Fasting
Good and bad
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 58:1-14
The people Isaiah was addressing in chapter 58 were complaining because God wasn’t responding to their religious acts the way they expected. They were asking, “Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?” They were practicing a performative religion, one in which they did certain things for God that, in their mind, obligated God to do certain things for them, but God wasn’t playing along.
The particular focus here is on fasting. Isaiah 58 isn’t a blanket condemnation against fasting any more than what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount is. “When you fast do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others…But when you fast...” (See Matthew 6:16-18)
The problem isn’t fasting, it is the kind of fasting they are doing. Ritual without righteousness is worthless. It is less than worthless because it demonstrates that the person who is doing the ritual knows to some degree they need God to work in their lives, and they are thereby sinning against the light.
The person who fasts is acknowledging they ought to have humbled themselves with a truly repentant heart. But when they fast without losing the bonds of wickedness, sharing bread with the hungry, and covering the naked; they are giving mere lip service to repentant righteousness. God won’t honor that kind of religious ritual.
James described true religion as “visiting orphans and widows in their affliction and keeping oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:26-27) The rituals of faith are not wrong, but they can be used wrongly. We should practice spiritual disciplines. Prayer, fellowship, worship, giving, taking in the Scriptures, etc. are all things that aid in our sanctification. But they can also become empty of reality and void of purpose.
These things are not meant to be means by which we attempt to bribe God, ways by which we impress others or substitutes for genuine repentance. They are meant to aid us in growing in the grace of Christ. We have to watch carefully what we do with them. We won’t solve the problem by not doing them. We won’t solve the problem of improper fasting by not fasting. As Jesus said, “when you fast.” In other words, don’t take His rebuke against improper fasting as a command to not fast. Take it as a command to fast properly.
We can begin to do spiritual disciplines well when we know what is proper and improper. Knowing and being aware of the potholes along the road keep us from stepping into them. Seek the grace of God to pray, fast, give, and worship in a way that serves the purposes for which God ordained these gifts.
