John 6:26
Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
The day after feeding the multitude, at Capernaum, Jesus told those who had followed Him across the sea that they were seeking Him because they had eaten the loaves and were filled, not because they had seen and understood the miracles as signs of His divinity and mission as the Teacher sent by God to save the world. Their interest was in continued bodily provision and earthly hope, even wanting to make Him king, rather than in spiritual food and everlasting life. Against that motive He directed them to labor not for food that perishes but for food that endures to everlasting life, which the Son of man gives as One sealed by the Father, declaring the work of God to be believing on Him whom God sent. He presented Himself as the Bread of Life come down from heaven, so that coming to Him and believing on Him takes away hunger and thirst forever, unlike the manna their fathers ate and died. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to receive and assimilate His words until they become part of the life, studied, obeyed, and lived by every word of God, which alone gives present life, eternal life, and resurrection at the last day.
Setting and Occasion
Jesus spoke these words at Capernaum on the day after the feeding of the multitude. He had refused to be made king, had sent the crowd away, had sent His disciples across the lake, had gone into the mountain to pray, and had joined His disciples by walking on the stormy sea. The people who had followed by boat then asked Him when He had come there, and He answered them with this rebuke of their motive and direction to the enduring food given by the Son of man sealed by the Father.
They had been searching for Jesus after He fed the multitude. They came to the synagogue and asked how and when He had crossed the sea. Then they listened as the disciples recounted the storm, Jesus walking on the water, Peter's experience, and the boat's safe arrival.
The saying belongs to the connected account of the feeding with the loaves and fishes, Christ walking on the water, and His telling His hearers He was the Bread of Life, after which some of His disciples turned from Him. It is part of a record showing Christ cared for the physical needs of the hungry multitude who followed Him to hear words of life. After feeding them He directed that the leftover food be gathered so that nothing was wasted.
Selfish Motive Exposed
The crowd followed because they had eaten the loaves and were filled, not because they saw or grasped what the miracles signified about who He was, His divinity, and His mission as the Teacher sent by God to save the world. Their pursuit was for further material benefit from being fed, with their interest resting on His meeting their temporal needs rather than on seeking evidence that would settle faith in Him. Being filled with bread had itself become their motive for following.
That interest was centered on temporal provision and bodily benefit rather than on spiritual food and everlasting life. They wanted Him to keep supplying what sustains physical life and depended on Him to meet their temporal needs, satisfied with miraculous provision that met physical hunger though He longed to give them more. Such seeking for temporal food and bodily benefit instead of faith stands rebuked, for it is set against seeking the spiritual food that endures.
Their excitement and desire to make Him king were centered on earthly hopes and an earthly kingdom. He refused that honor and taught them instead about the Bread of Life.
They sought Him from no worthy motive and not to learn how to please God in daily life. They asked for further signs and miracles sometimes in unbelief and sometimes because they hoped to be benefited by temporal favors, including food. Temporal favors are of little consequence compared with the heavenly grace and wisdom leading to everlasting life, which the Son of God alone gives as the One having the seal of the Father.
Witnessing signs does not by itself lead people to believe. Their minds, shaped by false teaching, were not ready to receive the Word of life, the Bread that feeds hungry souls, even though the feeding with physical food had prepared the way for the gospel message. They needed to understand their true relation to Him by receiving Him and believing in Him, rather than pursuing material bread while driven only by hunger satisfied with loaves.
He who knows all things exposed their motive, that they came only for the temporal advantages they could obtain. He made the miracle the occasion for His sermon on the Bread of Life, declaring the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God. That truth forced a decision revealing where hearts stood. Because that teaching required dying to self and practicing self-denial, they were displeased, went back, and walked no more with Him, showing that those not wholly with Him would take a stand against Him at His trial.
Call to Enduring Food
Against that motive came the direct command to work not for food that perishes but for food that endures to everlasting life, which the Son of man gives as One sealed by God the Father, with the work of God defined as believing on Him whom God sent, for the Father gives the true bread from heaven. Understanding this by experience and knowing true spiritual nourishment is far more essential than concern over what food to place on the table. The eating and drinking required is not temporal eating and drinking but spiritually receiving His flesh given for the life of the world and His blood by understanding His words and doing them, dwelling in Him and He in them.
The feeding with physical food had prepared the way for the gospel message, yet the crowd's desire for food stood in contrast to receiving the Word of life, the Bread that feeds hungry souls. Their minds, shaped by false teaching, were not ready to receive it. Jesus therefore exposed their concern for material food and redirected them toward seeking the spiritual food that endures to eternal life, exposing a selfish, temporal motive for following Him in hope of further material benefit.
Set beside His teaching that He is the Bread of Life and that His words give life, the verse contrasts seeking material satisfaction with receiving His life-giving words and calls for hearts emptied of selfishness. It warns against seeking Christ only for material benefit instead of hungering for God. Those who feed their minds on worldly entertainments lose their relish for heaven's bread and for Christ, while true hunger for Christ leads to receiving His fullness.
