For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
Christ's flesh is real food for the soul and His blood is real drink, spoken in figure under the likeness of heavenly bread and not a bodily or merely ceremonial eating, for His flesh is His character and His words are spirit and life. To eat and drink is to receive Christ Himself by living, abiding faith as personal Saviour and atonement, coming to Him directly and depending wholly on Him for strength and wisdom. It is also to take in, digest, and obey His words and promises until they become part of the being and govern thought, affection, and conduct. Whoever so receives Him has eternal life now and lasting satisfaction without spiritual hunger or thirst, dwells in Christ and Christ dwells in him in living union, and will be raised at the last day. That inward feeding transforms the character into Christlikeness and is revealed outwardly in righteous works, love, unity, and witness to others.
Setting and Wording
The saying belongs to the spiritual teaching connected with the miracle of the loaves, given in the synagogue at Capernaum after feeding the five thousand, walking on the water, refusing to be made king, and turning to instruct the Twelve as popularity waned and separation drew near. It was spoken in answer to unbelieving, caviling questioners who asked how He could give His flesh to eat, and it formed a closer test for those following Him, leading people to decide for or against Him and revealing their real feelings before His crucifixion. The words were hard for hearers to grasp spiritually, and many disciples were offended by the plain testimony, exposed as out of keeping with truth and righteousness, and went back and walked no more with Him rather than accept correction and reform. Their turning away applies to all who abandon truth through unbelief.
The instruction in the fifth and sixth chapters of John sets forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God, demanding death to self and self-denial. It is the mystery of godliness, and Christ Himself in it is the great center of individual life. It holds most precious lessons for students, giving an education that endures through time and eternity and revealing their privileges in Him, yet the whole chapter is only faintly understood. Studying it and making its teaching a part of life and daily experience gives the knowledge that enables distinguishing the true from the false in days of peril, and living by it leads to a life that measures with the life of God.
His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink for the soul, and His flesh is His character. Eating and drinking is spoken in figure or parable under the similitude of heavenly bread, not a literal, bodily, merely physical or merely sacramental eating. The chapter itself explains this by declaring that the flesh by itself profits nothing and that life comes by the Spirit, for His words are spirit and life. To eat and drink is therefore to receive Him by faith and take His words into practical life, keeping His Word and its truth continually before the mind, and the mind is to be used to know God and Christ and develop perfected character. So received, this nourishment shapes spiritual character, sustains a life of faith, brings lasting satisfaction, comfort, sobriety and joy, gives eternal life now with union in Him and dwelling in Him, and ends in resurrection at the last day.
The saying must be read with prayer to God for clearness of understanding, received in honest hearts and understood in plain simplicity under the Holy Spirit's guidance. It is not to be obscured by human interpretations, fanciful theories, or speculation about unrevealed mysteries, and it calls for thorough searching of the Scriptures until mind and soul are filled with their greatness and power. Even those who claim to believe the truth comprehend it little, hearing at times only with the ears and with closed understanding. The meek and lowly in heart receive these truths, while proud, self-righteous, unbelieving and selfish minds cannot grasp their meaning and turn away offended. Without the Holy Spirit's teaching even great advantages do not enable discernment of the things of God, and misconception comes not from unwillingness to teach but from unwillingness to receive.
Christ the True Food
Christ is the Bread of Life, the soul's true food and drink and the source of spiritual life, strength and sustenance. He must be received directly and lived by as spiritual nourishment, with dependence on Him Himself and on His truth rather than on ministers' ideas or human reasoning. The soul that accepts Jesus comes under the care of the Great Physician, who alone knows its needs, supplies them, and heals and reshapes it, bringing spiritual strength and comfort. To close the heart to that light is to lose all hunger of soul for God, turning instead to worldly entertainment, while knowing His incarnation by personal experience is essential to redemption and daily sanctification.
The bread that endures to everlasting life is set against perishable food for physical sustenance, for its life-giving power comes through the Spirit and through living by His words, not by literal eating. Those who ate manna in the wilderness nevertheless died, and manna could sustain earthly life but could not prevent death or give immortality. Those who receive Christ by personal faith never hunger or thirst spiritually but have eternal life now, live forever, and will be raised up at the last day.
By giving His flesh and blood for the life of the world He gave Himself on the cross for the world's salvation, bearing sinners' guilt as Sin-bearer. His sinless life and self-offering make Him both priest and sacrifice, and His atonement secures the covenant of grace. He is the Lifegiver, the tree of life to the world, restoring what Adam and Eve lost when disobedience cut them off from everlasting life, with the terms of life fixed before the foundations of the earth and no life in a person without eating.
The Word of Christ is to be eaten as bread from heaven and His blood to be drunk, together sustaining life as the tree of life sustained Adam and Eve in Eden before the fall. When they lost access to that tree they began to lose health and vitality. To receive Him now by faith and live through union with Him is to eat the fruit and the leaves of the tree of life, for the Word is Spirit and life, the bread from heaven that gives life to the soul and to the world. That Word contains what is needed to form a perfect character, and its effect on each person determines eternal destiny, for His flesh and blood are the words He spoke and the spirit He revealed, connected with the Word made flesh who laid aside royal robe and crown to become a steppingstone imbued with God's holy character.
The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God even though He had not yet been crucified, and His work as substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. The directions given by Christ as the invisible Leader of Israel in the Old Testament Scriptures are rich nourishment, so that no soul who takes and eats them will suffer spiritual hunger. The New Testament was written not to cast aside the Old but to reflect light back into past ages and give significance to the whole Jewish economy, so its plain directions for practical holiness and obedience still enter the life of everyone who claims to be Christian, and His earthly teaching does not contradict what He gave through Moses. The Passover lamb represented Christ, and its blood placed on the doorposts as a sign of safety represented His blood shed for the sins of the world, while humanity alienated from God can be reconciled only by spiritually partaking of Him.
Christ is not unmindful of physical wants, and He fed the multitude who followed Him to hear His words, then directed that the fragments be gathered so nothing was wasted. Yet the spiritual food He provides is of far more consequence than temporal food and must be sought with greater anxiety than perishable bread. That bread from heaven can be obtained from no human agent; through the gift of Christ God Himself gives it, and all the gifts of God come through Jesus Christ, so that he who comes shall never hunger and he who believes shall never thirst. Even physical life depends on His death, with daily food provided through His broken body and water through His shed blood, so every meal bears the sign of Calvary, and the communion emblems teach this dependence and make ordinary provisions sacred, so that the family table and each meal become like the Lord's table.
Meaning of Partaking
To eat His flesh and to drink His blood is to receive Christ Himself by living, earnest, constant, abiding faith as personal Saviour, sacrifice and atonement. It is to come to Him, to see the Son, to believe on Him, to look constantly to Him, and to depend wholly on Him alone for strength, power, guidance and wisdom and not on any human being. It is to go to Jesus directly as the one Mediator, to tell Him failings and to receive instruction, which gives access to the Father. As physical food must be eaten and assimilated to give strength, His life must be continually received and made part of the soul by meditating on Him, praying, doing His will and taking His nature into one's own life, so that He dwells in the believer and the believer lives by Him. His death for humanity does not by itself give spiritual life; life comes as people personally receive and continually nourish their souls with Him, drawing constantly from Him as the living bread that came down from heaven, and depending on human beings instead brings bondage and spiritual weakness.
