Christ Himself is the true living bread come down from heaven, given by God the Father to give life to the world. Unlike the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness, which sustained the body for a time but did not prevent death, all who eat this bread live forever, for it nourishes the soul unto everlasting life. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is not a literal eating, for flesh alone profits nothing, but means coming to Him, believing on Him, receiving Him as personal Saviour, and becoming one with Him so that He dwells within. It is receiving His life-giving words into mind and heart, meditating on them and living them by faith, for heard truth profits only when mixed with faith and practiced in daily life. Whoever so receives Him has everlasting life now, never hungering or thirsting spiritually, and though dying will be raised at the last day to immortal life, living through Him as He lives by the Father. This inward partaking transforms the character into His likeness, sanctifying through obedience to His commandments, bringing spiritual health, growth, and fruitfulness, and moving those fed to break this same bread of the Word to others.
Setting After Feeding Multitude
This declaration belongs to the spiritual teaching connected with the miracle of the loaves, given after the feeding of the multitude and the walking on the water and spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum. After feeding the crowd He turned minds from the food that met only temporary need to Himself as spiritual food and the source of eternal life, for eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving Him through faith and living by Him, not merely seeking daily material provision. His words are spirit and life, while flesh by itself gives no life, and this teaching was difficult for many disciples to accept. The sermon was preached on the occasion of the miracle of the loaves and set forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God.
The deep spiritual teaching of the miracle had not yet been understood by the people, and was to be made plain as a test of whether followers sought Christ for worldly rewards or for spiritual truth. Many who had been following Him sought only the temporal advantage of eating and being filled, hoping for a temporal throne and national acceptance of a Messiah with earthly rule. He refused to become king and taught about Himself and the nature of His spiritual kingdom rather than a temporal reign, declaring Himself to be the Bread of Life as the expression of His true mission as the Sent of God. When they rejected this spiritual kingdom and continued to hope for earthly rule, they did not understand, and even His brothers were offended by the claim despite what His works revealed.
This truth was given to lead hearers to decide for or against Him, bringing true convictions to light and testing professed disciples. When its truth exposed faults and called for reproof and reform, many rejected it rather than accept correction. His declaring Himself the bread of life caused some disciples to turn away from Him and walk no more with Him, while the Twelve remained, with Peter declaring loyalty.
He spoke this truth about His work in the synagogue, declaring Himself the bread come down from heaven, to prove those who claimed to be His disciples before He left them. They needed to be proved so their apostasy would not come as a surprise to true disciples and the trial would not prove too severe for them. This test was essential for the safety of His future work, so it would not be swayed into wrong paths.
The chapter presents the conditions and terms of eternal life and salvation, explaining that eating His flesh and drinking His blood concerns receiving Him in a way that gives eternal life and means clinging to the truth of His Word and gaining an experienced knowledge of it. People must personally accept it, not merely assent to the theory of truth, for Christ’s words are spirit and life to those who receive them. Thoroughly understanding, studying, receiving, and living by this instruction is linked to a life that measures with the life of God, showing how eternal life is gained.
Christ the Heavenly Bread
Christ Himself is the bread of life, the true and living bread come down from heaven, given by God the Father through the gift of Christ to give life to the world. Coming to Him ends hunger and believing in Him ends thirst, for the mind and heart receive spiritual nourishment by feeding on Him and on God's word. His life-giving words are spirit and life, and taking them into the practical life makes Him the center and sustaining source of life, bringing joy, comfort, and sobriety to those in whom He abides. Receiving this bread means coming to Christ, believing in Him, becoming one with Him, and taking in the Scriptures, and those who believe and abide in Him have everlasting life and will be raised at the last day.
Unlike the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness, which sustained only bodily strength for a time and did not prevent death, anyone who eats this bread shall live forever, for it nourishes the soul unto everlasting life and destroys death. That ancient food did not keep its eaters from dying and did not insure immortality, while this living bread gives life forever to those who believe. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood is not a literal act but describes this inward reception, receiving His spiritual life, His character, and His words as spiritual food by believing them and putting them into practice. Those who so receive dwell in Him and He in them, are transformed and purified in character, are sanctified through obedience, and are fashioned to represent Him. The bread Jesus gives is His flesh given for the life of the world, and His words are spirit and life.
The bread He gives is His flesh given in death for the life of the world, pointing forward to His approaching death as the only true propitiation for sin, where His blood preserves from wrath. The gospel feast is nothing less than Christ Himself, furnished at infinite cost with unsearchable, inexhaustible resources of love flowing in streams of salvation through inexpressible love. To receive Him is the greatest honor that can be conferred, and eating His flesh and drinking His blood is necessary to have life in oneself, gives eternal life, and brings resurrection at the last day.
The wilderness manna that fell to sustain Israel and the showbread kept ever before the face of the Lord as a perpetual offering typified Him, for as the bread of the presence was ever in God's presence, He is ever in the presence of God for us. The Passover lamb eaten at the feast symbolized His body, but its significance was missed when the symbol was valued above the One it represented. He is the representation to the world and to the church of the tree of life, and He is to be eaten as hidden manna by overcomers in the future life. Man's dependence upon God for both temporal food and spiritual blessings is received only through His mediation.
He is the great Life-giver and only hope of eternal life, answering darkness and uncertainty about the future life and the resurrection of the body with the promise of everlasting life culminating in immortal life of the body. He is the source of life and of spiritual life and righteousness, the substance and source of true life, and the great center of life. Receiving Him by faith satisfies spiritual hunger and thirst, and to eat Him is to individually eat His words and bring the truths of this chapter into practical life. He is the vital principle who imparts spiritual health, strength, and righteousness for daily life, and as His life is assimilated the receiver becomes one with Him and gains power to become in character what is professed. The Spirit gives life, and this eating is spiritual, not merely physical.
