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) (Mark 7:18:19)
If we were trying to build heaven on earth, the way we eat would be important. But we are not. So do not let anyone judge you (including yourself) on what you eat and drink. Honour your earthly body as a precursor to your resurrection body: how to do that is a whole other topic, but one that is secondary this, because this is not the place where renewal is found. We need not give food any more power than it deserves - we are wonderfully enough in the love of Jesus Christ.
There's so much that can be said about Levitical food laws and their setting aside in Jesus. I can't possibly talk about everything, so I'm going to talk about one of the most obvious applications: food itself.
We may think that religious food laws are something limited to Jews, Muslims and Hindus and politely respect them. We may think they are have nothing to do with us as Christians. We give up trying to find a conclusive answer to why certain animals were declared 'unclean' in Leviticus 11, and just breathe a sigh of relief when we read this passage, along with the teachings of Jesus in Mark 7:1-23 on a similar theme, and get down to eating our bacon rolls.
God's commands to the ancient Israelites regarding clean/un-clean animals were, in my tentative opinion, possibly a mixture of food safety/hygiene and environmental preservation. But they were important - there was no part of life that law given by Moses did not touch. It was more than just about being morally good - it was about learning that the world was disordered, dangerous, that societies were made of fallen people and needed rules to deal with that, and that the natural world was disordered to. God showed the Israelites through a number of rules and guidelines a glimpse of order and protection for the weak and vulnerable.
We may think we find it alien, but apart from some of the specific reasons which are unclear to us, it's not that alien a concept at all. From gentle ribbing to outright condemnation, we are constantly declaring foods 'unclean' in our culture today. Carbs (incorrectly named - what people call 'carbs' are actually just the fast-release sub-section), animal products, refined sugar, palm oil, trans fats, dairy products, processed foods, the list goes on. Somebody said I should come along to a church coffee morning for some 'naughty cake' - I wanted to just wanted to yell do not call anything impure that God has made clean! I think instead I went for something gentler and less impactful.
Many of things I have listed above can be unhelpful to excess - whether due to specific intolerances, environmental concerns, animal welfare or health. However, why do we feel such guilt around food? Why do we feel the need to impose such rules on ourselves? Because, like in the times of the law given to Moses, the redemption we seek is more than just moral renewal. It's because as long as we actually look at the world around us (because it is sometimes possible to stick fingers in our ears and pretend all is rosy) we see it is broken - not just morally, but in a tangled mess or morality meets biology meets systemic inequalities. We see effects of the fall - on relationships with God, with each other, with the natural world and with ourselves. We want to feel whole, and that includes physically. We want to be the bodies we were 'meant' to be - living at harmony with the earth and with each other. Clean eating isn't just about bodily image and looking good, it is more than that. In short, we want to make heaven on earth.
When God gave the ancient Israelites the law he was preparing them for a foreshadowing of heaven on earth - the promised land. The writer of Hebrews, for example, draws direct parallels with this and our future rest - our the new heavens and Earth of Revelation. We know that this was not 'Heaven on Earth' - the sinfulness of the people quickly saw to that. And I believe that God gives any of those before us who truly trusted in him eternal life beyond the land of ancient Israel. But laws around what eat and drink could never save anyone (Romans 3:20). Avoiding foods we see as 'unclean' will not heal our souls. And no amount of clean eating will make us whole, redeemed, re-centred.
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe (Romans 3:21-22). That redemption of our whole selves - bodies, minds, morality - is in Jesus. And his kingdom is not of this earth. His kingdom on this earth is not one of earthly power - of healthy bodies and perfect people, but of redeemed people through the power of the Holy Spirit.
My body is not the way God designed it to be - I'm missing an entire organ and going round with a bag of poo stuck to me. It is unclean - not in the sense that it is unhygienic, but in that it does not behave in the way God designed it to. But here's the great thing - even in whilst in the fallen world, and not yet renewed and redeemed in a physical sense, I am still redeemed by Jesus, set apart for a purpose to do his work. You may look at my body and in a physical sense see disability, and Christianity does not force us to deny that this disability is there, but says: I am redeemed. Do not call unclean what God has made clean. Because it is only in the power of his Holy Spirit that I am turned from a weak person to someone he can use. Because ...if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17), and those who are dead are made alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:1-5). And therefore, we have no need to seek purity and wholeness in food: As Paul says:
Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. (Colossians 2:20-22)
We build the kingdom of God not through earthly strength and political or environmental renewal, but through the Holy Spirit. And the fully inaugurated kingdom is a completely renewed one - not through human efforts by the sanctifying blood of Jesus Christ. And it is a whole new creation - we will have 'resurrection bodies' (see 1 Corinthians 15) and God will make a renewed Earth and cosmos (Revelation 21:1).
So, I don't know who needs to hear this, but do not fear food! And do not idolise it either! Just remember this:
If we were trying to build heaven on earth, the way we eat would be important. But we are not. So do not let anyone judge you (including yourself) on what you eat and drink. Honour your earthly body as a precursor to your resurrection body: how to do that is a whole other topic, but one that is secondary this, because this is not the place where renewal is found. We need not give food any more power than it deserves - we are wonderfully enough in the love of Jesus Christ.
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