Israelites Gathering Manna in the WildernessBible World
6:34John 6:34
Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.
At Capernaum the day after the feeding of the multitude, when Jesus had taught that the Father gives the true bread from heaven that gives life to the world, the crowd answered with a plea for that bread always and continually. They were still thinking of food that sustains physical life and temporal advantage, yet the bread they asked for is Christ Himself standing among them, the Bread of life sent to give spiritual life through pardon and faith. That bread is also His Word and truth that nourishes the mind, and the life-giving power of His Spirit, grace, righteousness and sacrifice for sin. To receive it is to come to Him and believe in Him, appropriating Him by personal faith until His truth becomes the very life of the soul and is lived out in obedience, prayer and doing God's will. Whoever so comes will never hunger and never thirst, but has eternal life now, is formed into Christlike character, and must seek this manna fresh every day and share it with hungry souls.
Historical Setting and Request
The request was made at Capernaum on the day after the feeding of the multitude with five loaves and two fishes, followed by the walking on the water. It came when Jesus had just taught that Moses did not give the bread from heaven but the Father gives the true bread from heaven that comes down and gives life to the world, and the crowd answered that teaching with a direct request for the bread. They asked right after hearing that the bread of God comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, while they were thinking of the miracle of the five thousand and urging a miracle like the manna given to Israel in the wilderness. The words were spoken to the very One who in the wilderness had given their fathers angels' food to eat, though they did not know who was addressing them, and had they known Him their attitude toward Him would have been changed. The Bread of heaven was already standing in their midst, but they did not recognize Him as the Bread of life.
Those asking had eaten of the loaves and were filled, and were still seeking provision that sustains physical life and temporal advantages they could obtain, not because they saw the miracles. They treated His promise as an offer of continuing literal food, thinking of temporal food He had miraculously provided and of ordinary food rather than the spiritual bread He had described. Even after witnessing the feeding they still did not believe in Him as the Son of God, so their request did not itself express faith in Him, and they cried for a sign despite the twelve baskets gathered up while urging Him to work a miracle like the manna. Christ made the miracle the occasion for His sermon on the bread of life, setting forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God. The spiritual teaching of the loaves was not yet understood and was about to be made plain, bringing a closer test, when many who heard those conditions went back and walked no more with Him.
The word rendered evermore is a plea for this bread always and continually, made in response to hearing of bread from heaven that gives life to the world. They asked Jesus continually to give them the bread He had described, to keep giving them the true bread from heaven. Christ used their request to lead their minds to higher truth, that He Himself is the bread of life and that to have eternal life they must receive Him, believe in Him, and become one with Him by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Jesus answered the request by declaring plainly that He Himself is the bread of life, so that whoever comes to Him will never hunger and whoever believes on Him will never thirst. Their failure to recognize that Jesus Himself was the bread of life, sent by God to give life to the world, exposed failure to study and obey Christ's words, which are His flesh and blood, and failure to receive Christ as a personal Saviour by crucifying self.
Meaning of the Bread
The bread asked for evermore is Christ Himself, the true bread from heaven sent by the Father to give life to the world, the Bread of life already standing among those who asked without recognizing Him. He is the sin-pardoning Saviour who gives spiritual life through faith and pardon and raises those who receive Him to be sons and daughters of God. Coming to Him and believing in Him satisfies spiritual hunger and thirst, and receiving Him means feeding on Christ through His Word, which nourishes the mind and forms a Christlike spirit and character. That receiving is eating His flesh and drinking His blood, by which whoever so receives Him has eternal life now and more abundantly, has the Saviour's life within hid with Christ in God, will be raised up at the last day though he die, and is carried on in the great process of being made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him through all eternity. The same chapter teaches dependence on Christ rather than on human beings, for He is the source of spiritual life and strength, and His words comfort, encourage, strengthen and settle, removing unrest, weariness and uncertainty, calling students to bring His words into practical life and receive Him as the center of life.
