Part 2. Kingdom Minded – Honoring Our Father by What We Eat
Kingdom Minded — Honoring Our Father by What We Eat
Part II: Paul and Dietary Laws — Law, Freedom, and Common Sense
Introduction: Paul Misunderstood
Peter warned that Paul’s writings are “hard to understand” and that the “ignorant and unstable twist them to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15-17).
This warning should shape how we read Paul — as a Torah-faithful teacher correcting error, not abolishing YHVH’s standards.
Paul was:
- A Pharisee of Pharisees (Philippians 3:5)
- Taught by Gamaliel, one of the most respected Rabbis (Acts 22:3)
- Zealous for Torah, even to the point of persecuting believers (Acts 8:1-3)
- Later a servant of Messiah, declaring “I believe everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets” (Acts 24:14)
So, if Paul truly said “freedom in Christ” means to break God’s commandments, he’d be contradicting both himself and the very Scriptures he revered.
Remember: If Paul is addressing eating (in any context) he would have been talking about what YHVH defined as food. Let’s examine what Paul actually taught about food and freedom.
1. Romans 14 — Food and Days
Common Misuse:
“See! Romans 14 says we can eat anything we want, and no one should judge us about food or days!”
Context:
Paul is addressing disputes in Rome’s mixed congregation — Jewish believers, new Gentile converts, and those influenced by pagan traditions.
The issue isn’t clean vs. unclean meat but food offered to idols, fasting practices, and judging one another.
“One person’s faith allows them to eat everything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.” (Romans 14:2)
Notice — vegetables, not “unclean meats.”
The weaker brother refused all meat for fear it was sacrificed to idols (same issue in 1 Cor 8).
Paul never says unclean animals are suddenly “clean.”
He says: Don’t judge each other over disputable matters of conscience.
Eating vegetables only or eating meat from the market wasn’t a salvation issue.
“He who eats, eats to the Lord… He who abstains, abstains to the Lord.” (Romans 14:6)
Key Point:
Romans 14 is about how people express devotion, not redefining what “food” is.
Scripture defines food; man does not. (Leviticus 11, Deuteronomy 14)
Paul assumes the definition stands — his concern is judgmentalism, not dietary law.
2. 1 Corinthians 8 — Clean Food Sacrificed to Idols
Common Misuse:
“We’re free to eat anything, even if it’s offered to idols!”
Context:
Corinth was filled with pagan temples. Meat sold in the market often came from idol sacrifices.
Believers wrestled with whether eating it made them complicit in idolatry.
Paul’s answer:
“We know that an idol is nothing… but not everyone possesses this knowledge.” (1 Cor 8:4-7)
He acknowledges mature believers know the idol is meaningless, but love must prevail:
“If food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat again.” (1 Cor 8:13)
Paul is talking about clean meat possibly tainted by idol worship, not redefining food.
His instruction: knowledge without love puffs up; use your freedom carefully.
3. 1 Timothy 4:4-5 — “Everything God created is good”
Common Misuse:
“See? Everything God made is good for food!”
If that’s literal, then feces, maggots, or human flesh would be fair game. Clearly absurd.
Context again saves the passage.
“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”
Key:
“Sanctified by the word of God” means set apart by Scripture as food — in other words, what the Torah calls “clean.”
Paul isn’t negating Torah; he’s rejecting asceticism that forbids marriage and food (v. 3).
He reaffirms that what God created for food is good when received properly.
God never “created” swine, crustaceans, or vultures to be eaten; He created them to clean the earth.
4. 1 Corinthians 6:13 — Food for the Belly
“Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy both it and them.”
Paul is reminding believers not to let appetite rule them.
The point: don’t make food or pleasure your god.
Freedom isn’t about indulgence — it’s about self-control and sanctification (Galatians 5:13, Titus 2:11-12).
5. 1 Corinthians 9:22 — Becoming All Things to All People
“I have become all things to all men, so that by all possible means I might save some.”
Paul is speaking of cultural adaptability, not moral compromise.
He never became a lawbreaker to reach lawbreakers.
He contextualized the Gospel within obedience, just as Messiah ate with sinners yet never sinned.
Paul’s message: relate to people without partaking in sin.
“To those under the law, I became as one under the law… though I am not under the law myself… but under the law of Messiah.” (v. 21)
The “law of Messiah” is not lawlessness — it’s Torah written on the heart (Jeremiah 31:33; Romans 8:4).
6. Freedom and the Law
Freedom never meant lawlessness.
Even in earthly governments, those who keep the law live freely; those who break it are imprisoned.
Why would YHVH’s Kingdom be different?
Paul affirms:
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid! On the contrary, we establish the law.” (Romans 3:31)
Freedom in Messiah is freedom from sin’s penalty, not freedom to sin.
Sin is defined by transgressing the law (1 John 3:4).
Therefore, freedom from lawlessness is freedom indeed.
7. Common Sense and Consistency
If YHVH once called something “abomination” (Leviticus 11:10-12, 20),
and said, “I am YHVH; I change not” (Malachi 3:6),
why would He suddenly redefine food through Paul?
Paul’s letters don’t rewrite Torah — they explain how to live it out by faith through grace, not by hypocrisy or man-made religion.
He battled Judaizers (adding to Torah) and pagans (rejecting Torah), calling both to Yeshua, the living Torah made flesh.
Closing Thoughts
Paul upheld what Yeshua taught:
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom, but he who does the will of My Father.” (Matthew 7:21)
Paul’s writings harmonize perfectly when we remember his foundation — the Law and the Prophets.
He didn’t preach freedom from God’s commands, but freedom to finally keep them through the Spirit.