We have noted that the Word of our Eternal God has endured across centuries and cultures and that it carries divine authority as a guide for a God-pleasing life; therefore, it is desirable for its capacity to instruct, reprove and correct our behavior and thinking. We turn this week to how God’s Word functions as spiritual nourishment.
Conversion is not the ultimate end God has in mind for sinners. While essential as the beginning point, the life God purposes for His spiritual children is one that grows from that starting point through the total pilgrimage of a Christian’s life.
Desired
For physical food to be nourishment for the body, it must be desired, just as hunger and thirst are precursors to eating and drinking. The analogy in 1 Peter 2:2 admonishes, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow.”
Healthy babies do not need to be taught or cajoled into wanting milk. The desire for it is part-and-parcel of being born. Simply put, physical growth requires proper nourishment.
Like milk that nourishes a newborn, God’s word is desirable, even essential, nourishment for all who are born again.
In thinking about spiritual nourishment, the Apostle Paul’s admonition to Timothy is, “If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed” (1 Tim. 4:6).
In His fourth beatitude, Christ declared, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6).
God’s word is like pure water for the spiritually thirsty and substantial food for the spiritually hungry.
Digested
For physical food to be nourishment for the body, it must not only be desired and received but also digested. For biblical truth to be nourishing, it must be spiritually digested or, as we often say, it must be the subject of careful and regular meditation so it becomes absorbed into our thinking and a strong influence on our behavior.
As babies grow into children, teenagers and adults, their diet requires more than milk. Solid food is an essential for growth.
Christians who become strong in the Lord are those who have invested time and effort in regularly delving into God’s truth, taking it into the heart and expressing it through life.
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