To Eat Shrimp or Not to Eat Shrimp? That is the question.

Do we need to keep the Old Testament Dietary Laws and Festivals?

Billy Stevens

January 27, 2009

Some of us have run into a strange teaching today, that says you shouldn’t eat anything but what the Jews ate and that means no pork or shellfish (shrimp, crawfish). Can you imagine the problem with this in South Louisiana? After reading this, if you are convicted that you shouldn’t eat pork, shrimp, crabs, or crawfish then when someone gives you some shrimp – you can bring it to my house. You can be more spiritual than me, I’ll just take the shrimp and crawfish so you won’t be tempted. Really I don’t mind helping you. J

You say, this subject doesn’t apply to me. Sure it does! Have you ever come across anyone who says you need to have Jesus plus something else for salvation? Sure you have. Some believe you need Jesus plus tongues, or Jesus plus works, or Jesus plus sacraments, etc. The same principle applies here. See Righteousness only comes through faith alone in Jesus Christ by God’s grace upon your life and nothing else.

What about the person who says you need to kept the Old Testament dietary laws and festivals? Why should you keep them? They say you would be more righteous and that God would be more pleased with your walk of faith. Some would actually say that you are not saved if you don’t keep the laws – others would just say you are being disobedient to the God’s Word! Really? Simple answer, that is not true. Lets think about it and see what those in the Bible had to say about this question.

What does Logic say? Be consistent, if you say you are supposed to keep one, then you need to keep them all. If someone says you have to eat or not eat certain things to be considered righteous by God, then they need to keep the whole law – not just part of it. Just read Leviticus and see the list of laws like not trimming their beards, not doing anything on the Sabbath (Friday evening through Saturday evening), and keeping all the festivals. God didn’t want the Jews to even mix fibers they were wearing which means it would be unrighteous for me to wear my iron free slacks (Lev. 19:19). These who believe this way have to be consistent in their interpretation and application.

Is there any book in the Bible that explains this problem? Yes there is. The book of Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul to a church in the country of Galatia. Some of them were Jews and others were Gentiles, but they had all come to know Jesus through faith and declared themselves as His followers. But something happened along the way and some Judaizers/Pharisees (super legalistic ritualistic Jewish religious leaders) came in and caused them to believe they needed to keep the Jewish dietary laws. Read and reread all of Galatians to get the picture.

Even the Apostle Peter (Cephas) and Barnabas were drawn into this trap. Peter had been eating with the Gentiles until this group showed up and then he shunned the Gentile believers to eat kosher food with these legalistic “believers”. (Gal. 2:11-16). Then the Apostle Paul showed up and found out what Peter was doing, and how the Jewish believers were treating the Gentile believers as second class Christians because they were not keeping the Jewish dietary laws. Paul went ballistic on Peter because Peter was sinning against these Gentile believers. Yep, the first “pope” was a dirty rotten sinner like the rest of humanity.

Galatians 2:11-16 (NASB95) But when Cephas [Apostle Peter] came to Antioch, I [Apostle Paul] opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. 13 The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? 15 “We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; 16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

They were trying to become righteous (justified) by keeping these special laws and doing certain rituals. Paul clearly says, no one is justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus. Peter’s sin was that of hypocrisy – pretending to be more righteous than someone else because he was doing these “righteous” things. Hogwash, Paul said.

Righteousness never came through obeying the laws. The Old Testament laws pointed us to the fact that humanity is not holy and God is holy. It reveals our separation from Him and His awesome otherness from humanity. Righteousness comes to a person by God’s grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ and nothing else.

Paul was livid because this issue had already been discussed with Peter. Peter cannot claim ignorance because Paul says in Galatians 2:1-10 that he went to Jerusalem to discuss this issue with the other apostles. Acts 15 tells the story about what happened in this meeting. Read Acts 15.

What did the Jerusalem Council say in Acts 15? The Apostle Paul had been teaching that salvation is by grace through faith alone in Jesus and it caused a problem with some of the Pharisees. Some of these legalistic “believers” said you have to believe in Jesus and keep the Jewish laws (like circumcision). So Paul came to Jerusalem and all of the apostles got together to discuss the doctrine of salvation. (How a person is cleansed and forgiven from their sins and made righteous before God.) Acts 15 tells us this story. The JEWISH apostles came to the conclusion that God has provided salvation to the Gentiles just like the Jews. The Gentiles (all non-jews) could be saved from their sins by grace through faith in Jesus alone. They concluded that the Gentiles did not need to keep the Jewish laws but they should abstain from offensive cultural things, like things offered to idols, from things strangled, and meat with blood in it. All of these would have greatly offended a Jew who kept the ceremonial law. Jews would have never accepted anything from someone who practiced these things. Also it would have been offensive to new Jewish believers consciences who did not fully understand Gods’ grace. The Gentile believers were also to abstain from all sexual immorality for obvious reasons. (Acts 15:28-29) You need to read all of Acts 15 to get the picture of what happened.

Peter was even more guilty because he had been given a special vision from Jesus about this very issue. In Acts 10 after the resurrection and ascension the Lord Jesus gave Peter a vision and gave him some instructions. Peter was instructed that the food he had been taught was not acceptable to eat was now acceptable, but there was a greater meaning. The Gentiles were now not to be called or considered unclean. There is nothing (food, rituals, status, race) that should be in the way of someone hearing about God’s love for them in Jesus Christ. You need to read Acts 10 to understand this and the hinge verse is Acts 10:15 (and the hunting verse is 13.)

Acts 10:10-15 (NASB95) But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; 11 and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. 13 A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.”

What did Jesus say? Jesus was a Jew who knew that the food a person ate did not make them unclean (unrighteous). Jesus began the revelation to the disciples that what makes a person righteous it not from outside (clothes, rituals, certain food, etc.) but it was all about what was going on inside a person’s heart.

Matthew 15:17-20 (ESV) Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Conclusion? Even the Apostle Peter could get drawn off into a wrong practice and so can you and I if we are not careful. Peter had walked with Jesus for 3 1/2 years and still missed understanding grace.  If Peter can miss it then the most educated can miss it and you and I can miss it at times. Peer pressure, new and great teachings, and a zealous desire to do what is “right” can even lead to making wrong practices in our life. What does or does not make you righteous? Eating certain foods and not eating other foods, speaking in tongues, not speaking in tongues, circumcision nor not being circumcised, communion, the sacraments, not eating meat on Fridays, even saying your prayers five times a day does not make you righteous. It can make you a hypocrite. What makes you righteous? Only faith in Jesus Christ that He is Lord of your life and Savior of your life.