20 Bible Verses about Spiritual Malnutrition

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock.

And He *said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

My heart has been smitten like grass and has withered away,
Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me;
I will change their glory into shame.

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

From men with Your hand, O Lord,
From men of the world, whose portion is in this life,
And whose belly You fill with Your treasure;
They are satisfied with children,
And leave their abundance to their babes.

For the choir director. A Maskil of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul and said to him, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man?
The lovingkindness of God endures all day long.

Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray;
When they have something to bite with their teeth,
They cry, “Peace,”
But against him who puts nothing in their mouths
They declare holy war.

Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe,
Her priests instruct for a price
And her prophets divine for money.
Yet they lean on the Lord saying,
“Is not the Lord in our midst?
Calamity will not come upon us.”