You Are What You Eat

Ezekiel was a prophet of God to the Israelite exiles in Babylon. God sent Ezekiel so that the people would know that God had not abandoned them, nor had He stopped speaking to them (Ezekiel 2:5). When God commissioned Ezekiel to his work, He gave him a scroll full of lamentations, mourning, and woe, and told him to eat it. More than that, God told Ezekiel, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you” (Ezekiel 3:3). As Ezekiel went about the mission God gave him, he spoke only the Lord’s word (Ezekiel 3:26-27). As the saying goes, Ezekiel became what he ate. Based on passages like Romans 12:1-2 and James 1:21, God expects a similar process to occur in every Christian.

In Romans 12:1-2, God spoke through the apostle Paul, calling Christians to give their entire selves as a holy sacrifice to God. He speaks of their bodies, emphasizing the physical life that remains for each one to live, and calls for total dedication to God in it. The second verse clarifies that God is not calling for their physical life as it was before they came to Him, nor is He seeking their physical life as it is currently. He seeks something new, something born of their consumption of His word: a total transformation that begins in the mind and results in holiness and goodness in every area.

James 1:21 describes the same process. Instead of fighting against the word of God, Christians should engage in the process of change for the better. That process requires the setting aside of “all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness,” and requires Christians to humbly “receive the word implanted.” The soil God’s word is planted in is the heart (the mind of Romans 12:2), which is to be renewed, producing a whole-life transformation in the Christian. People often say, “You are what you eat.” God says if we consume His word, it will transform everything we are and make us holy like Him. Eat the scroll, and let it fill your body.