Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.
Jesus answered the Jews' murmuring after He said He is the bread which came down from heaven by commanding them to murmur not among themselves. They stumbled because they knew Him as Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother they knew, and could not accept His claim to have come down from heaven. He is Himself the true bread from heaven which the Father gives to give life to the world, so that he who comes to Him never hungers and he who believes never thirsts. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to truly believe in Him and receive Him and His words which are spirit and life, taking them in and living by them until they become part of the life. Their murmuring came from unbelief and pride and prejudice against His humble background, yet no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him, and those who so receive Him have eternal life now and resurrection at the last day.
Words and Historical Setting
Jesus answered the Jews' murmuring with the command not to murmur among themselves after He declared Himself the bread which came down from heaven. That answer met their unbelieving objection to His claim to have come down from heaven and to His words about being the bread of life. It rebuked their unbelief and led into His teaching that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him. It stands in the middle of His repeated lesson that He Himself is the bread of life, received by believing in Him and becoming one with Him.
They stumbled because they knew Him as Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother they knew, and asked how He could say He had come down from heaven. They relied on what they knew of His human family instead of receiving the evidence of His Messiahship. Their difficulty in receiving the truth arose because understanding such deep spiritual truths requires God's teaching.
It was spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum, the morning after He fed the hungry multitude that had followed Him to hear Him. He multiplied five barley loaves and two small fishes to feed five thousand men besides women and children, and twelve baskets of fragments were gathered so that nothing was wasted, showing care not to waste and power to provide food. That ministry addressed people gathered to hear Him while also meeting their physical need for food. It belongs to His teaching after the feeding with the loaves and fishes and His walking on the water, when He told His hearers He was the bread of life.
The crowd sought Him at Capernaum the next morning because they ate of the loaves and were filled, wanting only temporal advantage. They hoped for an earthly kingdom, but His teaching challenged those hopes by presenting His kingdom as spiritual. Following Him therefore promised no worldly rewards. He taught that chief labor must be bestowed not for perishing meat but for meat enduring to everlasting life, which the Son of man gives as sealed of the Father.
Their failure to believe persisted despite the mighty works they had seen, showing that miracles did not overcome their unbelief. Pride, jealousy, and prejudice against His humble family and background kept them from accepting the evidence of His works and teaching. The spiritual meaning of the miracle had not been understood.
Unbelief Behind the Murmuring
The murmuring came from unbelief, and a subtle, deceiving power gained access to minds to keep them from yielding to evidence. Cherished unbelief could keep them from accepting Christ. They stumbled over Him as the son of Joseph whose father and mother they knew, even while He repeated that He is the bread of life come down from heaven and that eternal life comes by receiving Him, believing in Him, becoming one with Him, eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
Pride, jealousy, and prejudice against His humble family and background kept them from accepting the evidence of His works and teaching. It was the darkness of the unconverted heart, relying on what was known of His human family instead of receiving the evidence of His Messiahship.
His plain testimony offended many who closed their hearts to reproof and correction. When truth exposed lives out of harmony with righteousness, some chose human praise over divine admonition and became angry rather than practice self-denial and reform. Many had followed because they ate of the loaves and were filled, wanting only temporal advantage, and when they heard the demand to die to self they were displeased.
The truth taught was meant to lead hearers to decide for or against Him and to reveal their hearts. Those who were not wholly with Him would oppose Him at His trial. His plain statement of truth about His work was a deliberate test to prove those who claimed to be His disciples before He left them, so that their apostasy would not surprise the true disciples nor make the trial too severe for them, and so that His future work would be kept safe and not be swayed into wrong paths.
Many hearers were offended, murmured against the teaching, went back and walked no more with Him. Some who turned away professed to be His disciples, because He presented His kingdom as spiritual and not a temporal reign, and the worldly-minded could not accept conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom that promised no earthly reward. The Twelve did not show themselves unfaithful at that time, Peter speaking for his brethren in declaring loyalty to Christ.
The same resistance to truth appears in every age. Understanding such deep spiritual truths requires God's teaching, and coming to Him requires the Father's drawing. The chapter should therefore be received humbly, like a child willing to learn from Christ.