He remains the same compassionate Saviour, not unmindful of physical wants, still providing temporal food for bodily necessities by creative power and benevolent hand in different places and in various ways. The feeding of the multitude was meant to teach that the spiritual food He provides is of far more consequence than temporal food, so chief labor and anxiety must be given to securing the living bread that endures unto everlasting life rather than perishable bread for physical sustenance. That bread from heaven can be obtained from no human agent, but comes from God Himself and gives life unto the world.
Receiving Bread by Faith
To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to come to Him, believe in Him, and receive Him as a personal Saviour, becoming one with Him, dwelling in Him with Him dwelling within, and living by Him. It is to receive His spiritual life and His character, to look constantly to Him in daily, hourly faith that works by love and purifies the soul, and to receive nourishment sufficient for every need of the soul. His words are spirit and life, and those who truly receive them into practical life make Him the center and sustaining source of life, no longer hungering or thirsting for higher or more satisfying food. Those who so eat grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, receive forgiveness of sins, are sanctified unto eternal life, have eternal life now, shall not die, and shall be raised at the last day, for His flesh is true food and His blood true drink, and as He lives by the Father so they shall live by Him.
This eating is not a literal eating of flesh, for flesh by itself profits nothing and gives no life. It is the Spirit that gives life, and His words are spirit and life, received as true spiritual food that gives life unlike the wilderness manna whose eaters died. To eat is to believe in Christ as Redeemer, to take in the gospel and His words as spiritual food, to believe them and put them into practice, entering vital union with Him and taking on His spirit, mind, and character. Those who receive His words and faithfully practice His teachings are sanctified through obedience, dwell in Christ, are fashioned to represent Him, and are promised eternal life and resurrection at the last day. Reading Scripture without obeying its principles brings no life, and the teaching contrasts the soul's need for Christ with mere concern for food that gratifies the body or for daily material provision.
To eat is to receive His life-giving words into mind and heart as spiritual food, keeping God's Word and truth continually before the mind by looking to Jesus, studying the Word, and obeying its teachings. It is to feed on Him and on God's Word, to take in the Scriptures whose words are Spirit and life, to meditate on them, taste and drink them in, be taught of God, and live by what is revealed. This nourishment refreshes the mind, forms a Christlike spirit and character, gives everlasting life, points to His gift of Himself for the life of the world, and carries the promise of resurrection at the last day. True spiritual nourishment and life come from Christ and the Word of God, not from human ideas or other authors, and turning the mind instead to worldly entertainments weakens spiritual hunger and assurance.
Heard truth profits only when mixed with faith that takes it personally, for merely hearing is not enough. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to hear and search His Word and then let the Word enter the life and character by becoming a doer of the Word, so that His life becomes our life and our spirit is one with His, as the branch is one with the vine and nourished by sap flowing to every branch. It is to receive and assimilate His words until they become part of oneself, gained by prayer and communion with God, proving the mind and will of God while striving for eternal life. It means keeping God's revealed precepts, bringing Scripture's truths into daily practice, living by every word God has revealed, taking the truths of God's Word into the mind, understanding them, practicing them, and making them part of the whole life. To live by this bread is to not depart from its precepts, to grasp the mysteries of godliness, to have all that is necessary for salvation, and to not leave His word for the suppositions of men.
Only personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ, and mere outward connection with any church will not save. Coming to Him ends hunger and believing on Him ends thirst, and all that the Father gives come to Him and He will cast out none who come, for He came down from heaven to do the Father's will, to lose nothing given Him but to raise it at the last day, and everyone who sees the Son and believes has everlasting life. This bread comes down from heaven so that a man may eat and not die, and if any eat he shall live forever, for the bread is His flesh given for the life of the world; unless one eats the flesh of the Son of man and drinks His blood there is no life in him, but whoever eats and drinks has eternal life, shall be raised at the last day, dwells in Him and He in him, and shall live by Him as He lives by the Father, unlike the fathers who ate manna and died. No human being is to be looked to or depended on for power or experience, for dependence on men brings bondage and spiritual weakness; each person is accountable to God and dependent on Christ by creation and by redemption, with the Word of the living God as guide, and the truths of the sixth chapter of John are to be read, studied, prayed over for understanding, and walked in to become strong in the Lord.
This inward eating is having tasted that the Lord is gracious as a real part of life, desiring the sincere milk of the word as newborn babes in order to grow thereby, being truly converted and born again so the requirements of the spiritual kingdom can be discerned, and opening the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it, which brings light because the word gives understanding to the simple. Receiving Christ is an actual spiritual experience, associated with tasting the Lord's goodness and growing through the Word. When this eating is obtained it changes the frivolous life, transforms character, sets the feet on Christ Jesus as the first round of the ladder heavenward, and reveals Christ in spirit, words, and actions.
Eternal Life and Resurrection
Whoever receives Christ by faith has everlasting life now, for coming to Him ends hunger and believing on Him ends thirst, so that those who come shall never hunger and those who believe shall never thirst but shall live forever and not die. He Himself is the true bread from heaven given by the Father through the gift of Christ to give life to the world, and no human agent can supply it, so chief labor must be given to securing this living bread that endures unto everlasting life rather than perishable food for bodily sustenance. Receiving this bread means learning from God and taking His life-giving words, which are spirit and life, into mind and heart and practical life until He abides within as the center and sustaining source of life, bringing joy, comfort and sobriety. Mere outward connection with a church will not save, for only personal faith in a personal Saviour brings spiritual union with Christ, and all whom the Father gives will come to Him and He will cast out none who come.
