John 6:35
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
Jesus himself is the true bread come down from heaven, given by the Father to give life to the world, and coming to him ends hunger and believing on him ends thirst forever. The eating and drinking is figurative, not literal flesh, meaning to receive him by living faith as personal Saviour and to take his life-giving words into heart and life until they govern character and action. This receiving must be direct and daily, by hearing, believing, remembering, obeying and practicing the Scriptures through prayer and the Spirit, not by depending on other people or by mere hearing and outward membership. So received he sustains the soul as bread sustains the body, giving forgiveness, rest, joy, holiness, power to overcome, and eternal life now with resurrection at the last day. Those who are fed must pass the bread on, for he entrusted this life-giving truth to his disciples to share with a starving world by word, mercy, healing and missionary labor, while feeding on worldly amusements, false teaching and selfish gain leaves the soul starving.
Setting and First Hearers
The declaration was made in the synagogue at Capernaum on the day after the feeding of the multitude with loaves and fishes and after coming to the disciples walking on the sea. The minds of the hearers were fixed on the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, and the words were spoken to lead them to higher truth, laying down the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom. Its words are clear, definite and positive, repeated over and over to teach the lesson of the bread of life.
The crowd had witnessed the miracle yet did not believe He was the Son of God, but crossed the sea because they had eaten the loaves and were filled and wanted Him to keep sustaining physical life. They wanted continued physical provision and even another display of how the food was multiplied, hoping to learn a method of multiplying food for their own benefit. Many followed only for the temporal advantage of being filled with food, and when they heard conditions requiring dying to self and practicing self-denial they went back and walked no more with Him.
When they cited the manna their fathers ate and demanded a sign, and when they asked that the heavenly bread be given to them always, He answered that Moses did not give the bread from heaven but the Father gives the true bread from heaven. That true bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, the same One who gave angels' food to Israel in the wilderness, and He was standing unrecognized in their midst. He Himself is that bread of life, so that coming to Him ends hunger and believing on Him ends thirst, meeting the soul's deepest need for salvation as food and drink meet bodily hunger and thirst. The bread is not merely material food, but Christ Himself and His life-giving words, which are spirit and life, received through faith unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day, not by relying on the flesh.
The first hearers thought only of temporal food and did not understand the spiritual instruction He was giving. Seeing Him and His work is not believing, for people may see His work and still lack His light and life and still fail to believe. Hearing precious instruction profits nothing without mixing heard truth with faith and appropriating it to the soul as bread and water of life, and belief means more than a claim to believe, being the faith by which a person receives everlasting life and becomes one with Him as branch with vine. This seeing yet not believing, as when the crowd sought Him only because they ate the loaves and demanded a sign like the manna, remains the condition of many who claim to be children of God without understanding what personal reception of Christ means, like His own at His advent not receiving Him and darkness not comprehending the light.
His plain testimony presented a spiritual kingdom and work rather than earthly kingship and a temporal throne, for after feeding the five thousand He refused to become king and taught of His spiritual kingdom. That presentation tested professed disciples and led hearers to decide for or against Him, revealing the real sentiments of their hearts. The truth offended many, and they turned away rather than accept its rebuke and reform their lives, showing they preferred human praise to God's admonition and were unwilling to die to self. Many followers were offended and walked no more with Him, some joining the Pharisees who watched His movements for grounds to condemn Him to death, while the twelve remained and Peter affirmed loyalty.
In that setting the message also helped people receive the truth and make a public confession of faith. He gave the Word to the multitude as a field preacher, sitting with authority as teacher to feed the people with His spoken Word rather than by handing them the written Scriptures. He joined that instruction with the miracle enlarging a small substance of temporal food, and the mercy of supplying temporal food to the hungry opened the way to place Him in the chair of instruction and opened a door for His disciples to be recognized as working as He worked.
The declaration was made in the synagogue at Capernaum on the day after the feeding of the multitude with loaves and fishes and after coming to the disciples walking on the sea. The minds of the hearers were fixed on the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, and the words were spoken to lead them to higher truth, laying down the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom. Its words are clear, definite and positive, repeated over and over to teach the lesson of the bread of life.
The crowd had witnessed the miracle yet did not believe He was the Son of God, but crossed the sea because they had eaten the loaves and were filled and wanted Him to keep sustaining physical life. They wanted continued physical provision and even another display of how the food was multiplied, hoping to learn a method of multiplying food for their own benefit. Many followed only for the temporal advantage of being filled with food, and when they heard conditions requiring dying to self and practicing self-denial they went back and walked no more with Him.
When they cited the manna their fathers ate and demanded a sign, and when they asked that the heavenly bread be given to them always, He answered that Moses did not give the bread from heaven but the Father gives the true bread from heaven. That true bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, the same One who gave angels' food to Israel in the wilderness, and He was standing unrecognized in their midst. He Himself is that bread of life, so that coming to Him ends hunger and believing on Him ends thirst, meeting the soul's deepest need for salvation as food and drink meet bodily hunger and thirst. The bread is not merely material food, but Christ Himself and His life-giving words, which are spirit and life, received through faith unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day, not by relying on the flesh.
The first hearers thought only of temporal food and did not understand the spiritual instruction He was giving. Seeing Him and His work is not believing, for people may see His work and still lack His light and life and still fail to believe. Hearing precious instruction profits nothing without mixing heard truth with faith and appropriating it to the soul as bread and water of life, and belief means more than a claim to believe, being the faith by which a person receives everlasting life and becomes one with Him as branch with vine. This seeing yet not believing, as when the crowd sought Him only because they ate the loaves and demanded a sign like the manna, remains the condition of many who claim to be children of God without understanding what personal reception of Christ means, like His own at His advent not receiving Him and darkness not comprehending the light.
His plain testimony presented a spiritual kingdom and work rather than earthly kingship and a temporal throne, for after feeding the five thousand He refused to become king and taught of His spiritual kingdom. That presentation tested professed disciples and led hearers to decide for or against Him, revealing the real sentiments of their hearts. The truth offended many, and they turned away rather than accept its rebuke and reform their lives, showing they preferred human praise to God's admonition and were unwilling to die to self. Many followers were offended and walked no more with Him, some joining the Pharisees who watched His movements for grounds to condemn Him to death, while the twelve remained and Peter affirmed loyalty.
In that setting the message also helped people receive the truth and make a public confession of faith. He gave the Word to the multitude as a field preacher, sitting with authority as teacher to feed the people with His spoken Word rather than by handing them the written Scriptures. He joined that instruction with the miracle enlarging a small substance of temporal food, and the mercy of supplying temporal food to the hungry opened the way to place Him in the chair of instruction and opened a door for His disciples to be recognized as working as He worked.
Bread Is Christ Himself
Jesus himself is the true bread of life come down from heaven, given by the Father to give life to the world, the living source of mercy and love. Coming to him ends hunger and believing on him ends thirst, meeting the soul's deepest need for salvation. As physical bread sustains the body, his Spirit gives life, satisfies the heart, strengthens the moral powers, and brings continual refreshment, freedom from uncertainty, and release from the feverish desire for wealth and honor and from hunger for higher enjoyment. The manna that preserved Israel in the wilderness foreshadowed this gift of the Son, through whom people may receive life leading to immortality, and he can live as an abiding guest in the soul bringing joy, comfort and sobriety as the center of life. Those who truly receive him are joined to him in spiritual union, made his dependence and only hope, trusting him as Saviour rather than depending on human guidance or approval.
The bread language is figurative and not literal flesh which profits nothing. To eat his flesh and drink his blood is to receive him by earnest belief as personal Saviour and to take his life-giving words, which are spirit and life, into heart and life. That eating is keeping his Word and truth continually before the mind, studying and practicing the Word, looking to Jesus and living by faith rather than sight, with the Spirit giving life. It means mixing heard truth with faith and appropriating it to the soul as bread and water of life, hearing and searching his Word and then giving the Word entrance into life and character by becoming a doer of the Word. Seeing him and hearing precious instruction profits nothing without that faith, leaving the soul without the blessings and light intended, whereas believing gives everlasting life because his life becomes the believer's life, spirit made one with his as branch is one with the vine and nourished by its sap. So received in daily, hourly faith working by love and purifying the soul, he gives nourishment sufficient for every need, forgiveness, sanctification unto eternal life, growth to full stature, mutual dwelling of him in the believer and the believer in him, eternal life now, and resurrection at the last day.
His work as substitute, surety and representative is bound to this bread. In love he willingly laid aside his honor and high command in heaven, clothed divinity with humanity, took human guilt and its penalty, and offered in man's behalf a complete sacrifice to God. By virtue of that atonement he has power to offer perfect righteousness and full salvation, so that whoever believes on him as personal Saviour shall not perish but have everlasting life. He is the Word of God whose life and works testify he is the true life, giving his flesh for the life of the world and giving what temporal blessings and merely physical food could not provide, for his words are spirit and life. The chapter's teaching about eating the bread has special reference to this spiritual nourishment in the Word, whose living oracles are his flesh and blood, and his work as substitute for sin was the only hope of ancient Israel.
