Do you ever wonder why God gave us cravings for potato chips, chocolate, and bacon? There’s no indication that the members of the Trinity were sitting around in eternity past sipping wine or grilling steaks. Our hunger for food and our need for it to sustain us is part of God’s design for humanity. But why did He give us this hunger? Wouldn’t life be much simpler if we didn’t have to stop for meals or resist those powerful urges? As you consider what the Bible teaches, a picture emerges of God’s purpose in food and how we should relate to it.

1. God disciples you through your appetite

Any consideration of God’s design for food has to take into account the fact that the first warning, the first temptation, and the first sin all had to do with food. God provides Adam and Eve with an abundance of food to eat from – “every tree of the garden” (Genesis 2:16) – but a single prohibition (Genesis 2:17). It feels like a test. Will we be ruled by our eyes and our bellies, or will we be ruled by God?

When God delivers the nation of Israel, he gives them a similar test. He sustains them with manna and quail with a warning that they are to only gather a day’s portion each day. As soon as the command is given, the purpose is spelled out, “that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not” (Exodus 16:4).

This doesn’t mean that a bag of chips is the same as the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But it does mean that food is one of the ways that God disciples you. Learning how to say no, learning how to be content with hunger, and learning how to find satisfaction in what God has graciously provided is a part of a Christian’s growth. Ignore what God is trying to teach you through your hunger and cravings – as I admittedly often have – and you miss an important part of your discipleship.

2. Don’t worship the god of your stomach

The early church struggled to understand the new freedoms they enjoyed. Jesus declared that they were no longer bound by the Jewish kosher laws of the Old Testament (Mark 7:18-19). They assumed that meant that God no longer cared what they ate. Paul quotes one of their slogans, “All things are lawful for me,” but then he adds that “not all things are helpful” and we shouldn’t be “dominated by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

In an age when obesity rates are at an all-time high and an aggressive food industry is seeking to create foods that are increasingly addictive, we need to ask questions about what we’re putting into our mouths. Is this helping me? What is it doing to my health? Am I in control of my appetite, or have my cravings taken over?

Paul described people whose appetites set the agenda for their lives saying, “Their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (Philippians 3:19). Food can become an idol that tempts, leads, and enslaves. God wants us to live free of that.

3. Make Jesus the Lord of your fork

All of this could feel like religious shame being heaped on top of the societal shame that we often feel when we overeat. But the Bible’s message is more personal and redemptive than that. Not only is God seeking to disciple us in self-control and protect us from the addictions that can accompany food and drink, but He wants us to see food as a means of worship. In 1 Corinthians 10:31, it says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Earlier in the letter, Paul elaborates why, reminding believers, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

What if we ate with the recognition that God loved us enough to redeem our bodies from slavery? What if we treated our bodies as God’s holy dwelling place? What if Jesus became Lord of our fork, and we chose foods that would honour Him and reflect His purposes?

Maybe those are hard questions to answer when you’re getting home late and your kids are irritable. But those questions can inspire a view of food that allows us to worship God with each meal. Instead of just a list of what we can and can’t eat, food becomes an occasion to praise His good creation and His faithful provision. Food can help us to practice self-control and remind us that we’re not ruled by our appetites. And hunger can remind us that there are things more important than another bag of chips. As Jesus said in John 4:32, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”

There’s a reason God designed us to live on food. There’s a purpose to our cravings. He’s teaching us to worship Him. He’s training us to long for Him. Make Him the Lord of your fork and seek to glorify Him with your eating and drinking today.

In awe of Him,

Paul