Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.
No human being has ever seen the Father; only He who is of God, Jesus Christ, has seen Him. The Father draws and teaches people, and everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to Christ, yet being taught by God does not mean any person has seen the Father. As the sent Teacher with firsthand knowledge of the Father, He reveals the Father to humanity, so that in seeing and hearing the Son people see and hear the Father whom they could not otherwise endure to behold. He is Himself the living bread come down from heaven which God gives to give life to the world, and coming to Him and believing on Him gives everlasting life so that true receivers never hunger and never thirst. Feeding on Him means receiving His words, bringing them home to the soul until they become part of the self, and living by them in faith and obedience.
Wording and Context
No human being has ever seen the Father; only He who is of God has seen Him, and He is Jesus Christ Himself. The exception belongs to the One who is from God and comes from God, whose firsthand knowledge sets Him apart as the great Teacher who knows the Father and came down from heaven. Being taught of God does not mean any person has seen the Father himself, for the Father draws and teaches people, and every one who has heard and learned of the Father comes to Jesus. Coming to Him and believing on Him as the bread of life gives everlasting life, so that true receivers never hunger and never thirst.
It was spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum in the discourse in which Jesus declares Himself the bread of life come down from heaven. It belongs to His teaching that He is the bread of life, given after the feeding with the loaves and fishes and His walking on the water, a teaching that caused some of His disciples to turn from Him. It stands among many connected subjects of intense interest and highest value.
The sixth chapter shows Christ as the same compassionate Saviour today in His care for the physical needs of the hungry multitude who followed to hear words of life. By creative power He increased five barley loaves and two small fishes to feed five thousand men besides women and children, and He directed that the fragments that remained be gathered so that nothing would be lost. The teaching followed the feeding of the five thousand and His refusal to let the people make Him king, and its central spiritual lesson is that the living bread that endures to eternal life matters far more than perishable bread and is to be sought with greater anxiety. Through the gift of Christ God Himself gives this living bread from heaven which gives life to the world, and Christ Himself is that Bread of Life to whom coming and believing ends hunger and thirst forever. He is not unmindful of bodily necessities and will provide food to satisfy them, and His hand of benevolence still imparts knowledge to provide food in various ways, while the disciples as His representatives were to give people the bread of life after first receiving spiritual food from God themselves. That bread-of-life sermon taught the conditions of eternal life and entrance into God's kingdom, and many who had followed Jesus for temporal benefits left when they heard its demands.
His heavenly origin and knowledge of the Father answered the Jews' unbelief about His claim to have come down from heaven, which they resisted because they knew His earthly family.
Father Draws to Christ
No human being has seen the Father; Jesus alone, as the One who is of God and from God, has seen Him. The surrounding words declare that the Father draws people and teaches people, and that learning from the Father means coming to Jesus. Every one who has heard and learned of the Father comes to Him, for His firsthand knowledge sets Him apart as the great Teacher who knows the Father and came down from heaven.
The verse guards that promise by clarifying that being taught of God does not mean any person has seen the Father. Only the One who is of God has seen Him, so hearing and learning from the Father is not itself a vision of the Father. Those who so hear and learn and receive and practice the truth come to Christ and become lights shining amid the darkness of the world, revealing virtues that are a savor of life unto life.
Coming to Him and believing on Him as the bread of life come down from heaven gives everlasting life. This was spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum in the discourse where Jesus declares Himself the bread of life come down from heaven. True receivers never hunger and never thirst, for believing in Christ the bread of life brings everlasting life.
Christ Knows and Reveals Father
No human has seen the Father; Jesus alone, as the One who is of God, has seen Him, and that firsthand knowledge sets Him apart as the great Teacher. He is the sent Teacher who knows the Father and reveals spiritual truth, and those who hear and learn from the Father come to Jesus and receive everlasting life by believing in Him.
