I recently had an online comment conversation about how the Old Testament says eating Shrimp is an abomination four times more than it says so about homosexuality. This statement is often used to support the argument that the morality of Leviticus chapters 17 & 18 is irrelevant to the modern era, particularly it’s prohibition of homosexuality.
The problem I have with this angle of debate is that the New Testament’s first ‘church council’ ended with the apostle’s agreeing on a letter of instruction based on the moral law of Leviticus 17 & 18.
And so my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from consuming blood.
Acts 15:28-30:
For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials…if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well.
From the beginning in the garden of Eden, God has commanded people to not eat certain things on his own authority. In the garden it was: “Don’t eat the fruit from this tree.” End of discussion, you do it, death is unleashed. Satan’s first act on the human stage revolved around questioning God’s authority to say what humans could or couldn’t do. I find the simple truth to be at the root of most of humanity’s problems. God says don’t, we say why not? It doesn’t seem wrong, it doesn’t make sense, look how right, good, pleasing or awesome it is. On and on it goes. Lordship means we obey the Lord even if we don’t understand all the reasons behind his command or prohibition. Love obeys because it knows the one who commands would only do so out of deep love and protection.
So do I keep the kosher food laws of Judaism?
No, I don’t…because Jesus said in Mark 7:19 that all foods are now clean: “Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.) When God says that ‘now’ it’s acceptable to do this or that, I am free to partake, because he said it is allowed.
Food prohibitions have been clearly articulated throughout the biblical story. Humanity has progressed from restriction to freedom in food laws from seed bearing food only, to the addition of meat in the changing of covenants from edenic, to Noahic, to Moses and then another change in Christ. The increase of diet freedom is a sign of the expanding and inclusive reach of the Gospel. We see the same expanding principle of Gospel reach and inclusion in the biblical story of people groups too. The story of redemption goes from one man, to a couple, to a family, to a community, to a nation and now in Christ, the whole world.
When handling the Old Testament, the meaning behind the biblical mandates has to be explained or we fall into mocking rules without explaining the spiritual truth behind the laws in the Old Testament. There are meanings behind the message and we run the risk of missing the point when we don’t exegete the purpose of the passage.
Pointing out that shrimp was an abomination as a point of sarcasm, handles a former covenant of God, in a way that minimizes the importance of what all those laws meant and mean in their fulfillment in Christ.
I now enjoy shrimp on the barbie and wear clothes from Wal-mart, grow a massive beard and fellowship, follow and celebrate men, women, Gentiles and Jews all together because of the liberation of the NEW covenant. The point of these Old Testament passages became clear to the New Testament apostles and leaders and they called Christians to read, understand and practice the moral truth taught and represented in Leviticus.
If the only answer is those laws are “mean and judgmental” than what are we to do with the Old and New Testament’s continued prohibition on sexual immorality that includes: same-family sex, sex with someone else’s spouse and same-gender sex? My attempt to answer these questions has been covered in my three part series: “Seeds, Seafood, Beards & Sex”
I am still waiting for a good answer from progressives on why we should abandon the councils teaching or the moral boundaries (not punishments) of Leviticus?
