These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
These words were spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum, where those who had sought Him found Him with a large congregation and heard the teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving Christ Himself in faith as a personal Saviour, abiding in Him and entering into daily union with Him. It means receiving, assimilating, studying and practicing His words as spiritual food until they become part of the life, for His flesh and blood represent His character and His words are spirit and life. Whoever so feeds on Him has eternal life, will be raised at the last day, dwells in Christ and lives forever by the bread come down from heaven. The saying proved hard and tested faith, so many disciples murmured, were offended and walked no more with Him, while the twelve confessed Him as Christ the Son of the living God.
Setting in Capernaum
These things were said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum, locating the bread of life teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood in that synagogue. There the people who had come seeking Him found Him, gathered before a large congregation. The teaching about Himself as the living bread belongs to the discourse of John 6:27-65 on receiving Christ as the Bread of life.
In that synagogue He explained the spiritual meaning of the miracle of the loaves. He had cared for the hungry multitude as well as teaching them, showing compassion in meeting physical needs, and His instruction to gather the leftover food showed care against waste. The precious lessons on the Bread of Life were given after the crowd's attempt to make Him king was refused, following the feeding of the five thousand and His walking on the water.
The Capernaum teaching presented Himself as the bread of life and clearly defined His spiritual kingdom while discouraging the idea of a temporal reign. It was given when His popularity began to wane and the open hostility of the Pharisees made plain, decided truth about Himself necessary. He then devoted Himself more earnestly to instructing His disciples in the mysteries and truths of His work, and as separation neared His teaching became more significant and mysterious.
Meaning of Eating and Drinking
To eat His flesh and to drink His blood is to receive Christ Himself in faith as a personal Saviour, to look constantly to Him, to abide in Him and in His word, and to enter into daily, hourly union with Him through faith that works by love and purifies the soul. It is an actual spiritual experience of living in Christ and drawing spiritual life from Him, not mere outward connection nor reliance on human wisdom or prominence. To eat and drink in this sense is to receive, assimilate, study and practice His words and the Word of God as spiritual food and drink until they become part of the life. It is to keep what God has revealed before the mind, to desire the sincere milk of the Word and feed upon the divine Word as the divine element the soul needs for healthy development of all its spiritual powers, to be doers of the Word, to obey it and bring heart, conversation and character into conformity with His commands.
His flesh and blood represent His character, and His words are spirit and life, not to be understood in a merely physical sense. It is the Spirit that quickens while the flesh profits nothing, and believers receive life by continually partaking of Christ through the life-giving Spirit. Coming to Him and believing on Him takes away hunger and thirst, which He presented under the similitude of heavenly bread, in a parable and in a figure of true, earnest belief. The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God, even though He had not yet been crucified when He spoke, and His work as substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. No one can come to Him except as given by the Father, and He knew from the beginning who believed not and who would betray Him, warning of seeing the Son of man ascend where He was before.
Promises to Those Who Receive
Whoever feeds in this way has eternal life and will be raised up at the last day, dwelling in Christ with Christ dwelling in him, living by Christ as Christ lives by the Father, and living forever by the bread come down from heaven, not as the fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. Though believers may die, the Saviour's life remains in them, for they are joined to Him in this life and remain one with Him throughout eternity. Eating and drinking in this sense means receiving Christ as a personal Saviour, looking constantly to Him, and receiving His words as spiritual food and drink supplying all the needs of the soul, in daily, hourly union with Him through faith that works by love and purifies the soul. His words are spirit and life, for it is the Spirit that quickens while the flesh profits nothing, and no one can come to Him except as given by the Father.
Those who so partake receive nourishment, forgiveness of sins, and sanctification unto eternal life, and grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. All who truly receive His Word never hunger, and all who believe in Him never thirst for higher or more satisfying food, for coming to Him and believing on Him takes away hunger and thirst. The Word of God is the living bread which came down from heaven to be read and appropriated, and eating the bread of life gives a more exalted experience so that no soul hungers spiritually. The chapter is full of instruction about feeding on Christ, the bread of heaven, and receiving spiritual strength from Him.
Made the essence of education in all schools and brought into experience, that Word gives sanctified strength, wisdom, integrity, and moral power, not the words of worldly wisdom or the maxims and theories of men. The natural man remains what hereditary tendencies, nationality, education, and circumstances have made him, but when changed by grace the transformation is seen in the new man with a new heart, new purposes, and new impulses. Receiving Christ's word in this way produces fruit in the heart, fruit in the lips, and fruit in the character, some thirty, some sixty, and some one-hundred-fold. By looking to Jesus and taking in His Word, people reveal Christ in their character, partaking of it strengthens spiritual life and helps them grow in grace and knowledge of truth, forming self-control and replacing childish faults with Christian character.