The bread is also His Word and truth, His words which are spirit and life, as explained where the Spirit gives life while the flesh profits nothing. Receiving this life-giving food means keeping His Word and its truth continually before the mind, taking in Christ's words, keeping their precepts, and making their truths part of daily life, for what God has revealed is necessary for salvation and for seeing God's kingdom. To eat is to study and practice the Word, to be doers of the Word of God, looking to Jesus and walking by faith in that Word, with the Bible standing as the great educating Book above all other books. The order set forth is first to believe in the only begotten Son whom God sent, clothed in humanity as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and next to work the works of God. The request for bread evermore is thus met by asking for continual study in which the principles of Scripture are brought home to the soul and into daily life, received and assimilated until they become part of the self, which is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. This means living by every word God has revealed and not departing from its precepts, holding it instead of the suppositions of men, grasped through prayer and communion with God and proving His mind and will, known only in Christ by those striving for eternal life. The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God, whose substitutionary work for sin was the hope of ancient Israel even before His crucifixion, the true manna nourishing the mind, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and the message of salvation meant for the whole world that cannot be monopolized by one people, whose directions for practical holiness and obedience are to be followed.
The bread is a figure for the life-giving power of His Spirit and heavenly provision for the soul, where physical bread sustains the body while this bread satisfies the heart and strengthens the moral powers. Receiving Him by faith brings lasting spiritual refreshment and strength and comfort, answers the soul's hunger for God, ends craving for higher enjoyment and feverish thirst for wealth and honor, and leads to everlasting life. That bread is the righteousness of Christ defined in the sixth chapter of John, God's plainly expressed will and divine antidote for the sin of the whole world; accepting that righteousness puts on the wedding garment and joins humanity with divinity in a standard of character that makes a person a fit guest at the wedding. Presumption that measures character by human ideas and continues in sin leaves the garment off, hinders God in fulfilling every specification of His promise, and results in loss of the soul, so deciding for Christ requires a firm stand and surrendering to God what is already His own. God has prepared bounties of rich grace as a heavenly banquet at infinite cost to satisfy those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and the true bread of life found only in Christ is eternal life gained by cherishing in the heart the truth that works by love and purifies the soul.
Receiving the Bread
Receiving this bread is coming to Christ and believing in Him and feeding on Him as personal Saviour, making Him the dependence and taking Him at His word. Personal faith brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ, which mere outward connection cannot give, and seeing without believing does not bring His light and life. The Bread of heaven was already standing in the midst of those who asked for it continually, yet they did not recognize Him, so the answer declares plainly that He Himself is the bread of life for all who come so that they never hunger and all who believe so that they never thirst. This receiving enters experientially into His incarnation for redemption and daily sanctification, rather than living for self or resting in having seen His work on hearts and in men and women coming out from the world.
To receive is to eat His flesh and drink His blood by voluntarily appropriating truth until it becomes the very life of the soul. It is dwelling in Him and having Him dwell within, laying hold upon truth in fellowship of the Spirit, appropriating and receiving the words of Christ into the heart here and now and not waiting until translation. That eating enters into the life of Christ and appreciates the great sacrifice for the sinful race, thrills the soul with spiritual life when His words are believed and practiced, makes the believer one with Him in this present life, and becomes the leaves of the tree of life for healing. It is being lost to self and having His lifeblood circulate through the soul as Christ is formed within, comprehending truth as it is in Jesus, bringing truth into daily experience, and growing continually in grace in the school of Christ through prayer for this and for all other blessings. The order is first to believe in the only begotten Son whom God sent, clothed in humanity as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and next to work the works of God as doers of the Word.
Eating is studying and practicing His Word, looking to Jesus and walking by faith in that Word, with the Bible as the great educating Book above all other books. It is bringing the Word home to mind and soul until mind and soul are filled with its greatness and power, taking in Christ's words, keeping their precepts, making their truths part of daily life, and receiving Him as the center of life. The bread and the water of life are necessary for seeing God's kingdom, for the Spirit gives life while the flesh profits nothing, and His words are spirit and life that nourish the mind and form a Christlike spirit and character. The lessons of this chapter set out the conditions of eternal life, leading to a life that measures with the life of God when understood and lived, and its request for bread is therefore connected with eating the bread of life through lessons to be studied, remembered, lived, and kept continually before the soul. This feeding proves His mind and will by praying and communing with God, obeying every word God has revealed, and bringing Christ's words into practical life.
