Spiritual Nourishment

05.15.09

J.A. Matteson

…like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. 1 Peter 2:2

It is unimaginable that a newborn infant should lack a natural hunger for physical nourishment from his mother’s breast. The instance where this would be so is when a child is stillborn and without life.

The Apostle’s comment is instructive and reflective. It is instructive: those born of the Spirit are alerted to the importance of regularly ingesting spiritual food found in the Word of God so that they might grow in sanctification, living a holy life pleasing to God, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (Ps. 119:11). It is reflective: revealing that an innate hunger for spiritual truth exists in those who have experienced regeneration. A new born infant requires no external stimulus or command to seek his mother’s milk; biological life instinctively seeks after that which sustains life. Similarly those born of the Spirit instinctively seek out the spiritual nourishment found in the Word of God, “My soul languishes for Your salvation; I wait for Your word” (Ps. 119:81).

Beloved, if you find yourself in a fellowship where there is a famine in the clear expositional teaching of the Word of God, where the truth has been compromised to conform to political correctness, where inspired Scripture has been replaced by fallible and uninspired paraphrases concocted by men, where Christian edification has been supplanted by worldly entertainment, where the clear directives of the Word of God are subject to endless debate and speculation as to their contemporary authority and sufficiency, then by all means and with all the haste you can muster, flee, run for your life!

Prior to regeneration fallen sinners posses no hunger for the Word of God; indeed, most either are indifferent to it or exhibit hostility towards it. To the unregenerate the Word of God is static and unintelligible. To the regenerate it is the living Word of Truth and Life, refreshing the soul and directing ones path. While the unregenerate chafe at the commands of the Word the regenerate life longs to meditate upon them, obey, and in so doing please his Lord, [Elijah's Prayer] “At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, ‘O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word” (1 Kgs. 18:36). To the unregenerate the Word of God is subjective truth authored by men of old and viewed as merely one source of wisdom literature from which a man may choose. To the regenerate soul it is the objective truth of the one and only true God to which all other worldly systems of so called “truth” must submit.

In that the unregenerate are often indifferent or hostile to the Word of God, not so with the regenerate as zeal characterizes his allegiance to, and defense of, the Word, “My zeal has consumed me, because my adversaries have forgotten Your words” (Ps. 119:139). And that the saints are sons of God who seek peace with all men they will not do so at the expense of forsaking the Word of God and the truth it contains, “Peace if possible, truth at all costs” (Martin Luther). That an instinctive hunger for the Word of God is normative for the regenerate life—as evidenced in Scripture and in the lives of saints throughout Church history—its absence is, therefore, reason for spiritual concern for any man professing the Lord Jesus Christ, “I look on the faithless with loathing, for they do not obey your word” (Ps. 119:158). The regenerate soul affirms the Word of God as truth and craves for its impartation within, growing from grace to grace, “Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the Book widens and deepens with our years” (Charles H. Spurgeon).

If you possess and abiding hunger for the Word of the Lord you are blessed for His seed abides within you. If you are indifferent to the Word of God you are either backslidden or unregenerate. In either case seek the Lord at once while He may be found, taste and see that the Word of the Lord is good.

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