What are the things which defile a person?
- Thread starter MatthewG
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No, a cannibal should not interpret Mark 7:19 as giving them permission to eat whatever they want. The things that count as food vary from culture to culture, such as US citizens will often consider the flesh of animals like cows, chickens, and pigs to be food, but won't consider the flesh of humans or animals like horses, dogs, cats, rats, bats, vultures, or human flesh to be food, so if someone were listening to a conversation between US citizens about eating meat, then they should not insert what they consider to be food, but could consider them to be speaking about eating the flesh of animals that they consider to food. There is already a sense that certain animals are mot to be eaten as food, so the issue is which column pork belongs under. So when we have a conversation between one Jew and a group of other Jews about eating food, then we should not insert the things that we consider to be food, but should consider them to be speaking about what they considered to be food, namely the things that God said is food in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Moreover, they were not discussing what type of things are acceptable to eat as food, but about whether it is acceptable to eat bread with unwashed hands. In Matthew 15:20, Jesus was still speaking against being defiled by eating with unwashed hands, so thinking that he was setting aside God's commands against eating unclean animals is a complete misreading of the text, especially when he just spent Mark 7:1-13 criticizing the Pharisees as being hypocrites for setting aside the commands of God.
Jesus lived in obedience to God's law, which included refraining from eating unclean animals, so that is also the way that we live when he is living in us.
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MatthewG
Active member
Normally people dont enjoy, or even think about human flesh. My assumption would be, that person has something that is off about them, Soy…
I suppose something that comes to mind is Jesus when he says “eat my flesh, and drink my blood”; however that is meaning to partake in His life; in the sense of dying to self by picking up your cross, being buried with Him (burying the old life), being raised him with him into newness of life while carrying around his death in mind; which bring life from the spirit.
Thank you for the comment.
I suppose something that comes to mind is Jesus when he says “eat my flesh, and drink my blood”; however that is meaning to partake in His life; in the sense of dying to self by picking up your cross, being buried with Him (burying the old life), being raised him with him into newness of life while carrying around his death in mind; which bring life from the spirit.
Thank you for the comment.
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While I was not suggesting that people normally enjoy human flesh, that is an obvious example of why Jesus should not be interpreted as saying that we can eat anything that we want, and it illustrates the point that we should consider them to be speaking about the things that they considered to be food rather than insert the things that we consider to be food. I'm seen a lot of people try to use Mark 7:19 to try to show that Jesus was saying that we can eat pork, but Jews did not even raise pigs, so that thought would have never even crosses their minds.
That is more along the lines of you are what you eat, where he was symbolically saying that we need to become like him.
MatthewG
Active member
Undoubtably you are entitled to your opinion, you should be encouraged to make your own person thread about that if you would like to. I personally think its okay. I eat bacon, and sausage, with eggs on the side. Fruits are also enjoyable to partake in, like strawberries, blueberries, oranges, watermelon, grapes, blackberries, raspberries.
Did not think of it that way, thank you for sharing that with me.
