Spiritual Nourishment

We have said that the new birth, through God’s Word, produces within the soul a completely new nature— a new kind of life. This leads us to consider the next major effect that God’s Word produces.

In every realm of life, there is one unchanging law: as soon as a new life is born, the first and greatest need of that new life is nourishment to sustain it. For example, when a human baby is born, that baby may be sound and healthy in every respect, but unless he quickly receives nourishment, he will languish and die.

The same law is true in the spiritual realm. When a person is born again, the new spiritual nature produced within that person immediately requires spiritual nourishment, both to maintain life and to promote growth. The spiritual nourishment God has provided for all His born again children is found in His own Word. God’s Word is so rich and varied that it contains nourishment adapted to every stage of spiritual development. God’s provision for the first stages of spiritual growth is described in the first epistle of Peter. Immediately after Peter wrote in chapter 1 about being born again of the incorruptible seed of God’s Word, he went on to say:

“Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:1–2)

For newborn spiritual babes in Christ, God’s appointed nourishment is the pure milk of His own Word. This milk is a necessary fuel for continued life and growth.