Believers may still die, but His life remains in them, and He will raise them at the last day to immortal life of the body, which answers uncertainty about the resurrection. Unlike the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness, which did not keep them from dying, this bread gives eternal life because He gave His flesh for the life of the world, and eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving His spiritual life, dwelling in Him and having Him dwell within. Those who receive His words and faithfully practice His teachings are sanctified through obedience, receive nourishment sufficient for every need of the soul, receive forgiveness of sins, and are fashioned to represent His character. Those who eat His flesh and drink His blood have eternal life and shall not die but shall be raised up at the last day, because His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink.
Those who partake live through Him and by Him as He lives by the Father, dwelling in Him and He in them. His presence within becomes a spring of water unto everlasting life, and the union with Him begun in this life by daily partaking continues through eternity. This life is received not by literally eating flesh, for the Spirit gives life, but by receiving and believing His word, which is spirit and life, and bringing character into harmony with His commands.
He must be received by faith as the source of strength, power, wisdom, guidance, sanctification, righteousness and reward, with the Word of the living God as guide, and no human being is to be looked to or depended on for power or experience, since dependence on men brings bondage and spiritual weakness. Each person is accountable to God and dependent on Christ both by creation and by redemption, and the truths of the sixth chapter of John are to be read, studied, prayed over for understanding, and walked in to become strong in the Lord.
Taking in His flesh and blood means receiving and appropriating what is provided in His atonement and living by the principles of God's Word as doers of the Word, making the Bible the great educating Book above all other books. The price of heaven is the only begotten Son of God, and the way to heaven is first believing on Him whom God sent and next working the works of God.
Transformed Character and Obedience
Feeding on Christ as the bread of life gives spiritual nourishment to mind and heart through Him and through His Word, and believing and abiding in Him forms a Christlike spirit and character in those who receive everlasting life and will be raised at the last day. This life is received by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, which is believing in Him as Redeemer and taking in His life-giving words rather than literally eating flesh, and those who receive His words and faithfully practice His teachings are sanctified through obedience, dwell in Christ, and are fashioned to represent His character. Receiving the gospel in this inward way transforms and purifies the character and cleanses the heart, while merely reading Scripture without obeying its principles brings no life, and rejecting this bread leaves a person unclean. Coming to Christ and receiving nourishment from His Word refreshes the mind, calls forth love for God and others with His Spirit and holy aspirations, and joins the believer to live in connection with God.
This abiding means receiving His character and living in Him so that He dwells in the believer and the believer in Him, and this life is shown in keeping His commandments and receiving His Spirit. Eating this bread is entering vital union with Him by faith and taking on His spirit, mind, and character as a spiritual reality, for His words are spirit and life and not literal flesh. Those who receive and believe His word dwell in Him, bring character into harmony with His commands, and live through Him unto salvation. Such eating is believing every word of Christ, appropriating the Word to the soul, comparing Scripture with Scripture, studying the life of a true Christian set out there, and bringing His requirements into practical life in obedience, with the witness of the Spirit that one's ways please God, the joy of Christ remaining within, full assurance of hope, much fruit to the Father's glory, and freedom from condemnation so as no longer to be under the law.
Having Christ abide within by coming to Him and believing on Him satisfies hunger and thirst of soul and brings joy, comfort, and sobriety, with Him as the center and sustaining source of life. This spiritual feeding on His words by receiving, meditating, and living them out gives life and strength to religious experience and brings strength and comfort, in contrast to concern merely for food that gratifies the body. Eating Him as personal Saviour by looking constantly to Him in daily, hourly faith that works by love and purifies the soul gives nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul, with forgiveness of sins and sanctification unto eternal life. Those who so feed grow continually in grace, learning daily in His school sustained by prayer, until they grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, dwelling in Him and He in them, sustained in piety and spiritual energy. Receiving this rich manna of heaven brings spiritual fullness, yet a heart occupied by worldly attractions loses appetite for it.
As His life is assimilated through the Gospel believed and lived, believers gain spiritual health and vigor and power to show the fruits of the Spirit in unselfishness, integrity, kindness, and love, reflecting His character. The one who becomes one with Christ by receiving the Word as meat and drink represents the character of Christ and remains fresh and green with unfading foliage like a tree planted by rivers bringing forth fruit in season, even love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, prospering because labor is for eternity and still bringing forth fruit in old age. Obeying His words and doing His works in this way is essential to happiness and salvation, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness.
Accepting Christ as life-giving bread is accepting the righteousness of Christ required for the wedding garment, joining humanity with divinity and supplying the standard of character for a fit guest at the wedding. This acceptance requires a firm stand for Christ and surrender to God of what is already His, rather than measuring character by human ideas or presuming in eternal matters while continuing in sin, which hinders fulfillment of God's promise and results in loss of the soul. Those in whom He abides reveal His attributes in words, actions, and dealings with others, showing what power rules the heart, and lives so ordered are to be tested by Scripture, with those who live this way able to be trusted. Feeding on Him means searching His Word and becoming acquainted with His life and works, taking His words as nourishment wherever set, following His footprints and cherishing the Spirit by which He spoke, presenting truth as it is in Jesus, and following Him especially in heart-purity and love with self hid with Christ in God so as to appear with Him in glory when He who is their life appears.
