There’s a lot of confusion when it comes to food, and perhaps even more when it comes to what God thinks about food. Clearly, there is a lot of nuance here — our culture, level of access, personal preferences, and previous or current relationship with food all influence how we make choices about what to eat. But we cannot deny that food is significant. And we’re meant to eat it, celebrate it and use it as a vehicle for so many things.
At the last supper, Jesus said “do this in remembrance of me” and broke the bread, gave it to His disciples and they ate. He did the same with wine, which was meant to signify his blood. Isn’t it incredible that he chose something as simple as eating bread & drinking wine to do in remembrance of Him? And yet, for many of us — we’ve been conditioned to fear food. We fear the thing that signifies our Creator.
I have no doubt that God created our hunger and he wants us to eat. But more importantly he has given us food to be used as a vehicle for so many parts of ministry and everyday life. Fellowship, sustenance, mission, communion. Food is involved in all of this.
Now that begs the question — if food is a good thing, what do I eat? There’s a lot of debate but if we keep in the back of our mind that food is a vehicle for so many things, naturally the answer to this question changes depending on the circumstance. Some days we eat very nutritious foods. Some days we support local. Other days we celebrate or indulge. Still at other times— food is insignificant— or rather, not AS significant as the people around the table or the tasks that need to be done.
So while I don’t have a super specific answer for you, I am confident that food is not the pinnacle. Food is more often the vehicle.
Here are a few bible references if you’d like to dig into this more yourself:
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