Whoever first said, “You are what you eat”?
Jesus said in Matthew 6.22-23:
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
In other words, you are what you set your eye upon. Do you gaze upon beauty, truth, and wisdom? Rather, do you gaze upon the riches and desires of the world?
Earlier in His Mountain Sermon (Matt. 5.8), Jesus had said:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Notice He did not speak of hungering and thirsting for God’s word here. Nor did He speak of hungering and thirsting for prayer, meditation, or worship. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Do you have an appetite for knowing, thinking, and doing what is right? Do you thirst for the holy ways of God? Do you realize an emptiness or need in your soul that must be filled—one that only God can satisfy? You are blessed, if that is the case! God will satisfy that need.
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness set their minds on things above, not on things of this earth. They plan their days with God at the center. In school, they study God and His awesome works and ways. At their jobs, they work as if for God and not for man. With regard to friends, they walk with godly men and women. They strongly desire the wisdom that is from above.
Our times of Bible study and worship should always center around gazing upon the beauty of our God and His righteous ways. These are times of seeking God’s righteousness.
So many of us set our aim too low and do not progress from the milk of the first principles of God to the nourishing meat of God’s revelation.
Hebrews 5.11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Let us build upon the first principles and move onward. Let us earnestly desire God’s wisdom and truth. Eat His body and drink His blood, for it is true food and drink.
We are what we eat.