Eating this bread also means receiving the opportunities He gives to know and follow Him, which Judas had abundantly yet neglected instead of forming a firm Christlike character. This sanctifying influence moves believers to deny self, take up His cross, and serve others. Feeding makes people ready to serve, and those who feed most are most ready, 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, with teachers first learners of Christ and even busy, zealous workers joining Mary-like learning at the feet of Jesus to Martha-like activity. Turning the mind instead to worldly entertainments and empty distractions weakens spiritual hunger and assurance, for Christ satisfies the soul's hunger as the bread from heaven chosen above the world's emptiness, and partaking means receiving His life and Spirit unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day.
Studying Word and Sharing
The Bible itself, in both Old and New Testaments, is the bread of life and living bread from heaven, the Gospel believed and lived, containing the heaven-sent bread that is food for the mind to build men and women up spiritually. It represents the body and blood of the Son of God, not addressing the understanding alone as a book of mathematical formulas addresses the intellect, but aiming at the heart, addressing the moral nature and taking possession of the will. It casts down imaginations and every high thing exalting itself against the knowledge of God and brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. It is not a recipe or mere physical food, and searching it leads to finding Christ and treasures of lasting value in this life.
To eat is to diligently study, search, meditate on, receive, assimilate, memorize, and commit the Word to life until it becomes part of oneself and shapes every action. It is to keep God's revealed precepts continually before the mind, bring Scripture's truths into daily practice, live by every word God has revealed, not depart from its precepts, grasp the mystery of godliness, and prove the mind and will of God while striving for eternal life. This receiving is gained by prayer and communion with God, by tasting and drinking the words in, being taught of God, and taking them into life as living bread, which brings richer spiritual experience, satisfies spiritual hunger, fosters deep piety, and leaves less room for self. Earnest study awakens greater appetite for that food, while unwillingness to receive produces misconception and misapplication.
The truths of this chapter are to be read, studied, prayed over, and walked in for understanding and strength, and for becoming strong in the Lord. Studying this instruction, which is the mystery of godliness, and making its teaching part of daily life and experience gives the knowledge that enables distinguishing the true from the false in days of peril. The Old Testament Scriptures are affirmed as all-sufficient, with believing those Scriptures leading to belief in the New, the New shedding light on the Old, and the Scriptures' directions for practical holiness and obedience shaping Christian lives. No human being is to be looked to or depended on for power or experience, for dependence on men brings bondage and spiritual weakness, since each person is accountable to God and dependent on Christ by creation and by redemption, with the Word of the living God as guide.
True spiritual nourishment and life come from Christ and the Word of God, not from human ideas or other authors. His words give life, offering more for mind and soul than volumes of historical and theological writing, and those ministering in word and doctrine must not be dull of understanding nor spend time reading books and magazines that lead the mind astray and hinder spiritual growth. Humanly invented and adulterated teachings, even when called science, are not the true manna, and speculative knowledge, improper literature, and the suppositions of men cannot take its place. Twisting Scripture and accepting error for truth leaves souls starving, hinders growth, and leads to decline and death.
All who minister in word and doctrine must have deep insight into these words and understand and experience their meaning and import, bringing deeper consecration and greater depth of experience so they live religion instead of playing it. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means a minister first feeds himself on that Word and communes with God, divested of self and peculiar habits and made like Christ, before feeding the flock. Such eating puts the element of eternal life into the ministry, gives a new perception of truth on every side, keeps preaching from stale, oft-repeated ideas, and satisfies every soul hunger with a word that touches every case, shown in the atmosphere surrounding the soul, in the home life, and in the ministry of the Word. Simple, plain, scriptural preaching nourishes the heart, and this feeding is the education children, youth, men and women need to become workers together with God, with youth above all educated about the law of Jehovah and the penalty for transgressing it, and about God accepting the ransom the Saviour made for them personally when they are obedient to that law.
Those united to Him receive the bread of life, the heavenly food, and pass it on to others, for disciples can meet the soul's needs only through what they receive from Christ. As they impart what they receive, they continue to receive more, just as the bread multiplied as the disciples served the people, and together with the feeding of the multitude His sermon on the bread from heaven appointed the disciples as His representatives to give that bread of life to the people. Breaking this bread for others means sharing life-giving truths centered in Jesus, which also nourishes the one who shares it, supporting the duty to speak and minister to others when able, including on the Sabbath. Many in the Christian world are starving for this bread, and plain, practical truth about Him is rich food and a feast that satisfies hungry souls, including those not yet of the faith, who will come when they feel destitute and helpless in unexpected positions.
For children and youth under a wise instructor this bread never grows old or tiresome but remains fresh, attractive, bright and warm like the sun, becoming more and more desirable. It holds a freshness and beauty that attract and charm the young, giving brightness and warmth like the sun shining on the earth yet never exhausted, and through its history and doctrine learners find all other books inferior to it and find in it a fountain of mercy and of love. The bread sent down from heaven sustains all spiritual life and binds people with Christ in God, and the bread of life eternal is the saving message of present truth carried to a perishing world, to every nation, tongue, and people.
Receiving this bread means receiving Christ as personal Saviour, looking constantly to Him, and being united with Him through daily, hourly faith which works by love and purifies the soul. It cleanses the heart through the Word, brings forgiveness of sins and sanctification unto eternal life, renews in holiness, quickens the soul, gives power to perceive the world to come, and brings forth fruit to God's glory, with nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul unto the full stature of men and women in Christ. Partaking of truth brings life, while rejecting it leaves a person unclean, and accepting error in place of God's word leads to death, with those persisting in deception excluding themselves from the life that endures forever.
