For many believers, “faith” is something mainly internal: what we believe in our hearts about Jesus. In the Gospels, however, we see a Jesus whose life is deeply rooted in visible obedience: prayer, fasting, law, and moral discipline.
This page asks a simple question: How closely does the day-to-day Christianity practiced now resemble the day-to-day life of Jesus himself?
Jesus as a Practicing, Observant Jew
Whatever else one believes about Jesus, the Gospels clearly present him as:
- Born into a Jewish family, circumcised according to the Law.
- Attending synagogue and the Temple.
- Quoting the Law and the Prophets as authority.
- Affirming the commandments as a path to life.
He tells his followers that he did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it, and warns against those who relax the commandments and teach others to do the same.
What Did Jesus Eat?
In the world Jesus lived in, Jewish dietary laws were normal daily practice. The Gospels never depict him eating pork or serving it to others.
There are debated passages where some Christians understand Jesus to be declaring all foods clean. Others note that these statements are framed around ritual purity and hand-washing, not explicit permission to eat whatever one wishes.
Regardless of interpretation, the simple historical reality is this: Jesus himself lived and died as someone who kept the Law, including its food restrictions.
Paul and the Question of the Law
As the message spread into the Gentile world, Paul argued strongly that non-Jewish believers should not be placed under the full weight of the Mosaic Law.
In his letters we find:
- The Law described as a burden, a curse, or something from which believers have been set free.
- Strong emphasis on justification by faith apart from “works of the Law”.
- Freedom of conscience regarding food and special days for Gentile believers.
Many Christians today therefore feel no obligation to follow the dietary or ritual laws that shaped Jesus’ own daily life.
Modern Christianity’s Everyday Practice
Walk into an average church community in many countries today and you will often find:
- No expectation to keep dietary laws.
- Little discussion of biblical purity codes.
- Emphasis on belief, worship services, and personal spirituality, more than detailed obedience to a revealed Law.
For many, this feels normal. Yet it is very different from the pattern of obedience that shaped the life of Jesus.
The Quiet Question
If Jesus affirmed the Law, lived by it, and warned against relaxing it, but later Christian practice largely sets it aside, then a respectful question arises:
Whose example are we following more closely — the daily life of Jesus, or the later interpretations that made the Law optional?
To answer this fully, we must look not only at practice but also at belief: especially the central doctrine that came to define Christian theology — the Trinity.