It is to receive, believe and live by God's Word and Christ's words as real spiritual food and drink for the soul, taking them in, digesting them, obeying and practicing them until they become part of the being, motive power and daily life, for His words are spirit and life. It includes earnest searching, studying, masticating and digesting Scripture under the Holy Spirit with prayer and surrender, digging for hidden treasures in both Testaments, making the Word constant meditation and prayerful study. So received, truth is planted in the heart so that it controls the mind, regulates the affections and stamps the character, takes possession of the will, casts down opposition to the knowledge of God and brings thought into obedience to Christ, giving spiritual sinew and muscle. It is a real, personal experience belonging with tasting that the Lord is gracious, desiring the Word in order to grow, and being truly converted and born again, for the flesh and blood are the living, undying element in the Scriptures with the Holy Spirit present in the Word of God.
It is to believe His Word, appropriate it, and be doers who obey at once while it is called today, living by every word that proceeds from God. It is to keep all of Holy Writ in sanctified obedience including the Ten Commandments, to weave His spirit and works into life until its principles circulate through experience and become elements of character, and to obey God's commandments while appropriating all that is included in the atonement made at Calvary. Receiving His words joins a person to Him in a vital, saving union like a branch abiding in the vine, and obedience sustains this union, while separation leads to death. Those who do so reveal in conversation and character how much they believe, manifesting self-denial, patience, mercy and love that seeks the erring, while wrong speech, disobedience and profession without works show a person is not partaking but misrepresents Christ through half-hearted religion.
It is to believe and claim God's precious promises for oneself, putting away unbelief and suspicion that they are not for oneself, complying with the conditions, confessing sin and claiming His pledged word to forgive sin and cleanse from all unrighteousness. It is done with eager, hungry faith that prizes its light above papers, magazines and novels, comparing Scripture with Scripture and meditating upon it, letting all the actions of life be controlled by a Thus saith the Lord. So received the Word becomes a banquet, a wellspring of wisdom, leaves of the tree of life and a well of water springing up to everlasting life, nourishing, comforting, strengthening, encouraging and shaping life. What is cherished as food is expressed in conversation, for those who take in and obey the Word are shaped by its principles and promises and continually satisfied in soul, and to refuse to believe His words and the words of His servants is to refuse this life.
No one can eat and drink for another; each person must come himself with his own soul hunger, his own convictions and his own sense of soul need and learn of Christ for himself by personal faith. Each must take the Word as guide, repent, believe and obey by his own will with no proxy, for seeing others partake cannot nourish the soul. Mere outward connection with any church will not save, and each will give account of himself to God, young and old alike, with Christ's blood having purchased power to become God's children.
Eating and drinking means eating continually and drinking continually by continually receiving Christ's words, which are spirit and life, found in the Scriptures, and keeping His Word and its truth continually before us. It is to bring His Word home to the understanding until mind and soul are filled with its greatness and power, voluntarily appropriating truth until it becomes the very life of the soul, receiving and assimilating His words until they become part of the self. As blood circulates through the body His life is to circulate through the spiritual life by meditation and practice, by a daily reception and daily dependence with contrition for sin and putting away the leaven of sin. This is not met by occasional service or weekly prayer, and without it there is no spiritual life, no part with Christ and no salvation, while worldly cares, business and temporal food must not displace it.
Promises to Receivers
Receiving Christ as true food and true drink gives eternal life and immortality now, sustaining spiritual life within and supplying nourishment sufficient for every need of the soul. Those who truly receive His Word never hunger, and those who believe in Him never thirst for higher or more satisfying food, finding lasting satisfaction, comfort, sobriety, and joy. This nourishment shapes spiritual character, renews the soul, and brings pardon of sins, sanctification unto eternal life, health and vigor to the soul, renewal, and salvation. It is God's plain will and the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world, giving the Saviour's life within and life hid with Christ in God, the meat that endures to everlasting life asked for in the prayer for daily bread, connected to His sacrifice and received through sharing His righteousness by faith.
Whoever so eats and drinks has eternal life now and will be raised up at the last day, for receiving Him by faith and living by His words, which are spirit and life, brings union with Him and enduring bread in contrast to perishable food. This eating and drinking is continual, by continually receiving Christ's words found in the Scriptures, and those who search them find comfort, hope, and encouragement. Through the Holy Spirit God works a moral change in those who study and obey, giving an earnest of immortality through His death and resurrection, sustaining faith even if the body decays. At the trumpet they come forth clothed with garments of salvation to enter the gates into the city to their Lord's joy, with pardon, sure hope of resurrection, and preparation for translation belonging to every repentant sinner.
Those who eat and drink dwell in Christ and Christ dwells in them by faith as the heavenly Guest abiding in the heart. They live by Christ as Christ lives by the Father, coming into living union like a branch abiding in the vine and bearing fruit, placed in the same relation to Christ as Christ is to the Father. Receiving His words joins spirit to His, sustains communion, forms Christ within, and binds to Christ, and through the Holy Spirit the Bible becomes spirit and life bringing strength. Christ is formed within as blood is formed from food to supply every part of spiritual life, giving healthy development of all spiritual powers and growth up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, unlike those who ate manna in the wilderness and died but living forever.
Those who so feed are taught by the Holy Spirit and exercise the faculty of faith to grasp the unseen, constantly reaching out to lay hold of the spiritual power found in Christ. They employ every entrusted gift of mind, intellect, affections, conscience, knowledge and virtue in the Master's service, and by partaking of the divine nature overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust, possessing the character of God by obedience with faith that works by love and purifies the soul. They are registered in heaven as laborers together with God, as God's husbandry and building, showing under God's direction what people can become by taking Christ's yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness. In fellowship with those who are faithful and true, clinging to the truth of Christ's Word by believing and practicing it and taking in the Word of divine wisdom by searching it and putting it into practice, spiritual knowledge and ability grow, they recognize true greatness, goodness, and hopefulness in fellow workers, and this life leads them to prepare for His return by serving God and working earnestly for the conversion of others.
Transformed Character and Life
Feeding on the divine Word gives healthy development of all spiritual powers, with growth up into the full stature of men and women in Christ and sanctified strength, wisdom, integrity and moral power sufficient for every need of the soul. As food eaten becomes part of the body, so believers who eat Christ's words by believing and obeying become partakers of His divine nature and one in spiritual life with Him, escaping corruption through lust. Childhood faults of fretfulness, wilfulness, selfishness, hasty words and passionate acts are replaced, and the worthless stalk grafted into the living vine bears rich fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold. Those who so eat and drink are renewed, forgiven of sins, sanctified unto eternal life, and strengthened to resist evil.
This inward feeding, with Christ in the heart and His Holy Spirit as an abiding principle feeding and strengthening the soul, is revealed outwardly by works of righteousness, goodness, love and excellence of character. Receiving Him and assimilating His words by believing and practicing the gospel transforms and purifies the character, so believers take His spirit and mind, become like Him in speech, meekness and lowliness, and live filled with love for God and others, His Spirit and holy desires toward God. They put off lying, stealing, corrupt speech, bitterness, wrath and malice to become kind, tenderhearted, forgiving and meek, crucifying pride and envy and bearing the fruits of the Spirit like an evergreen tree planted by rivers of water. So is shown a marked difference between children of light and darkness.