Bread of Life Teaching
“Murmur not” stands in the middle of the repeated lesson that He Himself is the true bread from heaven, which Moses did not give and which comes from no human agent but which the Father gives through the gift of Christ to give life to the world, so that he who comes to Him never hungers and he who believes never thirsts. The bread that came down from heaven is Christ Himself, the substance and source of true life. He is the same compassionate Saviour still, mindful of physical wants and providing food for bodily necessities, yet teaching that the spiritual food He provides is of far more consequence than temporal food.
No one can come to Him unless the Father draws him, and those who come He will raise up at the last day. Coming to Him requires the Father’s drawing, and that drawing is to be received humbly, like a child willing to learn from Christ. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means true earnest belief in Him, receiving Him and His words which are spirit and life, becoming one with Him and receiving His life into one’s nature. That feeding means receiving Christ’s words and life into the nature, holding fast to His word and understanding His truth, which transforms character and makes the receiver one with Christ. Those who feed God’s people must first receive this bread themselves and commune with God, so their ministry can give life to others.
That reception gives eternal life and resurrection at the last day, abundant life now, and oneness with Christ in this present life continuing through all eternity, so that even if a believer dies as Christ died the Saviour’s life remains in him hid with Christ in God. It sets forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God, explains the terms of eternal life, teaches the meaning of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, and shows how eternal life is gained. This nourishment brings a fresh perception of truth, and cherishing that truth in the heart works by love and purifies the soul. He is the bread that comes down from heaven from whom flow the streams of salvation, and the gospel feast is furnished by inexpressible love at infinite cost through His death, providing unsearchable, inexhaustible resources that are nothing less than Christ Himself, so that to be invited is the greatest honor that can be conferred and heaven looks with amazement and grief on refusal. The depth of that love and cost is measured only by the depth of the pit of sin into which man has fallen, and receiving Him requires prayer for the Holy Spirit to enlighten reason and combine with human endeavor, placing the soul in the best position to receive the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness and become sanctified in soul and spirit.
Without so receiving Him, pictured as eating His flesh and drinking His blood, people cannot have life. The teaching calls people to become Christlike, with lives filled with love for God and others and with Christ’s Spirit. Receiving Christ as the bread of life means following Him as a perfect Saviour and belonging wholly to the Lord, and those who live by this instruction reveal His character in words and actions, with conduct toward others showing which power rules within. The chapter defines the righteousness of Christ that must be accepted through full surrender to God and ceasing from sin to have on the wedding garment and be counted a fit guest at the wedding, reaching God’s standard of character in the marriage of humanity with divinity instead of measuring character by human ideas. It gives decisive teaching that the Old Testament Scriptures are sufficient, and believing those Scriptures would lead people to believe the New Testament as well.
Receiving Christ Through Scripture
To eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood is to take His words into the inner life and live by what God has revealed, receiving and assimilating them until they become part of self. His words are spirit and life to the one who receives them, living bread to be received and lived by, and what God has revealed is all that is necessary for salvation, not to be left for human suppositions. The instruction in John 6 shows the importance of feeding upon Christ's words as His very flesh and His blood.
Study of this chapter means bringing its revealed principles home to the soul, eating the Word by not departing from its precepts, bringing its truths into daily life, and grasping the mysteries of godliness. This is done by praying, communing with God, and proving the mind of God in striving for eternal life and knowledge of His will, with truth revealed only as it is known in Christ. Its statements are to be read and studied and prayed over for understanding.
That study teaches dependence on God and not on human beings, looking to Jesus Christ as the true Light instead of looking to people for wisdom, guidance, and strength. He is to be received by faith as sanctification and righteousness and exceeding great reward, and the light given is to be walked in so as to be strong in the Lord instead of remaining in spiritual weakness and bondage. Each person must receive the Word personally, not merely through another person's understanding, and take it in until it shapes every action and part of the character.
