Troublesome Topic: We Cannot Fight What We Constantly Absorb

In the Former Covenant God wanted His covenant people to be very careful about what they ate. To someone who was spiritually sensitive and alert this would translate into being careful about spiritual and mental “food” as well. A good Israelite knew he had to be careful about what he absorbed into his body, mind and spirit.

Absorbing images that do not edify me undeniably weakens me against being able to fight any temptations related to those images, be it sexual stimuli, violence, improper relationships, or other more subtle temptations. If I wish to fight against a given temptation I cannot also ingest or absorb that same thing. A steady diet of sexual stimuli weakens me so I cannot possibly fight the temptations to lust.

We understand this well in relation to our body and what we consume. A person cannot fight gluten intolerance by regularly consuming large amounts of foods high in gluten. Yet many believers continue to digest large quantities of sexual stimuli, violence and other such things, and at the same time wonder why they don’t have the spiritual strength to fight temptation.

We could state this principle with these common phrases: “Don’t entertain temptation or you will fall to it,” or “If you play with fire you’re going to get burned.”

Some parents are concerned about the diet of junk food that their children are prone to consume. Of even greater concern should be the steady diet of spiritual garbage that has become the norm in too many believers’ homes. One cannot fight what he constantly absorbs.

The next lesson in the Full series on Covenants is: We Always Learn Something