In the past century or so food processors have developed flavours that make our food taste like something it is not. We can make potato chips taste like ketchup or popcorn taste like cheese. Flavouring otherwise bland foods can make snacking more enjoyable. Perhaps even more common are flavoured water-based juices: raspberry, blueberry, watermelon, and the like. Some have enjoyed the flavour of an exotic fruit without ever having seen that fruit.

There is a downside to all this, and it has to do with how God made our bodies work. Scientists have discovered that our bodies are built so that they can identify the nutrients in a particular food and somehow we are wired so that when our bodies need a particular kind of food, that food tastes particularly good. We may have experienced that with salt. Salt normally is unappealing, but if we have been perspiring a great deal, it can be that salt or salty food tastes quite good, at least at first. So, when we crave the nutrients in a tomato, we find tomatoes to be quite tasty. When we have enough of those nutrients, tomatoes are less appetizing. It is the experience of many that after a hard day’s work we have greatly enjoyed a meal, but a few weeks later, when we eat the exact same food, it doesn’t taste nearly as good. This experience is related to our bodies need for nutrients.

So, what is the downside? Scientists have discovered that flavouring food can lead to overeating. For example, if my body craves the nutrients found in blueberries, and I eat a blueberry-flavoured snack that has none of the nutrients of a blueberry, my body will continue to crave blueberries and even though my stomach is getting full, the blueberry-flavoured snack still tastes delicious. This can lead to overeating as our bodies continue to crave nutrients and are fooled into thinking they are receiving them when we eat a flavoured snack.

Sometimes Christians flavour worldly ideas with Christian flavours and pass them off as being authentic. Throughout the years of the Cold War, the era which saw the Soviet Union pitted against the West in a war or minds (thankfully the war never turned hot), Christians developed a theology in which they justified the development of arms and military might by passing it off as a fulfilment of Scripture, particularly the book of Revelation. By identifying the Soviet army as the forbidding and evil army of the north, they identified the West as being God’s army sent out to meet the evil army on the Plains of Megiddo, west of the Sea of Galilee in what would become the battle of Armageddon (Armageddon = Mountain of Megiddo). They supported and justified the building of up powerful weapons of destruction as being Scriptural, seeing the West as being the instruments of God’s wrath against the forces of evil.

With the fall of the Soviet Union, that theology began to vanish, but not entirely. It is still around, and every time their side (the West) goes to war, they see this as being divinely justified, for once again, it is believed, the West, God’s chosen people, are doing war against the forces of evil.

What we have is political and military doctrine flavoured with Christianity. While our minds, particularly the Christian mind, are fed with this Christianity-flavoured doctrine, we find we cannot get enough. In the years of the Cold War, I watched a number of documentaries in which theologians fed their viewers with this kind of teaching. There was an almost insatiable hunger for these teachings which sought to unravel history and justify the build up of armaments from a Christian perspective. Appetites were not satisfied, for what people were receiving was not the truth but something else flavoured as the truth. They never got enough.

Political policy and military doctrine have their place, and we are free to agree or disagree with the decisions our world leaders are making. But when we add a Christian flavour to that doctrine, we are creating something that will always leave us craving for more. It sounds fulfilling, but it is not.

So, what do we do? Food scientists are realizing the danger that flavours create, not because the flavours themselves are physically harmful to our bodies but because they deceive our bodies, and our bodies do not receive the nutrients they need. Consumers are becoming aware of this, and they are choosing more natural foods, foods that have flavours that correspond to their nutritional needs.

We can do the same with what we teach and are taught. It is one thing to have a political position, be it on the right or the left. We all have reasons for thinking as we do. It is a completely different thing to flavour our political leanings with a Christian teaching, for when we do, we are giving people something that does not satisfy. It will never be enough.

We can eat a potato chip that is unflavoured, and that will not ultimately harm our bodies as long as our bodies are not fooled into thinking they are eating something else. We can hold a political viewpoint or military doctrine, but we should hold it purely as what it is, a political viewpoint or military doctrine. When we flavour it with Christian teachings, with teachings from the Bible, we are offering something that may taste right but which will not bring salvation and which will never fully satisfy.

What we need to do is seek the fulfilling and satisfying truth of Scripture, seeking to understand it as it is meant to be understood and not using it to justify other policy of behaviour. Certainly, we may apply Scripture to our current situation, but we must not use it to flavour what is happening around us with the flavour of Scripture. More often that not, the teachings of Scripture if used correctly, instead of flavouring political and military policy, will stand in sharp contrast to it, offering a real salvation instead of one that ultimately will not deliver what it might promise. Even more, we may be surprised to find that when we do not flavour policy with Scripture, it could bland or even distasteful, especially if it seen as having salvific value. Like food purists, we will learn to crave the saving truths of Scripture.