To eat is to be a doer of the Word of God, taking the spiritual truths of God's Word into the mind, understanding them, and practicing them. It means comprehending and appreciating the truth as it is in Jesus by bringing truth into daily experience through continual growth in grace, sought by prayer to God for every blessing and by daily learning in the school of Christ. The Bible stands as the great educating Book above all other books, the work of God is to believe on Him whom He sent, and the way is by faith in Jesus with believing first and working next, so that those taught to believe in Christ will then work the works of God. Eating that bread means obeying Christ's words and doing His works, which advances righteousness and restrains unrighteousness and is connected with happiness and salvation. Such eating is believing the Word of God and appropriating that Word to the soul, comparing Scripture with Scripture and bringing Christ's requirements into the practical life.
The Word as the bread of life does not address the understanding alone as mathematics addresses the intellect alone, for human beings are not without moral nature. Its aim is the heart, addressing moral nature and taking possession of the will, casting down imaginations and every high thing exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God, for Christ as substitute for sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. The New Testament does not replace the Old Testament but sheds light on it, illuminating it rather than setting it aside. The Scriptures' teaching on practical holiness and obedience is to shape the life of every Christian, and this plain lesson answering what must be done to work the works of God must be understood or heaven will be missed.
Such feeding is an actual experience of receiving Christ, belonging with true conversion and new birth. It is tasting that the Lord is gracious, learning as newborn babes to desire the sincere milk of the word in order to grow. When this education is obtained the frivolous life is changed, character is transformed, and Christ is revealed in spirit, words, and actions. The principles of God's Word, received and practiced in daily life, bring people into connection with Christ, and cherishing that truth in the heart works by love and purifies the soul. Feeding on this bread means receiving Christ's words and life into one's nature, which transforms character and makes a person one with Christ, bringing eternal life and a fresh perception of truth.
As food shapes the body, what the mind takes in shapes spiritual experience. Those who feed on Christ by taking His Word into mind and life receive eternal life and become observers of the Word. Taken in, the Word shapes every action and part of the character, gives strength, perfects spiritual experience, and brings lasting joy. Therefore believers should reject corrupting material and give attention to God's Word, seeking Christ with soul hunger for heavenly sustenance rather than feeding the mind on worldly entertainments.
Practical Life and Application
The command meets those who are disbelieved with instruction drawn from Christ's own experience, for even the Redeemer was met with unbelief, insult and mocking when He answered the Jews who murmured at His claim to be the bread which came down from heaven. They stumbled because they knew Him as Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother they knew, and asked how He could say He came down from heaven, and His word not to murmur rebukes that unbelief. That rebuke leads into His teaching that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him, and that eating His flesh and drinking His blood means true earnest belief in His words which are spirit and life.
Not to murmur means not looking on the dark side and not speaking unbelief and discouragement about God's work. It means instead helping and building one another up in the most holy faith, finding the bright side, and talking difficulties over together in a humble, prayerful, consecrated spirit until light comes. This belongs within diligent study of Scripture that eats the Word by making its divine principles a part of life.
The teaching of the chapter plainly expresses God's will for His people and contains God's antidote for the sin of the whole world. It is a remedy for dissension and for seeking the highest place. Studying that chapter and receiving Christ's words brings selflessness and deep piety and calls people to readiness for the day of God. That receiving gives eternal life and resurrection at the last day, abundant life now, and oneness with Christ in this present life continuing through all eternity, so that even if a believer dies as Christ died the life of the Saviour remains in him hid with Christ in God.
Personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ, while mere outward connection with a church does not save. Those ready for service are those who feed most on Christ by reading and studying His Word, drinking in the inspiration of His Spirit, and receiving His grace not to hoard but to give to others. Those who feed God's people must first receive this bread themselves and commune with God, so their ministry can give life to others. Teachers must first be learners of Christ, combining busy religious activity like Martha's with Mary's character in learning at the feet of Jesus.
Those who so eat the bread of life by believing the Word of God and appropriating that Word to the soul compare Scripture with Scripture and bring the requirements of Christ into the practical life. Such eating brings the witness of the Spirit that the ways please God, with full assurance of hope in believing every word of Christ and being united to Him by living faith. Those who so eat bear much fruit and have the joy of Christ remaining in the soul with joy made full, and are no longer under the condemnation of the law because their course of action is obedient to the will of God.
