What Foods Defile ...?

The Old Testament Levitical Law included stringent dietary restrictions. Leviticus, Chapter 11, as well as other Mosaic writings, sets forth those restrictions. Leviticus 11:4 says, "Nevertheless these shall ye not eat," and Moses proceeded to set forth specific instructions in the following verses of that chapter. However, with the introduction of the New Covenant, or Testament, there has been a transition. 

The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 2:14 that through Christ's redemptive work on Calvary, there was a "blotting out [of] the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." The Old Testament dietary law was one of those "ordinances that was against us," which Christ's Crucifixion nailed "to his cross" and abolished.

The Old Testament practices under the Mosaic Law "was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ" (Galatians 3:24). The inspired penman said in Galatians 3:25, "We are no longer under a schoolmaster." When the Apostle Peter received a vision in Acts  10:12 of all manner of unclean animals under the Jewish law and was enjoined to "kill, and eat" (verse 13), he initially refused. 

However, the Lord clearly told Peter in Acts 10:15, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." Thus, the Old Testament dietary laws were no longer in force.  In I Timothy 4:3, the Apostle Paul spoke of those "commanding to abstain from meats," and he designated such teaching as "doctrines of devils" (verse 1). He went on to write in verse 4, "Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused." Verse 5 says, "It is sanctified by the word of God and prayer."

In Matthew 15:17-20, Jesus established a clear principle that an individual's spiritual state is not affected by dietary issues. Jesus was rebuked by the religious leaders of that day because "thy disciples ... wash not their hands when they eat bread" (verse 2). In response to this, our Lord proclaimed, "Whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught" (verse 17). Christ revealed, it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man but rather what comes out of the mouth (verse 18)! What a man eats has nothing to do with what could defile the spirit of man.

Earl R. Borders

From the May 2026 issue of The Gospel Trumpeter