Dear Anneliese,

Answer: Sometimes it is hard for those of us living today when we learn about God’s health principles in the Bible, and how mankind didn’t eat meat in the beginning, and how meat isn’t the best thing for people to eat, to understand why Jesus would eat it.

We know that Jesus ate at least some of the clean meats, like fish and lamb. Jesus ate fish because He lived in this world as a human being, and he ate the best food that was available. Fish was a very common food for poor people in Jesus’ day. It also provided nutrients that may have been hard to get in other ways because they didn’t have grocery stores with aisles of food, fresh produce, refrigerated food and frozen food of every variety, and vitamins in case you needed them. Even today, there are parts of the world that don’t have all of the food options that we do. We need to remember that God did not forbid the eating of the clean meats, and that they aren’t the best thing to eat, especially today when people eat more fat, get less exercise, sunlight, fresh air, and water, and the animals are far more diseased than they were in Jesus’ day.

Thanks for writing, and remember, there's never been a better time to share Jesus!

Your friend, Pastor Howard

Note: All Scripture references are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise indicated.