Blessings of Receiving
Whoever comes to Him and believes on Him shall never hunger and never thirst, for the bread from heaven satisfies the heart, strengthens the moral powers, and refreshes the soul with lasting spiritual nourishment. That receiving ends the craving for higher enjoyment and the feverish thirst for wealth and honor, leaving unrest, weariness and uncertainty removed. Feeding on Christ answers the soul's hunger for God and brings spiritual strength and comfort, with His words comforting, encouraging, strengthening and settling those who receive them. Turning the heart toward worldly entertainments instead cuts off that supply, leaving no hunger for God and no peace, joy or hope. Bringing His words into the life means receiving through the Spirit the life that leads to eternal life and resurrection, with fullness of joy.
Whoever so receives has eternal life now and more abundantly, a life hid with Christ in God that measures with the life of God. The Saviour's life is within him, 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, purified and exalted and devoted to noble purposes. Though he may die as Christ died, he will be raised up at the last day, for His words are spirit and life and to eat His flesh and drink His blood is to voluntarily appropriate truth until it becomes the very life of the soul, dwelling in Him and having Him dwell within. The chapter containing the request sets out the conditions of eternal life, and understanding and living by it leads to that life and prepares for translation to immortal life.
Feeding on Christ through His Word nourishes the mind and forms a Christlike spirit and character. Like physical food sustains the body, this spiritual food sustains spiritual life and gives eternal life, health and vigor, restoring in people the moral image of God which has been obliterated but can be made new again by eating the bread of life. Those who receive it grow to reflect Christ's character, showing unselfishness, integrity, kindness, love and the fruits of the Spirit. Received and made part of a person's life, the Word produces faith that works by love and purifies the soul, removing inherited tendencies to evil and wrong traits strengthened by habit lest they corrupt the whole person and destroy influence for good. That eating is tasting that the Lord is gracious as a real part of actual experience, with self lost in Christ as each day the leaves of the tree of life are taken, the frivolous life changed, the common level forsaken, and Christ revealed in spirit, words and actions with power to testify and endure. The preacher himself must first so eat that bread and commune with God before daring to preach, and that eating puts the element of eternal life in the ministry, giving new perception of truth, kindling inner life and the fire of God's love, and making the word touch every case with clearness and power.
Misunderstanding and Unbelief
The request was made without understanding, for those who asked were thinking only of ordinary temporal food rather than the spiritual bread He had described. When told that Moses did not give the bread from heaven but the Father gives the true bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, they answered with a plea to give them that bread continually, yet they meant literal bread to eat and even urged a miracle like the manna given to Israel in the wilderness. They did not grasp His line of instruction that He Himself is the bread come down from heaven to give life to the world, offered as the tree of life to a starving world that does not realize it is perishing of hunger. The Bread of heaven was already standing in their midst, indeed the very One who in the wilderness had given their fathers angels' food to eat, but they did not know who was addressing them and did not recognize Him as the Bread of life, and had they known Him their attitude toward Him would have been changed. Seeing Him without believing in the One standing before them brought them no light and life, so He answered them by declaring plainly that He Himself is the bread of life, teaching that Christ is the center of life and that receiving His words brings spiritual life. Their failure exposes failure to study and obey Christ's words, which are His flesh and blood, and failure to receive Christ as a personal Saviour by crucifying self, a condition repeated among many today who claim to be God's children.
The request was outward only, for they did not truly want Christ but self and the gift, and when they had opportunity actually to eat that bread by coming to Christ and believing on Him as the Lamb of God who takes away sin, it was not palatable to them. People may earnestly ask for the bread from heaven yet still reject Christ if they cling to human traditions and ideas and expect a temporal reign rather than His spiritual kingdom, for receiving the bread means coming to Him and believing in Him. His words rightly received can comfort, encourage, strengthen and settle, removing unrest, weariness and uncertainty. The chapter to which the verse belongs presents truths that lead people to decide for or against Him and reveal what they truly believe, testing those who claimed to be His disciples until the truth offended many. Some closed their hearts to correction and turned away rather than accept it, and being worldly-minded they walked no more with Him.