Receiving His words through the Spirit brings spiritual life and everlasting life, and His words must enter the life, not remain merely heard. Christ is the center of life, and taking His words into one's life brings spiritual life, for His words are spirit and life and the Spirit gives life. Believers receive life by continually partaking of Christ. The chapter sets out conditions for eternal life and plainly states the way to obtain it, so that understanding and living by its teaching leads to a life measured by the life of God.
Rejection by Many Disciples
The saying proved difficult, testing faith and becoming a crisis of belief for many disciples. They murmured, called it a hard saying, were offended because they did not immediately comprehend it, and went back and walked no more with Him. This turning away followed teaching given before a large congregation, and the testimony given tested the disciples so that many were offended by the truth while others remained faithful.
While many turned away, the twelve did not then show themselves unfaithful but confessed Him as Christ the Son of the living God. Peter speaking for his brethren declared loyalty to Christ, after which Christ said He had chosen the twelve and one of them was a devil. The truths were spoken to bring hearers to decide for or against Christ and to reveal their true feelings, for Christ knew that those who were not wholly with Him would oppose Him at His trial. The worldly-minded among the people and even among professed disciples turned from Him when hope that the Jews as a nation would receive Him faded.
Their turning reveals conviction without conversion, a determined refusal to yield the will to God. They framed excuses for not yielding, deceived their own souls, did not love Jesus and did not accept the terms of salvation. It is the same spirit shown when the understanding is convinced and the conscience aroused yet sinners will not come for life, still forsaking Him because limited comprehension cannot discern His words. The disciples did not understand His disclosures until after His resurrection and the Holy Spirit's coming at Pentecost, for the Spirit gives understanding of Scripture and makes its truths living to mind and heart. Their response applies to Bible teachers who hold theories without an abiding, living experience with Christ, for receiving His teaching means living in Christ and drawing spiritual life from Him, not relying on human wisdom or prominence.
Connections to Other Scripture
Acting out the flesh and blood of the Son of God by faith in the Word, appropriating it and taking it into practical life so that conversation and character show how much is believed and obedience brings eternal life, is the same lesson taught under the symbol of the vine and its branches. The life given by His flesh and blood is compared with the life sustained by the tree of life in Eden, for when Adam and Eve lost access to that tree they began to lose health and vitality. Feeding on Christ calls for a contrite heart because of sin and for putting away sin, just as the Passover lamb was eaten with bitter herbs and the houses were cleared of leaven.
The chapter defines the righteousness of Christ that must be accepted in order to have on the wedding garment. That righteousness is the standard of character required to be counted a fit guest at the wedding, which is the marriage of humanity with divinity, and accepting it means taking a firm stand for Christ, surrendering to God what is already His own, measuring character by God's standard and not by human ideas, and not continuing in sin, since presumption and sin hinder God's promise and result in loss of the soul. The Old Testament Scriptures are sufficient, and belief in those Scriptures leads to belief in the New Testament. The New Testament does not replace or cast aside the Old but sheds light back into past ages and gives significance to the whole Jewish economy, and the directions for practical holiness and practical obedience given to ancient Israel must enter the life of everyone who claims to be a Christian. The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God even though He had not yet been crucified when He spoke, and His work as substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel, while the directions given by Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures are full of marrow and fatness to be taken and eaten, and eating the bread of life gives a more exalted experience so that no soul hungers spiritually.
The bread of life does not address the understanding alone as mathematics addresses the intellect. Its aim is the heart, addressing the moral nature and taking possession of the will, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Outward connection to a church does not save, but personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ. He is the shared spiritual sustenance of His people, whose Word is spirit and life.
Study and Daily Living
John 6 holds instruction that every person needs to learn, holding much meaning for believers, expressing God's will and setting forth the divine remedy for sin. It is to be read and studied and meditated upon and committed to memory, and to be read with prayer to God for clearness of understanding and prayed over in order to comprehend it. Its words are spirit and life to the receiver and mean much to every soul, and therefore its instruction must be fully carried out and received and understood.
