If we’re speaking here in biblical terms, the difference between a eating regimen and a quick is just like the difference between an airplane and a chariot. They are each methods of transportation, but considered one of these wouldn’t have even entered into the mind of a biblical creator. That’s why, if I’m being honest, I find all these books on biblical weight-reduction plan to be strange. You can no more eating regimen “biblically” than you possibly can fly on an airplane “biblically.”
This is why, even when I would differ on some points, I appreciate Wendy Speake’s tackle not confusing weight-reduction plan with fasting. In an interview with Relevant, she shares about her 40-Day-Sugar Fast, saying:
“What would occur if we gave up sugar for forty days? Just physiologically, would we give you the chance to be calmer, kinder, more consistent, possibly much more Christ-like?” But it’s not a eating regimen that I desired to suggest. “What if we actually fasted? What if as an alternative of turning from sugar high to sugar high to get us through our hard days, we began turning to the Most High?”[1]
Speake is correct, there’s a difference between a eating regimen and a quick, and I’d prefer to explore that briefly today.
What Is the History of Dieting?
The concept of weight-reduction plan for purely aesthetic weight reduction or fitness in the fashionable sense was not a part of the way in which of pondering for those in biblical times. Yes, they might only eat certain foods, but this was tied to spiritual disciplines or moral beliefs. Even the Romans, like Pythagoras, followed a vegetarian eating regimen as a part of their philosophical or ethical reasoning and never due to some health profit.
The reality is that weight-reduction plan is a contemporary convention. Without proper food storage and infrequently experiencing a scarcity of food, the thought of “happening a eating regimen” was a luxury that few would have understood. The Ancient Greeks valued the harmony of the body and mind. Because of this, their call for things like moderation might look much like modern weight-reduction plan practices. But there have been still many differences.
Even still what we wish to have a look at once we consider “biblical” weight-reduction plan are the practices of the Ancient Near East (ANE). In the ANE, the concept of weight-reduction plan as a deliberate restriction of food intake for health, fitness, or weight reduction didn’t exist. Food practices were shaped by attempting to survive every day or by religious observance and cultural norms. Even discussions of gluttony had more to do with responsibility to the community than ensuring that your Thanksgiving turkey didn’t add a number of extra kilos.
Because of this, every time the Bible talks about consuming foods or things like fasting, we must not impose our contemporary understandings of diets upon the text. I speak more about this in Why Did Daniel Refuse the King’s Food?[2] The short version is that Daniel’s fast didn’t make him fit and trim by only eating vegetables. No, the mind-boggling thing to the Babylonians was that Daniel was moderately plump even without eating the king’s food. He was miraculously chubby, but that isn’t going to sell many eating regimen books for Westerners.
This all implies that when the Bible talks about fasting it’s vastly different than anything we would say about weight-reduction plan.
What Is Fasting?
The easy definition of fasting is that it’s a spiritual discipline or a response to mourning, where an individual intentionally abstains from food (or one other comfort) for a set time frame to focus attention on God. Dieting, as we’ve seen, is primarily focused on physical health or appearance. But fasting shifts the emphasis away from the body and onto the soul. This is why, in Scripture, fasting will likely be paired with prayer. Fasting isn’t about deprivation for its own sake and even for any health reason, but moderately to attract closer to God.
I like John Piper’s explanation. In his book, A Hunger for God, he shows us that the core principle of fasting is a declaration that we wish God greater than stuff:
If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it just isn’t because you will have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you will have nibbled so long on the table of the world. Your soul is full of small things, and there isn’t any room for the nice. God didn’t create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it will probably be woke up. I invite you to show from the dulling effects of food and the hazards of idolatry and to say with some easy fast: “This much, O God, I need you.”[3]
There are many examples within the Bible of fasting, Jesus amongst them. He fasted within the wilderness for 40 days. It was at the peak of this fast that Jesus was tempted by the devil, but Jesus demonstrated a reliance upon God as an alternative of stuff. In the Old Testament, fasting was a typical response to times of mourning and repentance. It was often used to hunt divine intervention (Nehemiah 1:4 and Esther 4:16 are examples). The early church, we’re told, also engaged in fasting—they usually did this in Acts 13:2-3 when attempting to make a crucial decision.
The core of fasting is about worship and give up. It is a reminder to believers that our deepest need is spiritual and never physical. It is a technique to communicate with our bodies and our natural desires that “it” just isn’t sovereign, but God is. This is why Wendy Speake says what she does here:
This is greater than a physical detox. We know that in God’s presence, there’s fullness of joy. We’re not in search of only a physical answer to our problems. A eating regimen will change your body, but a quick will change your life. God never said, “Hey, I need a sugar sacrifice.” He said, “I need a living sacrifice.”
If you only have to sacrifice sugar, you most likely need a eating regimen. But if you wish to grow, to feast on Christ, to have him reshape your life, not only reshape your body, then go to a quick, not only a eating regimen.
She is correct, a quick is radically different than a eating regimen.
Why Is it Important for Christians to Understand the Difference between a Diet and a Fast?
Practically speaking, it could not matter much in case you call your eating regimen a quick or your fast a eating regimen. The reality is that you’re going to experience health advantages. And in as much as you rely on God to enable you to together with your “eating regimen” or your “fast,” you’ll likely even have some spiritual advantages. But I believe there’s one massive difference here that necessitates an article. Fasting isn’t about what you’re giving up as much because it is about what you might be pursuing. As that Piper quote earlier points out, fasting is supposed to deal with our soul’s hunger for God.
Furthermore, fasting has a way of exposing things in our hearts that weight-reduction plan may not necessarily address. Yes, any type of deprivation would require self-control and willpower. And often, once we miss the mark on these items, it should expose things about our character. But there’s something more profound that happens with fasting. Richard Foster explains:
More than some other single Discipline, fasting reveals the things that control us. This is an excellent profit to the true disciple who longs to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We cover up what’s inside us with food and other good things, but in fasting these items surface. If pride controls us, it should be revealed almost immediately. David said, “I humbled my soul with fasting” (Ps. 69:10). Anger, bitterness, jealousy, strife, fear—in the event that they are inside us, they are going to surface during fasting. At first, we’ll rationalize that our anger is because of our hunger, after which we all know that we’re offended since the spirit of anger is inside us. We can rejoice in this information because we all know that healing is on the market through the facility of Christ.[4]
Dieting tends to be more about improving ourselves holistically—with a concentrate on our physical well-being. But fasting has a laser-like focus upon our souls. Both may be worthwhile, sure. But I believe we do well to maintain them separate and understand our purpose for eating or not eating certain things. Fasting can have a unique goal, and it’s vital that we acknowledge that.
[1] https://relevantmagazine.com/life5/wellness/the-difference-between-dieting-and-fasting/
[2] https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/why-did-daniel-refuse-the-kings-food.html
[3] John Piper, A Hunger for God (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1997), 23
[4] Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 55.
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/ Tara Evans
Mike Leake is husband to Nikki and father to Isaiah and Hannah. He can also be the lead pastor at Calvary of Neosho, MO. Mike is the creator of Torn to Heal and Jesus Is All You Need. His writing house is http://mikeleake.net and you possibly can connect with him on Twitter @mikeleake. Mike has a recent writing project at Proverbs4Today.
