In recent years, I’ve learned of the tremendous health benefits of beef liver. Just one small serving per week catches you up on all kinds of vitamins and other key nutrients that we often lack now that the standard diet has moved away from liver and other organ meats.
There’s only one problem: beef liver smells absolutely horrible, and it tastes even worse.
There are ways you can package it to mitigate the poor flavor, with onions, sauces, and/or seasoning. You can combine it with something more palatable, like ground beef, to dilute the disgustingness—though you also dilute the nutrients per serving in the process.
The tough reality is, if you want to get the benefit in a strong enough dose, you’re probably going to have to deal with the unpleasantness.
Unfortunately, beef liver perfectly illustrates how a lot of people view Christianity.
They know it’s good for them, but obedience and dying to self are so distasteful that they either avoid it altogether, try to jazz it up with all kinds of add-ons, or mix it in with the worldly flavors they prefer so they can get still get some of the benefits without dealing with anything too hard to swallow.
Christianity isn’t liver, though. It’s an acquired taste, to be sure, but…
The more you try it, the more you realize it’s just as enjoyable as it is good for you.
In worship we often sing, ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus,’ because it is. Psalm 34:8 told us that: “O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”
The world doesn’t see it though, because they can’t get past the initial challenge of acquiring the taste.
As a teenager, my brother and I would have conversations with hockey teammates who couldn’t understand skipping games for worship, not cussing, or not living a party-going lifestyle. One of them literally asked, “So as a Christian, you just don’t get to have any fun?”
Most Christians—especially those who have come out of a worldly lifestyle—understand the silliness of such a question. They’ll tell you how vapid the lifestyle of living for a good time eventually becomes.
But the way of the cross is indeed foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18), as they just can’t understand that which is blatantly obvious to all who have been saved by God’s grace. What looks and smells like beef liver to the unsaved actually tastes great, once you’ve had the faith to give it a try and acquire the taste.
But this is not just a problem for the unsaved
No, this beef liver view of obedience enters all of our hearts at some point, even after our conversion. Our fleshly mindset still can take over any time the Word steps on our toes and calls us to change.
When God commands us to forgive that person we don’t want to forgive, it can look like beef liver—good for us, but completely unappealing.
Taste and see.
When we run into the Biblical principles that run afoul of our cultural programming, like what I’ve been writing about gender roles and headship, we might think it smells like beef liver.
Taste and see.
When we have to be confrontational and stand up against sin or incorrect teaching, the nerves can make it feel like we’re being asked to choke down liver. We can even convince ourselves that “the way of Jesus” actually means we’re not supposed to take a stand.
Taste and see.
It’s in those moments we must remember that even though God calls us to do difficult things, He does not call us to do things that will make us miserable. It takes time and submission to learn to do things God’s way, but as we acquire the taste we learn each time that we were missing out on the better life every single day we clung to our own way.
They’re the same picture
Jesus called us to deny self, take up our crosses, and follow Him (Luke 9:23), and He also promised us the abundant life (John 10:10).
The longer you’re a Christian, the more you learn that these aren’t separate statements. They are the means and the end, two inseparable sides of the same coin. The more we die to self, the more abundant our lives will be.
We can always look backward and see it, but it’s harder to look forward and see it.
Any teaching that hits close to home and makes us mad at the person who brought it to our attention is an inflection point: does the Bible teach this, and am I trusting that the reward for my seeking will be a greater grasp of God’s love and a happier life rather than a disgusting aftertaste?
Too many turn back or stay right where they are, afraid to take another taste of that which will only give them a better life.
We believe in God, but trusting in the acquired taste is how we believe God. As Hebrews 11:6 says, we have to believe that He is AND that He rewards our diligent seeking. The beef liver view only believes half of the verse. Faith is how we learn to believe the second half.
Taste and see that the Lord is good. And the next time the plate looks distasteful, remember the last time you tasted. God’s way isn’t just the healthiest. It’s the sweetest, too.
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Notes
This week’s Think Deeper Podcast takes on one of the most challenging, most pressing questions of our day: Is porn addiction grounds for divorce?
