As those who realize that God’s word is our food, we need to advance from the milk of the word (in 1 Pet. 2:2) to the word of righteousness as solid food (in Heb. 5:13-14) so that we may grow in life.
As believers in Christ, we have the Spirit with our spirit, and Jesus lives in us; however, many times we may think that the Lord is quite abstract, and we don’t know how to contact Him or receive His speaking.
This is why the Lord has provided us with His word, which is outward, solid, and tangible; the word of God in the Bible is our food, our nourishment, and our supply.
The Lord Jesus told His disciples that, unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they will have no part with Him; later in John 6:63 He expounded on this and said, The flesh profits nothing: it is the Spirit who gives life; the words which I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life.
How can we have a part with the Lord? How can we eat the Lord’s flesh? How can we as believers in Christ eat the Lord and be spiritually supplied? It is by first realizing that the words of the Lord Jesus are the embodiment of the Spirit of life, which He became in His resurrection.
Christ today is the life-giving Spirit, and the Spirit is embodied in His words; therefore, we need to not read the word of God but pray over God’s word with the exercise of our spirit so that we may extract the essence of the word – Spirit and life.
We need to use our God-given organ – our human spirit – to contact the Lord as we read His word, and take in the word of God by means of all prayer and petition; in this way, the written word will be converted into Spirit and life, and we will be inwardly supplied and nourished.
This is what the Lord Jesus Himself did: when He was on earth, He learned to read the word of God, study it, and above all, take it in a living way so that the word of God – containing the essence of God – became His sustenance, the very source and element of His living.
When we receive the words of the Lord – all the words in the Bible – by the exercise of our spirit, we receive the Spirit, who is life.
Being Nourished in our Spirit by the Guileless Milk of the Word
As newborn babes, we need to long for the guileless milk of the word, in order that by it we may grow unto salvation, if we have tasted that the Lord is good (see 1 Pet. 2:2-4). God’s word is milk – it is a guileless milk, that is, the pure milk of the word without any false purpose or other goal but to nourish our soul and spirit.
We were born of God through regeneration (1 Pet. 1:3, 23), and now we need to grow in life unto further salvation by being nourished with the spiritual milk in the word of God, so that we may be suitable for God’s building.
The milk of the word is not milk for the body but milk for the soul, for the inner being; this milk is conveyed in the word of God, and it nourishes our inner man through the understanding of our rational mind.
The word of God contains a guileless milk to nourish our inner man through the understanding of our rational mind, being assimilated by our mental faculties (see Rom. 8:6; Deut. 11:18).
Although this nourishing milk in the word is for our soul through the mind, it eventually nourishes our spirit, making us spiritual persons, suitable for being built up as a spiritual house of God (see 1 Cor. 2:15).
When we read the word of God with the exercise of our entire tripartite being – we read it out loud with our mouth, we focus on it with our mind, and we exercise our spirit – we will be nourished with the spiritual milk for our growth in life.
God’s goal is for us to be transformed inwardly and made into living stones that are built together with one another into the house of God, the building of God. When we feed on Christ by the nourishing milk in the word of God, we not only grow in life unto salvation, but we are also built up together.
How do we drink the milk in the word of God? It is by exercising our spirit to pray over the word of God. The best way to exercise our spirit is to pray; Eph. 6:17-18 says that we should receive the word of God by means of all prayer, praying at every time in spirit.
We need to exercise our spirit again and again until we spontaneously live in spirit; this means we need to pray at every time in spirit and persevere in prayer (Col. 4:2).
May we learn to enjoy the word of God and drink the spiritual milk in God’s word through the exercise of our spirit to pray over the word of God.
May we be those who seek to grow unto salvation by drinking the milk contained in the word of God, so that we may be inwardly transformed and built up with the saints into the house of God.
Lord Jesus, thank You for creating us with a spirit by which we may drink the spiritual milk in Your word. We want to learn how to exercise our spirit to pray over Your word so that we may drink the spiritual milk and grow unto salvation. Lord, we have tasted that You are good, and we love to eat and drink of You in Your word! We long for the guileless milk in Your word to be nourished in our soul and spirit, so that by it we may grow unto salvation and be built up with the saints into Your spiritual house!
Advancing from the Milk of the Word to the Word of Righteousness as the Solid Food
The word of God is food to us, and just as physical food is of different categories, so the word of God is of different categories of food. In 1 Pet. 2:2 the word of God is milk, and in Heb. 5:13-14 the word of God is the solid food.
