God created us with the ability to develop an immune system. Beginning at birth, a child is not fully equipped to fight off the onslaught of germs, though the mother is able to immediately aid in this by nursing. As we grow older, we grow stronger and more resistant to the common infectious agents that attack us.
When God calls us into a new way of life, He implements an additional system, as it were. As babes in the church, He infuses us with a small amount of His Holy Spirit. Initially and to a large extent, we are nurtured (1 Peter 2:2) by the mother of us all, which is the church (Galatians 4:26). This enables us to fight the spiritual diseases that bombard our system and seek to destroy us (1 Peter 5:8). As we grow along the Way (2 Peter 3:18), our spiritual immunity becomes robust and resilient. The ills that used to plague us, no longer do, because we have matured and overcome them.
To ensure that we continue to stay in good spiritual health, we should make every effort to maintain the best spiritual immune system possible. We can facilitate this by eating right (John 6:48), exercising (1 Timothy 4:7) and getting plenty of rest (Hebrews 4:9; Matthew 11:28-29).