Its instruction is the mystery of godliness, and it must be studied and made a part of life by bringing its teachings into daily experience. Studied together with John 5, this alone gives the knowledge needed in days of peril to distinguish the true from the false. The chapter sets forth the Bible as the bread sent down from heaven, the food given to the mind by which men and women are spiritually built up and learn how to believe and personally receive the Word. It stands as the great educating Book above all other books, in contrast to books and magazines and the words of worldly wisdom and maxims and theories of men that hinder spiritual growth and lead the mind astray.
The teaching gives in simple language the great lesson on how to work the works of God, for the work of God is to believe on Him whom He sent. The price of heaven is the only begotten Son of God and the way to heaven is by faith in Jesus, first believing and next working, so that those who believe in Christ will work the works of God, and this answer must be understood or heaven will be missed. That education in feeding upon His words as His very flesh and blood is to be given to children and youth and men and women in school to make them workers together with God. Of all matters of importance, youth are to be educated in the law of Jehovah and the penalty of transgression, and to understand that God accepts the ransom made by the Saviour in their behalf when they are obedient to the law of Jehovah.
Its instruction is meant to cure dissension and lead to unity with one another and with Christ. These truths show that the source of strength and power is God alone, that every person belongs to Him by creation and redemption and must depend on Him and be guided by His Word rather than depending on human beings and looking to them for wisdom and strength and guidance. They call all who claim to be God's children to look to Jesus Christ as the true Light and to follow Him so as not to walk in darkness but to have the light of life, to walk in the light given so as to be strong in the Lord, and to receive Christ by faith so that He becomes sanctification and righteousness and exceeding great reward.
The teaching showed the disciples that as His representatives they were to give the people the bread of life, and to have anything to give they had to receive spiritual food from God. People influence others for good in proportion to how they take the Word into their lives, and teachers need personal, lived knowledge of it before they can properly teach it. Every Christian as a wise steward is to preserve Christlikeness of character by sanctified obedience to all the words of Holy Writ, which are spirit and life to the receiver, and by partaking of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Son of God. That eating and drinking is how truth as it is in Jesus is comprehended and appreciated, bringing truth into daily experience and giving continual growth in grace through daily prayer and daily learning in the school of Christ, with His words received and obeyed and changing the life by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
A life absorbed in misleading amusements shows that the soul has not been feeding on those words. Its passages nourish the mind as spiritual food, and what seems barren to an unrenewed heart becomes fruitful and beautiful to one who is converted.
These words were spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum, where those who had sought Him found Him with a large congregation and heard the teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood.
Eating His flesh and drinking His blood means receiving Christ Himself in faith as a personal Saviour, abiding in Him and entering into daily union with Him.
It means receiving, assimilating, studying and practicing His words as spiritual food until they become part of the life, for His flesh and blood represent His character and His words are spirit and life.
Whoever so feeds on Him has eternal life, will be raised at the last day, dwells in Christ and lives forever by the bread come down from heaven.
The saying proved hard and tested faith, so many disciples murmured, were offended and walked no more with Him, while the twelve confessed Him as Christ the Son of the living God.
Setting in Capernaum
These things were said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum, locating the bread of life teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood in that synagogue. There the people who had come seeking Him found Him, gathered before a large congregation. The teaching about Himself as the living bread belongs to the discourse of John 6:27-65 on receiving Christ as the Bread of life.
In that synagogue He explained the spiritual meaning of the miracle of the loaves. He had cared for the hungry multitude as well as teaching them, showing compassion in meeting physical needs, and His instruction to gather the leftover food showed care against waste. The precious lessons on the Bread of Life were given after the crowd's attempt to make Him king was refused, following the feeding of the five thousand and His walking on the water.
The Capernaum teaching presented Himself as the bread of life and clearly defined His spiritual kingdom while discouraging the idea of a temporal reign. It was given when His popularity began to wane and the open hostility of the Pharisees made plain, decided truth about Himself necessary. He then devoted Himself more earnestly to instructing His disciples in the mysteries and truths of His work, and as separation neared His teaching became more significant and mysterious.
Meaning of Eating and Drinking
To eat His flesh and to drink His blood is to receive Christ Himself in faith as a personal Saviour, to look constantly to Him, to abide in Him and in His word, and to enter into daily, hourly union with Him through faith that works by love and purifies the soul. It is an actual spiritual experience of living in Christ and drawing spiritual life from Him, not mere outward connection nor reliance on human wisdom or prominence. To eat and drink in this sense is to receive, assimilate, study and practice His words and the Word of God as spiritual food and drink until they become part of the life. It is to keep what God has revealed before the mind, to desire the sincere milk of the Word and feed upon the divine Word as the divine element the soul needs for healthy development of all its spiritual powers, to be doers of the Word, to obey it and bring heart, conversation and character into conformity with His commands.