He declares Himself to be the Bread of Life come down from heaven so that whoever comes to Him never hungers and whoever believes on Him never thirsts. This is unlike the fathers who ate manna and died. That spiritual eating alone gives life now and eternal life with resurrection at the last day.
Eating the Living Word
John 6 teaches that Christ Himself, not earthly food or excitement, is the Bread of Life, and the lasting benefit is life received by coming to Him and believing in Him, for His words are spirit and life. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving and assimilating His words until they become part of self. Studying God's Word is eating the Word: bringing the principles revealed in Scripture home to the soul and into daily life, not departing from its precepts, understanding and doing them, grasping the mysteries of godliness, and living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God as necessary for salvation, proved by prayer and communion in striving for eternal life and knowledge of His will, and not leaving His word for the suppositions of men. The bread of life is to be eaten spiritually, with God's Word taken into the mind, understood, and practiced, and with its divine principles made a part of life, which requires being more diligent students of the Word. The Word of God is the bread of life, representing the body and blood of the Son of God, and it does not address the understanding alone as mathematics addresses the intellect alone, but aims at the heart, addresses the moral nature, takes possession of the will, casts down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and brings into captivity every thought to obedience.
This eating and drinking is not temporal eating and drinking but spiritually receiving His flesh given for the life of the world and His blood by understanding His words and doing them, dwelling in Him and He in them. It is actual personal experience, not mere profession: tasting that the Lord is gracious, learning as newborn babes desiring the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby, with continual growth in grace, with prayer to God for this and all other blessings, with truth brought into daily experience, and with daily teaching in the school of Christ. It belongs to true conversion and being born again, which is required to discern and have part in the spiritual kingdom, and gaining eternal life means studying the meaning of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, which is cherishing in the heart the truth that works by love and purifies the soul. So received, that spiritual eating alone gives life now and eternal life with resurrection at the last day, for He is the bread of life come down from heaven so that whoever comes to Him never hungers and whoever believes on Him never thirsts, unlike the fathers who ate manna and died. Though a believer may die as Christ died the life of the Saviour is in him and his life is hid with Christ in God, for Christ came that believers might have life more abundantly, carrying on the great process by which believers are made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him throughout all eternity.
The chapter plainly expresses the will of God for His people and the way to obtain eternal life, setting forth its conditions in lessons that lead to a life that measures with the life of God. Its truths are most precious and important for all who are being educated, to be taken in and brought into practical life as an education that will endure through time and through eternity, showing what Jesus is to them and what individual advantage comes from eating His words and realizing that He Himself is the great center of life. Its lessons call people to receive and obey Christ's life-giving words and to exercise faith in Him for eternal life by taking the principles of the Word into the daily life into connection with Christ, who knew no sin. Living that instruction cures dissension and brings unity with one another and with Christ and strength to stand against Satan, while failing to live it leaves weakness instead of strength, and it contains the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world.
The chapter affirms the sufficiency of the Old Testament Scriptures, so that those who believe them will also believe the New Testament and be brought to repentance through the lessons already given in Scripture. The New Testament was added not to discard the Old Testament but to shed light back on earlier ages and give meaning to the Jewish system, with Christ's words as the living oracles and His work as substitute for sin the only hope of ancient Israel, still calling for practical holiness and obedience. That feeding upon Christ's words as His very flesh and blood means learning the law of Jehovah and the penalty for transgressing it, and learning that God accepts the ransom made by the Saviour in behalf of each person who is obedient to the law of Jehovah, preparing them to become workers together with God. The chapter defines Christ's righteousness, which must be accepted to have on the wedding garment and be counted a fit guest at the wedding, as the standard of character each must reach through the marriage of humanity with divinity, requiring a firm stand for Christ, surrender to God of that which is already His own, and ceasing to continue in sin, rather than presuming on God's promise or measuring character by human ideas. Outward connection with a church does not save; personal faith in Christ brings the soul into spiritual union with Him.
As Christ's representatives the disciples are to give the people the Bread of Life, and to do so they must seek spiritual food from God, who supplies what they need for His work. Spiritually men and women are built up from the food they give the mind, so those ministering in word and doctrine must not be dull of understanding but must ask God for clearness of understanding to comprehend the bread sent down from heaven contained in the Bible. They must not spend time reading books and magazines that lead the mind astray and are a hindrance to spiritual growth.
Rejecting Material-Seeking Religion
The verse exposes the same misplaced motive whenever people come to religious meetings, conferences, or gatherings for the loaves and fishes, seeking food and other personal gain instead of coming to glorify God, to honor God, and to support the cause of truth. To attend for material benefit rather than for spiritual purpose is to repeat exactly what those did who sought Jesus because they had eaten and been filled, without recognizing the meaning of His miracles as signs of who He was. It is seeking and following for food and material support instead of to glorify God.
The call to sell and give was given to spread the truth, not to support in idleness those who are able to work. Those able to labor are to remain at home, work with their hands to supply the needs of their families, and have something to give to sustain the cause of truth and help in its spread. They are not to eagerly attend meetings with their families because they covet the property of others and hope to live off it, taking encouragement from a wrong presentation of that call, for such followers have falsehood in their mouths and are ready to be purged out.