Neglect of this heavenly manna leaves the soul starving, dwarfed, without progress and unfitted for duty, for spiritually men and women are built up from the food they give the mind. Feeding on Christ brings spiritual strength and comfort and satisfies the highest spiritual demands and hunger of the soul, while turning the heart toward worldly entertainments cuts off supply, takes away hunger for God, and leaves no peace, joy or hope. Those who hunger for Christ are filled with His fullness, but those who feed their minds on worldly entertainments lose appetite for heavenly instruction and spiritual life. Comparatively little care should be given to temporal food to satisfy temporal hunger, while heavenly food is of the highest consequence and calls for special, not casual, attention through the ages to our own time. The bread prayed for evermore is contained in the Bible, God's truth that confronts the devil's lie, the great truths of His mission and work, so earnest study of Scripture rather than useless reading increases appetite for this heavenly bread, awakens desire to overcome as He overcame, and must be asked for with clearness of understanding to comprehend the important statements in the sixth chapter of John. Those ministering in word and doctrine must therefore not be dull of understanding nor spend time reading books, magazines and frivolous literature that lead the mind astray and hinder growth, and God's people must not accept human maxims, adulterated teachings presented as science, and cheap common fare offered as heavenly food, which leave readers spiritually weakened and starved. Receiving requires true wholehearted service with spiritual things as the aim and object of life, not looking for a temporal kingdom or striving for temporal advancement and worldly pre-eminence like the scribes and Pharisees, but denying self, lifting the cross, and following Christ wherever He leads as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and then all hungering of soul is satisfied.
Sharing and Daily Living
The cry for bread evermore is a prayer for continual supply, for fresh manna from heaven given every day and eaten here and now. It is to be sought by prayer and the means of grace, gathered daily from the Word and brought home to mind and soul into daily life until its principles become part of the self. To ask in this way is to ask for growth in grace in the school of Christ, for comprehension of truth as it is in Jesus by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. That eating means diligent study, living by every word God has revealed and not departing from its precepts, holding what is necessary for salvation instead of human suppositions, proving His mind and will through communion with God. The living bread that endures to eternal life is of far more consequence than perishable food for bodily necessity, and is to be secured with far more anxiety than temporal provision, with priority over business, appetite, and physical sustenance for rich and poor, high and low. It can be obtained from no human agent, for through the gift of Christ God Himself gives it, and those who have tasted its loveliness and the powers of the world to come cling to Jesus and abide in Him rather than feeding on husks.
Those united to Christ receive spiritual food from Him as source and then share it, for disciples are channels who can give only what they have first received, and as they impart they continue to receive. They must therefore seek spiritual food from God before attempting to feed hungry souls, lest they offer what they do not possess, and whatever light and wisdom they learn of the divine Teacher is to be shared so that none is wasted. That Bread sent down from heaven sustains all spiritual life and binds the human agent with Christ in God, and human agents molded by the Holy Spirit thus represent Christ in preaching, teaching, and personal labor. The same continual need belongs to workers and to those they serve, who need spiritual nourishment as constantly as temporal food, so truth is to be supplied alongside bodily help and care. This joining of care with instruction belongs to schools, where common branches are taught more thoroughly when the Word is honored, and to sanitariums and restaurants, whose work of care and instruction is meant to bring people of every class to spiritual truth.
The chapter containing the request sets out the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom, and understanding and living by its lessons brings a life that measures with the life of God. Its lessons are to be studied, remembered, and lived, made the center of practical life, with its directions for holiness and obedience followed as the plain will of God and antidote that can cure dissension. The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God, whose substitutionary work for sin was already the hope of ancient Israel, and their spirituality nourishes the soul unto salvation. The chapter is to be studied for Christ's life-giving words and the need to receive and assimilate them, teaching dependence on Christ rather than on human beings as the source of spiritual life and strength. In that heart-revealing encounter Jesus presents truths that decide for or against Him, holding the Word as stronghold against deception and obeying sacred principles with firmness.
