You Are What You Consume

Leviticus 11:44 "For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground." The food laws of Leviticus 11 are one of the most debated sections of the Old Testament, and one of the most avoided in preaching.

Yet they are given a theological foundation of extraordinary weight: "Be holy, for I am holy." The reason Israel is to distinguish between clean and unclean animals is not primarily nutritional or hygienic — it is covenantal.

A people set apart by God must practise distinction in the rhythms of ordinary life. The daily act of choosing what to eat becomes, over time, the formation of a community that knows how to choose. The clean/unclean categories are not arbitrary.

The animals permitted for food are generally those that fit neatly into a single domain and mode of movement: animals that have divided hooves and chew cud, fish that have fins and scales, birds that are not predators or scavengers.

The animals excluded tend to be those that cross category boundaries — creatures that move in ways inconsistent with their domain, or that feed on death and waste. The system trains discernment: learn to distinguish, to categorise, to choose.

Whatever the precise reasoning behind each specific prohibition, the cumulative effect of a daily dietary practice that distinguished Israel from the surrounding nations was identity formation. They ate differently.

Three times a day, at every meal, they enacted their separateness from the nations around them. The table became a classroom of consecration. The body's consumption became a statement of covenant allegiance.

What you routinely take in shapes what you become.

Mark 7:19 records Jesus declaring "all foods clean" — a radical departure from Levitical food law — and Acts 10 confirms this through Peter's vision of the sheet. The New Covenant does not continue the specific food restrictions of Leviticus.

But the underlying principle — "be holy, for I am holy" — is quoted directly by Peter in 1 Peter 1:15-16 and applied to behaviour, not diet. The food laws are fulfilled and set aside; the holiness they trained people toward is not.

The principle of taking care about what you consume — what enters your eyes, ears, mind, and imagination — is the New Testament application of Leviticus 11. Philippians 4:8: "Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable — think about these things."

Discerning consumption forms discerning character. 🪞 Reflect on this • What do you regularly consume — media, conversation, entertainment, information — that is shaping your imagination and character in directions that are not holy?

• The food laws trained daily discernment at the table. What daily practices in your life serve as "clean/unclean" filters — habits that train you to distinguish and choose? • Israel's distinctiveness was visible at every meal.

Where is your distinctiveness as a follower of God most visible to those around you? 👣 Take a Step Audit Your Consumption Do a one-week audit of what you consume: screen time, social media, podcasts, conversations.

Identify one specific input that is consistently pulling your imagination away from holiness. Remove it, limit it, or replace it with something that meets the Philippians 4:8 standard.

Lord, I am shaped by what I take in. Open my eyes to the ways my consumption is forming me in directions that do not look like You. Give me the discernment to choose differently — at every table, in every feed, in every hour of ordinary life.

Amen.