Christ Himself is the true living bread come down from heaven, given by God the Father to give life to the world. Unlike the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness, which sustained the body for a time but did not prevent death, all who eat this bread live forever, for it nourishes the soul unto everlasting life. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is not a literal eating, for flesh alone profits nothing, but means coming to Him, believing on Him, receiving Him as personal Saviour, and becoming one with Him so that He dwells within. It is receiving His life-giving words into mind and heart, meditating on them and living them by faith, for heard truth profits only when mixed with faith and practiced in daily life. Whoever so receives Him has everlasting life now, never hungering or thirsting spiritually, and though dying will be raised at the last day to immortal life, living through Him as He lives by the Father. This inward partaking transforms the character into His likeness, sanctifying through obedience to His commandments, bringing spiritual health, growth, and fruitfulness, and moving those fed to break this same bread of the Word to others.
Setting After Feeding Multitude
This declaration belongs to the spiritual teaching connected with the miracle of the loaves, given after the feeding of the multitude and the walking on the water and spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum. After feeding the crowd He turned minds from the food that met only temporary need to Himself as spiritual food and the source of eternal life, for eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving Him through faith and living by Him, not merely seeking daily material provision. His words are spirit and life, while flesh by itself gives no life, and this teaching was difficult for many disciples to accept. The sermon was preached on the occasion of the miracle of the loaves and set forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God.
The deep spiritual teaching of the miracle had not yet been understood by the people, and was to be made plain as a test of whether followers sought Christ for worldly rewards or for spiritual truth. Many who had been following Him sought only the temporal advantage of eating and being filled, hoping for a temporal throne and national acceptance of a Messiah with earthly rule. He refused to become king and taught about Himself and the nature of His spiritual kingdom rather than a temporal reign, declaring Himself to be the Bread of Life as the expression of His true mission as the Sent of God. When they rejected this spiritual kingdom and continued to hope for earthly rule, they did not understand, and even His brothers were offended by the claim despite what His works revealed.
This truth was given to lead hearers to decide for or against Him, bringing true convictions to light and testing professed disciples. When its truth exposed faults and called for reproof and reform, many rejected it rather than accept correction. His declaring Himself the bread of life caused some disciples to turn away from Him and walk no more with Him, while the Twelve remained, with Peter declaring loyalty.
He spoke this truth about His work in the synagogue, declaring Himself the bread come down from heaven, to prove those who claimed to be His disciples before He left them. They needed to be proved so their apostasy would not come as a surprise to true disciples and the trial would not prove too severe for them. This test was essential for the safety of His future work, so it would not be swayed into wrong paths.
The chapter presents the conditions and terms of eternal life and salvation, explaining that eating His flesh and drinking His blood concerns receiving Him in a way that gives eternal life and means clinging to the truth of His Word and gaining an experienced knowledge of it. People must personally accept it, not merely assent to the theory of truth, for Christ’s words are spirit and life to those who receive them. Thoroughly understanding, studying, receiving, and living by this instruction is linked to a life that measures with the life of God, showing how eternal life is gained.
Christ the Heavenly Bread
Christ Himself is the bread of life, the true and living bread come down from heaven, given by God the Father through the gift of Christ to give life to the world. Coming to Him ends hunger and believing in Him ends thirst, for the mind and heart receive spiritual nourishment by feeding on Him and on God's word. His life-giving words are spirit and life, and taking them into the practical life makes Him the center and sustaining source of life, bringing joy, comfort, and sobriety to those in whom He abides. Receiving this bread means coming to Christ, believing in Him, becoming one with Him, and taking in the Scriptures, and those who believe and abide in Him have everlasting life and will be raised at the last day.
Unlike the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness, which sustained only bodily strength for a time and did not prevent death, anyone who eats this bread shall live forever, for it nourishes the soul unto everlasting life and destroys death. That ancient food did not keep its eaters from dying and did not insure immortality, while this living bread gives life forever to those who believe. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood is not a literal act but describes this inward reception, receiving His spiritual life, His character, and His words as spiritual food by believing them and putting them into practice. Those who so receive dwell in Him and He in them, are transformed and purified in character, are sanctified through obedience, and are fashioned to represent Him. The bread Jesus gives is His flesh given for the life of the world, and His words are spirit and life.
The bread He gives is His flesh given in death for the life of the world, pointing forward to His approaching death as the only true propitiation for sin, where His blood preserves from wrath. The gospel feast is nothing less than Christ Himself, furnished at infinite cost with unsearchable, inexhaustible resources of love flowing in streams of salvation through inexpressible love. To receive Him is the greatest honor that can be conferred, and eating His flesh and drinking His blood is necessary to have life in oneself, gives eternal life, and brings resurrection at the last day.
The wilderness manna that fell to sustain Israel and the showbread kept ever before the face of the Lord as a perpetual offering typified Him, for as the bread of the presence was ever in God's presence, He is ever in the presence of God for us. The Passover lamb eaten at the feast symbolized His body, but its significance was missed when the symbol was valued above the One it represented. He is the representation to the world and to the church of the tree of life, and He is to be eaten as hidden manna by overcomers in the future life. Man's dependence upon God for both temporal food and spiritual blessings is received only through His mediation.
He is the great Life-giver and only hope of eternal life, answering darkness and uncertainty about the future life and the resurrection of the body with the promise of everlasting life culminating in immortal life of the body. He is the source of life and of spiritual life and righteousness, the substance and source of true life, and the great center of life. Receiving Him by faith satisfies spiritual hunger and thirst, and to eat Him is to individually eat His words and bring the truths of this chapter into practical life. He is the vital principle who imparts spiritual health, strength, and righteousness for daily life, and as His life is assimilated the receiver becomes one with Him and gains power to become in character what is professed. The Spirit gives life, and this eating is spiritual, not merely physical.