Taking in the Word and making its truths part of life and of every action gives spiritual life and strength and forms a consistent Christian experience not dependent on emotional ecstasy or excitement. It builds spiritual and mental health, nourishes the mind, and opens the understanding to see wonderful things out of God's Word when will and way are surrendered to God. Then the Holy Spirit takes the emptied self and molds and fashions him as a vessel unto honor filled with the Spirit's power into harmony with God, filling the soul with health and growth and spiritual soundness to which the Spirit sets its seal. This feeding quickens the believer, reveals the banquet set before him and the power of the world to come, and brings renewal in Christ, holiness, and fruit to God's glory. It heals spiritual sickness from death in sin to life and is the grand remedy for physical, mental and spiritual disorders, keeping all parts in harmonious action.
Only those who receive and obey are taught by the Holy Spirit, and only they can discern spiritual things and understand the things of God so as to fulfill His purpose, while without that teaching even great advantages leave ignorance. Receiving brings the Spirit's inspiration, clearer understanding of heavenly truth, and the assurance and confidence that come through perfect obedience, with truth opening more fully with constant expansion as people follow Christ and study. Eaten, the Word gives sinew and muscle, enables bringing forth truth from Daniel and Revelation, anoints eyes with eyesalve to see lessons surface readers miss, exposes low ideas by a pure standard, and shows doers alone justified. What is received sanctifies the speech, so that perfection revealed in Christ's humanity is obtained by hiding in Him, responsibilities are treated as sacred, and no careless or idle words are spoken.
Those who live on that Word are strengthened, rooted and grounded in the faith, see increased evidence for prizing and obeying it, love His commandments above gold and fine gold even when others make His law void, arise to defend the faith, and stand in trial when lovers of convenience, pleasure and enjoyment fall. Appropriating the Word through meditation and practice lets it become a vital influence circulating in the heart as blood circulates through the body, enabling resistance to temptation including temptation through appetite. When temptation comes Christ is stronghold and refuge where they may flee and be safe, and earnest feeding now in the short remaining probation, standing on the Rock and hiding in the Refuge before the storm and last great battle, is the only safety so that nothing can separate the living Christian from God. This nourishment causes growth up into Christ as living head, gives spiritual sinew and muscle to stand against hereditary and cultivated evil tendencies, overcomes the wicked one, and brings a deeper, fuller, clearer knowledge of God with deep enduring faith.
This oneness of dwelling in Him and He in the believer produces unity of purpose and harmony of action, with mutual love and confidence that constitutes a moral convicting power to the world. It calls for absolute homage to the Word in doctrine and principle, taking the Bible and the Bible alone as rule of faith and practice with no easy fellowship with the world and no slipshod religion, so the influence of the life has telling power. Drawing spiritual nourishment from one source as branches abide in the Living Vine and as members of one body joins believers in harmony, removes the spirit of drawing apart, and expels envy, strife, hatred, dissension, jealousy, accusations, faultfinding, misrepresentation and tearing down others' work. That love received is then lived out in loving one another as Christ loved and in opening the Word of life to others, restoring rather than causing disunion.
Those who so feed appreciate the heavenly gift and are filled by the unseen Redeemer with love, peace and heavenly joy, with the heart drawn out in supreme love as Mary's was, holding nothing too costly to give and counting no self-denial or self-sacrifice too severe. They hold fast to Him, love Him continually, take Him as counselor and live by His words, clinging to Him and drawing near to God independent of human wisdom, and through this union receive life and preparation for heaven. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness they are filled with His righteousness by continuing daily in partaking, lose hunger and thirst for fame and esteem among men, and learn to read His love even in painful circumstances. They overflow with holy unselfish love for God and those He died to save, and gain new birth with Christ living within, regulating desires, purifying thoughts, quickening faculties and enlarging capacity for loving.
Applying God's Word to the soul and receiving the truth as it is in Jesus sanctifies through the truth, clothes with Christ and His love and tenderness and compassion, makes partakers of the divine nature, and is eternal life. In the day of atonement it calls all the high-minded and self-sufficient to afflict their souls before God and repent of sin lest they be weighed in the balances and found wanting.
Communion and Daily Practice
In a special sense eating true food and drinking true drink belongs to holy communion, where bread and wine represent flesh and blood and embody the sacramental service even where that service is not named. Every partaking gives spiritual strength and forms a living connection binding the believer to Christ and through Christ to the Father, joining dependent human beings to God. As faith contemplates the great sacrifice the soul takes in the spiritual life poured out on Calvary's cross and receives power to live a holy life by receiving His word and doing what He commands, so that the believer becomes one with Him, dwelling in Him and He in the believer, and lives by Him as He lives by the Father. The Holy Spirit prepares the mind and quickens the perceptive faculties to grasp the grand truths conveyed in the figures, with the crucifixion kept before the mind and the ordinances awakening the senses to the mystery of godliness and the call to look in faith to Him lifted up on the cross for eternal life. Yet this feeding through faith is not limited to the ordinance but must be received personally and continually, for no one can be nourished by food another eats and as physical food must be eaten and assimilated to give strength so Christ's life must be continually received and made part of the soul, since His death alone does not give spiritual life apart from personal reception.
The soul needs a continual vital connection with God as the body needs vitalizing air, and whoever so eats and drinks has no lack of life but has eternal life, will be raised at the last day, dwells in Christ and Christ in him, and lives by Christ as Christ lives by the Father. Eating and drinking means receiving the truth which the Spirit teaches in the Word, mingled with all that is done until it controls all actions, for it is the Spirit that quickens and His words are spirit and life. The Holy Spirit witnesses every transaction and guides in all business relations. This calls for comprehending and appreciating truth as it is in Jesus, continual growth in grace by bringing truth into daily experience, being taught daily in the school of Christ, and sending prayer to God for this and for all other blessings. It is encouraging the appetite of the soul, praying for special enlightenment, constantly meditating on the Word, digesting it and by practice assimilating it so it is taken into the life current, gaining tone and vitality for the whole religious experience and teaching others by example to feel greater anxiety for soul food than for temporal food and what to eat and drink for the flesh. Such feeding comes through earnest prayer and dependence on Christ rather than human books, beholding Him until changed into His likeness, and it requires keeping spiritual prosperity first by taking time to pray and remembering God instead of being so engrossed with temporal business and enrichment that eternity is left out and the soul is defrauded and robbed.
Eating and drinking mean continual contact with truth of heavenly origin, eating His words by studying the Word of God, holding communion with Christ, breathing His Spirit, sitting at His feet to learn meekness and lowliness of heart, and doing missionary work. This food given to the mind and this air breathed give health and vitality to the soul, surround it with the pure atmosphere of heaven, and make it able to reflect light to those in darkness. Bible study made the foundation of learning is like eating and drinking Christ.
To take His flesh and blood is to accept and improve sufficient grace given for the duties and trials of each day, to remain as a student in the school of Christ learning to do what pleases God, and to let truth rule in the heart. This feeding is practical and is shown in practicing received light in clear lines, including health reform, rather than living to amuse and please self or staying neutral, and those who so feed dwell in Christ and Christ in them and live by Him, conquer invisible foes in the daily battle and march, meet the temptations sure to come, and receive eternal life with raising up at the last day. It means coming to Him and believing on Him by faith to receive the heavenly banquet prepared at infinite cost and to abide in Him as the branch abides in the vine, by which union He becomes the vital principle imparting spiritual health and strength and righteousness revealed in daily practice, for the eating is spiritual and His words are spirit and life. This inward reception shaping character is shown in self-denying service, for missionary work demonstrates His teaching and brings a sanctifying, uplifting influence. Receiving this life includes sacrifice, as the rich young man's test to sell possessions and give to the suffering poor was a gift of the bread of life, and feasting on Christ is partaking of His experience of self-denial and self-sacrifice and making Him part of life, trusting Him fully, claiming provided salvation, and hungering and thirsting for His righteousness, without which hunger no one can rejoice in Him as Saviour or receive the benefits of His perfect life, while sincere belief begets intense desire to lift Him up, represent Him in individual experience, and awaken desire for the Gospel in others, instead of practicing self-will, requiring cutting away what is unlike Him, copying His simplicity, beholding His life, and striving for His perfection.