The verse defines the righteousness of Christ as Christ himself accepted by coming and believing. This acceptance is the putting on of the wedding garment and the marriage of humanity with divinity, the standard of character required to be counted a fit guest for the wedding. It requires a firm stand for Christ and surrender to God of what is already his, not measuring character by human ideas nor continuing in sin in presumption while expecting God to fulfill his promise.
The provision was made possible because as Prince of Life he laid aside royal robe, crown and high command in glory and joined humanity and divinity to become a steppingstone to vantage ground with God. The eternal Word appeared in human form in the fullness of time to re-create humanity in whom God's image was obliterated by sin and temptation and to reveal perfection amid a corrupted world, bringing all grace, all healing and all efficiency as appointed Instructor and Prophet who must be heard. Everyone who eats this bread by taking his Word and practicing it and drinking the water of salvation is imbued with the perfume of the sanctified and holy character of God, stands on vantage ground, has eternal life in him because he is in Christ and Christ is in him, making the Bible food and meat and drink and the elements of character. The verse therefore forbids living on human sayings and requires living by Thus saith the Lord, doing what God does.
He himself is the provision offered through the gospel, pictured by the great supper and the costly banquet furnished by God at infinite cost through his death. God in love provided inexhaustible resources and unsearchable riches, offering the greatest gift heaven can bestow, from whom the streams of salvation flow. To receive this bread is to receive him and his righteousness, making worldly interests subordinate to that one purpose, placing his service above every earthly and selfish consideration, accepting the invitation with an undivided heart because God gave all and cannot accept a divided heart absorbed in earthly affections. Faith in him alone destroys selfishness and self-idolatry, while refusal leaves spiritual hunger though heaven's food is set before them and grieves heaven, as the universe looks with amazement and angels listen with grief at excuses. This gospel feast was first invited to the Jewish people, with rich provision in the grace of God, the Holy Spirit and open treasures of truth; the king who provides is God, the son is the Lord Jesus Christ, and his marriage represents close union with his church, for whom he gave himself to redeem from all iniquity and purify a peculiar people zealous of good works, expected as the Bride, the Lamb's wife, to be at the marriage feast.
Coming and Believing Explained
Coming means direct, living, experimental dependence on Christ himself and clinging to his promises, not dependence on human beings, human guidance, approval, ideas, fellow believers, resources, or historical and theological writings, for no human agent can supply what satisfies hunger and thirst of soul but Jesus alone coming in and sharing fellowship satisfies it forever as a fountain quenches a weary traveler. This truth in his words nourishes faith and gives what human writings cannot, for he is the Bread of Life given by God himself, the only hope and source of spiritual life, the same compassionate Saviour today who also provides for bodily wants in various places yet calls chief labor to secure living bread enduring to eternal life rather than perishable provision.
Coming is going directly to him in need, casting the helpless soul upon him instead of turning to human friends who may lead into harm, trusting the loving compassionate Redeemer who knows how to assist poor trembling souls and who receives, strengthens, comforts and heals all maladies. Abiding in him and clinging to him as the only hope is required, and turning instead to what is like husks abandons the Bread of Life.
Coming and believing means mixing heard truth with faith and appropriating it to the soul as bread and water of life, for seeing and hearing precious instruction profits nothing without that faith and leaves the soul without blessings and light. The Word must be brought home to the understanding by thorough searching of the Scriptures until mind and soul are filled with its greatness and power, committed to memory and made part of daily life by becoming a doer of the Word. Believing thus gives everlasting life because his life becomes the believer's life, spirit made one with his as branch is one with vine and nourished by its sap, putting pride and selfishness to death and producing kind words, unselfish actions, compassion and love.
Each person must personally receive Christ and his word into the heart by faith, drinking it in, believing, practicing, obeying and being taught of God, not merely reading, hearing, tasting occasionally, or receiving through another's mind, but taking it in so fully that it shapes every action and trait of character. As bodily food cannot nourish unless eaten and digested, the bread will not profit unless received as a message from God into willing obedient hearts and obeyed, its reception depending not on learned testimonies, eloquent speeches or deep arguments but on simplicity and adaptation to souls hungering to know what they must do to be saved. So received daily it becomes bread of life, giving strength from God, immortal vigor, perfected experience, enduring joy, holiness and eternal life because life is in Christ.
Believing on Christ is the work of God that must be understood or heaven will be missed, for the price of heaven is the only begotten Son and the way to heaven is by faith in Jesus whom God sent, the divine Teacher come down clothed in humanity who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Faith comes first and work comes next, so students must be taught to believe and then they will work the works of God, making the Bible the great educating Book above all others and being doers of the Word, while understanding these truths requires God's teaching.
True coming is not mere theoretical knowledge but experimental knowledge of him as abiding personal Saviour and as Lamb of God that takes away sin of the world, placing the believer on vantage ground unto life and peace. Before coming self must be expelled from the soul and crucified, for many who ask for the bread find it unpalatable when offered because they want self and not Christ. The mind must therefore be educated aright, vain thoughts put away, the heart guarded as a faithful sentinel against pride and common subjects, Christ dwelt upon in meditation and drawn near in prayer, until the Holy Spirit molds the mind to recognize him in his true character and love appears in life as partaking with him and dwelling in him.
His life-giving truth is received by faith, not by unbelieving or selfish reasoning, for his words are spirit and life and those who receive them live through him. Understanding requires God to teach the heart, and those willing to do God's will see doctrines clearly and receive truth, while those rejecting light grow increasingly blind.
Eating does not wait until translation but happens now when the believer in fellowship of the Spirit lays hold upon truth itself and appropriates it, entering into his life and appreciating the great sacrifice made for the sinful race. To eat him is to be joined to him by genuine faith as food is incorporated into flesh and blood, so that his flesh and blood become spiritual life, he dwells in the believer and the believer in him, and Christ is formed within as hope of glory, which is the mystery of godliness and the science of redemption understood by the teachable soul under divine guidance. That knowledge is the bread of life and the leaves of the tree of life for healing, and as his words are believed and practiced the current of spiritual life thrills the soul, making weak experience strong, cleansing from impurity, bringing continual growth in grace through daily schooling in Christ and intelligent knowledge of God and Christ whom he sent.
Tasting that the Lord is gracious is actual personal experience of conversion and new birth, discerning the requirements of the spiritual kingdom and seeing the kingdom of God. It is learned as newborn babes desiring the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby, by opening the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it, which gives light and understanding to the simple. When obtained it changes the frivolous life, transforms character, forsakes the common level, places the feet on Christ as the first round of the ladder and leads step by step heavenward with Christ revealed in spirit, words and actions, quickening the believer, revealing power of the world to come, renewing in holiness and producing fruit to God's glory.
Coming to him and believing in him are connected respectively with never hungering and never thirsting for heavenly manna and waters of life, in contrast to perishing food of very little value, and this satisfies forever and gives spiritual and eternal life. In him are found the waters of salvation, awareness of his presence brings holy joy and relish for holy things, and feeding on him turns people from trust in own worthiness to his worthiness.
Coming and believing nourish spiritual strength as Bible truths are received into the heart and practiced daily, so those who come and believe receive what souls need and no longer hunger or thirst. The spiritually starving are nourished when the Word finds a home in hearts longing for truth.
Sinners find satisfying life by coming to him and trusting him and turning attention from guilt to the Saviour, bringing the victory of forgiveness and salvation as he gives bread and water to the spiritually parched. Coming and trusting means relying on his merits not human works, the only nourishment for souls starved by guilt and false hopes of earning pardon, giving hope and peace by union with him by faith.
Hungering is eagerness for the word about the saints' inheritance, and thirst is longing for God himself and his salvation at Jesus' feet claiming promises, while wanting the bread is earnest longing desire to learn truth. This image of starving describes deep spiritual need for the spiritual life, nourishment, truth and pure gospel found in Christ, met by coming through the simple gospel, and souls hungry for this Bread are more receptive than habitual hearers who do not act, with soul-hunger awakened when education and experience lead to seek Christ.
Seeking this bread through Scripture and humble prayer brings greater spiritual strength with less attention to appetite and temporal wants, and its hunger is expressed through earnest heartfelt prayer asking God for what is needed. Hungering and thirsting means drawing nearer to God with full assurance of faith, seeking him in private prayer and public worship, casting the helpless soul upon him in belief, beholding his glory, confessing, and receiving the Spirit. Those who come and believe in this way receive grace sufficient, power to become children of God and live in most intimate relationship with Christ, passage from darkness into light of the gospel with peace, hope and joy, and fullness which is the glory he gave disciples, a character fashioned after the divine likeness, for the Lord alone fills those hungering after righteousness and earnest prayerful struggles are not in vain.
Those who receive Christ and accept him as Saviour and Redeemer never hunger or thirst because no joy is greater than joy found in him. He gives life to fallen humanity, those accepting him are acknowledged as his special treasure, his presence brings light, peace and joy abundantly satisfying hunger and thirst, and Jesus and the word of his grace with precious promises satisfy the hungering soul as manna nourished Israel.
People need living, abiding faith turning to him in penitence and faith rather than trying to revive an old experience. Those asking for the Scriptures as bread seek the Word that leads to him, to be presented simply and lovingly, with help to the needy opening the way for them to receive life unto eternal life.
