FASTING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The New Testament appears to justify and even prescribe fasting because Jesus fasted and appears to command others to fast as we read in the following scriptures:
Matthew 4:1-7 1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.
COMMENTARY: Most Christians who read this will conclude fasting is a Christ-like thing to do. The thinking might be “If Jesus did it, then it must be OK for me to do also.” This kind of rationale makes perfect sense for Old/First Covenant religionists who read and interpret the Bible literally. It is totally wrong thinking, however, for New Covenant disciples.
As the one who fulfilled the God’s spiritual laws, Jesus would not fast from natural food or drink. He understood that the kind of fasting God recognized and accepted was fasting from Old/First Covenant religion.
3 And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’ “ 5 Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU’; and ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him, “On the other hand, it is written, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’ “
Matthew 6:16-21 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. will be full of light.
COMMENTARY: At first glance, this appears to be an endorsement of conventional fasting by Jesus. Rather than endorse or command fasting, however, Jesus rebukes the practice as a fleshly, hypocritical, religious activity that people do so that they can receive praise (i.e. reward) from men for their spiritual works.
17 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
COMMENTARY: Since fasting is a matter of the heart, it should not be reflect it in our physical bodies.
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
COMMENTARY: People who boast about their fasting practices, or even announce that they have fasted or intend to fast are storing up treasures on earth that do not last. The treasures are the praise and admiration of coreligionists who consider the one who fasts to be extra spiritual and close to God. Thus fasting, along with observance of other religious traditions specified in the laws governing the religious community, earns acceptance by the community. When this happens, the religious community becomes a place of refuge, which, in God’s eyes, is equated as another god because God alone should be our refuge.
These are all features of Old/First Covenant religion which will not survive unless religionists reward each other with praise, admiration, and, in the case of religious leaders, financial rewards, for the religious works that they do. Anyone who is a part of a religious community knows that these rewards may be withdrawn as soon as someone fails to faithfully observe all the religious law laws that hold the community together.
Verse 20 advises to store up spiritual treasures in the Kingdom of Heaven which is within them — not in the World of Religion. It says, in effect, that this kind of treasure is totally secure because it is spiritually established by God who never changes.
Verse 21 ties spiritual fasting and spiritual treasures to the New Covenant because “heart” is a code word for New Covenant.
Matthew 17:14-21: When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill ; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 “I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” 17 And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once . 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” 20 And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. 21 [“But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”]
On the other hand, the legitimacy of fasting also appears to be offset, and even reversed, in the following scriptures where we find that Jesus’ disciples did not fast:
Matthew 9:14-15, Mark 2:18-20, Luke 5:33-35 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
COMMENTARY: Jesus is the bridegroom. As we reported in Jesus is also symbolic of the New Covenant. So when Jesus says that the bridegroom is with them, he means that they are New Covenant disciples. New Covenant disciples have no need to fast. If they should slip back into Old/First Covenant religion (i.e. the bridegroom is taken away), however, they would again resort to legalistic fasting.
There is no mourning for New Covenant disciples. This is one of the promises of the New Covenant in Revelation 21:1-7 about the new heaven and new earth which symbolizes the New Covenant.
This apparent contradiction is impossible to understand without a right understanding of what God really means by fasting.
Colossians 2:13-23 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
COMMENTARY: This letter is to former Old/First Covenant religionists who were spiritually dead but are now spiritually alive. In their former condition, they were physically circumcised, but they were not spiritually circumcised.
Their debt to God existed because of their failure to keep the spiritual law of the New Covenant. The decrees were the consequences of sin itemized in Deuteronomy 28:15-68. But once they repented for their Old/First Covenant religious practices and became New Covenant disciples, the debt was cancelled.
15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
COMMENTARY: Rulers and authorities are not demonic entities. They are religious leaders.
When religion Old/First Covenant religionists become New Covenant disciples, religious leaders will be disarmed because they will no longer have jobs and positions from which they can function as false prophets who rule their own, private kingdoms.
16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
COMMENTARY: Religion always puts subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, pressure on religionists to observe the rules, regulations and traditions of the religion. Enforcers may be religious leaders or friends or family, but they will use whatever influence they have to keep others fully engaged in the religion into which they were born or which they have adopted.
