Spiritural Malnutrition
What are you being fed?
God is Love.
Yes, He is. That isn’t all He is. He is also a jealous god. His wrath is legendary. Think: Sodom and Gomorrah.
I see a disturbing pattern in Christian religious services today. Many pastors focus on God is Love. When they do not, they are talking about Jesus loves me. What is wrong with that, you may ask? Let me share my perspective with you.
When my sons were young they often balked at the foods I served at dinner. They did not want to eat the meat and vegetables set on the table. My job as a mother was to provide the nutritious foods they needed to grow. Their nature as children was to want fun, or sweet foods.
Liver, and tofu are good sources of iron. Iron is absorbed better when accompanied with a source of vitamin C. Vegetables high in vitamin C are raw spinach, broccoli, and kale. A child would probably starve if presented a table set with liver and broccoli, but gorge on a table set with chips, soda, candy, and cake. As an adult we may not like it but we would eat the liver and broccoli, and limit the cake if that meant life over death.
As a new Christian, regardless of what brought you to the feet of the Lord, you might say you get the sweets first. Through grace you are forgiven, saved, and become a new creature in the Lord. You learn about the virgin birth, the angels, the miracles, all the sweet things about being a Christian.
If all you consume, as a Christian, is the sweet things, if your pastor feeds you from a table set with chips, pop, candy, and cake you will fill your spiritual stomach but you will spiritually die of malnutrition.
Christ instructs us to love the Lord God above all others, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. That was not the end of his commands. Here are a few others:
Fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. (Matt. 10:28)
Give yourselves to His service without reserve, recognizing that you cannot serve God and Mammon (Matt. 6:24; Rom. 12:1).
Come out from the world and be separate unto Him, as His sons and daughters. (2 Cor. 6:14‐17).
Aim to be in a state of continual readiness for his coming. With this in view be on your guard against the engrossments of business, the cares of life, and the allurements of pleasure. (Matt. 24:14, Luke 12:35-37; 14:26; 2 Pet 3:14)
Walk not as other Gentiles walk‐ (Eph 4:17): have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph. 5:711): be not conformed to this world (Rom. 12:2): come out from among them and be ye separate. (2 Cor. 6:17).
Walk honestly toward them that are without; give none occasion to the adversary to speak the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. (1 Thess. 4:12; 1Tim. 5:14; Phil. 2:15).
Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Your bodies are members of Christ and God’s temple; if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. (2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Thess. 4:3; 1 Cor. 3:16‐ 17; 6:15‐20)
Remove all causes of spiritual stumbling, or hindrance from your path, even at the risk of pain and loss. (Matt. 5:29)
The job of the pastor, among other things, is to provide spiritual nutrition. Our nature, as growing Christians, must not be to only crave the sweet things, but to consume the whole Word, and to grow. If all you offer is God is Love, how do you rationalize it when bad things happen to the new Christian? If God is Love then how can he allow cancer, abuse, or war?
If Jesus loves me, how can he let my child struggle with a birth defect? If Jesus loves the little children why are there so many starving in third world nations?
These are challenging questions. The short answer is original sin. Once sin entered through Adam and Eve our bodies began to decay, and the world became imperfect. That does not give the new Christian much to chew on. Plus, there are better, more complete explanations, and words of comfort.
To understand how sin drives humanity, to find out how to operate in this secular world, we have to take in the full gospel, read the entire Word, and be led by pastors who set a table with more than cookies, and cakes. It might not taste great, it might not go down easily, but it will fill you and nourish your spirit.
