Week 4 - The Bible: Nourishment for Growth
The Bible is the Christian book; the source of everything that God has chosen to reveal to man. Its importance can’t be overstated, but despite unprecedented availability through both print and digital media, very few Christians read the Bible daily. In this post, we’ll explore an often-overlooked but critical function of the Word of God and consider how to apply it in our daily Christian walk: the Bible as our spiritual food.
We should never underestimate the value of having an accurate understanding of something. This is especially true of the Bible. The Bible is a medley of history, poetry, prophecy, and law. From these, it's easy to form concepts about what the Bible is and how we should apply it. But what does the Bible say about itself? What’s the scriptural understanding of how believers should view and engage with the Word of God? Jeremiah 15:16 says "Your words were found and I ate them, / And Your word became to me / The gladness and joy of my heart…” Jeremiah’s reaction to finding God’s Word was not to study it nor to try to understand it, but to eat it. During His temptation in the wilderness, recorded in Matthew 4, Jesus said: "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.” In a previous post, we noted that according to 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed.” In effect, Jesus is saying that we not only need physical food, bread, but also spiritual food, the Word of God. Perhaps you’ve never thought of the Bible in this way before, but these are just two verses of many throughout the Scriptures that indicate God’s Word should be, primarily, our spiritual food. But before we consider any additional verses on this topic, it would first be helpful to understand some basic principles about eating.
It’s worth understanding these principles related to eating to dispel a common misconception that believers may have when encountering this topic for the first time. When the Bible presents itself as food and exhorts us to eat God’s Word, it is not speaking metaphorically. This doesn’t mean that the prophets and psalmists were eating papyrus scrolls, nor are we being exorted to consume the Bible’s physical pages. So what is the practical application of this understanding? To help us apply this understanding of God’s Word appropriately, we should keep these principles in mind: 1) When we eat food, we taste it, we have an initial sensation and perception, which is usually pleasant. 2) When we eat food, we’re taking something into us, which then becomes our constitution. In 1826, French gastronome Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are." 3) Finally, when we eat food, we depend on it to live. Unlike an education, in which a less experienced or knowledgeable person learns new information and eventually becomes independent of their instructor, no one graduates from eating. If you want to live, you have to eat. Now that we understand these core principles, we can examine some key verses related to each and learn how the Word of God can be our spiritual food and how we can eat it.
Tasting the Word
When we eat food, we taste it, we have an initial sensation and perception, which is usually pleasant. We eat the foods that bring us enjoyment and match our taste. Psalm 119:103 says, "How sweet are Your words to my taste! Sweeter than honey to my mouth!" When we come to God’s word, read it and pray over it, it should be a pleasant and enjoyable experience. God’s word is our spiritual nourishment, and when we partake of His word, it also becomes the gladness and joy of our hearts. Countless believers can testify that God’s word is not merely points of doctrine or systematic theology, but their daily enjoyment and sweeter than honey.
Becoming Our Constitution
When we eat food, we’re taking something into us, which then becomes our constitution. 1 Peter 2:2 tells us that God’s word is our spiritual milk, and that “by it [we] may grow unto salvation." Growth here is not merely the mental accumulation of biblical facts but the Spirit's metabolic transforming work. Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” When we receive God’s Word as our food, we are not merely informed but transformed.
Living by the Word
When we eat food, we depend on it to live. Just as our bodies cannot live without food, our inner being cannot live without God’s Word. In John 6:57, Jesus declared, "As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me." Like some of the disciples, we may feel that this word is hard to take. (John 6:60) But we can understand Jesus’ words by combining two other passages from John’s gospel. According to John 1:1 and 14, Jesus Christ is the Word become flesh, and in John 6:63, Jesus said, “the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” By these verses, we realize that we can eat Jesus Christ by eating God’s Word, and by eating God’s Word, we receive the life that we need to live as Christians.
The Bible is our spiritual food! As profound as this realization is, it may not yet be our experience. But it can be! Of course, we need to build up a healthy habit of reading God’s word regularly. But even if we already open God’s word frequently, we may not be receiving the maximum benefit. When we read God’s word, do we have an experience similar to Jeremiah 15:16? Is our heart filled with gladness and joy, or are we left feeling dry and unsatisfied? This problem may have a simple solution. Physically, we take in food through our mouths. Spiritually, to receive God’s Word, we need to use the right organ, our human spirit. Our spirit is the deepest part of our being, and the best way to use our spirit is through prayer. In Ephesians 6:17-18, Paul connects receiving God’s word, prayer, and our human spirit: “And receive…the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit…” Here, Paul encourages the believers not to take in God’s Word merely with their minds, but through prayer. To eat God’s Word is not simply to read it, but to muse on it prayerfully. Through prayer, we engage our spirit, and when we use our spirit as we read the Word, we touch the Spirit of God within the Word itself. If you’ve never considered this before, try it! You’ll find God’s word to be rich and full of sweet morsels. Martin Luther famously commented, "I study my Bible as I gather apples. First, I shake the whole tree that the ripest may fall. Then I shake each limb, and when I have shaken each limb I shake each branch and every twig. Then I look under every leaf." We can 'shake' each phrase and word of the Bible by prayer. When we approach the Scriptures with prayer, the words on the page are no longer just ink and letters but spirit and life to us. In this way, the Bible becomes our nourishing and enjoyable spiritual food.
We hope that by understanding that the Bible is the believer’s spiritual food, you’ve gained a deeper understanding of its importance and its necessity in our daily Christian walk. And that this understanding will lead to an increased appreciation and deeper love for God’s Word that will inspire you to read the Bible more!
