Are We Spiritually Overfed?

I recently came across an illustration in Francis and Lisa Chan’s You and Me Forever that has been hard to forget.

They described people who become so physically overweight that eventually they lose much of their ability to move on their own. They continue consuming, but their bodies are no longer putting that nourishment to work. Eventually, they may even become dependent on other people simply to continue feeding them.

The Chans then make an intentionally uncomfortable comparison to the church.

We can become spiritually overfed and underactive.

We attend worship, sit through Bible classes, join small-group studies, read Christian books, and listen to sermons and podcasts. We highlight passages, take notes, learn theology, and collect years of biblical knowledge. Then, almost instinctively, we start looking for the next thing to consume.

Another lesson. Another study. Another book. Another insight.

There is nothing wrong with any of those things. We should hunger for Scripture. We should want to know God more deeply and understand His Word more accurately. I certainly do.

But the illustration made me ask a question I have been ruminating on:

What am I doing with what I already know?

At some point, nourishment is supposed to become movement.

James puts it plainly:

“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22, ESV)

The Word was never given merely to make us knowledgeable Christians. It was given to form us into faithful disciples.

We Can Be Spiritually Overfed and Underactive

There is something satisfying about learning more.

When we understand a challenging passage for the first time, connect two parts of Scripture, or hear a lesson that gives us fresh insight, it feels like growth, and often it is.

I think the danger comes when we start confusing knowing more with becoming more like Christ.

Those things should be connected, but they are not automatically the same.

I can know a great deal about biblical forgiveness while continuing to hold resentment against someone who hurt me. I can explain the importance of evangelism while rarely speaking to anyone about Jesus. I can study generosity while protecting my money. I can know what Scripture says about patience and still speak harshly to my family when I am tired or frustrated.

James uses the image of a mirror. We look into God’s Word and see ourselves more clearly, but if we walk away without responding to what we have seen, something has gone wrong.

The problem is not with the mirror.

The problem is that God's revelation never became response.

That is where the physical-health analogy becomes useful to me. Food is good. Nourishment is necessary. But nourishment is meant to support life and movement.

The same is true spiritually.

Biblical knowledge should eventually move through us. It should reach our decisions, our relationships, our schedules, our words, our wallets, our habits, and the way we treat the people around us.

Otherwise, we can become very well-fed Christians who rarely move.

Sometimes Learning Is Safer Than Obeying

Part of the reason I think this happens is that learning often feels safer than obedience.

It is relatively comfortable to study what Scripture says about evangelism. Starting a conversation with someone who may not want to hear about Jesus feels very different.

Reading about forgiveness can be encouraging. Forgiving the person whose mere presence raises our blood pressure is harder.

We can study hospitality without inviting anyone into our homes. We can talk about caring for people in need without allowing their needs to inconvenience us. We can read about prayer while still reaching first for our phones or our own solutions when trouble comes.

Sometimes we convince ourselves that what we really need is more preparation.

Maybe another book will make us ready. Another class will make us confident. Another sermon will remove the uncertainty. Another few months of study will finally make the next step easier or more obvious.

Sometimes more preparation really is wise. Scripture does not call us to reckless action, and there are situations where we need patience, counsel, and prayerful discernment.

But sometimes “I need to learn more” becomes a respectable Christian way of saying, “I am afraid to act.”

There are many things God has already made remarkably clear.

Love your neighbor. Forgive. Be generous. Encourage one another. Care for people in need. Confess sin. Make disciples. Speak with grace. Serve. Pray. Tell the truth. Do good.

We may not know exactly how every act of obedience will turn out, but we often know enough to take the next faithful step.

Doing Nothing Is Still a Choice

One of the more challenging observations in the Chans’ discussion is that we tend to notice the failures of people who act much more readily than the failures of people who do nothing.

Action is visible.

Someone tries to help and handles part of it poorly. Someone begins a ministry that does not work. Someone attempts a spiritual conversation and makes it awkward. Someone takes a risk and the outcome is disappointing.

It is easy to critique those mistakes because we can see them.

The sin of omission is quieter.