At Capernaum the day after the feeding of the multitude, when Jesus had taught that the Father gives the true bread from heaven that gives life to the world, the crowd answered with a plea for that bread always and continually. They were still thinking of food that sustains physical life and temporal advantage, yet the bread they asked for is Christ Himself standing among them, the Bread of life sent to give spiritual life through pardon and faith. That bread is also His Word and truth that nourishes the mind, and the life-giving power of His Spirit, grace, righteousness and sacrifice for sin. To receive it is to come to Him and believe in Him, appropriating Him by personal faith until His truth becomes the very life of the soul and is lived out in obedience, prayer and doing God's will. Whoever so comes will never hunger and never thirst, but has eternal life now, is formed into Christlike character, and must seek this manna fresh every day and share it with hungry souls.
Historical Setting and Request
The request was made at Capernaum on the day after the feeding of the multitude with five loaves and two fishes, followed by the walking on the water. It came when Jesus had just taught that Moses did not give the bread from heaven but the Father gives the true bread from heaven that comes down and gives life to the world, and the crowd answered that teaching with a direct request for the bread. They asked right after hearing that the bread of God comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, while they were thinking of the miracle of the five thousand and urging a miracle like the manna given to Israel in the wilderness. The words were spoken to the very One who in the wilderness had given their fathers angels' food to eat, though they did not know who was addressing them, and had they known Him their attitude toward Him would have been changed. The Bread of heaven was already standing in their midst, but they did not recognize Him as the Bread of life.
Those asking had eaten of the loaves and were filled, and were still seeking provision that sustains physical life and temporal advantages they could obtain, not because they saw the miracles. They treated His promise as an offer of continuing literal food, thinking of temporal food He had miraculously provided and of ordinary food rather than the spiritual bread He had described. Even after witnessing the feeding they still did not believe in Him as the Son of God, so their request did not itself express faith in Him, and they cried for a sign despite the twelve baskets gathered up while urging Him to work a miracle like the manna. Christ made the miracle the occasion for His sermon on the bread of life, setting forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God. The spiritual teaching of the loaves was not yet understood and was about to be made plain, bringing a closer test, when many who heard those conditions went back and walked no more with Him.
The word rendered evermore is a plea for this bread always and continually, made in response to hearing of bread from heaven that gives life to the world. They asked Jesus continually to give them the bread He had described, to keep giving them the true bread from heaven. Christ used their request to lead their minds to higher truth, that He Himself is the bread of life and that to have eternal life they must receive Him, believe in Him, and become one with Him by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Jesus answered the request by declaring plainly that He Himself is the bread of life, so that whoever comes to Him will never hunger and whoever believes on Him will never thirst. Their failure to recognize that Jesus Himself was the bread of life, sent by God to give life to the world, exposed failure to study and obey Christ's words, which are His flesh and blood, and failure to receive Christ as a personal Saviour by crucifying self.
Meaning of the Bread
The bread asked for evermore is Christ Himself, the true bread from heaven sent by the Father to give life to the world, the Bread of life already standing among those who asked without recognizing Him. He is the sin-pardoning Saviour who gives spiritual life through faith and pardon and raises those who receive Him to be sons and daughters of God. Coming to Him and believing in Him satisfies spiritual hunger and thirst, and receiving Him means feeding on Christ through His Word, which nourishes the mind and forms a Christlike spirit and character. That receiving is eating His flesh and drinking His blood, by which whoever so receives Him has eternal life now and more abundantly, has the Saviour's life within hid with Christ in God, will be raised up at the last day though he die, and is carried on in the great process of being made one with Him in this present life to be one with Him through all eternity. The same chapter teaches dependence on Christ rather than on human beings, for He is the source of spiritual life and strength, and His words comfort, encourage, strengthen and settle, removing unrest, weariness and uncertainty, calling students to bring His words into practical life and receive Him as the center of life.
