"But I love to eat" is a phrase I hear all the time when suggesting that someone try fasting to resolve weight and/or autoimmune health issues. The Book of Matthew, starting in chapter 5, we find the famous Sermon on the Mount which defines how Christians should love all other people and is a blueprint for the behavioral model that Christ left for those who pledge to follow Him. Fasting is described not only in how we should behave when fasting, but when we should fast. Jesus is quoted saying “When you fast” NOT if you fast and again “then they will fast” NOT when they might fast. Scholars believe that the terms “When” and “will” fall short of a commandment to fast. However, it is clear that if you claim for follow Christ fasting is more a requirement and expectation than it is a request or is optional.
Believers can amass wealth, we can enjoy the fruit of the vine, we can have and enjoy pretty things, we can enjoy all the culinary arts, and the only requirement is to never put them in priority ahead of God. “Thou shall have no other gods before me”. Do people who “love to eat” rather than fast once in a while put a love of food at a higher priority than God?
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