Men and women spiritually are built up from the food given the mind, and the Bible is the bread sent down from heaven that gives spiritual growth. Feeding the mind on other things can destroy hunger for Christ and leave no relish for heaven's bread, so those ministering in word and doctrine must not be dull of understanding and God's people must not spend time on books and magazines flooding the world that lead the mind astray and hinder growth. Taking into mind and life what He gives nourishes and grows spiritual character, whereas continually dwelling on others' faults feeds the mind wrongly and harms spiritual health. His words must be received and made part of daily life as food and drink are taken in, in order to have eternal life, and all must fully and unreservedly acknowledge the power and authority of God's words. This requires bringing all habits, appetites, and passions into conformity to God's requirements, putting from the mind all that is cheap and frivolous and discarding nonsense and amusement-loving propensities, choosing God's Word rather than influences opposed to truth since what is fed on shapes life's course, and marking, studying, and treasuring every ray of light rather than curiosity about mysteries by which Satan eclipses Christ, prizing searching above morning papers and novels.
Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the crucified Redeemer means receiving His words and repeating them as His words, so they can reach those thirsting for righteousness. It is taking in spiritual food through spiritual communication that gives spiritual help and efficiency, choosing conversation that builds up faith and rejecting evil speaking, gossip, talebearing, backbiting, malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, jesting, joking, trifling, foolish talk and idle words. Partaking of such talk is eating and drinking the spirit of the devil, whose business is accusing the brethren, while those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious refuse it as not the bread from heaven. Every person must closely examine what mental food is set before him and speak only select, well-chosen words tending to edification, knowing account must be given to God and hasty words doing no good to speaker or hearer will be brought into judgment.
Eating the flesh and drinking the blood keeps the mind pure and free to do God's will. This requires that appetites be closely guarded and life brought into harmony with light on healthful eating. It requires temperance and control of physical appetite by a sanctified mind in receiving, eating and digesting His words in the religious life by diligent searching of Scripture, creating in the newborn soul appetite for the bread from heaven that gives never-ending life and knowledge of the plan of salvation, by which those who so eat live by Christ, abide in Him, become one with Him, lose identity in Him, partake through faith of His Spirit and love, are set apart to do His works, reveal His spirit, and are made clean through His word. Physical health is maintained by what is eaten, and unhealthful habits injure the stomach, produce unhealthful condition of system, leave mind and body unsound to study what Scripture says about inheriting eternal life, and increase disposition to enter temptation and commit sin. On the Sabbath this feeding calls for a very simple diet, keeping the mind from being full of gratifying food so it can be quiet and waiting to receive blessing and the rich blessing of Christ.
Testing and Sharing Truth
The saying tests professed faith and exposes half-hearted disciples, separating sincere believers from false ones. Soul-purifying statements from God's Word try the heart, and turning away from Christ under them reveals false discipleship. Many found the teaching hard and left Him, and their course applies to those who abandon truth through unbelief. It applies to those who do not at once comprehend and will not yield the will to God, who turn aside from disappointed hopes of an earthly kingdom, whose lives are out of keeping with truth, and who have conviction without conversion. The Holy Spirit may convince the understanding and arouse the conscience, yet without love for Jesus and surrender there is only self-deception and refusal to come to Him for life.
Failing to avail oneself of this food and drink misrepresents Christ by a half-hearted religious life and sets an unsafe, condemning example before the young. When self mingles with the words and acts of professed followers, their daily life witnesses against Him and misrepresents Him. Mere profession without receiving His words into the heart and taking Him as counselor is empty, for rejecting the Word, the bread of life, leaves persons without His wisdom and spiritual life and unclean, while obedience cleanses the heart. A life that does not feed on these words is weakened, drawn toward misleading pursuits, and without watchful care and nurture its health decays. Acting from selfishness instead of Christ's life, surrendering truth to please self or others, replacing communion with strife and falsehood, refusing testimonies and right principles, and continuing in sin while presuming on the promises like foolish virgins without oil, offend at hard sayings, are found wanting, and are shut outside.
The chapter defines the righteousness of Christ that must be accepted to have the wedding garment, where humanity is married to divinity. That righteousness is the standard of character each must reach to be a fit guest, requiring a firm stand for Christ and surrendering to God what is already His, not measuring character by human ideas, not presuming on eternal interests, and not continuing in sin. Feeding on Christ is different from merely knowing truth repeated over and over, for those who know the precious saving truth and hear it again and again can still fail to feed on Him. Energy and labor spent on such unfed believers would be better spent carrying truth to unworked cities where perishing people live in ignorance and sin. True eating is reading and studying the Word with earnest desire for spiritual power, working with God, emptying heart and mind of wrong, being conformed to His image, becoming holy as the reflection of His glory, and being sanctified through truth.
Teachers need the Holy Spirit and careful study of Scripture to understand and share this truth, for the flesh alone profits nothing and the Spirit gives life. The call is to feed on Scripture and share its life-giving truth, since His words are spirit and life. Children and youth are to be taught the importance of so feeding upon Christ, as an education of the greatest importance. Ministers must so feed in order to grow in grace and knowledge, increase in efficiency and power in prayer, carry a burden for souls, reflect Jesus, and be living examples of what they preach, for only those who meditate on Christ, think and talk of Him, obey His Word, and live practical godliness have part with Him and eternal life. Those who open the Word to others must themselves eat and digest it by practicing the truth, watching over self, and weeding from heart and character malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking, rivalry, and every product of the carnal, unsanctified mind. Where self controls mind and judgment the worker has not eaten and drunk, and disaffection, criticism, envy, and jealousy open the door to Satan, dishonor God, break unity, and make even costly, anxious labor of little effect, while those who feed reason no longer from human policy but grow effective.
Those who serve as representatives must give this bread of life to hungry souls, but they cannot supply it from themselves and must seek it from God to have something to impart. This eating and drinking gives sound and healthy piety, growth in grace and knowledge of Christ, and Christlikeness in all things, making believers one with Christ as He is one with the Father. Received inwardly, truth in the soul and the Spirit of Christ within make piety and influence work as leaven, so contact with error and connection with the world in business need not be feared. It enables going to fellow men touched with the feeling of their infirmities, plainly revealing the Saviour in spirit, word, and disposition so that many souls are won. So nourished, teaching is fresh and meets spiritual hunger, and the lesson is taught where present truth is received and obeyed, including health reform and sanitarium work that teaches care of the body with soundness in faith and reaches souls in the highways and byways to restore the sin-sick. The food is the Word received from the living Christ to nourish believers so they can share its benefits with others, extending intelligent knowledge into new territories by workers supplied with resources.
In those who partake, His life renews experience and ministry with fresh understanding and power to share old truths in new light. Those who have this experience belong to Christ, who lays His hands upon them and commissions them as witnesses to use their gifts, shine before others, and lead souls to God, whether ordained by human hands or not. His attributes appear in words and actions as channels of living water, showing whether Christ's or Satan's attributes prevail. What is received is imparted for successful service, with the Holy Spirit witnessing as the messenger holds forth the Word of life.