The bread is also His Word and truth, His words which are spirit and life, as explained where the Spirit gives life while the flesh profits nothing. Receiving this life-giving food means keeping His Word and its truth continually before the mind, taking in Christ's words, keeping their precepts, and making their truths part of daily life, for what God has revealed is necessary for salvation and for seeing God's kingdom. To eat is to study and practice the Word, to be doers of the Word of God, looking to Jesus and walking by faith in that Word, with the Bible standing as the great educating Book above all other books. The order set forth is first to believe in the only begotten Son whom God sent, clothed in humanity as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and next to work the works of God. The request for bread evermore is thus met by asking for continual study in which the principles of Scripture are brought home to the soul and into daily life, received and assimilated until they become part of the self, which is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. This means living by every word God has revealed and not departing from its precepts, holding it instead of the suppositions of men, grasped through prayer and communion with God and proving His mind and will, known only in Christ by those striving for eternal life. The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God, whose substitutionary work for sin was the hope of ancient Israel even before His crucifixion, the true manna nourishing the mind, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and the message of salvation meant for the whole world that cannot be monopolized by one people, whose directions for practical holiness and obedience are to be followed.
The bread is a figure for the life-giving power of His Spirit and heavenly provision for the soul, where physical bread sustains the body while this bread satisfies the heart and strengthens the moral powers. Receiving Him by faith brings lasting spiritual refreshment and strength and comfort, answers the soul's hunger for God, ends craving for higher enjoyment and feverish thirst for wealth and honor, and leads to everlasting life. That bread is the righteousness of Christ defined in the sixth chapter of John, God's plainly expressed will and divine antidote for the sin of the whole world; accepting that righteousness puts on the wedding garment and joins humanity with divinity in a standard of character that makes a person a fit guest at the wedding. Presumption that measures character by human ideas and continues in sin leaves the garment off, hinders God in fulfilling every specification of His promise, and results in loss of the soul, so deciding for Christ requires a firm stand and surrendering to God what is already His own. God has prepared bounties of rich grace as a heavenly banquet at infinite cost to satisfy those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, and the true bread of life found only in Christ is eternal life gained by cherishing in the heart the truth that works by love and purifies the soul.
Receiving the Bread
Receiving this bread is coming to Christ and believing in Him and feeding on Him as personal Saviour, making Him the dependence and taking Him at His word. Personal faith brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ, which mere outward connection cannot give, and seeing without believing does not bring His light and life. The Bread of heaven was already standing in the midst of those who asked for it continually, yet they did not recognize Him, so the answer declares plainly that He Himself is the bread of life for all who come so that they never hunger and all who believe so that they never thirst. This receiving enters experientially into His incarnation for redemption and daily sanctification, rather than living for self or resting in having seen His work on hearts and in men and women coming out from the world.
To receive is to eat His flesh and drink His blood by voluntarily appropriating truth until it becomes the very life of the soul. It is dwelling in Him and having Him dwell within, laying hold upon truth in fellowship of the Spirit, appropriating and receiving the words of Christ into the heart here and now and not waiting until translation. That eating enters into the life of Christ and appreciates the great sacrifice for the sinful race, thrills the soul with spiritual life when His words are believed and practiced, makes the believer one with Him in this present life, and becomes the leaves of the tree of life for healing. It is being lost to self and having His lifeblood circulate through the soul as Christ is formed within, comprehending truth as it is in Jesus, bringing truth into daily experience, and growing continually in grace in the school of Christ through prayer for this and for all other blessings. The order is first to believe in the only begotten Son whom God sent, clothed in humanity as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and next to work the works of God as doers of the Word.
Eating is studying and practicing His Word, looking to Jesus and walking by faith in that Word, with the Bible as the great educating Book above all other books. It is bringing the Word home to mind and soul until mind and soul are filled with its greatness and power, taking in Christ's words, keeping their precepts, making their truths part of daily life, and receiving Him as the center of life. The bread and the water of life are necessary for seeing God's kingdom, for the Spirit gives life while the flesh profits nothing, and His words are spirit and life that nourish the mind and form a Christlike spirit and character. The lessons of this chapter set out the conditions of eternal life, leading to a life that measures with the life of God when understood and lived, and its request for bread is therefore connected with eating the bread of life through lessons to be studied, remembered, lived, and kept continually before the soul. This feeding proves His mind and will by praying and communing with God, obeying every word God has revealed, and bringing Christ's words into practical life.
