Nourished on the Words of the Faith

Returning to the Church's true source of strength and vitality

“...being nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.” (1 Timothy 4:6, LSB) 

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If you were to ask the average Christian today how they are “nourished” in the faith — that is, how they are strengthened, fed, built up, or trained in spiritual maturity — what do you suppose they would say? Many might answer something along the lines of: community, fellowship with other believers, listening to worship songs, or putting on a good podcast, all of which of course are good and helpful things.

But if you were to ask the apostle Paul, it might surprise you to find he had quite a different answer to this question. According to him, the way we are trained in spiritual maturity is not primarily through any of these means, helpful as they are, but rather through the plain yet powerful instrument of words: “...being nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following” (v. 6). 

Words. Teaching. Sound doctrine. These are the building blocks of spiritual maturity, according to the apostle. They are the means God has supplied for nourishing and strengthening His saints. 

Now, this is a very helpful thing to point out, especially since, for us, none of these things seem at first to be very nourishing. In fact, few things might sound more drab to our modern ears than “sound doctrine.” And yet, there it is, right in the text. 

What we have to remember, then, in order to not be at odds with Scripture, is that we are creatures of our age. Which is to say, we are almost invariably creatures who are addicted to the pulse of the dramatic, the sensational, and the flashy. We are conditioned each day by a thousand pleasures to expect instant reward. And thus something like listening to a sermon, which takes just a small amount of self-control and mental focus, strikes us as boring and hopelessly mundane; not because it necessarily is mundane, but simply because we’ve been catechized to love showiness and pizzazz. We are dopamine junkies. 

What needs to happen is a radical reordering of our loves and priorities. And not a reordering based upon our preferences and tastes, but one based squarely upon the loves and priorities of Scripture. If God says sound doctrine is good for us, then that’s the way it is. If He says meditating upon His law day and night is what makes a man prosper and mature (Ps. 1:3), then that’s simply what we’ve got to do. It matters very little if our flesh objects otherwise. God’s Word sets the standard. Our part is to believe and obey. 

So what does this look like practically? In short, it looks like giving ourselves wholeheartedly to the means God has supplied for the instruction and upbuilding of His church. It looks like elders who approach the Scriptures with fear and trembling; families who attend worship every week; fathers who lead their homes with open Bibles rather than open phones; and churches that are in every way submitted to the functional authority of the Word of God. All of these are vehicles God has given for the establishment of sound doctrine in the church, and all of them are therefore means He intends to use for the nourishment of His saints. 

It might feel counterintuitive to our modern sensibilities. It might feel plain, ordinary, and somewhat boring. But God doesn’t lie. If He says the words of the faith and sound doctrine are the source of our health and strength, we need to believe Him over our feelings.

As the psalmist says:

“How blessed is the man

who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the way of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

But his delight is in the law of Yahweh,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season

And its leaf does not whither;

And in whatever he does, he prospers.” 

(Psalm 1:1–3, LSB)