He belongs to heaven as the One who is of God and came down from heaven, while the Father draws and teaches people to come to Christ, and believing in Christ the bread of life brings everlasting life. In simple language answering what it is to work the works of God, being doers of the Word is eating His flesh and drinking His blood, the Bible is to stand as the great educating Book above all other books, the divine Teacher clothed divinity with humanity to reveal Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the work of God is to believe on Him whom He sent, and the price of heaven is the only begotten Son with the way to heaven by faith in Jesus where belief comes first and then work, which must be understood and taught to students or heaven will be missed. Coming clothed in humanity, His divine origin and unique knowledge of the Father open the way for those who receive Him as personal Saviour to behold eternal realities by faith and share in the divine nature. He is the bread that comes down from heaven from whom flow the streams of salvation, and the gospel feast is God's gracious invitation to receive Christ Himself, furnished by inexpressible love at infinite cost through His death with unsearchable, inexhaustible resources as the greatest honor that can be conferred, so that to refuse Him for earthly and selfish excuses is to refuse life while to receive Him is to eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, which alone gives life and eternal life, brings resurrection at the last day, and makes His sheep who hear His voice and follow Him known to Him, never to perish and never to be plucked from His hand.
The very mind of God and a knowledge of His will are proved and truth is revealed only as known in Christ, and God has revealed what is necessary for salvation. Study of the Word means receiving and assimilating His words, living by them, bringing scriptural truth into daily life and home to the soul until His words become part of the self without departing from its precepts, for God in wisdom and love and goodness has made it plain and simple. Not all has been revealed because men could not bear it, and His revealed Word must not be left to human supposition.
Christ represented His Father to the world and reveals Him to the sons and daughters of Adam, declaring the absolute Godhead whom the mightiest created intellect cannot comprehend and whom the most eloquent tongue fails to describe. God does not appear in person to teach humanity because people could not endure the vision of His glory; they come to the Father through the Son. In seeing and hearing the Son they see and hear the Father.
He alone can reveal the Father as the one Advocate and Intercessor able to pardon transgression and as the Mediator between God and His disobedient children through whom people come to the Father. Every one taught of the Father comes to Christ directly through Christ the Saviour, not through confessionals or priests or popes, and no priest or religious teacher can reveal the Father or take His place. Mere outward connection with any church will not save, but personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ.
The One who has seen the Father Himself teaches people by His Word, by His Spirit, and by His providences. He leads everyone willing to be led to a right comprehension of what is truth and to see the importance of obeying the Word of God, for it is truth.
Bread of Life Teaching
Christ Himself is the living bread from heaven which God gives, and that bread gives life to the world. It is to be sought with greater earnestness than perishable bread, for coming to Him and believing on Him ends hunger and thirst forever. His words are to be received as spiritual nourishment and life-giving spiritual food, for the spirituality of God's Word is the concern of this chapter.
Feeding on Christ means keeping the Word and truth before the mind, studying and practicing it, and living by faith rather than sight. It means receiving His Word and assimilating it, bringing scriptural truth into daily life and being formed by it into observers of the Word. Its principles are to be brought home to the soul and eaten until His words become part of the self, without departing from its precepts, and its teachings brought into daily experience. This study of the Word made part of life gives knowledge to distinguish the true from the false in days of peril.
Eating His flesh and drinking His blood is being doers of the Word of God, and the Bible is to stand as the great educating Book above all other books. The work of God is to believe on Him whom He sent, with belief first and then work by faith in Jesus, and this must be understood and taught to students so they will work the works of God or heaven will be missed. It means receiving and clinging to the truth of His word as the terms of eternal life. It means obeying His words and doing His works, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness, which is essential to happiness and salvation. It means believing every word of Christ, appropriating that Word to the soul, bringing His requirements into the practical life, abiding in Him, and keeping the commandments from the heart.
That Word does not address the understanding alone as mathematics does for the intellect, but aims at the heart. It addresses the moral nature, takes possession of the will, casts down imaginations and everything exalted against the knowledge of God, and brings every thought into captivity to obedience. It is learned by submissive students in the school of Christ whose souls are emptied of proud possessions, so Christ may imprint His image and the soul-temple may be the abiding place of the Most High.
Fully understanding and living by this chapter presents the conditions of eternal life and leads to a life that measures with the life of God. Received by faith, Christ is sanctification and righteousness and exceeding great reward, teaching dependence on God and not on human beings for strength, power, and guidance. To comprehend and appreciate the truth as it is in Jesus is to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, which means continual growth in grace, praying for daily bread, bringing truth into daily experience, and being taught daily in the school of Christ. When cherished in the heart it is truth that works by love and purifies the soul, showing how eternal life is gained. To receive Him is to eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood at the gospel feast furnished by inexpressible love at infinite cost through His death, which alone gives life and eternal life, brings resurrection at the last day, and makes His sheep who hear His voice and follow Him known to Him, never to perish and never to be plucked from His hand, while to refuse Him for earthly and selfish excuses is to refuse life. This eating brings the witness of the Spirit, the joy of Christ remaining in the soul, full assurance of hope, union with Christ by living faith, much fruit, and freedom from condemnation.