Blessings of Receiving
Whoever comes to Him and believes on Him shall never hunger and never thirst, for the bread from heaven satisfies the heart, strengthens the moral powers, and refreshes the soul with lasting spiritual nourishment. That receiving ends the craving for higher enjoyment and the feverish thirst for wealth and honor, leaving unrest, weariness and uncertainty removed. Feeding on Christ answers the soul's hunger for God and brings spiritual strength and comfort, with His words comforting, encouraging, strengthening and settling those who receive them. Turning the heart toward worldly entertainments instead cuts off that supply, leaving no hunger for God and no peace, joy or hope. Bringing His words into the life means receiving through the Spirit the life that leads to eternal life and resurrection, with fullness of joy.
Whoever so receives has eternal life now and more abundantly, a life hid with Christ in God that measures with the life of God. The Saviour's life is within him, 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, purified and exalted and devoted to noble purposes. Though he may die as Christ died, he will be raised up at the last day, for His words are spirit and life and to eat His flesh and drink His blood is to voluntarily appropriate truth until it becomes the very life of the soul, dwelling in Him and having Him dwell within. The chapter containing the request sets out the conditions of eternal life, and understanding and living by it leads to that life and prepares for translation to immortal life.
Feeding on Christ through His Word nourishes the mind and forms a Christlike spirit and character. Like physical food sustains the body, this spiritual food sustains spiritual life and gives eternal life, health and vigor, restoring in people the moral image of God which has been obliterated but can be made new again by eating the bread of life. Those who receive it grow to reflect Christ's character, showing unselfishness, integrity, kindness, love and the fruits of the Spirit. Received and made part of a person's life, the Word produces faith that works by love and purifies the soul, removing inherited tendencies to evil and wrong traits strengthened by habit lest they corrupt the whole person and destroy influence for good. That eating is tasting that the Lord is gracious as a real part of actual experience, with self lost in Christ as each day the leaves of the tree of life are taken, the frivolous life changed, the common level forsaken, and Christ revealed in spirit, words and actions with power to testify and endure. The preacher himself must first so eat that bread and commune with God before daring to preach, and that eating puts the element of eternal life in the ministry, giving new perception of truth, kindling inner life and the fire of God's love, and making the word touch every case with clearness and power.
Misunderstanding and Unbelief
The request was made without understanding, for those who asked were thinking only of ordinary temporal food rather than the spiritual bread He had described. When told that Moses did not give the bread from heaven but the Father gives the true bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, they answered with a plea to give them that bread continually, yet they meant literal bread to eat and even urged a miracle like the manna given to Israel in the wilderness. They did not grasp His line of instruction that He Himself is the bread come down from heaven to give life to the world, offered as the tree of life to a starving world that does not realize it is perishing of hunger. The Bread of heaven was already standing in their midst, indeed the very One who in the wilderness had given their fathers angels' food to eat, but they did not know who was addressing them and did not recognize Him as the Bread of life, and had they known Him their attitude toward Him would have been changed. Seeing Him without believing in the One standing before them brought them no light and life, so He answered them by declaring plainly that He Himself is the bread of life, teaching that Christ is the center of life and that receiving His words brings spiritual life. Their failure exposes failure to study and obey Christ's words, which are His flesh and blood, and failure to receive Christ as a personal Saviour by crucifying self, a condition repeated among many today who claim to be God's children.
The request was outward only, for they did not truly want Christ but self and the gift, and when they had opportunity actually to eat that bread by coming to Christ and believing on Him as the Lamb of God who takes away sin, it was not palatable to them. People may earnestly ask for the bread from heaven yet still reject Christ if they cling to human traditions and ideas and expect a temporal reign rather than His spiritual kingdom, for receiving the bread means coming to Him and believing in Him. His words rightly received can comfort, encourage, strengthen and settle, removing unrest, weariness and uncertainty. The chapter to which the verse belongs presents truths that lead people to decide for or against Him and reveal what they truly believe, testing those who claimed to be His disciples until the truth offended many. Some closed their hearts to correction and turned away rather than accept it, and being worldly-minded they walked no more with Him.
