Spiritual Eating on our Path to New Jerusalem (8)

The prior two posts are on spiritual eating as presented in the gospels and in some of the epistles. Our eating of this spiritual nourishment is for our growth in the divine life so that we will mature for New Jerusalem.

Hebrews 5:12-14 meshes spiritual growth (infants and full-grown) with nourishment (milk and solid food). Then 6:1 says “Therefore leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us be brought on to maturity.” The word of the beginning is the milk in the prior verses, and maturity matches full-grown.

Our Christian life is not merely outward conduct; it is an inward life with an outward expression! For this we need to grow. This growth requires exercise and also needs practice, exercise (5:14). This exercise is to take in the word of God as our spiritual food and to live and work according to this food.

This is why Paul charged Timothy “exercise yourself unto godliness. For bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the present life and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:7-8). Godliness is Christ lived out of us to be the manifestation of God.* We exercise to eat Christ and we exercise to live Christ.

Our exercise is our response to the Lord’s word in John 6:57, “he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” In New Jerusalem the Lord will be our complete life supply and our living will completely manifest Him.
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* This sentence is part of footnote 4 on 1 Timothy 4:7, in The Holy Bible, Recovery Version, published and © by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim CA, 2003.

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Posted by Don on March 18, 2026

https://newjerusalem12.wordpress.com/2026/03/18/spiritual-eating-on-our-path-to-new-jerusalem-8/