Jesus’ parable of the talents in Matthew 25 gives us a sobering picture of that. One servant receives something from his master, becomes afraid, and buries it.

He does not recklessly waste what he was given. He simply refuses to use it. Fear produces inactivity.

That challenges me because I can easily convince myself that doing nothing is the safer choice. If I do not act, I cannot fail publicly, I cannot say the wrong thing, I cannot be rejected, and I cannot discover that my idea was imperfect.

But doing nothing is still a decision.

That does not mean we should rush thoughtlessly into every opportunity. There is such a thing as wisdom, patience, and waiting on God.

Yet there is also such a thing as fear dressed up as caution.

Sometimes faithfulness means accepting that we may not do something perfectly and yet still doing the good we know to do anyway.

We send the message. We make the invitation. We apologize. We offer help. We speak about Jesus. We volunteer. We give. We check on the person who we know has been struggling.

Maybe it is awkward, but maybe we learn something afterward. Maybe we get part of it wrong, but the goal was never flawless execution.

The goal is faithful obedience.

Knowledge Should Become a Life

James later asks a difficult question:

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?” (James 2:14, ESV)

He is not teaching that we purchase salvation by accumulating enough righteous actions. Scripture is clear that we are saved by grace.

But grace does something to us. A living faith is a moving faith.

It begins changing the way we speak to our spouse, the attention we give our children, the integrity we bring to work, the way we respond to someone in need, and the courage with which we speak about Christ.

Works do not earn grace, but they do reveal what grace is doing in our lives.

That is why I do not think the answer to spiritual overconsumption is to study less.

We need Scripture desperately. We need sound doctrine, good teachers, Bible classes, sermons, books, conversations, and time alone in the Word.

But maybe we need to change the question we ask when we finish.

Instead of stopping with, “What did I learn?” we can also ask, “What should I do differently because I learned it?”

Maybe a passage about encouragement ends with a text message instead of another highlighted sentence. Maybe studying reconciliation ends with a phone call to someone we haven't fully forgiven. Maybe reading about generosity ends with giving something away to someone in need. Maybe a lesson about hospitality ends with an invitation. Maybe a study on evangelism ends with finally telling someone about Jesus.

The Word should travel farther than our minds. It should move into our hearts and shape the way we live.

So let me ask you…

As I ask myself these same questions:

• Am I consuming more spiritual teaching than I am applying?

• Is there something God has already made clear that I keep delaying while waiting to “know more”?

• Where might fear of doing something imperfectly be keeping me from faithful action?

• What truth have I studied repeatedly without allowing it to significantly change my life?

• Who might be served, encouraged, or pointed toward Jesus if I acted on something I already know?

• What is one faithful step God’s Word is calling me to take right now?

The question is not whether we know enough. Most of us already know more than we consistently live.

The question is whether what we know is becoming obedience.

A Closing Word for Fellow Pilgrims

There is a tremendous blessing in being fed by the Word of God.

We should never stop hungering for it. We should keep reading, studying, asking questions, and growing in our understanding of the God who has revealed Himself to us.

But Jesus did not call us merely to become students of His teaching. He called us to follow Him, and following requires movement.

We will not always move perfectly. Sometimes we will misunderstand. Sometimes our courage may outrun our wisdom. Other times we will try something, fail at it, and discover that we need to grow.

That is why grace matters.

Grace does not require us to sit safely on the sidelines until we are certain we will never fail. Grace gives us somewhere to return when we act imperfectly, get something wrong, or fail altogether.

We repent. We learn. We grow. But then we keep walking.

So let’s keep opening the Word, but as we close our Bibles, finish the lesson, turn off the podcast, or put the Christian book back on the shelf, let’s ask what should happen next. How should what we learned change the way we live?”

God has already given us plenty to nourish us. May that nourishment increasingly result in a life that looks like Jesus.

Until the journey is complete,

Jonathan Pilgrim

P.S. Think about one thing God has taught you recently through Scripture. Instead of searching for something new to learn, ask what that truth is calling you to do. Then take one step of obedience this week.