The Scriptures reveal him and teach where hope of eternal life is centered, so accepting him as Saviour satisfies deepest need and brings promise of eternal life. The verse prompts whether he is the soul's nourishment and satisfaction, and those recognizing spiritual poverty and looking to Jesus find in him what they need, contemplating his glory making other interests fade and awakening humble confidence, love and gratitude.
Mere outward connection with any church will not save, though God calls the church his body and the bride, the Lamb's wife, and is Father of the family and Shepherd of the flock. Only personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ in which hunger and thirst are satisfied forever, and gives the eternal life that belongs to it.
Life and Satisfaction Promised
As physical bread sustains the body, so Christ by His Spirit sustains the soul, satisfies the heart, strengthens the moral powers, and gives health, vigor, comfort, encouragement and continual refreshment, becoming within the believer a well springing up to everlasting life and immortality, just as manna preserved Israel in the wilderness and as the tree of life sustained Eden. Coming to Him ends hunger and believing on Him ends thirst because His words are spirit and life, and that daily feeding by studying the Word, breathing His Spirit, sitting at His feet to learn meekness, and abiding in Him gives sustaining power to do all that must be done, infuses immortal vigor, perfects experience, brings abiding joys, feeds the mind, surrounds the soul with heaven's atmosphere, gives spiritual health and fitness for missionary work, and dispels faint-heartedness. Coming and believing ends the feverish desire for wealth and honor, the hunger for higher enjoyment, and the desire for any higher or more satisfying good, for the restless chase after pleasure, vanity and variety ends in disappointment and all uncertainty is gone, while partaking gives lasting satisfaction unlike worldly gains which increase desire. Those who truly receive His word do not hunger and do not thirst spiritually, but find continual refreshment, freedom from uncertainty, and release from the feverish thirst, receiving and believing in Christ and joining Him in works of mercy that teach sinners and backsliders the way of life, without which the soul remains unsatisfied.
Receiving Him establishes a vital saving union of mutual dwelling, He in the believer and the believer in Him, as the branch lives by the vine nourished by its sap, and only through it is eternal life. This union puts pride and selfishness to death and produces love for God and others, His Spirit, holy aspirations toward God, kind words, unselfish actions and Christlike character, for eating His flesh and drinking His blood is depending on Him, hearing and searching His Word and becoming a doer of the Word so that His life becomes the believer's life. Those who so receive obtain forgiveness of sins, sanctification unto eternal life, growth up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, power to become children of God, and present eternal life with resurrection at the last day, and those faithful through trial will be raised and live forever, unlike those who ate manna and died. Even if a believer dies as Christ died, His life is in him and hid with Christ in God, for Christ came to give more abundant life, carrying on a process that makes believers one with Him in this present life to be one with Him through all eternity. Those who eat have eternal life now, become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust, and are formed to represent His character through sanctified obedience to His words and practice of His teachings.
Receiving and assimilating His words brings deep fervent piety and leaves less room for self in one's work. Jesus alone satisfies by coming in and sharing fellowship with those who open, as a fountain found by a weary traveler in the desert quenches burning thirst, for no human agent can supply what satisfies the hunger and thirst of the soul. He is a full storehouse of bread and a fountain to drink from, rich and free, giving uninterrupted communion with God, fullness of joy, feasting on His love and glory, daily heavenly joys, and light dispersing gloom, with inexhaustible supply of refreshment and grace for all. His words comfort, encourage, strengthen, bring settled assurance and meet the deepest needs of those who seek God's will, yet people may desire these blessings and still reject Christ if they cling to human traditions and ideas.
The verse plainly states the way to obtain and inherit eternal life, making the Bible precious and fitting for students, for its words are clear, definite and positive, repeated over and over to teach the lesson of the bread of life and setting out the conditions of eternal life. Thoroughly understanding and living by the chapter leads to a life that measures with the life of God, gives spiritual strength, health, growth and soundness, brings connection with Christ who knew no sin as stronghold and defense against last-day deceptions and darkness, and contains the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world. The verse identifies Christ as giving life to those dead in sin and assurance of peace, pardon and salvation to those who come and believe, cleansing from sin, redeeming through His blood, and giving peace and rest under His yoke to rich and poor, high and low. This abundant life comes as people die to self and live to Christ with entire self-renunciation so that Christ may live in them and the Spirit empower their efforts, and receiving Him as bread gives the pledge of eternal life and the fullness God breathes into those who die to self. Receiving His words and obeying them leads to eternal life for the deepest need, and faith in the Son of God and the saving power of His blood keeps a person from Satan's power.
He can live as an abiding guest in the soul bringing joy, comfort and sobriety, the center of life whose words are spirit and life for students in practical life. Partaking forms character like His through the Holy Spirit, restoring God's obliterated moral image, purifying the life, and changing people into unselfishness, integrity, kindness and love, giving power to become in character what one professes to be. As they take in His Word as spiritual food they grow like Him, show the fruits of the Spirit, have Christ abiding in them, show His character in words and actions, and become channels through which living water flows, revealing whether Christ's attributes or Satan's are shaping them. When received He is sanctification and righteousness, inexhaustible fullness in whom the mind rests with peace and assurance, and daily learning from Him, partaking of His nature, following Him in obedience and self-denial, and depending on Him by faith rather than on human beings belong to life in Him. His life-giving grace springs up within believers into everlasting life and cannot remain hidden but refreshes those around them with softening, subduing influence, meekness, purification by grace, and power by the Holy Spirit to do His works.
Christ satisfies the deepest longing, giving peace and rest to all who come, accept His yoke and bear His burden, with relief from weariness, loneliness and dissatisfaction, and renewed strength of mind and body and joy which exciting amusements cannot fill, for the soul continues to hunger and thirst when it seeks satisfaction in them. He alone satisfies hunger just as the water of life alone quenches thirst, turning the mind from needless curiosity about things unnecessary for the work toward practical godliness. Eating Him means living by Him and receiving His words which are spirit and life, the same life-giving fruit as the Tree of Life in Eden whose fruit was the antidote of death and whose leaves sustained life and immortality, lost by disobedience and now transplanted to the paradise above with branches reaching to the lower world, so that through redemption by His blood those who come and believe may eat and live forever, with the full eating given to him that overcomes in paradise. The life-giving sustenance represented by that tree is found in Christ the world's Lifegiver and source of everlasting life, and eating this bread is like eating from the tree and taking its healing leaves for the nations, restoring the moral image of God when self is lost in Him through daily eating, receiving and believing in Him and His atoning gift, laying hold upon truth in fellowship of the Spirit, entering into His life, appreciating His sacrifice, and having His words believed and practiced until spiritual life is perfected.
He was empowered to breathe the breath of life into fallen humanity, and all who receive Him never hunger and never thirst because no greater joy exists than what is found in Him. He holds all sufficiency with all fullness of God in Him and satisfies every craving belonging to perfection of Christian character, and any craving He does not fill is not needed for that perfection, while the meek, merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled, and those remaining defective while He is among them to take away sin show they do not value His character enough to hunger and thirst. Those coming and believing are satisfied as hungry children are satisfied by bread, with spiritual life sustained as physical food sustains the body, for He provides the bread and water of life and the gospel in Christ suited to the necessities of the soul for all hungering and thirsting for spiritual life. Its reception does not depend on learned testimonies, eloquent speeches or deep arguments but upon simplicity and adaptation to souls wanting to know what they must do to be saved, received as a message from God into willing obedient hearts and obeyed as bodily food must be eaten and digested, and those who know Bible truth are to feed hungry souls wherever found.
He Himself is the everlasting sustenance holding the element that imparts life-giving virtue, the great center of individual life, and for all being educated in schools the verse holds most precious and important lessons for an education enduring through time and eternity, learned by bringing its truths into practical life, taking in His words and eating them to understand privileges and what He is to each person, though the whole chapter is very instructive and only faintly understood. Receiving Christ gives holiness and eternal life because life is in Him, forming Him within as the hope of glory, joining His life to the believer's, filling with holy character, and bringing pardon and sanctification, with His Holy Spirit becoming an abiding principle of righteousness revealed by works, growing to full stature with power to co-work with God and use talents to bring souls to Him. Believing and practicing His words thrills the soul with spiritual life, makes a weak feeble experience strong and healthy, cleanses from all impurity and inherited evil, prepares for His presence, and holds eternal life for those holding the beginning of confidence firm unto the end, with truth enthroned in the heart as savor of the whole man. Daily receiving fills with His righteousness, frees from craving fame or esteem, breaks down harshness, coldness and selfishness, brings sympathy, subdues hasty temper, expels pride, and gives spiritual sinew and muscle sustaining integrity and fidelity, with truth enthroned shaping the whole person.
