Aquatic animals having fins and scales (v. 9) signify persons who can move and act freely in the world and at the same time resist its influence. Fins help fish to move, to act, in water according to their wishes. Because they have fins, fish may even swim against the current.
Scales protect the fish and keep those fish which live in salt water from being salted. Fish may live in salt water for years without being salted because they have scales to keep the salt away. Therefore, fins strengthen the fish to move, and scales protect them from being salted.
In the Bible, the sea signifies the fallen, corrupted world. The whole world today is a vast sea, and many of those living in this sea do not have fins or scales. They cannot move freely in the world and at the same time resist its influence. As believers in Christ, we should have fins and scales and therefore be able to act freely in the sea of the world without being salted by it.
On the one hand, we should have fins and scales. On the other hand, we should be careful in contacting those who do not have fins and scales. Be careful of friends, neighbors, and even relatives who do not have fins and scales. When some hear this, they may say, “What about preaching the gospel to people by visiting them in their homes? Should we knock on the doors of only those who have scales?” I would answer that such door knocking in itself is a big scale that shields us. Nevertheless, even in preaching the gospel we need to be careful in our contact with people. We do not want to be salted with worldly salt.
Birds that have wings for flying and that eat seeds of life as the food supply (cf. vv. 13-19) signify persons who can live and move in a life that is away from and above the world and who take things of life as their supply of life. Because clean birds have wings for flying, they are able to fly away from and above the world. Also, clean birds eat seeds of life as their food supply. On the contrary, the unclean birds in 11:13-19 do not feed on seeds. Because the seeds of life do not satisfy them, these unclean birds feed on carcasses.
We Christians should be like birds that have wings and that feed on the seeds of life. This means that we should live and move in a life that is away from and above the world and that we should take the things of life as our supply of life. Moreover, when we contact others, even other believers, we need to discern whether they are clean birds, like sparrows, which feed on seeds, or unclean birds, like hawks, which like to live on the things of death. If we have contact with unclean birds, we shall be influenced by their taste and eventually that will turn us into an unclean bird. For this reason, we must be careful in contacting those who feed on the things of death.
Insects having wings and having jointed legs above their feet for leaping on the ground (vv. 21-22) signify persons who can live and move in a life that is above the world and who can keep themselves from the world. If we are the kind of persons signified by these insects, we shall have wings for flying away from anything worldly, sinful, or fleshly. We shall be able to soar above the world. We also shall have jointed legs with which to jump up from the world. This means that we are able to leave the world at any time, either by flying or by jumping. We Christians are those who can jump and fly. However, those without wings and jointed legs cannot leave the world at all. They can only stand on the earth and remain in the world.
If we are to live a holy life, we need to consider the kind of people we are contacting. Do they have divided hooves, and do they chew the cud? Do they have fins and scales? Do they have wings for flying? Do they feed on the seeds of life and not on the things of death? Do they have wings and jointed legs? How good it is to have contact with such people!
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