Clean and Unclean - 2

...nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. (Romans 14:14)

I am searching for the real meaning and nature of this concept of “unclean” here. I realize that it comes from many statements and prohibitions found in the laws of Moses and carefully observed by the Jews down through the centuries. It was also was part of the process of the externalization of spirituality that became what we call often call “religion” which largely has stripped away the inner core of what God intended for His people to experience with Him. Nearly all that is left in religion is the artificial external symptoms of what should emerge from a real relationship with God, outward evidence that is supposed to emerge from a genuine growth in knowledge and grace from true spiritual development.

It is all too easy to just brush aside all the Old Testament ceremonial restrictions as irrelevant to our lives today where we can now live “not under the law”. But this has far too often led to brushing aside things that God never intended to be lost sight of and that are still vital to our relationship with Him. While the Old Covenant arrangements in many respects are no longer in place because they have been superseded and fulfilled by Gospel realities, it is important for us even today to understand the true meaning of the Old Covenant concepts because the core principles that they reflected are eternal in nature and still hold very significant meaning for us for all time.

Paul is pointing out here an important aspect of this idea that needs to be noted. The uncleanness that he is referring to is something in the mind and heart, not an external, physical uncleanness which is another but seperate very real problem that has little to do with ceremonial issues. And while the two kinds of uncleanness often paralleled and overlapped each other, we must be careful not to summarily dismiss physical laws of health in our rush to ignore ceremonial restrictions that were fulfilled in the life and death of the Messiah.

Paul tells us that the things that were previously considered unclean in a ceremonial sense were unclean because of how they were to be viewed from the standpoint of the mind of the person so instructed. Something that was ceremonially unclean was not inherently so because of some intrinsic quality within it. So the real uncleanness was something that was going on internally in the mind, not just something that might infect the body with disease or poison, though again that was also often a very real possibility as well. And because this kind of contamination was in the mind it would have strong effect on the person's relationships both with God and with others around them.

What does it mean for us today to know the truth about something being unclean under the Old Covenant arrangement? How does it help us to understand God's ways better to learn that things are not intrinsically ceremonially unclean in and of themselves as this verse seems to indicate? I believe that there are some things that are very important in this area that can be helpful for enhancing and deepening my own relationship with God once I begin to understand it better.

Uncleanness is not fictional, it is real but maybe different than what we often think. The uncleanness that is referred to here seems to have strong implications that are of a spiritual nature and are not always referring to physical uncleanliness. But the problem often arises when we fail to distinguish between the two and jump to an assumption that nothing we eat will hurt us because the spiritual uncleanness no longer carries religious condemnation.

In the Old Testament, God very often merged the physical and religious laws together to make life more simple for very simple minds. As we usually do for very immature children, the rules had to be very plain and simple for His immature people to be safe and protected and to be able to thrive until they were old enough in terms of maturity to absorb more of the complexities and differences between what is physically dangerous and what is spiritually contaminating. Just as He gave directions for not touching dead things, personal hygiene and other laws related to clean and unclean, I believe the main reason God created classes of clean and unclean meats was in part to simplify the directions for their life and to keep them from destroying themselves by unhealthy habits that would negatively affect their ability to relate to God with their physical minds.

Science today has discovered that the flesh foods that God declared unclean in the Old Testament are far less conducive to healthful living than other foods. But that makes one wonder why many Christians today are so eager to indulge in “foods” that were once prohibited as unclean by God in the Old Testament? I suspect it is not really a sign of maturity and freedom as they want to suppose but is more of a sign of ignorance and pride and self-dependence. Insisting that the freedoms enjoyed by those who are supposed to be mature gives license to ignore the deeper principles of health and lifestyles is not a liberating truth of a new dispensation but is an insult to the wisdom and guidance and care of God for His people in the past. Instead of trying to see how much we can get away with in our supposed “freedoms” from “clean” and “unclean” laws, it would make better sense that we should try to understand more clearly the deeper reasons those were given in the first place and incorporate those principles into our own lives so as to better enable us to draw closer to the life that measures with the life of God.

In the New Testament, God is trying to relate hopefully to a little higher level of maturity in His people and begins to differentiate between what is spiritually healthy and unhealthy and no longer puts so much emphasis on the externals and the physical. Does that mean that suddenly certain items that are eaten are no longer unhealthy that were previously? Or does it mean that God is trying to move us beyond simplistic thinking to view life in more complex and mature ways of thinking? Do the principles behind the simplistic rules we make for our young children suddenly disappear when they get older? Or do we count on those principles being so absorbed into their thinking and lifestyle that we no longer have to insist on those restrictions so much and can move on to more complex and satisfying understandings which are needed to be learned in order for them to live responsibly as adults?

Is it no longer necessary for a person to wash their hands after working or dealing with contamination simply because they have grown older and their parents are no longer in charge? That is patently absurd. But we hope to be able to assume that a person will learn about the reasons behind the need to wash their hands before they handle food or eat and this habit will be so ingrained into their thinking that we will not need to continue to dwell on it long after the age of childhood has passed.

Paul does not say here in this verse (Romans 14:14) that he believes that nothing is unclean, he only says that the uncleanness is not inherent in the thing considered unclean but is rather in the mind or heart of the person viewing it as unclean. To him who thinks it is unclean could include Paul as well, but not necessarily.

What is becoming clear is that condemnation and judging about what is clean or unclean is far more destructive than any potential negative effects of violating “clean” laws. The harmful effects of being judged and condemned are destructive both when received from others or when imposed on ourselves internally.

What are the eternal principles underlying the clean laws and restrictions? That is important to know.

How do those still-true principles apply to our lives today and affect our relationship with God?

Just because the spirit with which we approach these issues is more important the the external details does not mean that the externals can be ignored altogether. We still must retain balance while keeping our priorities always in the right order.

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