He as bread is ever set before believers as the Lord's banquet, and all need much more of Him and His love, with taking Him requiring first giving up self, feeling entire dependence without whom nothing can be done, keeping the soul in God's love, and trusting implicitly as kept by His power. Those who keep themselves in their own hand and carry and sustain self flounder in misery with little heavenly joy and become troublesome with hurt bruised souls, while those imbued with His Spirit and ever receiving under the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit live in Him and ever impart to others. Feeding on Him means receiving His presence and instruction, bringing holy joy, a relish for holy things, and strength for future work, for He walks beside followers calling them to reconversion, sustains newly converted souls like manna and spiritual dew, and is wholly free from darkness. Individual partaking revives and strengthens soul, body and mind to make a person more like Christ, requiring personal hunger and thirst for righteousness rather than dependence on others, with the grace of the message outweighing defects in grammar, pronunciation or eloquence, and those receiving life able to nourish the spiritually hungry and share the water of life.
Feeding on Word Daily
The bread of life is the Word of God, the sacred truths of Scripture, spiritual light and knowledge, the gospel, the words spoken in Old and New Testaments, and the truth about his mission and plan of salvation, which are spirit and life and sustain all spiritual life.
That bread sent from heaven is contained in the Bible, which is true manna nourishing the mind and building up spiritually, for people are built up from the food given the mind, so the Bible gives growth while neglectful reading deprives the mind.
Eating means receiving Christ and feeding on his Word by studying, believing, receiving and practicing daily until it becomes part of every action and character, for feeding on living bread is receiving his words and spirit into the nature unto growth.
Eating the Word daily by receiving and assimilating truths and living by every word from God's mouth gives sustaining power, immortal vigor, perfected experience and lasting joys.
The soul must feed continually and daily, as constantly as the body needs air and food, to stay refreshed, built up and prepared for immortality with right to the tree of life, for without it a person starves, remains full of self, and grows weak and useless.
As the body needs daily food, the soul needs heavenly bread constantly, and the bread must be eaten daily with drinking of living water by prayerfully studying his words, giving peace, strength, meekness and preparedness for service.
Feeding on this bread means coming to Christ and feasting on his Word and presence, so Scripture nourishes the mind, he communes with the soul, surrounds with heaven's atmosphere, teaches meekness, gives health and holy joy, and fits for missionary work.
His sayings carry deeper significance than appears, discerned by minds quickened by the Holy Spirit whose anointed eye finds gems though buried, for the Spirit is in the Word to quicken discernment, giving solid experience and lasting joy.
The chapter is the divine antidote for the world's sin and the mystery of godliness, to be studied and brought into daily experience, giving discernment between true and false, connection with sinless Christ against last-day deceptions, and defense from darkness.
The Word is bread because it represents his body and blood, meant to reach the heart, possess the will and bring thoughts into obedience, not merely serve intellectual study, and intellectual study that does not communicate practical lessons cannot nourish or equip workers.
The food the soul receives is what the mind dwells upon, so the mind must be educated aright, vain thoughts put away, the heart guarded against pride, and Christ dwelt upon in meditation and prayer, and then the Spirit molds the mind to recognize him and love appears in life.
When the Word is studied and obeyed it works inwardly to subdue unholy traits, the Spirit convicts, and faith working through love shapes the whole life like him, enabling doing God's will and sharing truth without human suppositions.
Received and made part of life, the Word produces faith working through love and purifies the soul, removing inherited and habitual evil traits before they corrupt, while those cherishing them fail to eat and become stumbling blocks.
Eating and drinking means encouraging soul appetite by praying for enlightenment, constantly meditating, digesting and assimilating by practice, with fasting and prayer cleansing the heart, and true fasting is abstinence from stimulating food and proper use of wholesome simple food.
He must be partaken daily as manna and drunk as the Spiritual Rock that followed Israel, changing experience and giving deep draughts of sympathy and love needed for workers to be converted anew, with his presence formed within as a well unto everlasting life.
Receiving and believing means having him abide by faith, and feeding on the Word unto obedience in which Christ is revealed is eating his flesh and drinking his blood and the representation of the tree of life.
By receiving Christ a person partakes of his nature, lives in him enriched with blessedness hid with Christ in God, enthroning God in the heart as representative of Father and Son, and this unspeakable gift is for all, not confined to nation, though Jews would confine it.
Christ is the soul's food and drink, and those receiving him as personal Saviour with daily hourly faith working through love find nourishment for every need, with forgiveness and sanctification.
Eating means feeding on Christ and his Word, receiving and practicing teachings and thereby forming character fit for heaven unto eternal life, for he is the source of eternal life.
Searching the Scriptures together each day nourishes spiritual life and teaches conduct pleasing God, regular cheerful family study feeds the soul, and the Scriptures are the home lesson book where parents seek truths with children.
The bread come down is the Word of Christ to be taken on its own merits as Thus saith the Lord with opinions laid aside, believed and practiced regardless of financial loss, writing principles in the heart and giving steadfastness so neither den nor furnace intimidates.
Believers eat by receiving God's word in faith as the Spirit illuminates it, supporting the afflicted and comforting the persecuted, with truth shining anew and the soul rejoicing as in his visible presence.
Partaking means eating the Word not merely contemplating it, and the Word heals maladies, brings faculties into healthful action, and makes him precious.
To feed is to depend on Christ for life and strength, and abiding moment by moment gives power to resist temptation, for receiving by faith sustains and enables resistance, giving bright experience and character honoring God.
His Word is spirit and life and sure foundation amid mixture of truth with error, and as people receive, understanding develops and communion with Christ deepens.
Truth abiding and sanctifying creates appetite for heavenly manna, and those nourished can invite others to what is good, for receiving awakens hunger then satisfies, giving words that refresh others.
Eating his flesh and drinking his blood means daily receiving life and learning meekness which books cannot supply, and through prayer and study under the Spirit believers receive fresh food and are changed into his likeness.
Eating truth means taking it into the heart to govern mind and affections, and its power appears as it is assimilated into character and practiced daily, providing fresh strength.
Eating means obeying his words and doing his works by advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness, essential to happiness, salvation and right use of talents, and those doing so are imbued with holiness, have eternal life, and grow higher through the indwelling Spirit.
Christ sustains spiritual life moment by moment through the Holy Spirit proceeding from him to renew motives, bring thoughts into obedience and produce holy deeds, and eating and drinking is the appointed means, not direct miracle, necessary to grow to full stature by watching, praying, working and heeding the Word.
Those seeking this bread are to go to Scripture, receive his words into life and practice teachings, while fanciful theories cannot give life or save, and his word must be studied deeply not read casually or displaced by human traditions.
The mind is to feed on heavenly manna through Scripture and truths of his mission, strengthening, awakening desire to overcome as he overcame, while feeding on frivolous stories leads away from Scripture and salvation.
God's word is living food and drink refreshing the thirsty and strengthening spiritual life, and learning from him and living by it leads to eternal life.
Hungry souls coming are fed and thirsting believing are refreshed at the fountain, fulfilled in communion through prayer and study, and God teaches asking daily for temporal and spiritual blessings to realize dependence and draw into communion.
To eat is to live in him, and those so living have healthy growing experience with righteousness going before them as they carry out the work of Isaiah 58.
The word made fresh through the Spirit sustains life and never grows old, and for children and youth under wise teaching it becomes more desirable like the sun, giving peace and joy and proving all other books inferior.
Eating means turning the face to him as Sun of Righteousness, looking, living by his light, talking of him, meditating on his character and Calvary love, and this plants love to God and men and the kingdom in the heart.
Receiving the Son brings everlasting life and satisfies hunger, and when his gift is the mind's food, worldly excitement no longer attracts, for experience takes quality from what the mind feeds on.
In giving his word he has given bread from heaven, and coming and believing makes complete in him through faith in power to save, fulfilling election to holiness, which is sanctification as lifetime conformity to the divine will.
Receiving truth in Christ is nourishment like heaven's food that must be understood and taken in, and obtaining intelligent knowledge of truth, knowing God and Christ, and taking his words as counsel shapes life by truth and love.
The soul feeds on Christ by receiving him and bringing the word into daily practice, ennobling mind, sanctifying, making co-workers with divine agencies, and opening views of his love melting the heart to tenderness and growth in wisdom.
Feeding means receiving, believing and living out God's word daily so Christ is formed within and dwells in the whole being, giving life as food renews the body, with his example guiding conduct.
Eating is praying in faith for wisdom, meditating, conversing with God and obeying, enabling firm principle heavenward against corrupting influence with a standard distinct from the world.
Eating means receiving the word of the living God, and his people must feed on it as they work together, with consecrating power felt and shown so sinners become children of God.
Eating and drinking means taking his word and practicing it, by which souls are imbued with God's holy character, stand on vantage ground, have eternal life in him, and are in him with him in them.
The Bible is bread to be eaten and digested by humble contrite study for oneself and children, it gives knowledge of Christ and righteousness, is its own expositor and chart revealing sin, while failure to obey its plain teaching leaves deficiency and needless conjecture.
Truth appreciated is bread to the starving soul, received by much prayer, blending rays of light and asking in faith, and so received it is ever fresh with increased force, its golden grains scattered through the gospel field.
Spiritual strength comes through nourishment from God's word, as real as a child's need for food, and neglecting it leaves weakness like a barren fig tree, while studying draws into fellowship, softens with contrition and awakens desire to serve.
