What came down on that sheet? Did Peter see snakes, pigs, and vultures? Some artists have depicted the scene as a lot of gross animals. What does Acts 10:12 say was on it?
When the voice said, “Get up, kill, and eat,” Peter’s response lets us know that, whatever he saw, he knew he could not eat it as a Jew. Moses had given orders on food and sanitation habits to serve the health interests of Israel. Once the covenant ended, so did these rules. Peter was just coming to understand that. What did the Lord tell him, in 10:15?
How did he “cleanse” the Gentiles at Cornelius’s?
Of course, the point of this vision was to get Peter to accept people of other cultures and traditions. However, Peter had to overcome his that’s-a-no-no mentality to accept their hospitality. Filled with the same Spirit and baptized in the same Name, they invited their brother to eat with them. Peter accepted their non-kosher foods and customs.
A tension arises between those who believe we should eat only healthful food and those who use this passage to justify eating anything. Moses gave directives on how to eat not just to enslave people, but to give them a healthful diet.
The list of clean foods in Leviticus 11:1-17 and Deuteronomy 14:1-29 are not especially divine in and of themselves. However, science verifies that these foraging animals are better for human consumption than creatures that eat other animals. Humans do much better eating pasture animals than say a pig, a dog, a skunk, or a cat.
Some cultures eat foods others would never touch just because of their traditions. While eating any animal will not make us unclean spiritually, it will impact our physical health for good or bad.
Food in perspective. When dealing with the Jews on food, it was not a matter of health motivations. They were hung up on being perfect and more holy than their non-Jewish inferiors. Some people today think that by eating a vegetarian diet, they are closer to God. They may look down on pork eaters and think themselves more righteous. While they may be healthier than those eating a lot of fat and grease, they are not holier.
On a personal note, why do you wash your dishes and your hands?
Pharisees and rabbis gave orders about washing hands and dishes. If they did not, they would be religiously disqualified. These people would scrub their hands up to the elbow before eating, to stay pure in their religion. What did Jesus say about these good health practices in Mark 7:7-8?
Something so important to our culture became a stumbling block for people in the first century because they made a religion out of it. What did Jesus say about the religious value of food, in Mark 7:15?
So the argument is not what is good for your body alone, but what is going on in your heart. One person can go on a diet and the self-discipline will help him or her grow in the Lord. If that person, however, condemns others with it, he or she has turned a good thing into sin.
Jesus and Peter certainly were not preaching that what you put in your body does not matter—otherwise, you could take drugs, alcohol, and poison. While good diet and personal hygiene are important for the health of the body, what did Jesus say mattered most, in Mark 7:20-21?
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[...] was not against washing dishes, disinfecting your hands, or eating healthy. His point was that we should not be more concerned [...]