Christ's flesh is real food for the soul and His blood is real drink, spoken in figure under the likeness of heavenly bread and not a bodily or merely ceremonial eating, for His flesh is His character and His words are spirit and life.
To eat and drink is to receive Christ Himself by living, abiding faith as personal Saviour and atonement, coming to Him directly and depending wholly on Him for strength and wisdom.
It is also to take in, digest, and obey His words and promises until they become part of the being and govern thought, affection, and conduct.
Whoever so receives Him has eternal life now and lasting satisfaction without spiritual hunger or thirst, dwells in Christ and Christ dwells in him in living union, and will be raised at the last day.
That inward feeding transforms the character into Christlikeness and is revealed outwardly in righteous works, love, unity, and witness to others.
Setting and Wording
The saying belongs to the spiritual teaching connected with the miracle of the loaves, given in the synagogue at Capernaum after feeding the five thousand, walking on the water, refusing to be made king, and turning to instruct the Twelve as popularity waned and separation drew near. It was spoken in answer to unbelieving, caviling questioners who asked how He could give His flesh to eat, and it formed a closer test for those following Him, leading people to decide for or against Him and revealing their real feelings before His crucifixion. The words were hard for hearers to grasp spiritually, and many disciples were offended by the plain testimony, exposed as out of keeping with truth and righteousness, and went back and walked no more with Him rather than accept correction and reform. Their turning away applies to all who abandon truth through unbelief.
The instruction in the fifth and sixth chapters of John sets forth the conditions of eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God, demanding death to self and self-denial. It is the mystery of godliness, and Christ Himself in it is the great center of individual life. It holds most precious lessons for students, giving an education that endures through time and eternity and revealing their privileges in Him, yet the whole chapter is only faintly understood. Studying it and making its teaching a part of life and daily experience gives the knowledge that enables distinguishing the true from the false in days of peril, and living by it leads to a life that measures with the life of God.
His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink for the soul, and His flesh is His character. Eating and drinking is spoken in figure or parable under the similitude of heavenly bread, not a literal, bodily, merely physical or merely sacramental eating. The chapter itself explains this by declaring that the flesh by itself profits nothing and that life comes by the Spirit, for His words are spirit and life. To eat and drink is therefore to receive Him by faith and take His words into practical life, keeping His Word and its truth continually before the mind, and the mind is to be used to know God and Christ and develop perfected character. So received, this nourishment shapes spiritual character, sustains a life of faith, brings lasting satisfaction, comfort, sobriety and joy, gives eternal life now with union in Him and dwelling in Him, and ends in resurrection at the last day.
The saying must be read with prayer to God for clearness of understanding, received in honest hearts and understood in plain simplicity under the Holy Spirit's guidance. It is not to be obscured by human interpretations, fanciful theories, or speculation about unrevealed mysteries, and it calls for thorough searching of the Scriptures until mind and soul are filled with their greatness and power. Even those who claim to believe the truth comprehend it little, hearing at times only with the ears and with closed understanding. The meek and lowly in heart receive these truths, while proud, self-righteous, unbelieving and selfish minds cannot grasp their meaning and turn away offended. Without the Holy Spirit's teaching even great advantages do not enable discernment of the things of God, and misconception comes not from unwillingness to teach but from unwillingness to receive.
Christ the True Food
Christ is the Bread of Life, the soul's true food and drink and the source of spiritual life, strength and sustenance. He must be received directly and lived by as spiritual nourishment, with dependence on Him Himself and on His truth rather than on ministers' ideas or human reasoning. The soul that accepts Jesus comes under the care of the Great Physician, who alone knows its needs, supplies them, and heals and reshapes it, bringing spiritual strength and comfort. To close the heart to that light is to lose all hunger of soul for God, turning instead to worldly entertainment, while knowing His incarnation by personal experience is essential to redemption and daily sanctification.
The bread that endures to everlasting life is set against perishable food for physical sustenance, for its life-giving power comes through the Spirit and through living by His words, not by literal eating. Those who ate manna in the wilderness nevertheless died, and manna could sustain earthly life but could not prevent death or give immortality. Those who receive Christ by personal faith never hunger or thirst spiritually but have eternal life now, live forever, and will be raised up at the last day.
By giving His flesh and blood for the life of the world He gave Himself on the cross for the world's salvation, bearing sinners' guilt as Sin-bearer. His sinless life and self-offering make Him both priest and sacrifice, and His atonement secures the covenant of grace. He is the Lifegiver, the tree of life to the world, restoring what Adam and Eve lost when disobedience cut them off from everlasting life, with the terms of life fixed before the foundations of the earth and no life in a person without eating.
The Word of Christ is to be eaten as bread from heaven and His blood to be drunk, together sustaining life as the tree of life sustained Adam and Eve in Eden before the fall. When they lost access to that tree they began to lose health and vitality. To receive Him now by faith and live through union with Him is to eat the fruit and the leaves of the tree of life, for the Word is Spirit and life, the bread from heaven that gives life to the soul and to the world. That Word contains what is needed to form a perfect character, and its effect on each person determines eternal destiny, for His flesh and blood are the words He spoke and the spirit He revealed, connected with the Word made flesh who laid aside royal robe and crown to become a steppingstone imbued with God's holy character.
The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God even though He had not yet been crucified, and His work as substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. The directions given by Christ as the invisible Leader of Israel in the Old Testament Scriptures are rich nourishment, so that no soul who takes and eats them will suffer spiritual hunger. The New Testament was written not to cast aside the Old but to reflect light back into past ages and give significance to the whole Jewish economy, so its plain directions for practical holiness and obedience still enter the life of everyone who claims to be Christian, and His earthly teaching does not contradict what He gave through Moses. The Passover lamb represented Christ, and its blood placed on the doorposts as a sign of safety represented His blood shed for the sins of the world, while humanity alienated from God can be reconciled only by spiritually partaking of Him.
Christ is not unmindful of physical wants, and He fed the multitude who followed Him to hear His words, then directed that the fragments be gathered so nothing was wasted. Yet the spiritual food He provides is of far more consequence than temporal food and must be sought with greater anxiety than perishable bread. That bread from heaven can be obtained from no human agent; through the gift of Christ God Himself gives it, and all the gifts of God come through Jesus Christ, so that he who comes shall never hunger and he who believes shall never thirst. Even physical life depends on His death, with daily food provided through His broken body and water through His shed blood, so every meal bears the sign of Calvary, and the communion emblems teach this dependence and make ordinary provisions sacred, so that the family table and each meal become like the Lord's table.
Meaning of Partaking
To eat His flesh and to drink His blood is to receive Christ Himself by living, earnest, constant, abiding faith as personal Saviour, sacrifice and atonement. It is to come to Him, to see the Son, to believe on Him, to look constantly to Him, and to depend wholly on Him alone for strength, power, guidance and wisdom and not on any human being. It is to go to Jesus directly as the one Mediator, to tell Him failings and to receive instruction, which gives access to the Father. As physical food must be eaten and assimilated to give strength, His life must be continually received and made part of the soul by meditating on Him, praying, doing His will and taking His nature into one's own life, so that He dwells in the believer and the believer lives by Him. His death for humanity does not by itself give spiritual life; life comes as people personally receive and continually nourish their souls with Him, drawing constantly from Him as the living bread that came down from heaven, and depending on human beings instead brings bondage and spiritual weakness.
