meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Ask Pastor John

Is Intermittent Fasting Sacrilegious?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.83.8K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Some people find intermittent fasting helpful for losing weight. But is fasting for merely physical purposes a sacrilegious use of a spiritual gift?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

New Year, new diets, new focus on health.

0:07.6

And today we look at intermittent fasting.

0:10.0

The question has come to us from several listeners I pulled to.

0:13.5

Here's a listener named Sharon.

0:14.8

Pastor John, I have always thought of fasting as a special spiritual

0:18.3

discipline between me and God, a plea for dependence on him as I pray about

0:22.8

specific things.

0:24.6

But there's a new weight loss craze called intermittent fasting.

0:27.7

It's everywhere and people are losing weight, feeling health here and living

0:31.2

happier lives.

0:32.7

That's great.

0:33.8

But for a believer is intermittent fasting, sacrilegious, if it's done

0:37.9

merely for a weight loss purposes, when is fasting, not fasting for the

0:43.6

Christian.

0:44.8

And a listener named Emelene writes in to say she has tried it with some

0:48.5

success toward the end of weight loss.

0:50.3

But now she wonders if it's appropriate for Christians to separate the

0:54.2

physical discipline of fasting from its spiritual point.

0:57.2

She asked if quote, the regular discipline of intermittent fasting should

1:01.4

be used by Christians merely to lose weight or does this goal prostitute a

1:06.1

spiritual discipline and hijack it and turn it into nothing more than a physical

1:10.4

body hack.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Desiring God, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Desiring God and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.