The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1300, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.

Question

What is a balanced Christian life with regard to food?

Answer

And that’s practical. How do you balance off your life? Well, nothing is forbidden, but I think God intends for us to eat that which is good. “And He looked on his creation and said, ‘It’s good.’” I think God expects us to enjoy eating. You know why? Because he made flavor. Did you know that? He made flavor! And then He gave you taste buds to enjoy it. God did not make a bland all-food-tastes-the-same. In some countries of the world, it does! But they’ll manage to find something to throw in there to change the taste a little; spice it.

God didn’t make a bland diet. You know, God didn’t make brown sky, brown mountains, brown flowers, brown everything. There’s color… Because God likes variety and He knows that that enhances life. And so God has given us a world of variety and God knows that we have the right and the privilege to enjoy that kind of variety. God wants us to enjoy eating! Nothing wrong with that. In fact, in 2Corinthians 9:10, it says, “God is going to minister bread for your food.”

God is in the business of preparing food for you. He wants you to eat; doesn’t want you to starve. He says in Matthew 6:25, “I say to you”--Jesus in his sermon on the Mount--“Don’t worry about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor your body what you should put on; isn’t the life more than food and the body than raiment?” And He goes down to say, “If God takes care of these items with animals, don’t you think He’s going to provide for you?” “Don’t be anxious,” verse 31 says, “what you shall eat or drink for your Father knows you have need of these things. You seek him first and all these things shall be,” what? “added unto you.”

So God wants you to enjoy eating. But, there is sort of a point, which you can go past.  1Corinthians 6:13 and this is what it says: “Meats for the body and the body for meats” or “Food for the body and the body for food.” Eat up, folks; that’s what bodies are for. Now you’ve gone too far. The Old Testament talks about gluttony--overeating. There has to be a balance. God wants you to have food, God has made food tasty, God wants you to enjoy food. Why, do you remember when God and two angels visited Abraham, what did Abraham tell his wife to do? Cook them a wonderful dinner. That’s terrific! Nothing wrong with that. But obviously, like anything else, there should be moderation.

Now I don’t know enough about the medical aspect of it to know all the balance of diet and so forth and so on, but it’s obvious to me that God has created in the world a balance of food. We talk about the food groups. My little kids do reports on the food groups. They bring home the assignment; I wind up doing the report: the food groups--the carbohydrates and all of this and so forth and so on… And they got to have some vegetables and some dairy products and some protein products and all this, and I think God has given us in our world a variety of things so that we, with our intelligence, could learn to eat a variety that would make us as healthy as possible.

Well, that’s pretty practical and I hope that helps. Those are the general patterns. How you balance those out in your life will be between you and the Lord.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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