His flesh and blood represent His character, and His words are spirit and life, not to be understood in a merely physical sense. It is the Spirit that quickens while the flesh profits nothing, and believers receive life by continually partaking of Christ through the life-giving Spirit. Coming to Him and believing on Him takes away hunger and thirst, which He presented under the similitude of heavenly bread, in a parable and in a figure of true, earnest belief. The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God, even though He had not yet been crucified when He spoke, and His work as substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. No one can come to Him except as given by the Father, and He knew from the beginning who believed not and who would betray Him, warning of seeing the Son of man ascend where He was before.
Promises to Those Who Receive
Whoever feeds in this way has eternal life and will be raised up at the last day, dwelling in Christ with Christ dwelling in him, living by Christ as Christ lives by the Father, and living forever by the bread come down from heaven, not as the fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. Though believers may die, the Saviour's life remains in them, for they are joined to Him in this life and remain one with Him throughout eternity. Eating and drinking in this sense means receiving Christ as a personal Saviour, looking constantly to Him, and receiving His words as spiritual food and drink supplying all the needs of the soul, in daily, hourly union with Him through faith that works by love and purifies the soul. His words are spirit and life, for it is the Spirit that quickens while the flesh profits nothing, and no one can come to Him except as given by the Father.
Those who so partake receive nourishment, forgiveness of sins, and sanctification unto eternal life, and grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus. All who truly receive His Word never hunger, and all who believe in Him never thirst for higher or more satisfying food, for coming to Him and believing on Him takes away hunger and thirst. The Word of God is the living bread which came down from heaven to be read and appropriated, and eating the bread of life gives a more exalted experience so that no soul hungers spiritually. The chapter is full of instruction about feeding on Christ, the bread of heaven, and receiving spiritual strength from Him.
Made the essence of education in all schools and brought into experience, that Word gives sanctified strength, wisdom, integrity, and moral power, not the words of worldly wisdom or the maxims and theories of men. The natural man remains what hereditary tendencies, nationality, education, and circumstances have made him, but when changed by grace the transformation is seen in the new man with a new heart, new purposes, and new impulses. Receiving Christ's word in this way produces fruit in the heart, fruit in the lips, and fruit in the character, some thirty, some sixty, and some one-hundred-fold. By looking to Jesus and taking in His Word, people reveal Christ in their character, partaking of it strengthens spiritual life and helps them grow in grace and knowledge of truth, forming self-control and replacing childish faults with Christian character.
Receiving His words through the Spirit brings spiritual life and everlasting life, and His words must enter the life, not remain merely heard. Christ is the center of life, and taking His words into one's life brings spiritual life, for His words are spirit and life and the Spirit gives life. Believers receive life by continually partaking of Christ. The chapter sets out conditions for eternal life and plainly states the way to obtain it, so that understanding and living by its teaching leads to a life measured by the life of God.
Rejection by Many Disciples
The saying proved difficult, testing faith and becoming a crisis of belief for many disciples. They murmured, called it a hard saying, were offended because they did not immediately comprehend it, and went back and walked no more with Him. This turning away followed teaching given before a large congregation, and the testimony given tested the disciples so that many were offended by the truth while others remained faithful.
While many turned away, the twelve did not then show themselves unfaithful but confessed Him as Christ the Son of the living God. Peter speaking for his brethren declared loyalty to Christ, after which Christ said He had chosen the twelve and one of them was a devil. The truths were spoken to bring hearers to decide for or against Christ and to reveal their true feelings, for Christ knew that those who were not wholly with Him would oppose Him at His trial. The worldly-minded among the people and even among professed disciples turned from Him when hope that the Jews as a nation would receive Him faded.
Their turning reveals conviction without conversion, a determined refusal to yield the will to God. They framed excuses for not yielding, deceived their own souls, did not love Jesus and did not accept the terms of salvation. It is the same spirit shown when the understanding is convinced and the conscience aroused yet sinners will not come for life, still forsaking Him because limited comprehension cannot discern His words. The disciples did not understand His disclosures until after His resurrection and the Holy Spirit's coming at Pentecost, for the Spirit gives understanding of Scripture and makes its truths living to mind and heart. Their response applies to Bible teachers who hold theories without an abiding, living experience with Christ, for receiving His teaching means living in Christ and drawing spiritual life from Him, not relying on human wisdom or prominence.
