text: Christian Counsel on Fasting. \nWhen Jesus was on earth he gave instruction to his disciples: “When you are fasting, stop becoming sad-faced like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Truly I say to you, They are having their reward in full. But you, when fasting, grease your head and wash your face, that you may appear to be fasting, not to men, but to your Father who is in secrecy; then your Father who is looking on in secrecy will repay you.” (Mt 6:16-18) He alluded here to the insincere fasting of the Pharisees, which he mentioned in an illustration on another occasion. (Lu 18:9-14) It was customary for the Pharisees to fast twice a week, on the second and fifth days of the week.—Lu 18:12.\n\nA person’s merely abstaining from food in a formalistic manner is described by Paul as subjecting oneself to decrees, “Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch,” and he says that “those very things are, indeed, possessed of an appearance of wisdom in a self-imposed form of worship and mock humility, a severe treatment of the body; but they are of no value in combating the satisfying of the flesh.”—Col 2:20-23.\n\nFasting has been enjoined on their members by some religious sects of Christendom, but the Bible itself gives no command to Christians to fast. When Jesus was talking to his disciples about fasting, as above (Mt 6:16-18), he and his disciples were still under the Mosaic Law and observed the Day of Atonement and its fast.\n\nThe text about fasting at Matthew 17:21, appearing in the King James Version, is not contained in some of the most important ancient manuscripts. Likewise, although the King James Version mentions fasting at Mark 9:29, Acts 10:30, and 1 Corinthians 7:5, according to such manuscripts these texts do not contain any references to fasting.\n\nSome have taken Matthew 9:15 as a command for Christians to fast. In reality, Jesus was merely making a statement of what was going to happen when he died. While Jesus was with his disciples on earth, it was not appropriate for them to fast. When he died, they did mourn and fast. But they had no cause for mournful fasting after his resurrection and especially after the marvelous outpouring of holy spirit. (Mr 2:18-20; Lu 5:33-35) Certainly Christians were not under obligation to fast on the anniversary of the Lord’s death, for the apostle Paul, correcting abuses in connection with the eating of supper at the congregation’s meeting place before the observance of the Lord’s Evening Meal, said: “Certainly you do have houses for eating and drinking, do you not? . . . Consequently, my brothers, when you come together to eat it [the Lord’s Evening Meal], wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, that you may not come together for judgment.”—1Co 11:22, 33, 34.\n\nWhile not fasting as a religious requirement, the early Christians did fast on special occasions. When Barnabas and Paul were sent on a special missionary assignment into Asia Minor, there was fasting as well as praying. Also, there was the offering of prayer “with fastings” when elders were appointed in a new congregation. (Ac 13:2, 3; 14:23) Hence, Christians are neither under command to fast nor prohibited from doing so.—Ro 14:5, 6.