He remains the same compassionate Saviour, not unmindful of physical wants, still providing temporal food for bodily necessities by creative power and benevolent hand in different places and in various ways. The feeding of the multitude was meant to teach that the spiritual food He provides is of far more consequence than temporal food, so chief labor and anxiety must be given to securing the living bread that endures unto everlasting life rather than perishable bread for physical sustenance. That bread from heaven can be obtained from no human agent, but comes from God Himself and gives life unto the world.
Receiving Bread by Faith
To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to come to Him, believe in Him, and receive Him as a personal Saviour, becoming one with Him, dwelling in Him with Him dwelling within, and living by Him. It is to receive His spiritual life and His character, to look constantly to Him in daily, hourly faith that works by love and purifies the soul, and to receive nourishment sufficient for every need of the soul. His words are spirit and life, and those who truly receive them into practical life make Him the center and sustaining source of life, no longer hungering or thirsting for higher or more satisfying food. Those who so eat grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, receive forgiveness of sins, are sanctified unto eternal life, have eternal life now, shall not die, and shall be raised at the last day, for His flesh is true food and His blood true drink, and as He lives by the Father so they shall live by Him.
This eating is not a literal eating of flesh, for flesh by itself profits nothing and gives no life. It is the Spirit that gives life, and His words are spirit and life, received as true spiritual food that gives life unlike the wilderness manna whose eaters died. To eat is to believe in Christ as Redeemer, to take in the gospel and His words as spiritual food, to believe them and put them into practice, entering vital union with Him and taking on His spirit, mind, and character. Those who receive His words and faithfully practice His teachings are sanctified through obedience, dwell in Christ, are fashioned to represent Him, and are promised eternal life and resurrection at the last day. Reading Scripture without obeying its principles brings no life, and the teaching contrasts the soul's need for Christ with mere concern for food that gratifies the body or for daily material provision.
To eat is to receive His life-giving words into mind and heart as spiritual food, keeping God's Word and truth continually before the mind by looking to Jesus, studying the Word, and obeying its teachings. It is to feed on Him and on God's Word, to take in the Scriptures whose words are Spirit and life, to meditate on them, taste and drink them in, be taught of God, and live by what is revealed. This nourishment refreshes the mind, forms a Christlike spirit and character, gives everlasting life, points to His gift of Himself for the life of the world, and carries the promise of resurrection at the last day. True spiritual nourishment and life come from Christ and the Word of God, not from human ideas or other authors, and turning the mind instead to worldly entertainments weakens spiritual hunger and assurance.
Heard truth profits only when mixed with faith that takes it personally, for merely hearing is not enough. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to hear and search His Word and then let the Word enter the life and character by becoming a doer of the Word, so that His life becomes our life and our spirit is one with His, as the branch is one with the vine and nourished by sap flowing to every branch. It is to receive and assimilate His words until they become part of oneself, gained by prayer and communion with God, proving the mind and will of God while striving for eternal life. It means keeping God's revealed precepts, bringing Scripture's truths into daily practice, living by every word God has revealed, taking the truths of God's Word into the mind, understanding them, practicing them, and making them part of the whole life. To live by this bread is to not depart from its precepts, to grasp the mysteries of godliness, to have all that is necessary for salvation, and to not leave His word for the suppositions of men.
Only personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ, and mere outward connection with any church will not save. Coming to Him ends hunger and believing on Him ends thirst, and all that the Father gives come to Him and He will cast out none who come, for He came down from heaven to do the Father's will, to lose nothing given Him but to raise it at the last day, and everyone who sees the Son and believes has everlasting life. This bread comes down from heaven so that a man may eat and not die, and if any eat he shall live forever, for the bread is His flesh given for the life of the world; unless one eats the flesh of the Son of man and drinks His blood there is no life in him, but whoever eats and drinks has eternal life, shall be raised at the last day, dwells in Him and He in him, and shall live by Him as He lives by the Father, unlike the fathers who ate manna and died. No human being is to be looked to or depended on for power or experience, for dependence on men brings bondage and spiritual weakness; each person is accountable to God and dependent on Christ by creation and by redemption, with the Word of the living God as guide, and the truths of the sixth chapter of John are to be read, studied, prayed over for understanding, and walked in to become strong in the Lord.
This inward eating is having tasted that the Lord is gracious as a real part of life, desiring the sincere milk of the word as newborn babes in order to grow thereby, being truly converted and born again so the requirements of the spiritual kingdom can be discerned, and opening the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it, which brings light because the word gives understanding to the simple. Receiving Christ is an actual spiritual experience, associated with tasting the Lord's goodness and growing through the Word. When this eating is obtained it changes the frivolous life, transforms character, sets the feet on Christ Jesus as the first round of the ladder heavenward, and reveals Christ in spirit, words, and actions.
Eternal Life and Resurrection
Whoever receives Christ by faith has everlasting life now, for coming to Him ends hunger and believing on Him ends thirst, so that those who come shall never hunger and those who believe shall never thirst but shall live forever and not die. He Himself is the true bread from heaven given by the Father through the gift of Christ to give life to the world, and no human agent can supply it, so chief labor must be given to securing this living bread that endures unto everlasting life rather than perishable food for bodily sustenance. Receiving this bread means learning from God and taking His life-giving words, which are spirit and life, into mind and heart and practical life until He abides within as the center and sustaining source of life, bringing joy, comfort and sobriety. Mere outward connection with a church will not save, for only personal faith in a personal Saviour brings spiritual union with Christ, and all whom the Father gives will come to Him and He will cast out none who come.
