For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
Paul has just described teachers who forbid marriage and ban certain foods. He answers them not with a rule but with a fact about creation. So what makes a thing good, and what makes it fit to use?
An Assault on the Creator
A religion of rules can look holier than ordinary Christian life. One writer refuses to treat it as the safer mistake:
William KellyStrict self-denial is no more Christian than loose living, though it wears a nicer face. It is a showy attack on the God who created and sustains man. It sets up a superior holiness of its own, and it ends in shameful acts against nature.
Another writer traces where the denial lands. To reject these two gifts is to strike at God twice over:
Hamilton SmithHaving turned away from the faith, they deny God as our Saviour. And by refusing marriage and foods, they deny God as the Creator. That means losing all true reverence for God. In the end it opens the door to loose and shameless living.
Why the Old Food Rules Are Gone
Israel lived under long lists of forbidden foods. The same word of God that once drew those lines now lifts them:
Under the law many things were forbidden to the children of Israel, among them things to eat. But under grace the word of God says, "everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." The word of God refused certain things to the Jew. The same word of God now sets apart for the believer everything created by God. If we can thank God for our food with a good conscience, then God allows us to eat it.
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Refusing Is Not Neutral
Many treat food rules as a harmless private choice. One writer calls the refusal itself a moral matter:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinIf we refuse and reject what God has made for us to use, that is sin. Everything the Creator has provided we must take from His hand with thanksgiving, admitting that we depend on Him.
That verdict is about religious rejection, not about health:
Leslie M. GrantWhat may harm a person's health in a particular case is not the question here. The question is what eating means spiritually. If someone knows a certain food makes him suffer, it is only sensible to avoid it. But eating or not eating makes no spiritual difference.
The Condition Attached
The freedom is wide, but it comes with one condition:
William KellySo the Christian, unlike the Jew, can say that everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected. But there is the condition — "if it is received with thanksgiving." An ungrateful believer is a contradiction. Neither the simplest believer nor the cleverest can overlook the kindness and the wisdom of God.
Freedom, Not a Free-for-All
God's word, not our own will, is what permits the use. That keeps freedom from sliding into appetite:
William KellySo the use of every creature of God is guarded. This is not blanket permission to do as we please... Their own will did not authorise the use of every creature good for food; His word did. And their hearts, having come to know His grace in salvation, draw near to Him in free fellowship... But that fellowship rests on His grace. It takes in the smallest things as not too little for God, because it has learned in Christ that the greatest things of God are not too great for His children.
What, then, should we say at the table? One writer holds the food is already set apart, so Scripture asks for praise:
The Bible TreasuryWhat Scripture asks from us is not prayer but thanksgiving... So the Christian's meal table becomes an altar of praise... The prayer that is made is out of place. It asks God to do something He has already done, something for which He expects thanks or praise from loving hearts who know Him.
Ordinary Meals, Real Communion
Gratitude does more than settle a question about diet. It turns eating into a daily acknowledgement of who keeps us alive:
J. T. MawsonEvery mouthful we eat declares that we depend on God, and it should humble us before Him. We could not live without His provision for our daily needs. Knowing this would keep us from acting independently of God, would hold our appetites in check, and would keep us thankful to Him every day of our lives.
Summary
- Creator — Banning marriage and food is not extra holiness. It claims a higher holiness while denying God as Creator.
- Gift — What God made is good, and refusing His provision on religious grounds is itself sin.
- Freedom — God's word once fenced off foods for Israel. The same word now sets apart everything for the believer.
- Thanksgiving — The one condition is thanks. An ungrateful believer contradicts what he says he knows about God.
- Communion — God's word guards every meal, and thanks turns the plainest food into praise and fellowship with Him.