Where is it written down that eating meat on Good Friday is a sin? My boyfriend would like to know.
Answer
The Bible does not require anyone to abstain from meat on any day. In fact, the only passages in the New Testament that talk about it are Acts 15:29 and 1 Timothy 4:3. The passage in Acts 15 says that the only parts of the Law of Moses required by the elders and apostles in the congregation in Jerusalem were prohibitions against idolatry, fornication, and eating blood and meats from strangled animals. It says nothing about abstaining on certain days.
The passage in 1 Timothy 4:1-3 says, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” This says that people who command others to abstain from meats are false teachers. Whether it is talking about people who insist that others practice a vegetarian lifestyle at all times or whether it is talking about abstaining only on certain days (like Fridays) is unclear. Maybe it applies to both.
The practice of not eating meat on Fridays (all Fridays) dates back to about the fourth century. It is written in some writings of that time that it was a practice, but does not say it was a sin. Anyone who says it is a sin would have to prove it by the Bible, and the Bible says that requiring people to abstain from meat is itself a sin. Anyone who chooses not to eat meat on any particular day is within their rights to do so. Anyone who requires it of others is absolutely wrong.
Another questioner asked this related question.
I am Catholic and the rest of my family. My question what do I say to a person that ask why I do not eat meat on Fridays during lent. I know that there is nothing in the Bible that says that it is a sin. She says that it is just something that the church has stated.
Answer
What I would say to such a person, if I observed the restriction on eating meat on Fridays in Lent, would be that I know that it is not a sin to eat meat on those days. I know it is something that was instituted by the leaders of the Catholic Church. The idea is that by giving up something one enjoys during this period a person can understand in a very small way what Jesus did by giving up his life.
I would also remind them that as long as you don’t require them not to eat meat they have no right to require you to do so. “Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.” (Romans 14:3) The whole fourteenth chapter of Romans says that nobody has a right to judge another person based on what they choose to eat or not eat, or the day they choose to celebrate or not celebrate.