The living oracles are called the Son's flesh and blood even before His crucifixion, and His work as substitute for sin was ancient Israel's only hope. The Old Testament Scriptures are sufficient, and believing them leads to believing the New. The New Testament was given after Christ's death to add blessing and reflect its light back on the Old, not to replace it. Together the Scriptures give significance to the Jewish economy and teach practical holiness, obedience to Jehovah's law with its penalty for transgression, and acceptance of the Saviour's ransom by the obedient.
Response and Christian Living
Christ's plain declaration of Himself tested His disciples, for in it He defined His kingdom as spiritual and not a temporal reign. Its truth offended many who resisted reproof and chose the praise of men above admonition from God, and many who had followed Him for temporal benefits left when they heard its demands concerning eternal life and entrance into God's kingdom. Given after the feeding with the loaves and fishes and His walking on the water, this teaching about Himself as the bread of life caused some to turn away from Him, yet it stands among many connected subjects of intense interest and highest value.
Those who hear and learn from the Father and receive and practice the truth come to Christ and become lights shining amid the darkness of the world, revealing virtues that are a savor of life unto life. Receiving Him as the bread of life is necessary for life, and receiving the life and spirit of His words is like feeding on the bread that came down from heaven, by which those who receive that life grow into Christlike character with lives marked by love for God and others and by His Spirit. The instruction of the chapter is carried out when people receive the truth simply, follow Christ as a perfect Saviour, and desire to belong wholly to the Lord, so that Christ abiding within leads them to show His attributes in words and actions and to become channels through which living water flows. Feeding on this bread means receiving the Word, which can purify the soul and help form a firm, Christlike character, and Judas had abundant opportunities to receive it.
The sixth chapter, with the fifth chapter as indeed the mystery of godliness, is to be read and studied with prayer for understanding, with the Word made a part of life and its teachings brought into daily experience. These truths teach dependence on God and not on human beings for strength, power, and guidance, looking to Jesus Christ and following the Word of the living God as guide instead of trusting man, with each person accountable to Him by creation and by redemption. Received by faith, Christ is sanctification and righteousness and exceeding great reward, and walking in this light makes strong in the Lord instead of spiritually weak and brought into bondage, giving the knowledge that enables distinguishing the true from the false in days of peril.
Teachers must study these life-giving words about the bread from heaven and everlasting life so they can teach this life-giving truth. Disciples as His representatives were to give people the bread of life, and they had to receive spiritual food from God before they could share it with others, for he who feeds the flock must himself first eat of it and commune with God before daring to come before the people. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood puts the element of eternal life into ministry, gives a new perception of truth on every side, and keeps preaching from becoming a fund of stale, oft-repeated ideas, so that the bread of life then satisfies every soul hunger. Feeding on Christ means reading and studying His Word, drinking in the inspiration of His Spirit, and receiving His grace not to hoard but to give to others, and those who feed most on Christ are those ready to do service; teachers must first be learners of Christ, and even the most zealous workers, busy like Martha in religious activities, need Mary's side of the character to learn at the feet of Jesus.
Eating the bread of life is believing the Word of God and appropriating that Word to the soul, believing every word of Christ, bringing His requirements into the practical life, and abiding in Him. It is obeying Christ's words and doing His works, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness, keeping the commandments from the heart, which is essential to happiness and salvation and belongs to a life of cooperation with God and respect for all His commandments. This eating brings eternal life, the witness of the Spirit that ways please God, the joy of Christ remaining in the soul, full assurance of hope, and union with Christ by living faith, so that the believer bears much fruit and is no longer under the condemnation of the law. It gives courage, confidence, and a true sense of one's gifts and abilities.
The verse gives part of the definition of the righteousness of Christ, which must be accepted to have on the wedding garment and to be counted a fit guest at the wedding. The wedding is the marriage of humanity with divinity and shows the standard of character each must reach, requiring a firm stand for Christ and surrendering to God that which is already His own. Without accepting this righteousness there is presumption in matters of eternal interest, measuring character by human ideas instead of God's standard, continuing in sin, and loss of the soul.