It is to receive, believe and live by God's Word and Christ's words as real spiritual food and drink for the soul, taking them in, digesting them, obeying and practicing them until they become part of the being, motive power and daily life, for His words are spirit and life. It includes earnest searching, studying, masticating and digesting Scripture under the Holy Spirit with prayer and surrender, digging for hidden treasures in both Testaments, making the Word constant meditation and prayerful study. So received, truth is planted in the heart so that it controls the mind, regulates the affections and stamps the character, takes possession of the will, casts down opposition to the knowledge of God and brings thought into obedience to Christ, giving spiritual sinew and muscle. It is a real, personal experience belonging with tasting that the Lord is gracious, desiring the Word in order to grow, and being truly converted and born again, for the flesh and blood are the living, undying element in the Scriptures with the Holy Spirit present in the Word of God.
It is to believe His Word, appropriate it, and be doers who obey at once while it is called today, living by every word that proceeds from God. It is to keep all of Holy Writ in sanctified obedience including the Ten Commandments, to weave His spirit and works into life until its principles circulate through experience and become elements of character, and to obey God's commandments while appropriating all that is included in the atonement made at Calvary. Receiving His words joins a person to Him in a vital, saving union like a branch abiding in the vine, and obedience sustains this union, while separation leads to death. Those who do so reveal in conversation and character how much they believe, manifesting self-denial, patience, mercy and love that seeks the erring, while wrong speech, disobedience and profession without works show a person is not partaking but misrepresents Christ through half-hearted religion.
It is to believe and claim God's precious promises for oneself, putting away unbelief and suspicion that they are not for oneself, complying with the conditions, confessing sin and claiming His pledged word to forgive sin and cleanse from all unrighteousness. It is done with eager, hungry faith that prizes its light above papers, magazines and novels, comparing Scripture with Scripture and meditating upon it, letting all the actions of life be controlled by a Thus saith the Lord. So received the Word becomes a banquet, a wellspring of wisdom, leaves of the tree of life and a well of water springing up to everlasting life, nourishing, comforting, strengthening, encouraging and shaping life. What is cherished as food is expressed in conversation, for those who take in and obey the Word are shaped by its principles and promises and continually satisfied in soul, and to refuse to believe His words and the words of His servants is to refuse this life.
No one can eat and drink for another; each person must come himself with his own soul hunger, his own convictions and his own sense of soul need and learn of Christ for himself by personal faith. Each must take the Word as guide, repent, believe and obey by his own will with no proxy, for seeing others partake cannot nourish the soul. Mere outward connection with any church will not save, and each will give account of himself to God, young and old alike, with Christ's blood having purchased power to become God's children.
Eating and drinking means eating continually and drinking continually by continually receiving Christ's words, which are spirit and life, found in the Scriptures, and keeping His Word and its truth continually before us. It is to bring His Word home to the understanding until mind and soul are filled with its greatness and power, voluntarily appropriating truth until it becomes the very life of the soul, receiving and assimilating His words until they become part of the self. As blood circulates through the body His life is to circulate through the spiritual life by meditation and practice, by a daily reception and daily dependence with contrition for sin and putting away the leaven of sin. This is not met by occasional service or weekly prayer, and without it there is no spiritual life, no part with Christ and no salvation, while worldly cares, business and temporal food must not displace it.
Promises to Receivers
Receiving Christ as true food and true drink gives eternal life and immortality now, sustaining spiritual life within and supplying nourishment sufficient for every need of the soul. Those who truly receive His Word never hunger, and those who believe in Him never thirst for higher or more satisfying food, finding lasting satisfaction, comfort, sobriety, and joy. This nourishment shapes spiritual character, renews the soul, and brings pardon of sins, sanctification unto eternal life, health and vigor to the soul, renewal, and salvation. It is God's plain will and the divine antidote for the sin of the whole world, giving the Saviour's life within and life hid with Christ in God, the meat that endures to everlasting life asked for in the prayer for daily bread, connected to His sacrifice and received through sharing His righteousness by faith.
Whoever so eats and drinks has eternal life now and will be raised up at the last day, for receiving Him by faith and living by His words, which are spirit and life, brings union with Him and enduring bread in contrast to perishable food. This eating and drinking is continual, by continually receiving Christ's words found in the Scriptures, and those who search them find comfort, hope, and encouragement. Through the Holy Spirit God works a moral change in those who study and obey, giving an earnest of immortality through His death and resurrection, sustaining faith even if the body decays. At the trumpet they come forth clothed with garments of salvation to enter the gates into the city to their Lord's joy, with pardon, sure hope of resurrection, and preparation for translation belonging to every repentant sinner.
Those who eat and drink dwell in Christ and Christ dwells in them by faith as the heavenly Guest abiding in the heart. They live by Christ as Christ lives by the Father, coming into living union like a branch abiding in the vine and bearing fruit, placed in the same relation to Christ as Christ is to the Father. Receiving His words joins spirit to His, sustains communion, forms Christ within, and binds to Christ, and through the Holy Spirit the Bible becomes spirit and life bringing strength. Christ is formed within as blood is formed from food to supply every part of spiritual life, giving healthy development of all spiritual powers and growth up into the full stature of men and women in Christ, unlike those who ate manna in the wilderness and died but living forever.
Those who so feed are taught by the Holy Spirit and exercise the faculty of faith to grasp the unseen, constantly reaching out to lay hold of the spiritual power found in Christ. They employ every entrusted gift of mind, intellect, affections, conscience, knowledge and virtue in the Master's service, and by partaking of the divine nature overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust, possessing the character of God by obedience with faith that works by love and purifies the soul. They are registered in heaven as laborers together with God, as God's husbandry and building, showing under God's direction what people can become by taking Christ's yoke and learning His meekness and lowliness. In fellowship with those who are faithful and true, clinging to the truth of Christ's Word by believing and practicing it and taking in the Word of divine wisdom by searching it and putting it into practice, spiritual knowledge and ability grow, they recognize true greatness, goodness, and hopefulness in fellow workers, and this life leads them to prepare for His return by serving God and working earnestly for the conversion of others.
Transformed Character and Life
Feeding on the divine Word gives healthy development of all spiritual powers, with growth up into the full stature of men and women in Christ and sanctified strength, wisdom, integrity and moral power sufficient for every need of the soul. As food eaten becomes part of the body, so believers who eat Christ's words by believing and obeying become partakers of His divine nature and one in spiritual life with Him, escaping corruption through lust. Childhood faults of fretfulness, wilfulness, selfishness, hasty words and passionate acts are replaced, and the worthless stalk grafted into the living vine bears rich fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold. Those who so eat and drink are renewed, forgiven of sins, sanctified unto eternal life, and strengthened to resist evil.
This inward feeding, with Christ in the heart and His Holy Spirit as an abiding principle feeding and strengthening the soul, is revealed outwardly by works of righteousness, goodness, love and excellence of character. Receiving Him and assimilating His words by believing and practicing the gospel transforms and purifies the character, so believers take His spirit and mind, become like Him in speech, meekness and lowliness, and live filled with love for God and others, His Spirit and holy desires toward God. They put off lying, stealing, corrupt speech, bitterness, wrath and malice to become kind, tenderhearted, forgiving and meek, crucifying pride and envy and bearing the fruits of the Spirit like an evergreen tree planted by rivers of water. So is shown a marked difference between children of light and darkness.