Believers may still die, but His life remains in them, and He will raise them at the last day to immortal life of the body, which answers uncertainty about the resurrection. Unlike the manna the fathers ate in the wilderness, which did not keep them from dying, this bread gives eternal life because He gave His flesh for the life of the world, and eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving His spiritual life, dwelling in Him and having Him dwell within. Those who receive His words and faithfully practice His teachings are sanctified through obedience, receive nourishment sufficient for every need of the soul, receive forgiveness of sins, and are fashioned to represent His character. Those who eat His flesh and drink His blood have eternal life and shall not die but shall be raised up at the last day, because His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink.
Those who partake live through Him and by Him as He lives by the Father, dwelling in Him and He in them. His presence within becomes a spring of water unto everlasting life, and the union with Him begun in this life by daily partaking continues through eternity. This life is received not by literally eating flesh, for the Spirit gives life, but by receiving and believing His word, which is spirit and life, and bringing character into harmony with His commands.
He must be received by faith as the source of strength, power, wisdom, guidance, sanctification, righteousness and reward, with the Word of the living God as guide, and no human being is to be looked to or depended on for power or experience, since dependence on men brings bondage and spiritual weakness. Each person is accountable to God and dependent on Christ both by creation and by redemption, and the truths of the sixth chapter of John are to be read, studied, prayed over for understanding, and walked in to become strong in the Lord.
Taking in His flesh and blood means receiving and appropriating what is provided in His atonement and living by the principles of God's Word as doers of the Word, making the Bible the great educating Book above all other books. The price of heaven is the only begotten Son of God, and the way to heaven is first believing on Him whom God sent and next working the works of God.
Transformed Character and Obedience
Feeding on Christ as the bread of life gives spiritual nourishment to mind and heart through Him and through His Word, and believing and abiding in Him forms a Christlike spirit and character in those who receive everlasting life and will be raised at the last day. This life is received by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, which is believing in Him as Redeemer and taking in His life-giving words rather than literally eating flesh, and those who receive His words and faithfully practice His teachings are sanctified through obedience, dwell in Christ, and are fashioned to represent His character. Receiving the gospel in this inward way transforms and purifies the character and cleanses the heart, while merely reading Scripture without obeying its principles brings no life, and rejecting this bread leaves a person unclean. Coming to Christ and receiving nourishment from His Word refreshes the mind, calls forth love for God and others with His Spirit and holy aspirations, and joins the believer to live in connection with God.
This abiding means receiving His character and living in Him so that He dwells in the believer and the believer in Him, and this life is shown in keeping His commandments and receiving His Spirit. Eating this bread is entering vital union with Him by faith and taking on His spirit, mind, and character as a spiritual reality, for His words are spirit and life and not literal flesh. Those who receive and believe His word dwell in Him, bring character into harmony with His commands, and live through Him unto salvation. Such eating is believing every word of Christ, appropriating the Word to the soul, comparing Scripture with Scripture, studying the life of a true Christian set out there, and bringing His requirements into practical life in obedience, with the witness of the Spirit that one's ways please God, the joy of Christ remaining within, full assurance of hope, much fruit to the Father's glory, and freedom from condemnation so as no longer to be under the law.
Having Christ abide within by coming to Him and believing on Him satisfies hunger and thirst of soul and brings joy, comfort, and sobriety, with Him as the center and sustaining source of life. This spiritual feeding on His words by receiving, meditating, and living them out gives life and strength to religious experience and brings strength and comfort, in contrast to concern merely for food that gratifies the body. Eating Him as personal Saviour by looking constantly to Him in daily, hourly faith that works by love and purifies the soul gives nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul, with forgiveness of sins and sanctification unto eternal life. Those who so feed grow continually in grace, learning daily in His school sustained by prayer, until they grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, dwelling in Him and He in them, sustained in piety and spiritual energy. Receiving this rich manna of heaven brings spiritual fullness, yet a heart occupied by worldly attractions loses appetite for it.
As His life is assimilated through the Gospel believed and lived, believers gain spiritual health and vigor and power to show the fruits of the Spirit in unselfishness, integrity, kindness, and love, reflecting His character. The one who becomes one with Christ by receiving the Word as meat and drink represents the character of Christ and remains fresh and green with unfading foliage like a tree planted by rivers bringing forth fruit in season, even love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, prospering because labor is for eternity and still bringing forth fruit in old age. Obeying His words and doing His works in this way is essential to happiness and salvation, advancing righteousness and restraining unrighteousness.
Accepting Christ as life-giving bread is accepting the righteousness of Christ required for the wedding garment, joining humanity with divinity and supplying the standard of character for a fit guest at the wedding. This acceptance requires a firm stand for Christ and surrender to God of what is already His, rather than measuring character by human ideas or presuming in eternal matters while continuing in sin, which hinders fulfillment of God's promise and results in loss of the soul. Those in whom He abides reveal His attributes in words, actions, and dealings with others, showing what power rules the heart, and lives so ordered are to be tested by Scripture, with those who live this way able to be trusted. Feeding on Him means searching His Word and becoming acquainted with His life and works, taking His words as nourishment wherever set, following His footprints and cherishing the Spirit by which He spoke, presenting truth as it is in Jesus, and following Him especially in heart-purity and love with self hid with Christ in God so as to appear with Him in glory when He who is their life appears.