No human being has ever seen the Father; only He who is of God, Jesus Christ, has seen Him. The Father draws and teaches people, and everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to Christ, yet being taught by God does not mean any person has seen the Father. As the sent Teacher with firsthand knowledge of the Father, He reveals the Father to humanity, so that in seeing and hearing the Son people see and hear the Father whom they could not otherwise endure to behold. He is Himself the living bread come down from heaven which God gives to give life to the world, and coming to Him and believing on Him gives everlasting life so that true receivers never hunger and never thirst. Feeding on Him means receiving His words, bringing them home to the soul until they become part of the self, and living by them in faith and obedience.
Wording and Context
No human being has ever seen the Father; only He who is of God has seen Him, and He is Jesus Christ Himself. The exception belongs to the One who is from God and comes from God, whose firsthand knowledge sets Him apart as the great Teacher who knows the Father and came down from heaven. Being taught of God does not mean any person has seen the Father himself, for the Father draws and teaches people, and every one who has heard and learned of the Father comes to Jesus. Coming to Him and believing on Him as the bread of life gives everlasting life, so that true receivers never hunger and never thirst.
It was spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum in the discourse in which Jesus declares Himself the bread of life come down from heaven. It belongs to His teaching that He is the bread of life, given after the feeding with the loaves and fishes and His walking on the water, a teaching that caused some of His disciples to turn from Him. It stands among many connected subjects of intense interest and highest value.
The sixth chapter shows Christ as the same compassionate Saviour today in His care for the physical needs of the hungry multitude who followed to hear words of life. By creative power He increased five barley loaves and two small fishes to feed five thousand men besides women and children, and He directed that the fragments that remained be gathered so that nothing would be lost. The teaching followed the feeding of the five thousand and His refusal to let the people make Him king, and its central spiritual lesson is that the living bread that endures to eternal life matters far more than perishable bread and is to be sought with greater anxiety. Through the gift of Christ God Himself gives this living bread from heaven which gives life to the world, and Christ Himself is that Bread of Life to whom coming and believing ends hunger and thirst forever. He is not unmindful of bodily necessities and will provide food to satisfy them, and His hand of benevolence still imparts knowledge to provide food in various ways, while the disciples as His representatives were to give people the bread of life after first receiving spiritual food from God themselves. That bread-of-life sermon taught the conditions of eternal life and entrance into God's kingdom, and many who had followed Jesus for temporal benefits left when they heard its demands.
His heavenly origin and knowledge of the Father answered the Jews' unbelief about His claim to have come down from heaven, which they resisted because they knew His earthly family.
Father Draws to Christ
No human being has seen the Father; Jesus alone, as the One who is of God and from God, has seen Him. The surrounding words declare that the Father draws people and teaches people, and that learning from the Father means coming to Jesus. Every one who has heard and learned of the Father comes to Him, for His firsthand knowledge sets Him apart as the great Teacher who knows the Father and came down from heaven.
The verse guards that promise by clarifying that being taught of God does not mean any person has seen the Father. Only the One who is of God has seen Him, so hearing and learning from the Father is not itself a vision of the Father. Those who so hear and learn and receive and practice the truth come to Christ and become lights shining amid the darkness of the world, revealing virtues that are a savor of life unto life.
Coming to Him and believing on Him as the bread of life come down from heaven gives everlasting life. This was spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum in the discourse where Jesus declares Himself the bread of life come down from heaven. True receivers never hunger and never thirst, for believing in Christ the bread of life brings everlasting life.
Christ Knows and Reveals Father
No human has seen the Father; Jesus alone, as the One who is of God, has seen Him, and that firsthand knowledge sets Him apart as the great Teacher. He is the sent Teacher who knows the Father and reveals spiritual truth, and those who hear and learn from the Father come to Jesus and receive everlasting life by believing in Him.
