What steps do you take to prevent physical infection? Are you as diligent to stay away from spiritual infection? Did you know that spiritual infection will make you weak and dissatisfied? The answer to all spiritual infection is biblical truth. The truth of God we have in Jesus Christ gives us a strong immune system to fight and prevent spiritual infections. In this article, we will focus on why truth is the prescription for healthy living. This is post #1 in our Healthy Living series from Colossians. The love and truth of Jesus have satisfied my heart. I want you to come along with me and experience that, too. Together, we will pursue healthy living in Christ and stay spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world.
Listen to this post as a similar podcast from our Healthy Living Bible Study of Colossians and Philemon:
Recognizing a spiritual infection
Picture this scenario. It’s 2 a.m. A baby is very fussy and restless. The mother awakes, goes to pick up her child from the crib, and realizes that her infant who was healthy the day before is now burning with fever. There’s an infection in the small child’s body! The worried parent knows she must treat the infection through medicine and/or a visit to the doctor followed by rest and patiently waiting for the treatment to take hold. The baby will hopefully soon return to healthy living.
Every parent knows that when their baby is burning with fever, there’s an infection in the small child’s body! You know how to recognize an infection in a physical body by its symptoms. The same is true regarding a spiritual infection.
Any opinion or belief that contradicts established biblical truth can cause an infection in the Body of Christ and its individual members. The diagnosis of this infection is called “heresy.” Heresy is not just error. It is anti-truth! Like an infection in the human body, this spiritual infection always affects life so it must be addressed.
Where do you catch any spiritual infection? When you look to the wrong places to get your heart needs satisfied, you expose yourself to spiritual infections. The results are disappointment, fear, resentment, and many other negative thoughts and behaviors. We will explore what that looks like in this series of articles.
Treating any spiritual infection with TRUTH
Just as our physical bodies are attacked by germs that make us sick, we are attacked by spiritual infections that leave us weak and dissatisfied. We lose out on all the wonderful blessings of letting Jesus satisfy our heart needs. The only way to fight or avoid infection is to be satisfied by the truth of God that has been given to us in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. Like a prescribed medication or proper nutrition, holding onto God’s truth gives you a strong immune system to fight and prevent infection in your heart and mind. Truth is the prescription for healthy living.
This prescription for healthy living has three doses: First, you dwell in the truth of God you can know. Next, you humbly accept what you don’t know or understand. And then, you discern any teaching that you read or hear through the complete revelation of God’s Word. These three doses help you to fight spiritual infections or prevent their influence over you. Let’s look at them one at a time.
First dose: Dwell in truth you can know.
The first part of the prescription for healthy living is to dwell in truth you can know. You likely think of the word “dwell” as a place where you make your home. To dwell in truth is to make your home there. That means God’s truth dominates your thoughts and attitudes, governs your life, and satisfies your heart. It has the most influence on you. God’s truth is a healthy home for you.
God gives us plenty of truth in the Bible that we can know and trust. There are 66 books of revelation given to us containing 1189 chapters. If we just took 1 chapter per day and wrote down all the truths about God and our relationship with Him that is revealed to us, it would take us more than 3 years to get through the whole Bible! And that’s even skipping some of those genealogy chapters.
God wants us to know the truth He has revealed to us. He wants us to make our home—to dwell—in that truth. It is for our own good!
Paul emphasized in Ephesians chapter 1 how much God wants us to know His truth:
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ…may give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing KNOWLEDGE of Him…so that you may KNOW what is the hope of His calling, what is the wealth of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the incomparable greatness of His power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength. (Ephesians 1:17-19)
Look at all that God says we can know. Each passage we read or study has plenty of truth that we can know with certainty and allow to govern our lives. At the end of each lesson in the Healthy Living Bible Study, we give you the opportunity to list all the truth from that lesson that you can know about God and His relationship to you. Every Joyful Walk Bible Study has you dwell in truth you can know for healthy living.