Jesus answered the Jews' murmuring after He said He is the bread which came down from heaven by commanding them to murmur not among themselves. They stumbled because they knew Him as Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother they knew, and could not accept His claim to have come down from heaven. He is Himself the true bread from heaven which the Father gives to give life to the world, so that he who comes to Him never hungers and he who believes never thirsts. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to truly believe in Him and receive Him and His words which are spirit and life, taking them in and living by them until they become part of the life. Their murmuring came from unbelief and pride and prejudice against His humble background, yet no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him, and those who so receive Him have eternal life now and resurrection at the last day.
Words and Historical Setting
Jesus answered the Jews' murmuring with the command not to murmur among themselves after He declared Himself the bread which came down from heaven. That answer met their unbelieving objection to His claim to have come down from heaven and to His words about being the bread of life. It rebuked their unbelief and led into His teaching that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him. It stands in the middle of His repeated lesson that He Himself is the bread of life, received by believing in Him and becoming one with Him.
They stumbled because they knew Him as Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother they knew, and asked how He could say He had come down from heaven. They relied on what they knew of His human family instead of receiving the evidence of His Messiahship. Their difficulty in receiving the truth arose because understanding such deep spiritual truths requires God's teaching.
It was spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum, the morning after He fed the hungry multitude that had followed Him to hear Him. He multiplied five barley loaves and two small fishes to feed five thousand men besides women and children, and twelve baskets of fragments were gathered so that nothing was wasted, showing care not to waste and power to provide food. That ministry addressed people gathered to hear Him while also meeting their physical need for food. It belongs to His teaching after the feeding with the loaves and fishes and His walking on the water, when He told His hearers He was the bread of life.
The crowd sought Him at Capernaum the next morning because they ate of the loaves and were filled, wanting only temporal advantage. They hoped for an earthly kingdom, but His teaching challenged those hopes by presenting His kingdom as spiritual. Following Him therefore promised no worldly rewards. He taught that chief labor must be bestowed not for perishing meat but for meat enduring to everlasting life, which the Son of man gives as sealed of the Father.
Their failure to believe persisted despite the mighty works they had seen, showing that miracles did not overcome their unbelief. Pride, jealousy, and prejudice against His humble family and background kept them from accepting the evidence of His works and teaching. The spiritual meaning of the miracle had not been understood.
Unbelief Behind the Murmuring
The murmuring came from unbelief, and a subtle, deceiving power gained access to minds to keep them from yielding to evidence. Cherished unbelief could keep them from accepting Christ. They stumbled over Him as the son of Joseph whose father and mother they knew, even while He repeated that He is the bread of life come down from heaven and that eternal life comes by receiving Him, believing in Him, becoming one with Him, eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
Pride, jealousy, and prejudice against His humble family and background kept them from accepting the evidence of His works and teaching. It was the darkness of the unconverted heart, relying on what was known of His human family instead of receiving the evidence of His Messiahship.
His plain testimony offended many who closed their hearts to reproof and correction. When truth exposed lives out of harmony with righteousness, some chose human praise over divine admonition and became angry rather than practice self-denial and reform. Many had followed because they ate of the loaves and were filled, wanting only temporal advantage, and when they heard the demand to die to self they were displeased.
The truth taught was meant to lead hearers to decide for or against Him and to reveal their hearts. Those who were not wholly with Him would oppose Him at His trial. His plain statement of truth about His work was a deliberate test to prove those who claimed to be His disciples before He left them, so that their apostasy would not surprise the true disciples nor make the trial too severe for them, and so that His future work would be kept safe and not be swayed into wrong paths.
Many hearers were offended, murmured against the teaching, went back and walked no more with Him. Some who turned away professed to be His disciples, because He presented His kingdom as spiritual and not a temporal reign, and the worldly-minded could not accept conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom that promised no earthly reward. The Twelve did not show themselves unfaithful at that time, Peter speaking for his brethren in declaring loyalty to Christ.
The same resistance to truth appears in every age. Understanding such deep spiritual truths requires God's teaching, and coming to Him requires the Father's drawing. The chapter should therefore be received humbly, like a child willing to learn from Christ.
