It is a good thing to be a vegetarian if one is well informed. Mankind started out to be vegetarian until after the flood. Then God gave people permission to eat meat (Genesis 9:3). Possibly one reason being that the soil had been leached out by the flood and now people needed to get the important protein and other nutrition in their diet from a different source. Could it also be that in centuries down the road the “concept of meat” would fit into God’s schemes and teachings, in an extended, spiritual application? In regard to vegetarianism, Paul Harvey, much beloved radio personality of yesteryear, once quipped, “Vegetarian is an old Indian word for doesn’t hunt well”. An interesting thought, fitting quite well into our subject matter. We all certainly like meat in our diet, all kinds of meat. Some, who have grown up in the South, even like to eat squirrel!

If people know how to get certain important nutrients from their vegetarian diet, this is a good thing. But it is quite different in the spiritual realm; “meat” is a very important part of the spiritual diet; one cannot do without it! Unfortunately, it seems like there are many Bible vegetarians nowadays. There is no “meat” in their diet, because they don’t hunt well. They do not search or hunt through the Scriptures as they should. Jesus declared, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me.” (John 5:39). Had the Pharisees truly searched, they would have known that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah (John 7:52). If we truly search, we will be able to apply Scripture to our everyday actions.

In contrast to the Pharisees, the Bereans were great hunters. Of them, Luke records, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).

What about us? How well do we hunt? 2 Timothy 2:15, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” Now the question is: are we Bible Vegetarians? If we are searching the Scriptures as we should, there is plenty of meat in our diets. Good, solid nourishment, spiritual protein. Maybe some of it is so strong, that, for just a little while, the “stomach” – mind and heart – rebels because it does not want to accept it? Hebrews 5:12-14, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”

May God help us to see the seriousness of Bible study, so that we may translate God’s principles into our lives. This in turn will enable us to support all of our life’s decisions with solid “meat”.

— BULLETIN DIGEST