“For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:13-14)

One of the most profound memories I have of my missions overseas is the effect that the local food had on my body. When I traveled from California to Ethiopia as a college student, I was not prepared for the change in diet. For two long months I could barely keep anything in my body long enough to benefit from it. At one point it was so bad that I was willing to give up the dream of marrying my college sweetheart and go home to be with the Lord. I remember praying, “Okay Lord, if now is the time, I am ready.” I eventually overcame the virus that was the cause of my illness, but I still had to navigate through the various meals offered to us by different nationals. Each meal outside of our missionary residence ended with the same inevitably long night.

When I returned with a new group two years later, I was prepared for the same experience. As the team leader I was always given an ample portion to eat, and I risked offending our hosts if I failed to eat it all. But to my surprise, this time around the native food had little to no ill effect on me. In fact, to my wife’s chagrin, I actually gained a couple of pounds on that trip! My fellow team members were not so fortunate. Many of them suffered through the same physical discomfort I had during my first trip. What had changed? My body had learned to process the new foods.  

As I reflected on this experience, I began to see it as a useful spiritual analogy. While the food looked a lot like what I would get in America, it was not prepared in the same way and my body responded by rejecting it. The result was nearly two months of terrible sickness.

Our spiritual appetites are much the same. Just as the body has a mechanism to protect itself from foods which contain an abundance of toxins, I would be willing to say that there is also a spiritual safeguard with respect to what our minds take in. We hear spiritual truths which are beyond our normal spiritual appetite, and we struggle to take them in. They disrupt our spiritual digestive system and we go into shock.

But here in Hebrews chapter 5, the writer makes clear that we can actually come to a place in our spiritual lives where we cannot take in the “word of righteousness.” We become unable to process solid food, and as a result we reject the truth being presented to us. Far from being a spiritual safeguard, this is to our own personal detriment.    

As a pastor of a young and growing church plant, I have seen people in the pews who have no spiritual appetite. They grow restless early in the sermon and are ready to depart as soon as I finish the closing prayer, if not during it. I have also seen people persevere and endure through the sermons. They will often say, “I know I am hearing the Word of God so I know I need to keep listening.” These are the folks, because of perseverance and striving, who begin to take in the Word of God and become transformed by it.

The Word of God never returns void (Isa 55:11). If there is a lack of spiritual growth in your life, it is either because you are not taking in the Word of God, or because you are not meditating on it so as to train your senses to discern good and evil. The Scriptures contain an unending feast for your soul. Strive to take in the word of righteousness so that you can grow up and discern the ways of God.


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