Second dose: Humbly accept what you don’t know or understand.
The second part of this prescription for healthy living is to humbly accept what you don’t know or understand. In the midst of all those 1189 chapters in the Bible, there are verses we just don’t understand. Perhaps you do not understand something you are reading read now. But you might understand it in the future as you learn more through Bible study. Hearing great teaching also might help you to understand it. But be aware that there are things you and I will never know or understand.
The Bible declares this,
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)
Did you see the emphasis on the things revealed? Yay! They belong to us. We can KNOW them. But there are “secret things” the Lord has not revealed yet to any human.
As we study the Bible, we can do our best to try to understand what is written. But you may never understand something that you read. Don’t let that shake your confidence in understanding God’s truth.
In the Healthy Living Bible Study, after you list all the truth from each lesson that you can know, you’ll get to write the things that you just can’t seem to understand from the lesson or things you might not know. Then, you can make the choice to humbly accept what you don’t know or understand and be satisfied with it.
Third dose: Discern all teaching through the complete revelation of God’s Word.
The third part of this prescription for healthy living is to discern all teaching through the complete revelation of God’s Word. This is what I mean by that. To dwell in the truth of God’s Word, you must evaluate what you read and hear by comparing it with the whole Bible.
None of us can take pieces of the Bible, like a verse or group of verses, and build our thinking on that. Nor should we build our faith on experiences and feelings. There is a lot of junk out there about God. That is why it is so important to really get to know the God of the Bible. Dangerous infection comes from picking and choosing what you consider to be “truth.” All false teachers through the centuries have taken advantage of people who were not dwelling in the truth portrayed in the whole Bible.
Good Bible study reads a verse in the context of the passage where it is found—the paragraph, the chapter, and the book. Each verse is usually part of a continual thought. You can examine the original words to see what the writer meant and what the audience likely understood. You can look at other verses with similar content to let the Bible interpret itself. And you should always ask the Holy Spirit for understanding. Evaluate what you read and hear by comparing it with the whole Bible. The Holy Spirit uses the Scripture we read and study to teach us about our God so we can know TRUTH and DWELL in that truth.
This what I have been doing for more than 50 years. I thank you God that He has revealed many truths about Himself and the Christian life for you and I to know with certainty. We can DWELL IN TRUTH WE CAN KNOW!
Truth is the prescription for healthy living.
The key to spiritual health is to dwell in truth you can know, humbly accept what you can’t know or understand, and discern all teaching through the complete revelation of God’s word. This will help you to stay spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world.
Dear readers, we will never know all there is to know about God. There will always be some mystery about Him. But there is plenty enough revealed in the Bible to satisfy your desire to know Him truthfully and to know how to live your life in Christ truthfully.
Infection is bad. Untreated infection can be deadly. Knowing the truth of God that you have in Jesus Christ gives you an immune system that fights and prevents spiritual infection.
Let Jesus satisfy your heart needs with His truth and His love so you can get well and stay well.
Learn more about staying spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world through our Healthy Living Bible Study of Colossians and Philemon (11 lessons)
Read other articles in this Healthy Living series. The next one is Tame the “Look-Imagine-See” Dragon.
Related Resources:
- Healthy Living Bible Study on Amazon
- Graceful Living Bible Study on Amazon
- Satisfied Series 3 Podcasts (Colossians series)
- TRUTH Is the Prescription for Healthy Living
- Tame the “Look-Imagine-See” Dragon
- Escape the Cultural Captivity Infection
- Resist the “Tyranny of the Urgent” Infection
- Stop the “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” Infection
- Conquer the “Manipulation by Guilt” Infection
- Flee the Spiritual Substitutes Infection
- Delete the Karma Infection
- Wipe Out the Narcissism Infection
- Counter the “Work Is Secular” Infection
- Overcome the “Holy Huddle” Infection
- Defeat the Victim Infection
- Angels, feathers, and needing comfort for grief
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