I recently discovered the Blog of an education hero of mine: Douglas Wilson. Wilson developed the curriculum for classical Christian schools—a curriculum of which I am proud to say I was once a student.

So as I was perusing his posts I stumbled across an interesting one titled “No Better Off If We Eat It”. Obviously I was intrigued. In it, Wilson addresses the debate that was waged in the early church concerning the consumption of foods previously forbidden (in the Old Testament) and meats sacrificed to pagan gods.

For the most part, I agree with Wilson’s argument. So many Christians get caught up in legalism—a list of “do’s and do not’s” that are not legislated by the Bible. I don’t think that the issues here are exactly common problems among today’s Christians, so I tried to come up with a similar issue that is of concern today.

I thought of factory farms. They are certainly treating animals, which are created by God, terribly. But are we sinning if we eat the product? I don’t think so. I doubt God will hold the average consumer accountable for every piece of caged chicken he ate. But those farmers will be held accountable, I’m sure. So I agree with Wilson that the food itself is “a thing indifferent”, but it is here that Wilson jumps to a bold conclusion: God doesn’t care what we eat.

What? I never, ever in my life thought I would disagree with you, Douglas Wilson, founder of classical Christian schools, but here I do.

God cares what we eat very much. And there are some things that we are better off eating, and better off avoiding. But it isn’t necessarily the food that it is bad. It is because we live in a sinful world. Because we live in a world that is tormented by sickness and disease. And because we are human, and we misuse the “thing indifferent”. You of all people, Mr. Wilson, should understand the dangers of the human appetite ruling over the human intellect. I am right in thinking that you’ve read Plato’s Republic, no? Or is my entire education and the Trivium only coincidentally similar the three divisions of the soul as described by Plato?

Allow me to use a similar, yet more shocking example. It is like paying a prostitute and saying, “well, at least I enjoyed it!” Sex isn’t a bad thing, it’s a good thing! But enjoyed out of context, and with no self-control is certainly wrong and God certainly cares about that!

Apply that to food. Food is a good thing, but food affects our body. Food provides our bodies with the nutrients needed for basic bodily functions. We need food—the right food—to survive. Yea, spinach is healthy, but can we survive on it? Sure, chocolate cake is delicious, but can you imagine if we ONLY ate that? I’ve said it so many times before, but I’m passionate about it, so I will say it again. Our bodies are temples and we have been created in God’s image. We need to be good stewards of the body entrusted to us! Being aware of what we put in our body, the fuel that we give it, is the primary way to do this.

So many studies have been done about foods that cause horrible destruction to the body like diabetes, cancer, or obesity if eaten in excess. And individually we all know what foods make us feel good which foods don’t. And as Christians we are to be doing God’s work. If our body is weak, sick, or incapacitated because of what we have consumed, we certainly will be disappointing the God who created our bodies and every intimate detail of every single cell and who has called us to good works. God cares. God cares very much.

By now I’m sure you know that my go-to passage about living healthy, active lives is 1 Corinthians 6:19-22, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify in your body.” But what does it mean to glorify God in your body? Well, I’m sure there are many things that Paul is referring to, and at this passage he’s addressing sexual immorality. But later in the same epistle he writes, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 13:10). Every aspect of our lives are supposed to be living sacrifices to God. I don’t know how many ways there are to say the same thing: food is fuel for your body. Give it bad fuel, you get bad performance. If you get bad performance, our abilites to glorify God is all areas of our lives will be severely hindered.

Be careful with the conclusion that “God doesn’t care what eat”. Add qualifiers to it, or something, just don’t let it become a standard Food Philosophy. Because in our everyday lives, God does care, and through something as seemingly insignificant as our afternoon snack, we have been given the great privalege to glorify God.