Bread of Life Teaching
“Murmur not” stands in the middle of the repeated lesson that He Himself is the true bread from heaven, which Moses did not give and which comes from no human agent but which the Father gives through the gift of Christ to give life to the world, so that he who comes to Him never hungers and he who believes never thirsts. The bread that came down from heaven is Christ Himself, the substance and source of true life. He is the same compassionate Saviour still, mindful of physical wants and providing food for bodily necessities, yet teaching that the spiritual food He provides is of far more consequence than temporal food.
No one can come to Him unless the Father draws him, and those who come He will raise up at the last day. Coming to Him requires the Father’s drawing, and that drawing is to be received humbly, like a child willing to learn from Christ. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means true earnest belief in Him, receiving Him and His words which are spirit and life, becoming one with Him and receiving His life into one’s nature. That feeding means receiving Christ’s words and life into the nature, holding fast to His word and understanding His truth, which transforms character and makes the receiver one with Christ. Those who feed God’s people must first receive this bread themselves and commune with God, so their ministry can give life to others.
That reception gives eternal life and resurrection at the last day, abundant life now, and oneness with Christ in this present life continuing through all eternity, so that even if a believer dies as Christ died the Saviour’s life remains in him hid with Christ in God. It sets forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God, explains the terms of eternal life, teaches the meaning of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, and shows how eternal life is gained. This nourishment brings a fresh perception of truth, and cherishing that truth in the heart works by love and purifies the soul. He is the bread that comes down from heaven from whom flow the streams of salvation, and the gospel feast is furnished by inexpressible love at infinite cost through His death, providing unsearchable, inexhaustible resources that are nothing less than Christ Himself, so that to be invited is the greatest honor that can be conferred and heaven looks with amazement and grief on refusal. The depth of that love and cost is measured only by the depth of the pit of sin into which man has fallen, and receiving Him requires prayer for the Holy Spirit to enlighten reason and combine with human endeavor, placing the soul in the best position to receive the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness and become sanctified in soul and spirit.
Without so receiving Him, pictured as eating His flesh and drinking His blood, people cannot have life. The teaching calls people to become Christlike, with lives filled with love for God and others and with Christ’s Spirit. Receiving Christ as the bread of life means following Him as a perfect Saviour and belonging wholly to the Lord, and those who live by this instruction reveal His character in words and actions, with conduct toward others showing which power rules within. The chapter defines the righteousness of Christ that must be accepted through full surrender to God and ceasing from sin to have on the wedding garment and be counted a fit guest at the wedding, reaching God’s standard of character in the marriage of humanity with divinity instead of measuring character by human ideas. It gives decisive teaching that the Old Testament Scriptures are sufficient, and believing those Scriptures would lead people to believe the New Testament as well.
Receiving Christ Through Scripture
To eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood is to take His words into the inner life and live by what God has revealed, receiving and assimilating them until they become part of self. His words are spirit and life to the one who receives them, living bread to be received and lived by, and what God has revealed is all that is necessary for salvation, not to be left for human suppositions. The instruction in John 6 shows the importance of feeding upon Christ's words as His very flesh and His blood.
Study of this chapter means bringing its revealed principles home to the soul, eating the Word by not departing from its precepts, bringing its truths into daily life, and grasping the mysteries of godliness. This is done by praying, communing with God, and proving the mind of God in striving for eternal life and knowledge of His will, with truth revealed only as it is known in Christ. Its statements are to be read and studied and prayed over for understanding.
That study teaches dependence on God and not on human beings, looking to Jesus Christ as the true Light instead of looking to people for wisdom, guidance, and strength. He is to be received by faith as sanctification and righteousness and exceeding great reward, and the light given is to be walked in so as to be strong in the Lord instead of remaining in spiritual weakness and bondage. Each person must receive the Word personally, not merely through another person's understanding, and take it in until it shapes every action and part of the character.
