Questions about Fasting

Questions about Fasting

The New Testament has relatively little to say about fasting.  The OT has much to say about fasting.  The Law of Moses required certain fast days.  We do not take our authority for religious practices from the OT but from the NT.  I have classified some of the scriptures from the NT as to how they relate to fasting. (Larry Buck)

References to OT fasts

Act 27:9  “Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul advised them.”

– The passage refers simply to the fact that it was dangerous to sail because of the season of the year, i.e., the same season during the great Fast or day of Atonement under the Old Law.

Mat 6:16-18 "And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. (17) But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, (18) that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

– Jesus is not commanding us to fast, but the teaching is about our attitude toward obedience: do not do your good works to be seen of men, but to be done for the Lord.Mat 9:14-15 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" (15) And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

          - The disciples of John wondered why the disciples of Jesus did not fast “often”.  Jesus kept the Old Law better than anyone else, so anything that He should have been doing, including fasting, He would have been perfectly faithful in that observance, and He taught His disciples to do likewise.  But the point of His response is not focused on fasting and, again, there is no command regarding fasting.  Instead, he uses the opportunity to teach about His coming departure, and how the new cannot be brought in until the old has been done away with.

Casting out demons

Mar 9:29 So He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."

          - The disciples of Jesus asked Him why they could not cast out a certain demon.  In the parallel account of Matthew 17, Jesus tells them because of their “unbelief” they could not cast out the demon, then adds that it could not be performed “but by prayer and fasting.”  The teaching was focused on their degree of belief.  Many individuals who came to Jesus received miraculous power because of their belief, but this was during a time which the authority of the Word was being confirmed by miraculous works.  The teaching was not to fast in order to cast out demons or to be able to do any miraculous works: the teaching was to build one’s faith.

Testing of Jesus

Mat 4:1-2 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (2) And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”

          - There is no law that says one had to fast exactly forty days, but Moses fasted the same length of times on Mount Sinai, as did Elijah.  Forty is a significant number used 

throughout scripture (number of days it rained during the flood, the number of days the Israelite spies were in the land of Canaan, the number of years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, etc.), but it is not revealed why Jesus fasted for forty days.  There are ideas about self-denial, clearing the mind, focusing on spiritual matters, but the fact of the matter is that there is no specific teaching or command here for NT Christians regarding the practice of fasting.

Occasion of Important Decision

Act 13:1-3  Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.  (2)  As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.  (3)  And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. (see also Acts 14:23)

          - In both Acts 13 and Acts 14, we see important decisions being made collectively that involved prayer and fasting, and clearly, in one case, the direct involvement of the Holy Spirit in revelation.  We have clear commands and examples regarding prayer, but fasting and laying on of hands are not specifically enjoined upon us.

“That you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer”

1Co 7:5  Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.

          - A NT Christian is perfectly in their personal right to practice fasting (that is, abstinence from food or anything worldly) with prayer (the practice of fasting is almost always with prayer), and the benefits are evident, but no scripture supports a command to do so, or practice of fasting for physical or ceremonial purification.