Neglect of this heavenly manna leaves the soul starving, dwarfed, without progress and unfitted for duty, for spiritually men and women are built up from the food they give the mind. Feeding on Christ brings spiritual strength and comfort and satisfies the highest spiritual demands and hunger of the soul, while turning the heart toward worldly entertainments cuts off supply, takes away hunger for God, and leaves no peace, joy or hope. Those who hunger for Christ are filled with His fullness, but those who feed their minds on worldly entertainments lose appetite for heavenly instruction and spiritual life. Comparatively little care should be given to temporal food to satisfy temporal hunger, while heavenly food is of the highest consequence and calls for special, not casual, attention through the ages to our own time. The bread prayed for evermore is contained in the Bible, God's truth that confronts the devil's lie, the great truths of His mission and work, so earnest study of Scripture rather than useless reading increases appetite for this heavenly bread, awakens desire to overcome as He overcame, and must be asked for with clearness of understanding to comprehend the important statements in the sixth chapter of John. Those ministering in word and doctrine must therefore not be dull of understanding nor spend time reading books, magazines and frivolous literature that lead the mind astray and hinder growth, and God's people must not accept human maxims, adulterated teachings presented as science, and cheap common fare offered as heavenly food, which leave readers spiritually weakened and starved. Receiving requires true wholehearted service with spiritual things as the aim and object of life, not looking for a temporal kingdom or striving for temporal advancement and worldly pre-eminence like the scribes and Pharisees, but denying self, lifting the cross, and following Christ wherever He leads as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and then all hungering of soul is satisfied.
Sharing and Daily Living
The cry for bread evermore is a prayer for continual supply, for fresh manna from heaven given every day and eaten here and now. It is to be sought by prayer and the means of grace, gathered daily from the Word and brought home to mind and soul into daily life until its principles become part of the self. To ask in this way is to ask for growth in grace in the school of Christ, for comprehension of truth as it is in Jesus by eating His flesh and drinking His blood. That eating means diligent study, living by every word God has revealed and not departing from its precepts, holding what is necessary for salvation instead of human suppositions, proving His mind and will through communion with God. The living bread that endures to eternal life is of far more consequence than perishable food for bodily necessity, and is to be secured with far more anxiety than temporal provision, with priority over business, appetite, and physical sustenance for rich and poor, high and low. It can be obtained from no human agent, for through the gift of Christ God Himself gives it, and those who have tasted its loveliness and the powers of the world to come cling to Jesus and abide in Him rather than feeding on husks.
Those united to Christ receive spiritual food from Him as source and then share it, for disciples are channels who can give only what they have first received, and as they impart they continue to receive. They must therefore seek spiritual food from God before attempting to feed hungry souls, lest they offer what they do not possess, and whatever light and wisdom they learn of the divine Teacher is to be shared so that none is wasted. That Bread sent down from heaven sustains all spiritual life and binds the human agent with Christ in God, and human agents molded by the Holy Spirit thus represent Christ in preaching, teaching, and personal labor. The same continual need belongs to workers and to those they serve, who need spiritual nourishment as constantly as temporal food, so truth is to be supplied alongside bodily help and care. This joining of care with instruction belongs to schools, where common branches are taught more thoroughly when the Word is honored, and to sanitariums and restaurants, whose work of care and instruction is meant to bring people of every class to spiritual truth.
The chapter containing the request sets out the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom, and understanding and living by its lessons brings a life that measures with the life of God. Its lessons are to be studied, remembered, and lived, made the center of practical life, with its directions for holiness and obedience followed as the plain will of God and antidote that can cure dissension. The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God, whose substitutionary work for sin was already the hope of ancient Israel, and their spirituality nourishes the soul unto salvation. The chapter is to be studied for Christ's life-giving words and the need to receive and assimilate them, teaching dependence on Christ rather than on human beings as the source of spiritual life and strength. In that heart-revealing encounter Jesus presents truths that decide for or against Him, holding the Word as stronghold against deception and obeying sacred principles with firmness.