Have you ever known someone who is undernourished? They simply have not gotten the proper nourishment their body needs to grow and develop normally. That number is about 11.3% of the world’s population. If you were to visit where these people live you would see the reasons it is happening. You would find poverty and oppression starving these people, and many of them children, to death.
How crazy would it be to visit one of those places and find that on every corner there were Hometown Buffet’s where all the food was free? Yet, those starving to death do not even make the effort to feed on the free food and nourish themselves so that they could live healthy and productive lives.
You would simply not ever find that place because the hunger of each person would drive them to the food and they would eat. They would learn that eating was good for them and they would feel much better if they were to consume the healthier foods with the protein, fruits, and vegetables their bodies need. They would probably not eat the beets, because beets did not exist before the fall. Some would go straight to the dessert bar and their lack of health would reflect that.
That is a ridiculous illustration of something that would never happen and yet, I see it happening all the time when it comes to people’s spiritual malnourishment. We live in an age where most people have access to Bibles and spiritual truth in overabundance, yet they can barely lift a finger to partake in learning biblical truth through the Scriptures.
Notice what Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:3-4;
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
In an age when sexual addiction and brokenness is pandemic with those who claim to be Christians, we are told that the divine power of God has given us everything we need to be spiritually nourished and live a godly life. The ability to do that comes “through our knowledge of Him.” We are told He has given us “his very great and precious promises,” so that through those promises we might participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires or lust.
Imagine a man kneeling before God and crying out about how he is starving to death with one hand reaching up to God and in the other hand, he is holding a footlong meatball. If I saw that I think I would kindly suggest that if he would simply feed himself his hunger would go away.
God has given to us His great and precious promises in His Word. Then we are told something utterly amazing and that is that through His precious and great promises we may participate in the divine nature. What do you think that means to “participate in the divine nature?” It sounds pretty good to me but what does that mean?
This may surprise you, but the word “participate” is the Greek word “koinonos” from which we get the word “koinonia” which we call fellowship. It means to be partners with someone or comrades or companions. It means having a close connection with someone you are tight with. Someone you know has your back because you have his. The tightness of this connection with God comes from being nourished by the Word of God. Knowing His great and precious promises results in us being spiritually nourished so that we can escape the lusts of this world.
This is amazing to me. We can actually be partakers in the divine nature. We can have a close and strong connection with God and the closer and stronger that connection is maintained the more easily we will escape the corruption that is all around us because of lust.
However, we say to ourselves we just do not have time. It is too hard to read and study the Bible. I have places to go and people to see. I have a ton of work to get done today so that I can have 3 hours tonight to binge on entertainment. I don’t like fruits and vegetables, so I am only going to the dessert table and consume more porn and sex.
God has made available to us a smorgasbord of Biblical truth but like the dog, we just keep returning to our vomit or like the pig we return to the mud. Quit complaining about how God is not helping you when you are not willing to do the most basic of things necessary to have spiritual health. Get into the Word and get the Word of God into you!