Reasons Why You Should Not Observe Lent

Every year, like clockwork, Ash Wednesday rolls around and kicks off the Roman Catholic tradition of Lent—a six-week-long spectacle of public piety where everyone puts on their best "mourning over sin" performance. And, of course, it’s not just the Catholics anymore. Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, and Methodists have kept it alive, while more and more mainline Protestants and even Evangelicals have eagerly jumped on the bandwagon, desperate for a taste of ritualistic virtue-signaling.

At its core, Lent is about fasting—or at least, that’s what people claim. Traditionally, it involved abstaining from meat, but modernity has turned it into an anything-goes buffet of meaningless self-denial. Give up coffee? Social media? Chocolate? Sure, why not—because nothing says “spiritual discipline” like abstaining from caramel macchiatos while posting about it on Instagram.

Here are a few reasons Christians shouldn’t bother with Lent:

1.) Fasting is not corporate or a public spectacle, and Scripture warns against making it one. Jesus made it clear that fasting was a private matter between the believer and God. But Lent is the exact opposite: a public, church-wide, showy season where everyone is pressured into performing acts of abstinence for collective approval.

"And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." — Matthew 6:16-18

But what does mainstream Christianity do? It turns fasting into a corporate spectacle. Fasting, biblically, is an intensely personal discipline designed to draw us closer to God. It should not be a programmed event that churches pressure their members into observing.

2.) Fasting doesn’t earn you favor with God. Many Lent observers have convinced themselves that their participation somehow earns them spiritual credit—as if giving up meat or television is a form of penance. This idea is especially rampant in Roman Catholicism but has crept into Evangelical circles as well. Yet, Scripture explicitly refutes the notion that human works—especially ritualistic ones—can turn away God’s wrath.

"You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace." — Galatians 5:4

The only way to be right with God is through the finished work of Christ. Not through some seasonal religious performance.

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." — John 8:36

3.) The modern practice of Lent is completely unbiblical. When Scripture speaks of fasting, it refers to the intentional denial of something essential—usually food—for the purpose of drawing closer to God. Yet Lent has turned this into a trivialized exercise in selective self-deprivation. Giving up desserts? Skipping Netflix? That’s not biblical fasting. That’s dieting with a religious excuse.

Jesus never commanded His disciples to pick a luxury and abstain from it for six weeks based on the church calendar. True fasting is meant to direct focus entirely on God, not on some personal challenge to prove your willpower.