Taking in the Word and making its truths part of life and of every action gives spiritual life and strength and forms a consistent Christian experience not dependent on emotional ecstasy or excitement. It builds spiritual and mental health, nourishes the mind, and opens the understanding to see wonderful things out of God's Word when will and way are surrendered to God. Then the Holy Spirit takes the emptied self and molds and fashions him as a vessel unto honor filled with the Spirit's power into harmony with God, filling the soul with health and growth and spiritual soundness to which the Spirit sets its seal. This feeding quickens the believer, reveals the banquet set before him and the power of the world to come, and brings renewal in Christ, holiness, and fruit to God's glory. It heals spiritual sickness from death in sin to life and is the grand remedy for physical, mental and spiritual disorders, keeping all parts in harmonious action.
Only those who receive and obey are taught by the Holy Spirit, and only they can discern spiritual things and understand the things of God so as to fulfill His purpose, while without that teaching even great advantages leave ignorance. Receiving brings the Spirit's inspiration, clearer understanding of heavenly truth, and the assurance and confidence that come through perfect obedience, with truth opening more fully with constant expansion as people follow Christ and study. Eaten, the Word gives sinew and muscle, enables bringing forth truth from Daniel and Revelation, anoints eyes with eyesalve to see lessons surface readers miss, exposes low ideas by a pure standard, and shows doers alone justified. What is received sanctifies the speech, so that perfection revealed in Christ's humanity is obtained by hiding in Him, responsibilities are treated as sacred, and no careless or idle words are spoken.
Those who live on that Word are strengthened, rooted and grounded in the faith, see increased evidence for prizing and obeying it, love His commandments above gold and fine gold even when others make His law void, arise to defend the faith, and stand in trial when lovers of convenience, pleasure and enjoyment fall. Appropriating the Word through meditation and practice lets it become a vital influence circulating in the heart as blood circulates through the body, enabling resistance to temptation including temptation through appetite. When temptation comes Christ is stronghold and refuge where they may flee and be safe, and earnest feeding now in the short remaining probation, standing on the Rock and hiding in the Refuge before the storm and last great battle, is the only safety so that nothing can separate the living Christian from God. This nourishment causes growth up into Christ as living head, gives spiritual sinew and muscle to stand against hereditary and cultivated evil tendencies, overcomes the wicked one, and brings a deeper, fuller, clearer knowledge of God with deep enduring faith.
This oneness of dwelling in Him and He in the believer produces unity of purpose and harmony of action, with mutual love and confidence that constitutes a moral convicting power to the world. It calls for absolute homage to the Word in doctrine and principle, taking the Bible and the Bible alone as rule of faith and practice with no easy fellowship with the world and no slipshod religion, so the influence of the life has telling power. Drawing spiritual nourishment from one source as branches abide in the Living Vine and as members of one body joins believers in harmony, removes the spirit of drawing apart, and expels envy, strife, hatred, dissension, jealousy, accusations, faultfinding, misrepresentation and tearing down others' work. That love received is then lived out in loving one another as Christ loved and in opening the Word of life to others, restoring rather than causing disunion.
Those who so feed appreciate the heavenly gift and are filled by the unseen Redeemer with love, peace and heavenly joy, with the heart drawn out in supreme love as Mary's was, holding nothing too costly to give and counting no self-denial or self-sacrifice too severe. They hold fast to Him, love Him continually, take Him as counselor and live by His words, clinging to Him and drawing near to God independent of human wisdom, and through this union receive life and preparation for heaven. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness they are filled with His righteousness by continuing daily in partaking, lose hunger and thirst for fame and esteem among men, and learn to read His love even in painful circumstances. They overflow with holy unselfish love for God and those He died to save, and gain new birth with Christ living within, regulating desires, purifying thoughts, quickening faculties and enlarging capacity for loving.
Applying God's Word to the soul and receiving the truth as it is in Jesus sanctifies through the truth, clothes with Christ and His love and tenderness and compassion, makes partakers of the divine nature, and is eternal life. In the day of atonement it calls all the high-minded and self-sufficient to afflict their souls before God and repent of sin lest they be weighed in the balances and found wanting.
Communion and Daily Practice
In a special sense eating true food and drinking true drink belongs to holy communion, where bread and wine represent flesh and blood and embody the sacramental service even where that service is not named. Every partaking gives spiritual strength and forms a living connection binding the believer to Christ and through Christ to the Father, joining dependent human beings to God. As faith contemplates the great sacrifice the soul takes in the spiritual life poured out on Calvary's cross and receives power to live a holy life by receiving His word and doing what He commands, so that the believer becomes one with Him, dwelling in Him and He in the believer, and lives by Him as He lives by the Father. The Holy Spirit prepares the mind and quickens the perceptive faculties to grasp the grand truths conveyed in the figures, with the crucifixion kept before the mind and the ordinances awakening the senses to the mystery of godliness and the call to look in faith to Him lifted up on the cross for eternal life. Yet this feeding through faith is not limited to the ordinance but must be received personally and continually, for no one can be nourished by food another eats and as physical food must be eaten and assimilated to give strength so Christ's life must be continually received and made part of the soul, since His death alone does not give spiritual life apart from personal reception.
The soul needs a continual vital connection with God as the body needs vitalizing air, and whoever so eats and drinks has no lack of life but has eternal life, will be raised at the last day, dwells in Christ and Christ in him, and lives by Christ as Christ lives by the Father. Eating and drinking means receiving the truth which the Spirit teaches in the Word, mingled with all that is done until it controls all actions, for it is the Spirit that quickens and His words are spirit and life. The Holy Spirit witnesses every transaction and guides in all business relations. This calls for comprehending and appreciating truth as it is in Jesus, continual growth in grace by bringing truth into daily experience, being taught daily in the school of Christ, and sending prayer to God for this and for all other blessings. It is encouraging the appetite of the soul, praying for special enlightenment, constantly meditating on the Word, digesting it and by practice assimilating it so it is taken into the life current, gaining tone and vitality for the whole religious experience and teaching others by example to feel greater anxiety for soul food than for temporal food and what to eat and drink for the flesh. Such feeding comes through earnest prayer and dependence on Christ rather than human books, beholding Him until changed into His likeness, and it requires keeping spiritual prosperity first by taking time to pray and remembering God instead of being so engrossed with temporal business and enrichment that eternity is left out and the soul is defrauded and robbed.
Eating and drinking mean continual contact with truth of heavenly origin, eating His words by studying the Word of God, holding communion with Christ, breathing His Spirit, sitting at His feet to learn meekness and lowliness of heart, and doing missionary work. This food given to the mind and this air breathed give health and vitality to the soul, surround it with the pure atmosphere of heaven, and make it able to reflect light to those in darkness. Bible study made the foundation of learning is like eating and drinking Christ.
To take His flesh and blood is to accept and improve sufficient grace given for the duties and trials of each day, to remain as a student in the school of Christ learning to do what pleases God, and to let truth rule in the heart. This feeding is practical and is shown in practicing received light in clear lines, including health reform, rather than living to amuse and please self or staying neutral, and those who so feed dwell in Christ and Christ in them and live by Him, conquer invisible foes in the daily battle and march, meet the temptations sure to come, and receive eternal life with raising up at the last day. It means coming to Him and believing on Him by faith to receive the heavenly banquet prepared at infinite cost and to abide in Him as the branch abides in the vine, by which union He becomes the vital principle imparting spiritual health and strength and righteousness revealed in daily practice, for the eating is spiritual and His words are spirit and life. This inward reception shaping character is shown in self-denying service, for missionary work demonstrates His teaching and brings a sanctifying, uplifting influence. Receiving this life includes sacrifice, as the rich young man's test to sell possessions and give to the suffering poor was a gift of the bread of life, and feasting on Christ is partaking of His experience of self-denial and self-sacrifice and making Him part of life, trusting Him fully, claiming provided salvation, and hungering and thirsting for His righteousness, without which hunger no one can rejoice in Him as Saviour or receive the benefits of His perfect life, while sincere belief begets intense desire to lift Him up, represent Him in individual experience, and awaken desire for the Gospel in others, instead of practicing self-will, requiring cutting away what is unlike Him, copying His simplicity, beholding His life, and striving for His perfection.
