Fasting

What is your thought on the subject of fasting mentioned in 1 Corinthians?

1 Corinthians 7:5

Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

Paul mentions fasting there in 1 Corinthians 7 because that was the custom of the Middle East, especially of those Jews who were in the church in that day, particularly in the early days of the Body of Christ! Fasting from food was an expression of humbling one's self before God!

Daniel 9:3

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

Mathew 17:21

Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

Paul was not in any way ordaining fasting because he never mentions it again in any of his epistles. In fact, as his ministry went on in time (1 Corinthians was one of his earliest epistles), he actually told us to stay away from making too big a deal about fasting. Look what he says years later in the book of Colossians...

Colossians 2:20-23

Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

Fasting was the custom of the day for Jews who got saved into the Body of Christ, and there were many Jews in the Body at that time in Corinth. The real issue in 1 Corinthians 7 was how the family was to operate in grace, therefore he was simply reminding them that the only time that they could keep themselves away from their spouses was if, with the consent of their spouse, they separated themselves temporarily to pray to God. And with Jews, prayer and fasting from food went together. But today, under Grace and in our culture, fasting is not a necessarily part of our prayer life. If someone wants to fast while they pray...fine, but it is no more spiritual than someone else who does not fast.

Hopefully this helps...Maranatha!

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Northern California Grace Fellowship

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