Living on heaven's bread is feeding until his life circulates through the soul and he is formed within as hope of glory, and diligent exercise gives sinew of strength, certainty of his presence, and power to testify and endure seeing the invisible.
His words are spirit and life unlike worthless material, filling the mind with Scripture rather than useless reading increases appetite, while human sayings and false teachings leave starving unto death.
To be fed is to receive true nourishing truth through faithful ministers, while false shepherds who do not feed are fruitless branches scattering instead of gathering.
Those tasting graciousness desire the word and reject evil speaking and foolish talk as harmful food, worldly customs cannot give strength for eternal life, while his goodness subdues the will.
Daily eating breaks from worldly policy and human devising, requiring living by Thus saith the Lord in managing God's work and praying for understanding.
His word of grace is manna to the believing soul and his promises bring life, sweetness, peace, rest and healing in affliction, in contrast to emptiness of earthly things.
The bread is spiritual strength received by searching Scriptures and humble prayer with simple living and heed to health laws, mattering more than temporal attention.
Feeding and drinking mean seeking God daily in prayer and receiving mercy and grace, earnestly asked for with wisdom directly rather than in long sermons.
The word as educator simplifies complicated experiences and gives wisdom from the Author of faith to simple-hearted followers wearing his yoke.
As people feed they gain strength as physical food strengthens, and truth continually unfolds bringing growing understanding and closer communion.
The bread and water is every word from God's mouth, called his flesh and blood, to be fed upon to sustain the soul's other life besides that nourished by temporal bread, carefully kept lest lost forever.
Feeding on heavenly manna is searching Scriptures and contemplating his mission, keeping the Bible in the home, and this builds the mind as food builds the body and establishes the heart without harm.
Long neglect causes loss of relish for celestial food and depraved appetite for unholy practices, while holding God's law as standard of wholeness and feeding opens views of his love melting the heart and bringing heaven into the home to reach the neighborhood.
He himself is heavenly manna feeding the soul, and his love, compassion and lessons meditated upon nourish inner life, bring promises fresh with reviving power in pain, sleeplessness and burdens.
Partaking means turning to the Word which gives strength, God's Word brings bread to starving souls to be shared with those longing for truth, feeding poor sheep through explained Scripture.
He himself and his truth are food in temptation, and in the wilderness earnest prayer shut in with God fed him with strength, assurance and sight of Satan's power broken as he ministered, and tempted souls going to God are fed the same delivering truth today.
He is bread, light and life, measuring human excellence by choosing him, and giving bread not stone means keeping him and truth before people and upholding purity, temperance and holiness.
This bread gives life through warnings, reproofs and counsel changing thoughts, coming and believing happen when his voice is heard in the Review and Herald, and doing without it loses much spiritual food.
The image applies to the blessing believers most need and are urged to seek with earnest persistent prayer as the essential gift answering spiritual hunger.
Eternal life is found in his Word, which gives life as a living fountain to drink from.
This life is gained through truth working by love and purifying the soul, received in daily earnest experience through prayer and beholding him that no human author can provide.
Abiding in him means abiding in his word and conforming heart and character to his commands, and neglecting the Word means death, while obedience sustains unto eternal life.
The prayer for daily bread asks for this spiritual bread as well as bodily food, by beholding his love, praying for the Spirit to open the word, and in communion hungry souls are fed.
Feasting on Scriptures means studying with earnest desire, belonging to teachers of truth with knowledge, wisdom, discretion and meekness.
Beholding Christ by reading of him and dwelling on his character and words changes beholders into his likeness with benefits of serving God.
He must abide by faith and his Word is bread and water with truth in fullness through constant communion, he supplies lifeblood and with the Spirit gives nerve power keeping the soul in harmonious action unto lively hope.
Coming to learn of him here as bread and great Teacher decides destiny for eternal life, and relish depends on what the soul feeds upon, for feeding where he is not honored destroys taste, while as Teresa cries for temporal food people should cry for salvation.
This eating takes place when believers gather and receive the Holy Spirit, so refusing to assemble loses more than is known.
Hungering and thirsting for righteousness and experiential justification makes ready to receive, but fault-finding and evil speech turn the heart so bread does not satisfy when truth is not received with faith.
The bread is Christ himself and his words and truth, heavenly manna, and to eat is to bring truth into the inner sanctuary and practice until digested into spiritual muscle supplying what is essential for eternal life.
Feeding means no longer living for self, and looking for evil, judging brethren and misconstruing motives show one is not feeding but aiding Satan.
He himself is heavenly manna on which the mind feeds by searching Scriptures, the mind is affected by what it feeds upon, and frivolous tales enfeeble, leaving no desire to search and no power to contemplate his mission.
He himself is the bread, and fanciful deceptive teachings cannot give this life or save from sin.
The Word as bread is to be exalted above common earthly concerns.
He is spiritual food whose word supplies what is needed for eternal life, yet receiving requires a mind able to understand and overeating can impair grasp of eternal realities, while feeding on his life-giving promises in affliction brings strength, meets deepest need by coming and believing, and study of the manna-word strengthens and enriches the soul like bread and water of salvation.
Refusing and Counterfeiting Bread
Feeding on worldly entertainments leaves the heart without hunger for God, for Christ is the spiritual food that satisfies the soul's hunger and must be sought for strength and comfort. What the mind takes in shapes spiritual experience as the body is formed by what it eats and drinks, so feeding on worldly trash weakens spirituality and distorts the appetite while feeding on God's Word strengthens the mind and guards against deception. Men and women are built up from the food they give the mind, and the Bible as the bread sent down from heaven gives spiritual growth, while books and magazines that lead the mind astray hinder it. The soul that seeks satisfaction in frivolous, sensual, exciting amusements continues to hunger and thirst, but partaking of the living water ends thirst for such pleasures, and religion's ennobling principles strengthen the mind and remove taste for them. Worldly excitement and other unsatisfying pleasures cannot fill the soul's need, but in Christ weariness, loneliness and dissatisfaction give way to joy that strengthens the mind and brings health and vitality to the body.
Pure truth is spirit and living water in place of froth and nothingness, opposed to commingling truth with error, seductive sentiments, scientific theories, spiritualistic sophistries and fanciful presentations which must be cast out and separated from entirely. Maintaining that pure, unadulterated truth without surrendering any vital point brings honor to Christ and enables steadfastness in a time of false theories and new scientific sophistries. Human sayings and invented fables cannot feed the soul, and presenting them as spiritual food leaves people starving and leads to decline and death, while God's word received as it reads rather than distorted is rich in truth and strengthens believers and those they serve.
The word spoken by Christ in both Old and New Testaments is bread from heaven and true manna, the spiritual nourishment students need, in contrast to human-invented teaching called science which is like adulterated food rather than true nourishment. Souls perish for want of this bread, and the practical lessons Christ teaches are what can feed them, for intellectual study that does not communicate those lessons cannot nourish people or equip workers to reach them. Teachings made up by people may be offered as spiritual food, but they leave souls starving and lead to spiritual decline and death.
Those whose minds are shaped by worldly associations lose desire for this bread and for the waters of salvation and fail to see the preciousness of Jesus and the truth. Even when truth is presented plainly, those shaped by worldly influences lose hunger for Christ and thirst for salvation. The Word is true manna for the mind, and time spent on light reading can dull desire to study it and attend to its words of life.
People need the spiritual nourishment found in him, yet they perish when offered science instead of that bread from heaven. Jesus Christ himself is the bread of life needed besides theories and doctrinal subjects, and the Word is spirit and life for healing, so dependence and faith in Christ must be the woof and warp of every sermon, woven into every appeal and prayer, telling people in plain simple Bible language what they must do to be saved and making known the hidden riches of his grace rather than preaching self. To be fed with the bread of life is to receive true nourishing truth through faithful ministers, while to be given sayings of no value and a tissue of lies leaves the flock starving, and that starvation and fanciful mixture of food brings spiritual consumption, decline and death.
Christ and the truth about his mission and work and the plan of salvation in the Scriptures are heavenly manna, and feeding upon it by searching the Scriptures and contemplating those subjects strengthens the mind, awakens imagination aright and kindles desire to overcome as he overcame. Feeding the mind on frivolous and exciting tales takes away desire for this nourishment, leaves an unreal life, enfeebles the mind and unfits for duty. Eating the bread of life is a daily act of making the Bible the guide and counsellor, building up the mind as food builds the body, but the enemy seeks control of appetite, making a god of the stomach, beclouding senses by overeating and offering stimulants and narcotics to make souls forget God, and faith must break through the shadow to grasp the glory beyond.
Jesus is fresh manna from heaven the soul must have to live and grow heavenward, but when ambition, avarice and gain without godliness and gross attractions of earth hold the affections, the world comes between the soul and God and cuts it off so the soul starves and becomes dwarfed. Holding to the world for honor, business position and daily bread instead of seeking first the kingdom forfeits this provision. Feeding the soul on heavenly manna means making spiritual nourishment a priority over business concerns, for neglecting it weakens growth and leaves trust in own wisdom instead of dependence on God. Professed believers absorbed in commercial pursuits and worldly ambitions are left without life-giving truth.