He belongs to heaven as the One who is of God and came down from heaven, while the Father draws and teaches people to come to Christ, and believing in Christ the bread of life brings everlasting life. In simple language answering what it is to work the works of God, being doers of the Word is eating His flesh and drinking His blood, the Bible is to stand as the great educating Book above all other books, the divine Teacher clothed divinity with humanity to reveal Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the work of God is to believe on Him whom He sent, and the price of heaven is the only begotten Son with the way to heaven by faith in Jesus where belief comes first and then work, which must be understood and taught to students or heaven will be missed. Coming clothed in humanity, His divine origin and unique knowledge of the Father open the way for those who receive Him as personal Saviour to behold eternal realities by faith and share in the divine nature. He is the bread that comes down from heaven from whom flow the streams of salvation, and the gospel feast is God's gracious invitation to receive Christ Himself, furnished by inexpressible love at infinite cost through His death with unsearchable, inexhaustible resources as the greatest honor that can be conferred, so that to refuse Him for earthly and selfish excuses is to refuse life while to receive Him is to eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, which alone gives life and eternal life, brings resurrection at the last day, and makes His sheep who hear His voice and follow Him known to Him, never to perish and never to be plucked from His hand.
The very mind of God and a knowledge of His will are proved and truth is revealed only as known in Christ, and God has revealed what is necessary for salvation. Study of the Word means receiving and assimilating His words, living by them, bringing scriptural truth into daily life and home to the soul until His words become part of the self without departing from its precepts, for God in wisdom and love and goodness has made it plain and simple. Not all has been revealed because men could not bear it, and His revealed Word must not be left to human supposition.
Christ represented His Father to the world and reveals Him to the sons and daughters of Adam, declaring the absolute Godhead whom the mightiest created intellect cannot comprehend and whom the most eloquent tongue fails to describe. God does not appear in person to teach humanity because people could not endure the vision of His glory; they come to the Father through the Son. In seeing and hearing the Son they see and hear the Father.
He alone can reveal the Father as the one Advocate and Intercessor able to pardon transgression and as the Mediator between God and His disobedient children through whom people come to the Father. Every one taught of the Father comes to Christ directly through Christ the Saviour, not through confessionals or priests or popes, and no priest or religious teacher can reveal the Father or take His place. Mere outward connection with any church will not save, but personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ.
The One who has seen the Father Himself teaches people by His Word, by His Spirit, and by His providences. He leads everyone willing to be led to a right comprehension of what is truth and to see the importance of obeying the Word of God, for it is truth.
Bread of Life Teaching
Christ Himself is the living bread from heaven which God gives, and that bread gives life to the world. It is to be sought with greater earnestness than perishable bread, for coming to Him and believing on Him ends hunger and thirst forever. His words are to be received as spiritual nourishment and life-giving spiritual food, for the spirituality of God's Word is the concern of this chapter.
Feeding on Christ means keeping the Word and truth before the mind, studying and practicing it, and living by faith rather than sight. It means receiving His Word and assimilating it, bringing scriptural truth into daily life and being formed by it into observers of the Word. Its principles are to be brought home to the soul and eaten until His words become part of the self, without departing from its precepts, and its teachings brought into daily experience. This study of the Word made part of life gives knowledge to distinguish the true from the false in days of peril.
Eating His flesh and drinking His blood is being doers of the Word of God, and the Bible is to stand as the great educating Book above all other books. The work of God is to believe on Him whom He sent, with belief first and then work by faith in Jesus, and this must be understood and taught to students so they will work the works of God or heaven will be missed. It means receiving and clinging to the truth of His word as the terms of eternal life. It means obeying His words and doing His works, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness, which is essential to happiness and salvation. It means believing every word of Christ, appropriating that Word to the soul, bringing His requirements into the practical life, abiding in Him, and keeping the commandments from the heart.
That Word does not address the understanding alone as mathematics does for the intellect, but aims at the heart. It addresses the moral nature, takes possession of the will, casts down imaginations and everything exalted against the knowledge of God, and brings every thought into captivity to obedience. It is learned by submissive students in the school of Christ whose souls are emptied of proud possessions, so Christ may imprint His image and the soul-temple may be the abiding place of the Most High.
Fully understanding and living by this chapter presents the conditions of eternal life and leads to a life that measures with the life of God. Received by faith, Christ is sanctification and righteousness and exceeding great reward, teaching dependence on God and not on human beings for strength, power, and guidance. To comprehend and appreciate the truth as it is in Jesus is to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God, which means continual growth in grace, praying for daily bread, bringing truth into daily experience, and being taught daily in the school of Christ. When cherished in the heart it is truth that works by love and purifies the soul, showing how eternal life is gained. To receive Him is to eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood at the gospel feast furnished by inexpressible love at infinite cost through His death, which alone gives life and eternal life, brings resurrection at the last day, and makes His sheep who hear His voice and follow Him known to Him, never to perish and never to be plucked from His hand, while to refuse Him for earthly and selfish excuses is to refuse life. This eating brings the witness of the Spirit, the joy of Christ remaining in the soul, full assurance of hope, union with Christ by living faith, much fruit, and freedom from condemnation.
