(Photo by Selma Komisky)

What’s For Lunch?

By Jacqueline Napoli

Some people have donuts, sodas, and fast food every single day.  Personally, I would eat pizza, cake and ice cream for every meal if I could pull it off.  But if I only ate the things I crave, and never made myself eat the veggies, fruits, lean proteins and healthy fats I’m designed to dine on, I’d feel just awful, and my body wouldn’t perform anywhere near its best.

Spiritually, it’s the same.  Paul told the Corinthians that they were still so worldly, they couldn’t even handle real “food” (solid biblical truth is the spiritual equivalent to wild-caught salmon and organic kale). They were so immature they could only handle formula  (1 Cor. 3:1-3.) But the closer we get to the return of Christ for His people in the rapture, people in the church will get really tired of the Bible and just go for the sweets and fast food:

For the time is coming when people will not have patience for sound teaching, but will cater to their passions and gather around themselves teachers who say whatever their ears itch to hear.  Yes, they will stop listening to the truth, but will turn aside to follow myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).

Unfortunately, this describes many in the church right now.  Unsound wildness is flooding pulpits, blogs, YouTube, and podcasts.  There is SO MUCH teaching out there, and it’s not merely milk for babies, which has its place, but a lot of it is downright poison.

We know it feels like the world is going off the rails right now.  What we need above all is discernment and wisdom, but we are being presented with Sour Patch Kids and French fries, and 72-ounce soft drinks on the side.

How do we become wise and spiritually strong?  How can we tell the true teachers from the false?

When I first learned about healthy eating, I learned to shop the outside perimeter of the store: the produce, the meat, the dairy. Avoid the processed foods jamming the aisles.  Well, spiritually, it’s the same. Avoid the processed teaching.

What do I mean?  Processed food has been so manhandled, it’s not even recognizable.  Sugars, fillers, taste-improving chemicals, and toxic, shelf-stable fats have replaced the essence of the original food.

Likewise, false teachers offer us really tasty, tempting, gratifying messages that make us feel…so…good!  Everything’s great!  You’re great!  Everyone’s great!  No talk of repentance, consecration, personal holiness, walking in love and forgiveness, crucifying self, etc.  Or perhaps political obsessions that crowd out King Jesus.  Or prophecies that defy reality.  Or political correctness that cancels scripture out.

This is key: when you ingest someone else’s teaching, check for yourself to see if it lines up with Scripture.  Be a Berean: receive teachings eagerly, but search the Scriptures daily, to see if the teaching is true! (Acts 17:11)  Let the Word and the help of the Holy Spirit be your primary teacher, and watch your life be transformed.

Then, when a false teaching comes your way, it will actually repulse you the way that junk food does once your body is cleansed from it.

Whenever I lapse with my eating––physical or spiritual––I turn to God, confess it, and ask for Him to help me.  I ask and I try until His answer comes.

Lord, help us to eat clean–to feast on Your pure Word so regularly that the False just disgusts us at first whiff!  The time is short.  Let us be ready and full of faith when you return!