The milk is called the good word of God (see Heb. 6:4-5) for the initial stage of the gospel of salvation. The word we hear as the gospel is milk, for the beginning of our salvation; this is the word of the beginning of the Christ (Heb. 6:1), the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God (Heb. 5:12).
The word of righteousness, on the other hand, is the solid food in the word of God; this word is not for our initial salvation but for us to be brought on to maturity (Heb. 6:1), to receive the kingdom reward, and to enter into the kingdom.
We need to be brought on unto maturity by leaving the word of the beginning of Christ and hear the word of righteousness. In the church meetings in the Lord’s recovery we do not have only baby food or milk; here we get everything: milk, vegetables, meat, and solid food.
In the church life we get all of God’s words, including the word of righteousness. If you read the book of Hebrews, the entire book is the word of righteousness; furthermore, the word concerning the kingdom reward and the dispensational punishment is the word of righteousness, and so is the word concerning the throne of God and us being under God’s throne in our being.
Milk is for infants, but solid food is for the mature (see 1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:13-14). It is a terrible thing for us to be eating baby food for many years, when we are supposed to grow in life and be mature.
Paul told the Corinthians that he wanted to give them some solid food, but they didn’t grow in life enough to receive it, but were rather still drinking milk.
We need to advance in our eating of the word of God; we do appreciate the sweet words in the Bible, and we love to drink milk in the word of God, but we need to be brought on to maturity by eating the solid food in God’s word.
We should aspire in our Christian life to eat every word in the Bible, so that we may live by every word; we shouldn’t merely eat the parts we like and we think are sweet, but eat all of God’s words!
To eat the word of righteousness as the solid food is a strong way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ.
If we eat baby food, we remain a baby forever; for us to grow in life, we need to eat the solid food. The word of righteousness embodies the thought of God’s justice and righteousness in His dispensational and governmental dealings with His people.
Righteousness is being right with persons, things, and matters before God – according to His righteous and strict requirements (see Matt. 5:20). Righteousness is a matter of God’s throne and of being right with God in our being (see Psa. 89:14a; 1 Cor. 15:34; 2 Cor. 5:21).
If we would eat the solid food in the word of God – the word of righteousness – we need to experience and exercise. We need to grow in life, cultivate our sense of discernment, and eat the solid food in the word of God, so that we may advance in our pathway of the growth in life.
Lord Jesus, we want to advance from drinking the milk of the word to the word of righteousness, the solid food in the word of God. Save us from remaining infants in the Lord who drink only milk. May we be brought on to maturity by eating the solid food in the word of God, the word of righteousness. Amen, Lord, we want to leave the word of the beginning of the Christ and hear the word of righteousness. We want to eat all of God’s words so that we may nourished with the milk and the solid food in God’s word and thus be brought on to maturity!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother Mark R. for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Hebrews, msg. 29 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1), msg. 10 (week 10), Eating the Scroll — Eating and Digesting the Word of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Having been regenerated Not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible. / Through the living and abiding word of God; / Through the living and abiding word of God. / As newborn babes long for the / Guileless milk of the word / That by it you may grow unto / Salvation. (Scripture song)
# I’m a newborn babe—it’s the milk I need, / Not the knowledge of the dead teaching. / When I eat Your word, it becomes to me / My heart’s joy and rejoicing. (Song on reading the Bible)
# Given us, given us, God has given us / Precious faith, power divine, greatest promises. / We believed, we received, now we have all three; / By these we may grow unto maturity. (Hymns #1211)
About aGodMan
In 1 Corinthians 3:2 Paul goes on to say, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. But neither yet now are you able.” To give milk to drink or food to eat is to feed others. Feeding refers to the matter of life. This differs from teaching, which refers to knowledge. What the apostle ministered to the Corinthian believers seemed to be knowledge. Actually it was milk (not yet solid food), and it should have nourished them. Milk is mainly for infants, whereas solid food is for the mature (Heb. 5:12). The fact that the Corinthian believers could not receive solid food indicates that they were not growing in life. (Life-study of 1 Corinthians, pp. 212-213, by Witness Lee)
Transform and conform us to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ , Amen
AMEN. . .
I thoroughly enjoyed this message too…..n especially these two verses Heb. 5:13 For everyone who partakes of milk is inexperienced in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant; and
Heb. 5:14 But solid food is for the full-grown, who because of practice have their faculties exercised for discriminating between both good and evil….
Thank the Lord that in the Lord’s recovery we don’t come meeting by meeting and message by message only to eat baby food but to eat solid food in the word of righteousness ?