Christian Jewish Kosher: Daily Thoughts from Mark (Mark 7:14-23)

I have some friends who are Jewish, or Gentile converts to Judaism, who worship Jesus as the Messiah.  They are Christians and they are Jews (or converts to Christian Judaism).  They observe kosher, the strict dietary regulations of the Old Testament.  They do this sometimes more faithfully than many Jews who are not Christians.  They see this as their obligation as Jews to keep covenant with God.  They have an additional covenant obligation that Gentile believers in Christ do not have.  It is not a requirement for salvation.  That is by faith in Christ alone.  It is an obligation of national origin.

Is this in line with the gospel?  Have they reverted to Pharisaism?

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:14-23, ESV) 

Now Jesus gives a more direct response to the Pharisee’s question about washing hands by indicating that such ceremonial cleansings do not really prevent internal impurity.  Rather, it is what is already inside a person’s heart that defiles him or her.  Mark emphatically notes that this makes all foods clean.  No foods can defile us within.  This has the effect of removing the distinction in the law of Moses between clean and unclean foods.

The dietary restrictions of the Old Testament were never meant to teach that certain foods made you personally, morally, pure or impure.  They were to set apart the people of God as uniquely obedient to Him and to express a concept of clean and unclean that would help them think about what is internal, the good or evil thoughts of the heart.  But Israel’s desire to contribute to their own salvation had motivated them to use these laws as standards of personal righteousness.  God’s standard was a heart standard, that is, loving Him and one’s neighbors.

Whenever we ignore the internal motivations of our hearts we are building an external “righteousness” that is really no righteousness at all.

So should Jewish Christians observe kosher?  The word “should” must be excluded.  It may be a voluntary observance that highlights Israel’s unique way of standing apart from the other nations, but should not be a requirement to be a good Christian Jew.  There may be Jews who feel just as covenantly faithful to God as Jews without observing the diet or other ritual laws of Moses.