In broad outline the bread is righteousness through a crucified and risen Saviour, the third angel's message and the faith of Jesus, a testing message deciding every case for life or death. It is not detached doctrines or loose unconnected sentiments but truths forming one string of varied precious gems, with the person and work of Christ as complete system and living center, linked in one grand practical essential whole for salvation by faith that sinks self into dust. Feeding bodies with physical food leaves people still starving unless given soul-saving truth as it is in Jesus, the last gospel message for this time implanted by the Spirit, which is pure provender thoroughly winnowed from fanciful and fatal delusions.
False teachings presented as heavenly food cannot satisfy but leave spiritually starved and lead to decline and death. People fed only husks long for the Word of life, and bringing them light meets that need. Precious souls starve when given dry Christless theories instead of the gospel, while keeping Christ before people by studying his life, lessons and character draws them to him and leads them to become like him. Every soul needs its portion in due season from teachers anointed by the Spirit to give the right instruction, for where living abiding faith is missing hearers stay dull and carnal, bodies of darkness with limited usefulness, jealousy, envy and division.
Those who do not feed on Christ remain centered on self rather than living in harmony with him. He feeds sin-sick souls, and as honored guest at Levi's feast spoke words of wisdom to open willing sinners, bringing hope so the star of hope arose in hearts in darkness of despair. Only those who feel need receive this bread, while those satisfied with their spiritual condition refuse it.
Judas had abundant opportunities to partake and could thereby have formed a firm Christlike character, but though offered life-giving provision through close communion and lessons he refused to benefit from it. Those who do not recognize him as Teacher sent from God do not partake or become one with him, and the incarnation must be understood through experience as essential both for redemption and daily sanctification.
To eat is to bring truth into the inner sanctuary, practice it until a living reality digested into spiritual muscle and sinew. Those having Bibles and claiming belief do not eat when light shines but is unappreciated, when they refuse heaven-sent light because it does not justify transgression of the law, when teachers of the Word remain dull of comprehension, and when eyes are closed for fear of seeing and being converted. Feeding on empty worldly approval instead of Christ leaves the soul without his nourishment, for human praise is worthless nourishment like husks.
This precious within-reach provision of true value is neglected when people devote themselves to earthly gain, and receiving belongs with the meek and quiet spirit valued by God. Scheming for earthly possessions and gain that have no value leaves the soul without what it most needs. Hearts fixed on earthly treasure neglect spiritual sustenance and choose worldly goods over the eternal. Having him is true riches, while heaps of money, gold and silver are not, for a man does not really own possessions and God can scatter faster than he can accumulate. Without Christ even with wealth a person perishes with hunger and thirst, while those who receive regard all as the Lord's entrusted gift, becoming faithful stewards strong by sharing strength with the weak, with the family as educating school for the higher life of saints in light.
Carrying Bread to Others
Christ himself is the sustaining bread from heaven for a starving world that is perishing of hunger without realizing it, and coming to him and believing ends hunger and thirst forever, for he is pure unadulterated truth whose sayings carry deeper value than appears, discerned by minds quickened by the Spirit, and this comfort is to be shared with others who need the pure gospel as bread.
He remains the same compassionate Saviour today, not unmindful of bodily wants, and he will provide food for physical necessities and impart knowledge in different places in various ways, for his hand of benevolence is not stayed, even as he gave angels' food and manna to Israel, not through one man alone, since Moses did not give the bread but the Father gives the true bread who comes down and gives life to the world.
Spiritual food is of far more consequence than perishable food, so chief labor and anxiety must be to secure the living bread that endures to eternal life by doing God's work and believing on the One sent, rather than seeking only loaves like the crowd that would make him an earthly king, for his flesh and blood are his words to be studied and obeyed, giving life temporal blessings could not provide and leading to resurrection.
The sixth chapter of John gives more for reaching people at this stage of earth's history than large volumes of unread ancient history, and buying and piling up such books is spending money for what is not bread, while this chapter supplies the spiritual food and present truth workers need just now.
Preaching Christ gives life-giving food, for keeping him constantly before the people and proclaiming him with his attributes brought into practical life gives the bread, all are invited and accepting brings present and eternal happiness with mutual abiding and living through him, while not eating leaves destitution of manna and lack of love and sympathy.
Those united to Christ receive the bread of life from him and pass it on, for disciples are appointed representatives and channels to carry his gifts, and as they keep imparting they continue to receive more, yet they must first receive spiritual food from God or they will have nothing to impart and must turn no soul away unfed, sharing the water of life even with defects of speech.
The physician's work is to bring this bread to the sick, directing sufferers to Christ for spiritual life while caring for the body, seeking salvation as well as healing and eternal life for rich and poor high and low, and those who serve the sick must themselves partake to have comfort and consolation to give.
The teaching of John 6 shapes believers and is demonstrated through self-denying missionary service that uplifts the church and helps others see provision, for receiving the Bread means receiving the heaven-sent Teacher and joining him in works of mercy teaching the way of life to sinners and backsliders and those mixing faith with error, without whom the soul remains unsatisfied.
Holding fast confidence firm to the end, preaching the Word and witnessing brings the presence of Christ, his Spirit and holy angels, giving living water in place of froth, and this pure truth opposes commingling truth with error, seductive sentiments, scientific theories and spiritualistic sophistries, while the chapter's instruction cures dissension and aids unity with Christ.
The verse reflects longing for simple scriptural gospel teaching that nourishes hearts, for his pure simple teaching made truth a living reality rather than burying Scripture beneath tradition, and giving bread means teaching what must be done to be saved rather than pleasing curiosity.
Receiving truth in simplicity, following wholeheartedly and giving self wholly is the life of faith, and those who eat have Christ abiding, show his character in words and actions, become channels of living water, revealing whether Christ's or Satan's attributes shape them.
As Prince and Saviour who died for sinners he is both Bread of Life and living water ending hunger and thirst, feeding the starving soul and lifting water to parched lips through interpretation of Scripture that lifts up Christ where he is preached, while mere forms and ceremonies cannot satisfy.
That Bread is God's truth confronting the devil's lie and satisfying highest demands, so temporal food deserves comparatively little anxiety, and followers must not look for a temporal kingdom but make spiritual things the aim with wholehearted service, self-denial, cross-lifting and following wherever he leads.
Feeding upon his words as his very flesh and blood is the most important education for children, youth and workers together with God, including the law of Jehovah, penalty for transgression and acceptance of the ransom for the obedient, and parents must nourish children by teaching the Bible and bringing them to Jesus as more essential than physical food.
The minister who feeds must first feed by communing with God and eating the bread come down from heaven, gaining fresh perception instead of stale ideas and a word touching every case without worldly confusion, for without experimental personal knowledge and abiding presence ministers cannot speak intelligently and leave people destitute of manna.
His teaching gave spiritual food to thousands and his life performed what it promised, for coming and believing give nourishment and satisfaction from God through Christ unto eternal life, though spiritual food exceeds perishable food even as he provides for bodily needs.
Teachers who receive light and wisdom from the divine Teacher honor the heaven-sent word as Bread sustaining all spiritual life and binding the agent with Christ in God, and then teach common essential branches more thoroughly.
Jesus daily gives spiritual food to thousands of hungry souls in practical lessons making souls glad, interpreting the gospel through sympathy with the weary and oppressed, feeding hungry, healing sick, constantly doing good in loving words and kindly deeds so simple a child can understand, opening a fountain of life and dispensing abundant continuous blessings wherever he went though his public ministry was brief, his life itself a living ministry performing what it promised.
Those longing for spiritual food and strength are not preoccupied with gratifying appetite and can accept plain simple food without complaint, thinking less of temporal food and drink and more of soul food, encouraging soul appetite by prayer for enlightenment, constant meditation, digesting and assimilating by practice, with fasting and prayer cleansing the heart and true fasting as abstinence from stimulating food and proper use of wholesome simple food.
Providing only physical food does not give spiritual life, so food and restaurant work must lead to Christ the Bread, with workers and those served needing continual nourishment from heavenly bread and water of salvation, watching for every opportunity to speak truth about salvation by precept and example, sharing words of life and showing what receiving and practicing the Word means, for temporal food alone accomplishes nothing.
The more fully a soul depends on God and trusts him, the hungrier it becomes for this bread of life.
Camp meetings provide opportunity to receive nourishment and strength by seeking the Lord, confessing sin and turning from worldly selfish interests, for Jesus hears and pardons, and people at camp meetings, churches, little churches and gatherings hungry and thirsty for bread and water readily receive and eagerly come.
The world's longing to know Scripture as firm foundation is longing for bread and water, drawn by the Holy Spirit to hearts, and coming and believing receives what satisfies.
The bread is broken to starving souls by proclaiming Christ lifted above earthly rulers as Redeemer and sinner's only hope, bringing promises of peace, for salvation rests not on works or merit but on merits of the crucified and risen Saviour, with dependence close and real like limb to body or branch to vine.
The bread is broken when Christ is lifted as Mediator who overcame, took away sin and brought peace, with salvation through his work received by believing the gospel and trusting him, not through human works.
