Bible Truth Is Spiritual Food, Good For You

by Kevin Burton

   “You are what you eat,” is a phrase I remember well from my fourth-grade health class. 

   As a 9-year-old, I thought “OK, if you eat turkey, then you’re a turkey, ha ha!”

   I have moved past that bit of hilarity twice. Once was to seriously understand the value of proper nutrition. The second is the subject of a message on the subject of truth from Alistair Begg, speaker on the Truth For Life ministry broadcast.

   Just as it is essential to digest food, so that the nutrients can permeate your body, it is essential to absorb God’s word so it becomes part of you.

   “Doctrines held as a matter of creed are like bread in the hand, which provides no nourishment to the body,” Begg writes. “But doctrine accepted by the heart is like food digested, which by assimilation sustains and builds up the body.”

   “In us, truth must be a living force, an active energy, an indwelling reality, a part of the warp and woof of our being. If it is in us, we cannot then part with it.”

   “A man may lose his clothes or his limbs, but his inward parts are vital and cannot be torn away without absolute loss of life,” Begg writes. “A  Christian can die, but he cannot deny the truth.”

   “Now it is a rule of nature that the inward affects the outward, as light shines from the center of the lantern through the glass: When, therefore, the truth is kindled within, its brightness soon shines in the outward life and conversation.”

    “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matt. 5:14-16 NKJV).

   “It is said that the food of certain worms colors the cocoons of silk that they spin: And in the same way the nutriment upon which a man’s inward nature lives gives a tinge to every word and deed proceeding from him,” Begg writes.

   Now this is not a post about the book of Revelation and I do not intend to peel this passage apart here. Perhaps another day.

   But in Revelation 10: 7-9 John is told to take a little book from an angel and “take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”

   This has nothing to do with eating paper. It’s about ingesting the truth so that it becomes a part of you.

   Look also to John 8: 31-32 (KJV)   “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

   That was my emphasis on the word continue. The New King James uses the word abide. To continue and abide in God’s truth speaks to Begg’s point above. It’s like having good spiritual food and actually eating it.

   That way it’s not sitting on your coffee table when you leave the house in the morning to enter a world of lost people who need it. That truth is in you, with you, ready to be shared.

   “To walk in the truth conveys a life of integrity, holiness, faithfulness, and simplicity—the natural product of those principles of truth that the Gospel teaches and that the Spirit of God enables us to receive,” Begg writes.

   “We may judge the secrets of the soul by their appearance in the man’s behavior. Today, O gracious Spirit, let it be ours to be ruled and governed by Your divine authority, so that nothing false or sinful may reign in our hearts, in case it should extend its malignant influence to our everyday lives in the community.”