Eating this bread also means receiving the opportunities He gives to know and follow Him, which Judas had abundantly yet neglected instead of forming a firm Christlike character. This sanctifying influence moves believers to deny self, take up His cross, and serve others. Feeding makes people ready to serve, and those who feed most are most ready, 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, with teachers first learners of Christ and even busy, zealous workers joining Mary-like learning at the feet of Jesus to Martha-like activity. Turning the mind instead to worldly entertainments and empty distractions weakens spiritual hunger and assurance, for Christ satisfies the soul's hunger as the bread from heaven chosen above the world's emptiness, and partaking means receiving His life and Spirit unto eternal life and resurrection at the last day.
Studying Word and Sharing
The Bible itself, in both Old and New Testaments, is the bread of life and living bread from heaven, the Gospel believed and lived, containing the heaven-sent bread that is food for the mind to build men and women up spiritually. It represents the body and blood of the Son of God, not addressing the understanding alone as a book of mathematical formulas addresses the intellect, but aiming at the heart, addressing the moral nature and taking possession of the will. It casts down imaginations and every high thing exalting itself against the knowledge of God and brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. It is not a recipe or mere physical food, and searching it leads to finding Christ and treasures of lasting value in this life.
To eat is to diligently study, search, meditate on, receive, assimilate, memorize, and commit the Word to life until it becomes part of oneself and shapes every action. It is to keep God's revealed precepts continually before the mind, bring Scripture's truths into daily practice, live by every word God has revealed, not depart from its precepts, grasp the mystery of godliness, and prove the mind and will of God while striving for eternal life. This receiving is gained by prayer and communion with God, by tasting and drinking the words in, being taught of God, and taking them into life as living bread, which brings richer spiritual experience, satisfies spiritual hunger, fosters deep piety, and leaves less room for self. Earnest study awakens greater appetite for that food, while unwillingness to receive produces misconception and misapplication.
The truths of this chapter are to be read, studied, prayed over, and walked in for understanding and strength, and for becoming strong in the Lord. Studying this instruction, which is the mystery of godliness, and making its teaching part of daily life and experience gives the knowledge that enables distinguishing the true from the false in days of peril. The Old Testament Scriptures are affirmed as all-sufficient, with believing those Scriptures leading to belief in the New, the New shedding light on the Old, and the Scriptures' directions for practical holiness and obedience shaping Christian lives. No human being is to be looked to or depended on for power or experience, for dependence on men brings bondage and spiritual weakness, since each person is accountable to God and dependent on Christ by creation and by redemption, with the Word of the living God as guide.
True spiritual nourishment and life come from Christ and the Word of God, not from human ideas or other authors. His words give life, offering more for mind and soul than volumes of historical and theological writing, and those ministering in word and doctrine must not be dull of understanding nor spend time reading books and magazines that lead the mind astray and hinder spiritual growth. Humanly invented and adulterated teachings, even when called science, are not the true manna, and speculative knowledge, improper literature, and the suppositions of men cannot take its place. Twisting Scripture and accepting error for truth leaves souls starving, hinders growth, and leads to decline and death.
All who minister in word and doctrine must have deep insight into these words and understand and experience their meaning and import, bringing deeper consecration and greater depth of experience so they live religion instead of playing it. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means a minister first feeds himself on that Word and communes with God, divested of self and peculiar habits and made like Christ, before feeding the flock. Such eating puts the element of eternal life into the ministry, gives a new perception of truth on every side, keeps preaching from stale, oft-repeated ideas, and satisfies every soul hunger with a word that touches every case, shown in the atmosphere surrounding the soul, in the home life, and in the ministry of the Word. Simple, plain, scriptural preaching nourishes the heart, and this feeding is the education children, youth, men and women need to become workers together with God, with youth above all educated about the law of Jehovah and the penalty for transgressing it, and about God accepting the ransom the Saviour made for them personally when they are obedient to that law.
Those united to Him receive the bread of life, the heavenly food, and pass it on to others, for disciples can meet the soul's needs only through what they receive from Christ. As they impart what they receive, they continue to receive more, just as the bread multiplied as the disciples served the people, and together with the feeding of the multitude His sermon on the bread from heaven appointed the disciples as His representatives to give that bread of life to the people. Breaking this bread for others means sharing life-giving truths centered in Jesus, which also nourishes the one who shares it, supporting the duty to speak and minister to others when able, including on the Sabbath. Many in the Christian world are starving for this bread, and plain, practical truth about Him is rich food and a feast that satisfies hungry souls, including those not yet of the faith, who will come when they feel destitute and helpless in unexpected positions.
For children and youth under a wise instructor this bread never grows old or tiresome but remains fresh, attractive, bright and warm like the sun, becoming more and more desirable. It holds a freshness and beauty that attract and charm the young, giving brightness and warmth like the sun shining on the earth yet never exhausted, and through its history and doctrine learners find all other books inferior to it and find in it a fountain of mercy and of love. The bread sent down from heaven sustains all spiritual life and binds people with Christ in God, and the bread of life eternal is the saving message of present truth carried to a perishing world, to every nation, tongue, and people.
Receiving this bread means receiving Christ as personal Saviour, looking constantly to Him, and being united with Him through daily, hourly faith which works by love and purifies the soul. It cleanses the heart through the Word, brings forgiveness of sins and sanctification unto eternal life, renews in holiness, quickens the soul, gives power to perceive the world to come, and brings forth fruit to God's glory, with nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul unto the full stature of men and women in Christ. Partaking of truth brings life, while rejecting it leaves a person unclean, and accepting error in place of God's word leads to death, with those persisting in deception excluding themselves from the life that endures forever.