A Pastor’s Perspective

“You Are What You Eat” by Mike Hill, pastor of Calvary Chapel Aberdeen (mjhill@ida.net)

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I like to eat.  Come to think about it, I’m really not too picky, either.  My favorite food?  Whatever is on my fork or spoon or in my hand at the time.  After all, our body needs food to survive.  Eating is a life or death situation.  Admittedly, my food consumption is more due to the influences of my taste buds than to any survival instincts.  For example, the chocolate chips I scarfed down while diligently working on my term paper the other day were not ingested for my health.  They say, “you are what you eat.”  Now, I don’t believe I’ll turn into a huge chocolate chip.  But I did notice that my behavior was directly impacted by the sugar-overload.  The immediate high from all the sugar in my body crashed into a devastating low.  I took a nap.

The maxim “you are what you eat” applies within the spiritual realm.  When you feed on Jesus, your character and behavior—thoughts, words, and actions—will resemble His.  And, ingesting Him is a matter of spiritual life or death.  Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:53-54).  Does Jesus mean to literally eat Him?  There are some who take it that way.  They view communion as a sacrament whereby the bread and the wine literally transform into the literal body and blood of Christ.  It’s called transubstantiation.  However, in the context Jesus was not speaking literally but metaphorically.  He went on to say, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).  He taught using metaphors in other places as well.  “I am the door” (John 10:9).  Did He become a literal door?  Of course not. 

Then, what did Jesus mean by eating His flesh and drinking His blood?  When you eat a piece of bread, your body digests it and then receives energy and sustenance.  Similarly, we are to by faith ingest and digest Jesus and His work upon the Cross within our lives.  We need to digest His character and words within our being.  How do we do that?  The Bible says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).  Open your Bible and your heart.  Like Ezekiel, eat God’s word so that it transforms you from the inside out (Ezekiel 3:1-3, 10).  Receive Jesus into your heart (Revelation 3:20).  As a result, we will receive spiritual strength and life.

“You are what you eat.”  When you receive Jesus into your life by faith you will become like Him in your character and conduct.  And, He won’t put you on a downward spiral to crash and burn.  You will get high, seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6).