Self-control works—fad diets don’t

1 Corinthians 6:12-14
12 “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By His power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also.
12凡事我都可行．但不都有益處。凡事我都可行、但無論那一件、我總不受他的轄制。13食物是為肚腹、肚腹是為食物．但　神要叫這兩樣都廢壞。身子不是為淫亂、乃是為主．主也是為身子．14並且　神已經叫主復活、也要用自己的能力叫我們復活。

1 Timothy 4:1-5
1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
1聖靈明說、在後來的時候、必有人離棄真道、聽從那引誘人的邪靈、和鬼魔的道理。2這因為說謊之人的假冒．這等人的良心、如同被熱鐵烙慣了一般。3他們禁止嫁娶、又禁戒食物、〔或作又叫人戒葷〕就是　神所造叫那信而明白真道的人、感謝著領受的。4凡　神所造的物、都是好的．若感謝著領受、就沒有一樣可棄的．5都因　神的道和人的祈求、成為聖潔了。

• 很多時因自己的性格喜歡我行我素，不太理會別人的感受，常常對自己說：「我不要強迫自己做不喜歡的事情。」也正因為這樣，我可以做了很多「可行」的事但並沒有「造就」人。求主警愓我，亦赦免我的不是。
• 食物對我好像不是一種引誘，但聖經竟然說在末後撒但用禁戒食物的技量來讓人離棄真道。「這等人的良心如同被熱鐵烙慣了一般」，我的心是否已沒有知覺？不懂得去愛神，還談甚麼去愛人呢？再沒有火熱的心去事奉主？神啊，求祢再重做我們心，當放在熔爐裡，那熾熱的感受，會再燃起！
• 在北美或在香港，瘦身大行其道，很多人都戒絕不同的食物，又有因為某種宗教原因，戒牛肉或其他。但凡神所造的都是好的，就存感恩的心領受。今天到超市食物種類的繁多是目不暇昅，但全世界有多少人是活在饑餓當中，在存感恩的心之際，亦不忘一杯涼水給這些小子們！