To eat is to be a doer of the Word of God, taking the spiritual truths of God's Word into the mind, understanding them, and practicing them. It means comprehending and appreciating the truth as it is in Jesus by bringing truth into daily experience through continual growth in grace, sought by prayer to God for every blessing and by daily learning in the school of Christ. The Bible stands as the great educating Book above all other books, the work of God is to believe on Him whom He sent, and the way is by faith in Jesus with believing first and working next, so that those taught to believe in Christ will then work the works of God. Eating that bread means obeying Christ's words and doing His works, which advances righteousness and restrains unrighteousness and is connected with happiness and salvation. Such eating is believing the Word of God and appropriating that Word to the soul, comparing Scripture with Scripture and bringing Christ's requirements into the practical life.
The Word as the bread of life does not address the understanding alone as mathematics addresses the intellect alone, for human beings are not without moral nature. Its aim is the heart, addressing moral nature and taking possession of the will, casting down imaginations and every high thing exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God, for Christ as substitute for sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. The New Testament does not replace the Old Testament but sheds light on it, illuminating it rather than setting it aside. The Scriptures' teaching on practical holiness and obedience is to shape the life of every Christian, and this plain lesson answering what must be done to work the works of God must be understood or heaven will be missed.
Such feeding is an actual experience of receiving Christ, belonging with true conversion and new birth. It is tasting that the Lord is gracious, learning as newborn babes to desire the sincere milk of the word in order to grow. When this education is obtained the frivolous life is changed, character is transformed, and Christ is revealed in spirit, words, and actions. The principles of God's Word, received and practiced in daily life, bring people into connection with Christ, and cherishing that truth in the heart works by love and purifies the soul. Feeding on this bread means receiving Christ's words and life into one's nature, which transforms character and makes a person one with Christ, bringing eternal life and a fresh perception of truth.
As food shapes the body, what the mind takes in shapes spiritual experience. Those who feed on Christ by taking His Word into mind and life receive eternal life and become observers of the Word. Taken in, the Word shapes every action and part of the character, gives strength, perfects spiritual experience, and brings lasting joy. Therefore believers should reject corrupting material and give attention to God's Word, seeking Christ with soul hunger for heavenly sustenance rather than feeding the mind on worldly entertainments.
Practical Life and Application
The command meets those who are disbelieved with instruction drawn from Christ's own experience, for even the Redeemer was met with unbelief, insult and mocking when He answered the Jews who murmured at His claim to be the bread which came down from heaven. They stumbled because they knew Him as Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother they knew, and asked how He could say He came down from heaven, and His word not to murmur rebukes that unbelief. That rebuke leads into His teaching that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him, and that eating His flesh and drinking His blood means true earnest belief in His words which are spirit and life.
Not to murmur means not looking on the dark side and not speaking unbelief and discouragement about God's work. It means instead helping and building one another up in the most holy faith, finding the bright side, and talking difficulties over together in a humble, prayerful, consecrated spirit until light comes. This belongs within diligent study of Scripture that eats the Word by making its divine principles a part of life.
The teaching of the chapter plainly expresses God's will for His people and contains God's antidote for the sin of the whole world. It is a remedy for dissension and for seeking the highest place. Studying that chapter and receiving Christ's words brings selflessness and deep piety and calls people to readiness for the day of God. That receiving gives eternal life and resurrection at the last day, abundant life now, and oneness with Christ in this present life continuing through all eternity, so that even if a believer dies as Christ died the life of the Saviour remains in him hid with Christ in God.
Personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ, while mere outward connection with a church does not save. Those ready for service are those who feed most on Christ by reading and studying His Word, drinking in the inspiration of His Spirit, and receiving His grace not to hoard but to give to others. Those who feed God's people must first receive this bread themselves and commune with God, so their ministry can give life to others. Teachers must first be learners of Christ, combining busy religious activity like Martha's with Mary's character in learning at the feet of Jesus.
Those who so eat the bread of life by believing the Word of God and appropriating that Word to the soul compare Scripture with Scripture and bring the requirements of Christ into the practical life. Such eating brings the witness of the Spirit that the ways please God, with full assurance of hope in believing every word of Christ and being united to Him by living faith. Those who so eat bear much fruit and have the joy of Christ remaining in the soul with joy made full, and are no longer under the condemnation of the law because their course of action is obedient to the will of God.