Connections to Other Scripture
Acting out the flesh and blood of the Son of God by faith in the Word, appropriating it and taking it into practical life so that conversation and character show how much is believed and obedience brings eternal life, is the same lesson taught under the symbol of the vine and its branches. The life given by His flesh and blood is compared with the life sustained by the tree of life in Eden, for when Adam and Eve lost access to that tree they began to lose health and vitality. Feeding on Christ calls for a contrite heart because of sin and for putting away sin, just as the Passover lamb was eaten with bitter herbs and the houses were cleared of leaven.
The chapter defines the righteousness of Christ that must be accepted in order to have on the wedding garment. That righteousness is the standard of character required to be counted a fit guest at the wedding, which is the marriage of humanity with divinity, and accepting it means taking a firm stand for Christ, surrendering to God what is already His own, measuring character by God's standard and not by human ideas, and not continuing in sin, since presumption and sin hinder God's promise and result in loss of the soul. The Old Testament Scriptures are sufficient, and belief in those Scriptures leads to belief in the New Testament. The New Testament does not replace or cast aside the Old but sheds light back into past ages and gives significance to the whole Jewish economy, and the directions for practical holiness and practical obedience given to ancient Israel must enter the life of everyone who claims to be a Christian. The living oracles are the flesh and blood of the Son of God even though He had not yet been crucified when He spoke, and His work as substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel, while the directions given by Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures are full of marrow and fatness to be taken and eaten, and eating the bread of life gives a more exalted experience so that no soul hungers spiritually.
The bread of life does not address the understanding alone as mathematics addresses the intellect. Its aim is the heart, addressing the moral nature and taking possession of the will, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Outward connection to a church does not save, but personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ. He is the shared spiritual sustenance of His people, whose Word is spirit and life.
Study and Daily Living
John 6 holds instruction that every person needs to learn, holding much meaning for believers, expressing God's will and setting forth the divine remedy for sin. It is to be read and studied and meditated upon and committed to memory, and to be read with prayer to God for clearness of understanding and prayed over in order to comprehend it. Its words are spirit and life to the receiver and mean much to every soul, and therefore its instruction must be fully carried out and received and understood.
Its instruction is the mystery of godliness, and it must be studied and made a part of life by bringing its teachings into daily experience. Studied together with John 5, this alone gives the knowledge needed in days of peril to distinguish the true from the false. The chapter sets forth the Bible as the bread sent down from heaven, the food given to the mind by which men and women are spiritually built up and learn how to believe and personally receive the Word. It stands as the great educating Book above all other books, in contrast to books and magazines and the words of worldly wisdom and maxims and theories of men that hinder spiritual growth and lead the mind astray.
The teaching gives in simple language the great lesson on how to work the works of God, for the work of God is to believe on Him whom He sent. The price of heaven is the only begotten Son of God and the way to heaven is by faith in Jesus, first believing and next working, so that those who believe in Christ will work the works of God, and this answer must be understood or heaven will be missed. That education in feeding upon His words as His very flesh and blood is to be given to children and youth and men and women in school to make them workers together with God. Of all matters of importance, youth are to be educated in the law of Jehovah and the penalty of transgression, and to understand that God accepts the ransom made by the Saviour in their behalf when they are obedient to the law of Jehovah.
Its instruction is meant to cure dissension and lead to unity with one another and with Christ. These truths show that the source of strength and power is God alone, that every person belongs to Him by creation and redemption and must depend on Him and be guided by His Word rather than depending on human beings and looking to them for wisdom and strength and guidance. They call all who claim to be God's children to look to Jesus Christ as the true Light and to follow Him so as not to walk in darkness but to have the light of life, to walk in the light given so as to be strong in the Lord, and to receive Christ by faith so that He becomes sanctification and righteousness and exceeding great reward.
The teaching showed the disciples that as His representatives they were to give the people the bread of life, and to have anything to give they had to receive spiritual food from God. People influence others for good in proportion to how they take the Word into their lives, and teachers need personal, lived knowledge of it before they can properly teach it. Every Christian as a wise steward is to preserve Christlikeness of character by sanctified obedience to all the words of Holy Writ, which are spirit and life to the receiver, and by partaking of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Son of God. That eating and drinking is how truth as it is in Jesus is comprehended and appreciated, bringing truth into daily experience and giving continual growth in grace through daily prayer and daily learning in the school of Christ, with His words received and obeyed and changing the life by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
A life absorbed in misleading amusements shows that the soul has not been feeding on those words. Its passages nourish the mind as spiritual food, and what seems barren to an unrenewed heart becomes fruitful and beautiful to one who is converted.