Men and women spiritually are built up from the food given the mind, and the Bible is the bread sent down from heaven that gives spiritual growth. Feeding the mind on other things can destroy hunger for Christ and leave no relish for heaven's bread, so those ministering in word and doctrine must not be dull of understanding and God's people must not spend time on books and magazines flooding the world that lead the mind astray and hinder growth. Taking into mind and life what He gives nourishes and grows spiritual character, whereas continually dwelling on others' faults feeds the mind wrongly and harms spiritual health. His words must be received and made part of daily life as food and drink are taken in, in order to have eternal life, and all must fully and unreservedly acknowledge the power and authority of God's words. This requires bringing all habits, appetites, and passions into conformity to God's requirements, putting from the mind all that is cheap and frivolous and discarding nonsense and amusement-loving propensities, choosing God's Word rather than influences opposed to truth since what is fed on shapes life's course, and marking, studying, and treasuring every ray of light rather than curiosity about mysteries by which Satan eclipses Christ, prizing searching above morning papers and novels.
Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the crucified Redeemer means receiving His words and repeating them as His words, so they can reach those thirsting for righteousness. It is taking in spiritual food through spiritual communication that gives spiritual help and efficiency, choosing conversation that builds up faith and rejecting evil speaking, gossip, talebearing, backbiting, malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, jesting, joking, trifling, foolish talk and idle words. Partaking of such talk is eating and drinking the spirit of the devil, whose business is accusing the brethren, while those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious refuse it as not the bread from heaven. Every person must closely examine what mental food is set before him and speak only select, well-chosen words tending to edification, knowing account must be given to God and hasty words doing no good to speaker or hearer will be brought into judgment.
Eating the flesh and drinking the blood keeps the mind pure and free to do God's will. This requires that appetites be closely guarded and life brought into harmony with light on healthful eating. It requires temperance and control of physical appetite by a sanctified mind in receiving, eating and digesting His words in the religious life by diligent searching of Scripture, creating in the newborn soul appetite for the bread from heaven that gives never-ending life and knowledge of the plan of salvation, by which those who so eat live by Christ, abide in Him, become one with Him, lose identity in Him, partake through faith of His Spirit and love, are set apart to do His works, reveal His spirit, and are made clean through His word. Physical health is maintained by what is eaten, and unhealthful habits injure the stomach, produce unhealthful condition of system, leave mind and body unsound to study what Scripture says about inheriting eternal life, and increase disposition to enter temptation and commit sin. On the Sabbath this feeding calls for a very simple diet, keeping the mind from being full of gratifying food so it can be quiet and waiting to receive blessing and the rich blessing of Christ.
Testing and Sharing Truth
The saying tests professed faith and exposes half-hearted disciples, separating sincere believers from false ones. Soul-purifying statements from God's Word try the heart, and turning away from Christ under them reveals false discipleship. Many found the teaching hard and left Him, and their course applies to those who abandon truth through unbelief. It applies to those who do not at once comprehend and will not yield the will to God, who turn aside from disappointed hopes of an earthly kingdom, whose lives are out of keeping with truth, and who have conviction without conversion. The Holy Spirit may convince the understanding and arouse the conscience, yet without love for Jesus and surrender there is only self-deception and refusal to come to Him for life.
Failing to avail oneself of this food and drink misrepresents Christ by a half-hearted religious life and sets an unsafe, condemning example before the young. When self mingles with the words and acts of professed followers, their daily life witnesses against Him and misrepresents Him. Mere profession without receiving His words into the heart and taking Him as counselor is empty, for rejecting the Word, the bread of life, leaves persons without His wisdom and spiritual life and unclean, while obedience cleanses the heart. A life that does not feed on these words is weakened, drawn toward misleading pursuits, and without watchful care and nurture its health decays. Acting from selfishness instead of Christ's life, surrendering truth to please self or others, replacing communion with strife and falsehood, refusing testimonies and right principles, and continuing in sin while presuming on the promises like foolish virgins without oil, offend at hard sayings, are found wanting, and are shut outside.
The chapter defines the righteousness of Christ that must be accepted to have the wedding garment, where humanity is married to divinity. That righteousness is the standard of character each must reach to be a fit guest, requiring a firm stand for Christ and surrendering to God what is already His, not measuring character by human ideas, not presuming on eternal interests, and not continuing in sin. Feeding on Christ is different from merely knowing truth repeated over and over, for those who know the precious saving truth and hear it again and again can still fail to feed on Him. Energy and labor spent on such unfed believers would be better spent carrying truth to unworked cities where perishing people live in ignorance and sin. True eating is reading and studying the Word with earnest desire for spiritual power, working with God, emptying heart and mind of wrong, being conformed to His image, becoming holy as the reflection of His glory, and being sanctified through truth.
Teachers need the Holy Spirit and careful study of Scripture to understand and share this truth, for the flesh alone profits nothing and the Spirit gives life. The call is to feed on Scripture and share its life-giving truth, since His words are spirit and life. Children and youth are to be taught the importance of so feeding upon Christ, as an education of the greatest importance. Ministers must so feed in order to grow in grace and knowledge, increase in efficiency and power in prayer, carry a burden for souls, reflect Jesus, and be living examples of what they preach, for only those who meditate on Christ, think and talk of Him, obey His Word, and live practical godliness have part with Him and eternal life. Those who open the Word to others must themselves eat and digest it by practicing the truth, watching over self, and weeding from heart and character malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, evil speaking, rivalry, and every product of the carnal, unsanctified mind. Where self controls mind and judgment the worker has not eaten and drunk, and disaffection, criticism, envy, and jealousy open the door to Satan, dishonor God, break unity, and make even costly, anxious labor of little effect, while those who feed reason no longer from human policy but grow effective.
Those who serve as representatives must give this bread of life to hungry souls, but they cannot supply it from themselves and must seek it from God to have something to impart. This eating and drinking gives sound and healthy piety, growth in grace and knowledge of Christ, and Christlikeness in all things, making believers one with Christ as He is one with the Father. Received inwardly, truth in the soul and the Spirit of Christ within make piety and influence work as leaven, so contact with error and connection with the world in business need not be feared. It enables going to fellow men touched with the feeling of their infirmities, plainly revealing the Saviour in spirit, word, and disposition so that many souls are won. So nourished, teaching is fresh and meets spiritual hunger, and the lesson is taught where present truth is received and obeyed, including health reform and sanitarium work that teaches care of the body with soundness in faith and reaches souls in the highways and byways to restore the sin-sick. The food is the Word received from the living Christ to nourish believers so they can share its benefits with others, extending intelligent knowledge into new territories by workers supplied with resources.
In those who partake, His life renews experience and ministry with fresh understanding and power to share old truths in new light. Those who have this experience belong to Christ, who lays His hands upon them and commissions them as witnesses to use their gifts, shine before others, and lead souls to God, whether ordained by human hands or not. His attributes appear in words and actions as channels of living water, showing whether Christ's or Satan's attributes prevail. What is received is imparted for successful service, with the Holy Spirit witnessing as the messenger holds forth the Word of life.