The Instructor 2.1.9

For food will not commend us to God.” “Nor does what goes in defile a man,” he says, “but what comes out of the mouth.” The natural use of food, then, is indifferent: “For neither if we eat are we the better,” he says, “nor if we do not eat are we the worse.” But it is not reasonable for those who have been counted worthy to partake of divine and spiritual food to share in “the table of demons.” “Do we not have the right to eat and drink,” says the apostle, “and to take wives about with us?” But clearly, by mastering pleasures, we restrain desires. “Take care, then, lest this right of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.” We must not, like prodigals, after the image of the rich man's son in the Gospel, misuse the Father's gifts, but use them without attachment, as masters; for we were appointed to reign and to rule, not to be slaves to food. It is admirable, then, to look up to the truth, to cling to the divine food from above, and to be filled with the inexhaustible contemplation of him who truly is, tasting the firm, abiding, and pure pleasure. The eating of Christ shows that we must receive this love. But it is utterly irrational, useless, and not human, to be fed for death like fattened cattle, those from the earth always looking down to the earth and stooping over tables, pursuing the dainty life, burying the good here in a life that will not last, flattering only the swallowing, for the sake of which cooks have become more valued than farmers.