Anyone who acts as a judge regarding food and other religious traditions functions as a pharisee who is responsible for maintaining those traditions. This scripture says that we should not allow ourselves to be influenced by such people.
Verse 17 says that these religious traditions (e.g. food, drink, holidays, holy days, etc.) are only shadows of true spiritual life which is found in the New Covenant (i.e. Christ). God does not want people to only worship with shadowy worship which has no real substance which he calls xxxDefiled Religion which always has a physical (i.e. fleshly) aspect to it. The only worship substance that God recognizes is xxxPure Religion which is accomplished totally in the spirit without any fleshly involvement.
18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. 20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” 22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use )-in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? 23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
COMMENTARY: New Covenant disciples have been set free from legalism of all kinds. This includes formal or informal rules and traditions handed down from religious leaders about a wide variety of religious matters such as fasting, attending church, communion, baptism and so on. These are self-made religious activities conceived by fleshly minds. They are the substance of xxxDefiled Religion.
Dying with Christ means to end being an Old/First Covenant religionist who practices these traditions.
Despite this freedom, New Covenant disciples might still be influenced to backslide into old religious habits — including fasting.
Religious leaders who “call” for a fast by people who will follow their direction show that they are Old/First Covenant religionists. They call for fasting because it fits with their literal interpretation of the Bible. They also do it because fasting has an aura of spirituality and they appear to be super spiritual when they issue a proclamation for people to fast. They are leading people into self abasement which verse 18 calls a dis-qualifier (i.e. from New Covenant status).
Fasts have no positive effect on God. The New Covenant has no rules and regulations of any kind — including fasting. Fasting is a religious activity based on nothing more than superstition that says “if we deny ourselves by fasting, God will, or might, do what we want him to do.”
Fasting is a kind of law. People invoke this law in especially difficult circumstances when they want God to do something miraculous to solve a problem. It is an unwritten law, but it is a law nonetheless, to fast and pray when trouble comes. See The Law for understanding about religious laws and why they do not apply to New Covenant disciples.
People who participate in such legalistic activities prescribed by men show that they have not really died to the elemental spirits mentioned in verse 20, that they still belong to the World of Religion where men lead, and are not following the Spirit. They willfully choose to submit the “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” regulations mentioned in verse 21.
Fasting is included in the “do not …” category, because it involves not eating. God considers both doing and not doing to be religious, Old/First Covenant practices. In doing this they deny the freedom they have from religious regulations.
The “call” for fasting and prayer reinforces the position and authority of religious leaders. It has the potential to separate people who are more spiritual from those who are less spiritual. It accrues religious esteem to those who recommend it and to those who practice it. In this sense it is divisive. This is a problem for God as revealed in this scripture:
Romans 14:13-22 Then let us no more pass judgment on one another, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for any one who thinks it unclean. 15 If your brother is being injured by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died. 16 So do not let your good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; 18 he who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. 20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for any one to make others fall by what he eats; 21 it is right not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble. 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God; happy is he who has no reason to judge himself for what he approves.
COMMENTARY: Understanding of this scripture is possible only when it is understood that the concept of “clean and unclean” symbolically refers to good and evil. Thus fasting may be represented as clean, even though it does not satisfy the conditions for effective fasting which are described later in this page.
Although this scripture is not primarily about fasting, it may be fairly applied to fasting because a call to fast by a religious leader may cause an immature believer to stumble. For example, people who know that they are under no legal obligation to fast may be criticized for failure to fast. Such failure may be seen by other religionists as spiritual backsliding or immaturity. Under such pressure, the one who declined to fast because it is a legalistic command from a religious leader might lose favor within the religious community and be offended by such treatment. Alternatively, one who might want to resist fasting because it is a legalistic command may choose to fast anyway so as to gain acceptance within the religious community and thus offend God due to hypocrisy. Either way the one who fasts loses.
Worse yet, perhaps, is the possibility that fasting is established in the minds of people as a kind of righteousness that is achieved by religious works that are accomplished through the body and not by the Spirit. Verse 17 says that the kingdom of God is not about food and drink. Therefore, to say that righteousness might be obtained by declining to eat or drink is misleading to immature believers.