Fasting: Who Should Fast?

You may ask, “Is fasting for Christians today?”

One could build a case against it:

• Jesus’ disciples were criticized for not fasting while Jesus was with them.  Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciplse do not fast?” (Matthew 9:14)
• Paul gives a “green light” to eating.  “But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.” (1 Corinthians 8:8)
• Believers are new in Christ so that old practices (like fasting in the Old Testament) are obsolete.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
• Fasting could become an unnecessary rule which believers have been freed from in Christ.  “Do not handle!  Do not taste!  Do not touch!”…such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom.” (Colossians 2:21-23)

Then should a Chrsitian fast?  Yes!  But it needs to be for the right reasons. Today’s believers are called to new fasting as taught by Jesus.

In response to criticism of his disciple’s lack in fasting, Jesus answered, “‘How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?  The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.‘” (Matthew 9:15)

He then illustrates his point by teaching that new wine needs to be poured into new wine skins otherwise the old skins will break from the new wine.  What is new for believers today is their reason for fasting.  The old fasting expressed ones ache for the Messiah (Jesus) to come.  The new fasting for today shows that the Messiah has come.  In Him, we have tasted the Bread of Life and hunger for more!

“The newness of our fasting is this: Its intensity comes not because we have never tasted the wine of Christ’s presence, but because we have tasted it so wonderfully by his Spirit, and cannot now be satisfied until the consummation of joy arrives.  The new fasting, the Christian fasting, is a hunger for all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19), aroused by the aroma of Jesus’ love and by the taste of God’s goodness in the gospel of Christ (1 Peter 2:2,3).” (Piper, Hunger for God, 42).

If this is your desire, then you should fast and pray.