People must be directed to him for nourishment, for he sustains comers and believers, giving his flesh for the life of the world and everlasting life, his words being spirit and life bound to his sacrifice.
Those suffering soul-sickness no earthly remedy can heal are to be prayed for and brought to Jesus, with Jesus broken as bread to sin-sick souls while physical sickness is relieved, a united ministry impressing more than sermons and gaining souls.
Breaking bread is applying the Bible remedy by describing his willingness to hear sincere faithful prayer, telling personal experience of finding Jesus and blessedness of service, telling sitting at his feet and learning from his Word and gladness of faith in warm fervent cheerful encouraging words that convince others the higher way is found and arouse from spiritual insensibility as from a dream.
The heavenly manna is knowledge of truth and light professed people possess, which they must give to souls perishing out of Christ by representing truth, putting heart into work and even changing location that they may be saved.
Many in East and West Maitland hunger and famish for this bread calling with outstretched hands for help, people around Harbor Springs hunger because they received little labor, and precious souls scattered through bush, lakeside and little farms starve and must be instructed and guided until renewed by the Spirit, rooted in truth as temples of the Spirit, worth all strength for salvation through eternal ages.
Being fed with bread and water fortifies with strength and gives refreshing words, so those fed meet for prayer not amusement, guard the weak, keep from temptation, love one another, and turn from dwelling on others' faults remembering beholding shapes into same likeness.
Christian life is sustained through appointed means including feeding on bread and drinking waters of salvation, requiring watchfulness, prayer, work and heed to the word, receiving from him to have life.
Jesus as great Medical Missionary came to give life by giving pure refining ennobling truth from his heart, precious heavenly wisdom from his lips, and receiving and making it part of daily life builds up spiritually from food given the mind, bringing strength and making wise unto salvation.
Asking for this bread means seeking needed blessing with simple trust like a hungry child asking a father, and God grants every needed blessing to simplicity and faith, and bread and righteousness may be asked of the Father with temporal necessities like food and clothing.
The bread is the message of mercy and eternal life entrusted to disciples to share with a famishing world, with his love urging them, given through human agents bringing people to Jesus, reading God's word and proclaiming the gospel.
The Revelation 14 message is this bread for the last days entrusted to God's people for the starving, and its precious truths are food satisfying hunger and giving life for salvation of souls.
Many in the Christian world starve for this food, and plain practical truth satisfies as rich food and feast even to those not of same faith who can then sow seeds, and the verse underlies bringing needy people to Christ where they are with limited means trusting him.
Through faith and pardon the poor and ignorant despised, loathed and abandoned receive heaven's bread and water, raised to dignity of sons and daughters with Christ as pearl of great price though without earthly wealth, and eating means intelligent knowledge of God and Christ bringing joy, hope, peace and blessing to them and families as sin-pardoning Saviour gives lasting nourishment.
He left Heaven and the Father's presence and pure companionship of angels for fallen polluted humanity, coming to a friendless lost world to save the willing, and sees with grief the coldness, indifference and neglect with which professed followers treat his light and warnings of love.
Christ as bread is rich nourishment ministers need from God's word requiring time to receive to be refreshed, receiving through mercy and the stream of living water, then laboring to feed others, with rich and poor together taking counsel, sitting at his feet and learning simplicity of true godliness to keep piety alive, in contrast to burdenless large-salary speaking that starves the flock and leaves the church dead.
People gathered for a meeting may be spiritually hungry thirsting for bread and water, those coming and believing receive nourishment, the needy are to be fed with truth about Christ, comforted and invited to the gospel feast, and he continues to call through the gospel.
God gave Israel the bread not for Israel alone but to share with the world.
Daily bread from grain reflects bread imagery, for God's word imparts life to seed and eating grain partakes of that life, teaching God's agency and drawing into fellowship.
The weak in faith are to be nourished by manna he supplies rather than taught to look to or trust human leaders.
Christ is true food giving fresh nourishment and fresh manna of life-giving truth to hungering truth-seekers, and souls starving for life must be pointed to him by chosen messengers through whom he speaks or they may perish.
Breaking the bread means sharing life-giving truths in him, refreshing the sharer and nourishing receivers.
Christ satisfies soul hunger, and bread shared after feeding the multitude points to spiritual bread, for receivers were to share what they learned of God, wasting no word or fragment of salvation but gathering all to feed needy souls, even the weak speaking truth in love and repeating what was heard.
Blessing sought through daily prayer sustains and grows spiritual and moral strength like a well-watered tree staying green and bearing fruit.
Christ gives spiritual nourishment as well as meeting physical needs, for when he fed the multitude with simple food he also gave bread of life showing love for common needs, and disciples are to take bread from him to longing souls, binding word ministry with missionary work for physical need and sharing what they have trusting him to supply lack.
Jesus is living manna bringing eternal life, meant to be shared not hoarded, for withholding turns life-giving gift to corruption.
Giving bread to perishing souls means sharing the gospel with his devotion and selflessness since he is life's source, souls fed through him as with temporal food, applied to those needing life's message in the world.
People hunger for this bread, and when they find it at prayer meeting they will attend to receive it.
He is bread offered to a famishing world, and his people carry this final message of mercy inviting all to come, with all hearers passing it on by words and example.
Hungry starving hearers are to be fed with him as true manna satisfying hunger.
Those perishing for bread need his practical life-giving lessons, not merely tiring intellectual research displacing them, for study relying on pride without learning from Christ does not feed or prepare successful workers for souls.
Seekers receive the Holy Spirit giving wisdom and understanding to share truth with those without God and hope.
Through humble faithful followers he gives bread and waters of salvation as they share truth in Jesus.
The soul awakened to need hungers for bread, and God's Word becomes precious as it looks to his sacrifice for salvation.
Faithful pastors and under-shepherds feed God's people with nourishment found in him.
The soul needs him and cannot be satisfied by forms, maxims or traditions, so the convicted seek to come directly to the Redeemer and see him as helper for nourishment and refreshment.
Christ longs to receive his family and feed hungry souls with bread answering the soul's cry, and giving spiritual food is as necessary as giving temporal food to a hungry child.
His ministry awakens hunger for truth and meets it, and learners of the way are to teach others what believing God's Word means.
Heavenly manna is life and influence from Jesus sustaining the heart, with uplifting power from above for those coming and believing.
Asking belongs to personal labor living truth instead of controversy, showing hospitality, opening the Bible to heavenly treasure, keeping prayer and Scripture short and lively not long and wearying, asking God directly for needed things with wisdom, coming from one with life, earnestness and vivification by the Spirit so heaven's light flashes forth.
Receiving his life revealed in believers lets others see privileges in him, and the nourished can share living experiences feeding and encouraging others, for eating his flesh and drinking his blood means receiving so his life appears.
He uses humble servants and human agents to bring the Word as bread, and bread distributed by disciples represents grace, light, knowledge and saving truth he gives through them to be passed freely to all regardless of status, caste or nationality, returning for fresh supplies with more light given as shared.
Those receiving blessed bread after the feeding were to share it, passing on learning, carrying to meet need, returning for fresh supplies to share freely, with more light given as shared and nothing wasted but carried to others.
Breaking bread means sharing the word so people may be saved while caring for physical needs especially of sick and burdened, for those serving wholesome physical food must also communicate truth, remove prejudice and sow seeds, since temporal food alone without the one thing needful accomplishes nothing.
Giving the gospel to perishing souls is giving this bread, and knowers of Bible truth are to feed hungry souls wherever found using available resources and gifts, as disciples distributed to five thousand, reaching the starving with facilities available.
Laborers must themselves feed and drink, then experience becomes healthier to impress others, for truth abiding and sanctifying gives appetite to feed on him, and ministers must so partake to have living bread calling hearers to eat what is good and delight in fatness with quickened thirst for living water to impart.
The bread is entrusted as sacred truth to preach to the world, and daily taking means making principles part of life and sharing blessings, offering life-giving message like first disciples with eternal life for comers and believers.
People in darkness calling and praying for light hunger for bread and thirst for salvation and need truth brought to them, including souls who may never hear a living preacher yet can be fed and brought to truth.
The verse applies to instructing believers to prepare for his coming lest they starve and backslide, directing new converts to Christ as manna and dew yielding to the Spirit firmly in truth without darkness, and to starving churches readily receiving feeding truth.
Hungering is sickness of people lacking truth, healed when truth goes out efficiently, through receiving and obeying the Word in living connection, with the church as great storehouse of light sending it out.
Bread and water are offered to rich and poor high and low alike, encountered through sanitariums with Christian care in spiritual and physical health, while the church fed with manna and kept by grace can represent his sufficiency.
The hungry and thirsty are led to Jesus giving bread and waters, and receiving him as personal Saviour brings life and sustenance, while hungering for truth are fed by receiving the gospel finding life and joy.
Neglecting freely receiving this nourishment means losing what comes from it, for partaking means receiving him and his truth.
Feeding through Scripture sustains the work of sharing nourishment and saving souls, for comers receive spiritual food.
The verse calls believers, disciples and ministers to carry and break bread to fainting famishing souls near and afar by proclaiming salvation and explaining Scriptures with missionary zeal, bringing hope reviving the weary, with him going before and working alongside so sick are healed and poor hear, receiving from the source to impart, while those at home share by prayer and encouragement and humble followers offer bread and waters.
