What is Biblical Eating?
Eating and sharing food with others has, from the beginning of creation, been a way for us to delight in the gifts of God and live into the fullness of what it means to be human. But our relationship to food is complicated, to say the least.. Allergies, food insecurity, cultural unfamiliarity, and diet culture have all contributed to these complexities, along with so much more. For many people, eating is not an act of goodness or of joy — it’s a cycle of stress, worry, insecurity, and even pain. As much as the table unites us to one another and to our Creator, it also reminds us that the world is not as it’s meant to be.
As Christians, then, is there a way to honor God when it comes to food? How can we balance ethics with budget, health with the risk of disordered eating, and kids’ preferences with our abilities? Is there a way to eat biblically?
I believe that yes, biblical eating is a practice worth following — but it may not be what you expect. The Bible is not a diet plan. We see pictures of eating throughout scripture, from Genesis discussing how to eat in the Garden to Daniel and his friends choosing to eat certain foods and abstain from others in a foreign king’s court. It’s true that the Israelites were given dietary restrictions to set them apart as a people, but under the new covenant, the shed blood of Jesus, the Bible doesn’t tell us what specific diet to follow. It may not tell us what we should eat, but it certainly tells us how.
First, we see throughout the Bible that we honor God by honoring God’s creation. This means taking care of our own bodies, the soil that produces what we eat, those who labor in the fields and those who work in kitchens to prepare our food. To eat biblically is to adopt a posture of humility, recognizing that we live in a world that is broken but food is still a gift from God.
Secondly, we also see that meals are a profound way to connect with others and build community. Around the table, we find a place to know others and be known ourselves. We find an outlet to practice hospitality and receive generosity. This practice of making and sharing meals together can be deeply healing. I believe with all my heart that God’s best for us is actually much more liberating and more fulfilling than any diet we may strive to follow. God cares about our physical wellbeing—and God’s methods of providing that healing and wellbeing in the face of a broken creation are simpler and less marketable than what many “clean” and “healthy” plans present.
To practice this requires undoing decades of shameful messaging, pushing against the massive market of the diet and wellness world, and accepting the limitations of being a human living in a broken creation. It requires seeking beauty and delight in bodies this industry fails to see as good, in bodies we might struggle to feel are good. But the joy it offers is worth the effort.
To learn more about seeing food God’s way, download my Dismantling Diet Culture guide. I hope it provides you a new, hopeful, simple lens when it comes to nourishment, health, and community.
