A friend of mine once said that eating habits are like the stone of the tomb of Jesus Christ- immovable unless there is divine intervention. The issue of being careful with what we eat has long been a grey area for many Christians, but a good understanding of the value of what we eat will benefit us a whole lot.
The Old Testament lines up many dietary laws that the people of God had to follow for many years. Fast-forward some 1,500 years later, the Pharisees challenged Jesus regarding these laws but Jesus just proved to them just how off tangent they were when it came to understanding these dietary laws. Mark 17:18-19 says, "And he said to them, 'Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?' (Thus he declared all foods clean)."
For every law God has given us, there is a good reason behind it and many times, it's going to be for our good and welfare. God gives us laws for our protection, and it's no different with dietary laws. When God gave the Israelites dietary laws, it was to protect them from the diseases and complications that these food would cause. During that time, medical knowledge was not as advanced as it were today and people could more easily get sick or even die because of the food they ate.
The Pharisees however missed this point. To the Pharisees, the Old Testament dietary laws were nothing more than a tradition that had to be kept and - even worse - another reason to see themselves as part of an "exclusive club" of super religious people more favored by God simply because they kept these laws.
Because Jesus and our Heavenly Father has always been inclusive, all foods were declared edible so that even Gentiles, who did not follow Jewish dietary laws, could now be included into the family of God. That's why God showed Peter a vision (Acts 10) declaring that even those who did not follow Jewish dietary practices could now become part of God's kingdom.
But to give proper balance to things, we must also remember that 1 Corinthians 10:23 also says, "'All things are lawful,' but not all things are helpful. 'All things are lawful,' but not all things build up." Is God offended when someone eats pork or shellfish? Absolutely not especially since we now have many cooking practices that make them safe to eat. But will God be glorified when we eat too much of these things to the point that it destroys our health? Absolutely not.
God is most honoured with stewardship, and one way we practice that is with what we eat and how much of it we eat. While eating unhealthy food does not make you less of a Christian than the rest, it is also something that God never hopes we do. However, if we are eating healthily, that doesn't mean we should become modern-day Pharisees, looking down on those who don't do their weekly shop at Whole Foods and still prefer a good old side of fries to quinoa and chia seeds. What matters is the heart and whether we are honouring God with our bodies and what we put into them.