Withholding life-giving truth leaves hunger unsatisfied and is great selfishness, whether by silent keeping while neighbors perish and famish, absorbing money time and thought in indulgence and idolatry, hindering by disputes and trials, preaching without life, or withholding effort so hundreds famish near and afar, leaving sheep starved and shepherds failing to help those lacking confidence.
Receiving and eating is incompatible with selfish neglect of needy bodies and souls, requiring overflowing love and self-denying labor combining Word-feeding with food, clothing and necessaries after his pattern, with medical missionary work opening the way in double service, helping toward Christ, reaching through loving labor, relieving suffering, and laboring personally as long as need lasts.
Ministers, teachers and under-shepherds must first receive fresh manna by learning at his feet in communion, quiet retirement and rest to gain renewed physical mental and spiritual strength, with time from business and meetings to obtain nourishment and drink, for without it efforts become common fire and they have nothing to impart, while the Spirit gives bread to the teacher for the hungry and earnest prayer expresses hunger.
Feeding the flock with Christ means more than sermonizing, requiring earnest personal labor and patient painstaking training with watchful diligence encouraging, strengthening and uplifting rather than harshness, flattery or dictatorial vigilance, by faithful shepherds feeling the Spirit with unselfish love, feeding tempted tried weak ones with supplied manna, educating not to trust men, and giving due portion with anointing lest hearers stay dull, carnal and divided.
He aroused soul-hunger by opening blessings in simplicity to poor needy and ignorant, first ministering to needs to gain attention then proclaiming truth, and feeding means presenting truth as in Jesus in easy loving words line upon line adapted to hungering souls beginning with first principles not strongest meat, rather than learned speeches, eloquent testimonies or deep arguments, for intellectual pride and unsanctified ambition to present Christianity in learned terms leaves multitudes unfed.
Hunger includes hunger for sympathy even in one's own family not to be passed by, and grace gives same bread to nigh and afar, to ignorant fallen and desert wanderers, melting race and caste barriers to bring the lost rejoicing into the fold.
Need of perishing souls without bread and water exceeds personal comfort and equals feeding hungry and clothing naked, so the church must carry truth rather than merely feed itself, and calls for means will not end while souls perish, requiring unreserved consecration and giving until the lost are saved.
Multitudes starving must be fed, and God will multiply means given with thanksgiving and prayer and enable best use of little to feed them, as shown in multiplication for five thousand supplying lack when servants trust and give received light even with scant resources.
Christ's vital truth must be understood as nourishment in simple lessons, satisfying those lacking preachers, and publications and canvassers can carry books nourishing those who cannot hear a preacher, bringing knowledge of truth to those in darkness calling for light.
The bread is vital truths and true message for this time appropriate for occasions and large gatherings, having heart filled to present fully, serving as gospel ministry raising memorials and bringing knowledge to dark corners in receivable form, with Revelation statements to be eaten and digested through higher education taught solemnly without fanciful excitement, testifying that eaters have eaten of him.
Feeding others when truth is spoken strengthens the speaker's faith and causes the speaker to be fed while receiving grace for grace, bringing new views under blessing, and truth enthroned shapes the whole person and helps save others, awakening zeal when presented in love by the Spirit.
The bread is to be received from Christ and shared with longing souls so receivers can give to others, and feeding with five loaves and two fishes teaches disciples to impart not hoard, emptying hands as he keeps supplying with fragments left over, with seekers coming in humble faith under his yoke instead of worrying, counciling, inventing methods or entertaining, binding medical missionary work with word ministry.
The bread is needed by those in spiritual need, sought from God to be shared through love, needed by little flock as much as thousand, with fishermen gladly receiving by accepting his word, and grace and knowledge sought to share with others.
He must be received by faith and ministers not partaking cannot give nourishing testimony, for sermons leaving Christ out starve the church, while breaking bread means plainly teaching Christ and saving simple practical truth rather than abstract pleasing ideas, stories or trivial disputes about customs and chaff which perplex and prevent growth.
Jesus and his Word satisfy hungering souls to be planted in many hearts and dealt to many in last days, not kept among Sabbath hearers listening week after week but by visiting friends neighbors and families, lifting Christ before the world and working for cities and ripe fields while time remains, helping others look to Jesus lest neighbors lack help.
The Lord gives fresh nourishment through agents molded by the Spirit so truth retains power, hungry souls drawn by preached Word seek life in him and should be given heavenly nourishment through clear focused presentation, as at meetings they were spiritually fed longing for gospel simplicity instead of stale worldly matter.
The verse calls to seek more nourishment and rely on Christ rather than temporal food, asking whether people hunger for salvation and value souls, for without him people perish whatever riches possess, so bringing truth means leading to food in Christ enabling strong Christians to maintain spirituality.
He truly feeds hungering hearts, but long discourses of anecdotes, politics and cheap ideas leave empty untouched and unbroken without dew and rain, and true shepherds must give Christ himself so hearts are touched and blessed, which they can do only having received from heaven to minister.
The bread is God's truth shared through speaking, especially Sabbath preaching, feeding speaker while feeding hearers, and giving it means untiringly sowing seed in cities and unworked places, caring for sick, lifting Christ simply so the Spirit wins souls, with books carrying it to those longing but unable to hear and personal outreach bringing truth to the starved.
Giving bread requires self-denying urgent missionary work multiplying books in English, German, French, Danish, Norwegian, Italian and other tongues, practicing economy, temperance, laying aside vanity and luxuries, following his poverty, carrying warning worldwide, watching and praying unspotted, for Satan hedges the way.
Souls in large cities hunger, including the wealthy not to be passed by and members of large churches, and workers must without delay receive and give the word with helpers through messages and Bible readings in scarcely touched places, through which God gives souls from troubled hearts.
Hungry sheep not yet hearing truth starve for it, and messengers are called to dark places as their very object, yet when the established hold messengers with petty trials and needless difficulties, the hungry are left unfed and purpose unaccomplished.
Laborers are to keep Christ as Pattern and lead hungry to praise God through good works, followers give bread by speaking truth with receivers united to represent him, while simple teaching about blessings arouses desire.
Those coming to Christ receive bread, and the Sabbath meeting is a place to receive this nourishment, with heartfelt response evidencing heavenly welcome and gratitude strengthening believers.
People needing nourishment are to receive grace and intelligent knowledge from him to give bread to others, granted when asked in humble faith.
Bread joined with waters describes the message people need, and believers should help bring it to those not hearing it, for hunger describes need and accepting brings nourishment like feeding sheep, with camp-meeting crowds starving showing need for Jesus.
Spiritually hungry souls near, including families, need this bread, and workers are to bring its message to them.
This bread is needed by people in foreign lands and those perishing without gospel and waters of salvation.
People need this bread as well as temporal food, and carriers to the starving should be supported, for the Word is bread to be passed on, with ministers giving souls this bread through faithful gospel work rather than confining talents to bodily food.
Spiritual bread is distinct from temporal bread like milk yet hungry have real physical need, spiritual nourishment is more essential teaching way to life and happiness, and hungry souls need both from God's treasury through a fund aiding worthy commandment-keeping poor suffering for Sabbath rather than diverting revenue to the unworthy, wanted as earnestly as a child cries for milk.
Despair binding in unbelief is met by speaking faith, bringing physical food, treating as brother, sympathizing, teaching of a caring Father, reading promises and inspiring faith, and contemplating his giving softens, creates hunger for the word, makes truth precious and brings salvation to live in his presence.
Christ is soul's daily sustenance, all may receive refreshment and grace, his supply inexhaustible, and people are urged to receive him and freely take water of life, drinking salvation as well as eating bread.
In sacrificial character he is essential food for growth through saving blood cleansing from sin, ministers must partake of his righteousness with him abiding then break to others by ever directing to Christ, for Christless law-preaching leaves testimony destitute like bloodless offering and starves the church, while feeding sustains piety and gives strength to serve all classes.
Those who feed on Christ testify by words, tempers and works that his Spirit dwells in them.
Christ as bread is to be brought to sufferers where physicians direct patients to him, for he gives life unto eternal life while human efforts only prolong bodily life.
A soul starving for Jesus feeds upon truth, including the Sabbath and special doctrines of faith.
The bread is precious truths to feed the starving flock satisfying soul-hunger, while those with least Spirit exalt themselves and despise those entrusted with this bread.
Eating means trusting him and joining works of mercy teaching sinners and those mixing faith with error, worldly gain cannot satisfy, and he pledges perfection so hopers will not be shamed, with obedience leading to eternal life.
Coming and believing destroy selfishness and bring strength, joy, pardon and blessing, calling for earnest worship, heart-searching, confession and prayer, and hungering means laying aside worldly principles, valuing souls and purifying through obedience.
Those receiving and practicing his words have eternal life because in him, and those receiving are made holy and sustained.
Christ is the bread for whom starving souls live by eating, so that even a poor drunkard bound by appetite hungers for him and the Spirit strives to draw him to come, believe, pray and overcome through him.