Are Christians Inconsistent in Keeping God’s Laws?

Are Jesus’ Followers Hypocrites for Eating Shellfish and Wearing Clothing Made Out of Two Fabrics?

Are Christians hypocrites in keeping the laws of God? Do they pick and choose which ones they want to bind on other people, and which ones they want to throw away? This is a very common accusation that I hear. But is it true?

A lot of times, critics of Christianity will point to verses in the Bible, like passages in the Book of Leviticus that talk about not eating shellfish or not wearing clothing made out of two different types of material. And they'll say, "look, Christians want to be sticklers about certain laws, and then other ones they just don't want to keep."

But the problem with this accusation is that the person who makes it fundamentally misunderstands the context of the Bible. It's true that there are laws about not eating shellfish or wearing clothing made out of two types of material in the Bible, but those laws are found in God's Old Testament. Those were rules and laws specifically given to a certain people, the Israelite people, for a specific period of time. Christians, followers of Jesus in the modern day, are no longer required to keep those laws, because when Jesus came, He put a new system in place.

So no, Christians are not hypocrites because they eat shrimp. And be careful, if you ever hear anyone make this accusation, be very hesitant to take anything that they say as authoritative about the Bible, because it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of a very basic biblical principle.