This is a question that often comes up:
The Old Testament says that the pig is an unclean animal, and the Israelites should not eat it. So why do most Christians eat pork?
It was said to the Jews in the Tawrat (La Torah) that the pig was an unclean animal. Why? The answer to the question is in the same book of the Torah.
Speaking to the people of Israel, God said,
“Every swarming thing that swarms on the ground is detestable; it shall not be eaten. Whatever goes on its belly, and whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet, any swarming thing that swarms on the ground, you shall not eat, for they are detestable. You shall not make yourselves detestable with any swarming thing that swarms, and you shall not defile yourselves with them, and become unclean through them. For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.”
(Leviticus 11: 41-47)
In giving this law, God was not seeking to make a menu card of the day, or to give health-diet guidelines to follow, but to teach them holiness. From this, the people had to learn to distinguish between good and evil, to separate themselves from the surrounding peoples as a people set apart by God, and all with the aim of leading a sanctified life.
However, Jesus taught that true holiness in God’s eyes goes far beyond the content of the food on his plate. It concerns the secret motives and thoughts of our hearts, not what we eat.
This is the teaching he gave during a discussion with Jewish religious about the traditions of purity and impurity:
There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 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.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
(Mark 7: 15-23)
It is interesting that the Koran says about Jesus: “I (Christ) heal the born blind and the leper, and I raise the dead … And I teach you what you eat and what you gather In your house … And I confirm what is in the Torah revealed before me, I make you lawful a part of what was forbidden you. ” (Koran, Sura 3 49 and Sura 3 50)
The Bible states clearly that “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy, by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Many people believe that they can gain God’s favour and have eternal life by following the Old Testament food laws. But it is incomprehensible. You can not save yourself, but Jesus Christ can save you, and he will do it when you commit your life to Him in faith.
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