The living oracles are called the Son's flesh and blood even before His crucifixion, and His work as substitute for sin was ancient Israel's only hope. The Old Testament Scriptures are sufficient, and believing them leads to believing the New. The New Testament was given after Christ's death to add blessing and reflect its light back on the Old, not to replace it. Together the Scriptures give significance to the Jewish economy and teach practical holiness, obedience to Jehovah's law with its penalty for transgression, and acceptance of the Saviour's ransom by the obedient.
Response and Christian Living
Christ's plain declaration of Himself tested His disciples, for in it He defined His kingdom as spiritual and not a temporal reign. Its truth offended many who resisted reproof and chose the praise of men above admonition from God, and many who had followed Him for temporal benefits left when they heard its demands concerning eternal life and entrance into God's kingdom. Given after the feeding with the loaves and fishes and His walking on the water, this teaching about Himself as the bread of life caused some to turn away from Him, yet it stands among many connected subjects of intense interest and highest value.
Those who hear and learn from the Father and receive and practice the truth come to Christ and become lights shining amid the darkness of the world, revealing virtues that are a savor of life unto life. Receiving Him as the bread of life is necessary for life, and receiving the life and spirit of His words is like feeding on the bread that came down from heaven, by which those who receive that life grow into Christlike character with lives marked by love for God and others and by His Spirit. The instruction of the chapter is carried out when people receive the truth simply, follow Christ as a perfect Saviour, and desire to belong wholly to the Lord, so that Christ abiding within leads them to show His attributes in words and actions and to become channels through which living water flows. Feeding on this bread means receiving the Word, which can purify the soul and help form a firm, Christlike character, and Judas had abundant opportunities to receive it.
The sixth chapter, with the fifth chapter as indeed the mystery of godliness, is to be read and studied with prayer for understanding, with the Word made a part of life and its teachings brought into daily experience. These truths teach dependence on God and not on human beings for strength, power, and guidance, looking to Jesus Christ and following the Word of the living God as guide instead of trusting man, with each person accountable to Him by creation and by redemption. Received by faith, Christ is sanctification and righteousness and exceeding great reward, and walking in this light makes strong in the Lord instead of spiritually weak and brought into bondage, giving the knowledge that enables distinguishing the true from the false in days of peril.
Teachers must study these life-giving words about the bread from heaven and everlasting life so they can teach this life-giving truth. Disciples as His representatives were to give people the bread of life, and they had to receive spiritual food from God before they could share it with others, for he who feeds the flock must himself first eat of it and commune with God before daring to come before the people. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood puts the element of eternal life into ministry, gives a new perception of truth on every side, and keeps preaching from becoming a fund of stale, oft-repeated ideas, so that the bread of life then satisfies every soul hunger. Feeding on Christ means reading and studying His Word, drinking in the inspiration of His Spirit, and receiving His grace not to hoard but to give to others, and those who feed most on Christ are those ready to do service; teachers must first be learners of Christ, and even the most zealous workers, busy like Martha in religious activities, need Mary's side of the character to learn at the feet of Jesus.
Eating the bread of life is believing the Word of God and appropriating that Word to the soul, believing every word of Christ, bringing His requirements into the practical life, and abiding in Him. It is obeying Christ's words and doing His works, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness, keeping the commandments from the heart, which is essential to happiness and salvation and belongs to a life of cooperation with God and respect for all His commandments. This eating brings eternal life, the witness of the Spirit that ways please God, the joy of Christ remaining in the soul, full assurance of hope, and union with Christ by living faith, so that the believer bears much fruit and is no longer under the condemnation of the law. It gives courage, confidence, and a true sense of one's gifts and abilities.
The verse gives part of the definition of the righteousness of Christ, which must be accepted to have on the wedding garment and to be counted a fit guest at the wedding. The wedding is the marriage of humanity with divinity and shows the standard of character each must reach, requiring a firm stand for Christ and surrendering to God that which is already His own. Without accepting this righteousness there is presumption in matters of eternal interest, measuring character by human ideas instead of God's standard, continuing in sin, and loss of the soul.