Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
Many of His disciples heard His teaching that He is the bread of life come down from heaven and that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life, and they murmured at it as a hard saying no one could hear. The eating and drinking is not of literal flesh and blood, for the flesh profits nothing, but to believe in Him as Redeemer, receive Him by faith as a personal Saviour, and enter the living union in which He dwells in them and they in Him. It is to receive His words as spiritual food until they become part of the life, by studying the Scriptures, keeping them before the mind, and obeying His sayings and commandments in sanctified obedience. They stumbled because they lacked spiritual perception and faith, had followed for miracles and hope of an earthly kingdom, and were unwilling to accept the self-denial, cross, and complete change the truth exposed as necessary. His words deliberately tested every soul and revealed character, so that from that time many went back and walked no more with Him while those who recognized His words of eternal life remained, and the same separating work is done whenever purifying truth is presented.
Setting of the Saying
This saying belongs to the explanation of the spiritual meaning of the loaves after the feeding of the multitude, given as the Bread of life teaching, with the walking on the water standing between the miracle and the discourse. That spiritual teaching connected with the miracle was difficult for many disciples to understand and accept, and its further revelation tested those who followed Him. It exposed to a closer test those who were drawn by hopes of worldly benefit and who followed in hope of an earthly kingdom.
The hard saying was that Christ is the bread of life come down from heaven, that His flesh is meat indeed and His blood is drink indeed, and that a person must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life and be raised at the last day. It promised that the one who eats and drinks dwells in Christ and Christ in him, lives by Christ and lives forever by Him. The eating and drinking is receiving Christ's words as spiritual food and drink for the soul, receiving Him as a personal Saviour with true earnest belief, looking constantly to Him, and being united with Him through daily, hourly faith which works by love and purifies the soul. It is receiving the word into the life by carefully studying the Scriptures and carrying the Word into daily obedience to all its precepts, keeping His sayings and His commandments and thereby abiding in His love even as He kept His Father's commandments, by which believers become partakers of the divine nature and one with Christ and are formed into a character like His. Those who so receive draw spiritual vitality from Him as the branch draws nourishment from the vine, never hunger and never thirst for higher or more satisfying food, grow up into the full stature in Christ, receive nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul, receive forgiveness of sins, and are sanctified unto eternal life, for it is the Spirit that quickens and Christ's words are spirit and life while the flesh by itself profits nothing. Whoever will do God's will shall know whether the doctrine is of God, but the teaching tests every soul, requiring willingness to share His trials, to obey under any temptation, to refuse to yield truth whatever the consequences, and to walk as He walked in order to gain eternal life in the kingdom of God.
Many hearers took the words literally as a command to consume blood, which the ritual law forbade, and treated them as sacrilegious instead of grasping their spiritual meaning. With earthly minds His symbolical words about His person and office were insufferable to them, and they misinterpreted their meaning. Moral darkness kept them from fully comprehending and understanding the lesson at the time. What was not understood then was afterward made plain by subsequent events, and His words became a stay to their hearts when He walked no more with them and sustained them after He was no longer with them.
Jesus knew in Himself that they murmured at this hard saying, asked if this offended them, and pointed them to His coming ascension to where He was before. He thereby challenged how they would respond when they saw the Son of man ascend up where He was before, since they already struggled to believe that He had come down from heaven, reproving them that if they could not receive His coming down they would be less able to receive His ascension. He explained that eternal life comes not from His human flesh itself, for the flesh profits nothing, but through faith in His words and in the saving power and efficacy of the sacrifice He would make for the world, for it is the Spirit that gives life and the words He speaks are spirit and life. His teaching and example, His life and death, are the heavenly food that gives spiritual life, vigor, strength, and everlasting life, as temporal bread gives strength to the body so faith in Christ and obedience to His teachings give spiritual vigor. Their murmuring complaint came from disciples who had never been partakers with Christ, who had listened as many listen to the Word but had not eaten the truth as bread from heaven, revealing an unsanctified heart that has not beheld Christ as the Lamb of God and has not been molded by the Holy Spirit, the same criticism, murmuring and unbelief His servants still meet, leading to going back and walking no more with Him in contrast to those who remain because He has the words of eternal life.
He spoke these words deliberately, knowing that many followers would turn away because of them. He spoke them to test every soul, to bring His hearers to decide for or against Him, to reveal their true feelings and expose character and hidden temptation, showing those not wholly with Him who would oppose Him at His trial. He spoke the truth about His work and about the bread from heaven before leaving them so they could be proved in advance, so that their later apostasy would not surprise or unduly try the faithful disciples and would protect His future work from being turned onto wrong paths. The saying thus sets up the contrast with the twelve, for Peter remained because he recognized that Jesus had the words of eternal life.
Meaning of Eating and Drinking
The eating and drinking is not of literal flesh and blood, for the flesh by itself profits nothing; it is the Spirit that gives life, and Christ's words are spirit and life. The saying was not a command to consume human flesh or blood in a physical sense, but concerns receiving Christ and His life-giving words in faith, with true life coming from receiving Him rather than from a merely physical understanding. Earthly minds misread the symbolic words about His person and office, yet He does not dilute the symbol because it conveys truths about His person and work.
To eat and drink is to believe in Him as Redeemer, to receive Him as a personal Saviour, to look constantly to Him, and to receive Him by faith with true earnest belief. It is the necessary spiritual relationship with Him entered through the daily, hourly exercise of faith which works by love and purifies the soul, and a parable spoken in figure for true, earnest belief. Those who truly receive His word never hunger, and those who believe in Him never thirst for higher or more satisfying food, but draw continually from Him as the living bread and find eternal life and a fresh, living spiritual experience.
It is to receive and assimilate His words as spiritual food and drink until they become part of the life. This is done by keeping God's Word and truth continually before the mind, studying them, taking them in, understanding them, practicing their teachings, and bringing them into daily life. It means living by what God has revealed and keeping its precepts instead of leaving Scripture for human suppositions, for His words are the conditions of salvation and the mysteries of godliness are to be grasped in practical experience. Spiritually men and women are built up from the food given to the mind, the Bible contains the bread sent down from heaven that gives spiritual growth, while books and magazines that lead the mind astray hinder spiritual growth and are not to be spent time in reading.
It is to be doers of the Word by acting the flesh and blood now while it is called today, believing the Word, appropriating it, taking it into practical life, and obeying it. Eating His flesh is keeping His sayings and His commandments and thereby abiding in His love, even as He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love, living in harmony with the Redeemer through sanctified obedience to all Scripture. The Bible stands as the great educating Book answering what to do to work God's works — first believe on Him whom God sent, next work — and the same lesson is taught under the symbol of the vine and its branches. The teaching addresses the heart and moral nature, takes possession of the will, calls for obedience to Christ, and feeds hungry souls with the word of the infinite God instead of froth and fables or human maxims and customs that blind the eyes.
His teaching, example, life, and death are the heavenly food that gives spiritual life, strength, and vigor through faith in His words and in the saving power and efficacy of the sacrifice He would make for the world. As temporal bread gives strength to the body, so faith in Christ and obedience to His teachings give spiritual vigor and everlasting life. The living oracles are His flesh and blood even before He was crucified, the directions given by Christ as the invisible Leader of Israel in the Old Testament Scriptures are full of marrow and fatness, and His work as the substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. After God's plan was fulfilled in Christ's death the New Testament was written to reflect its light back upon past ages, giving significance to the whole Jewish economy and making its plain directions for practical holiness and obedience binding in the life of everyone who claims to be a Christian.
Those who so receive Him are made one with Christ in this life and remain one for eternity, dwelling in Him and He in them. They become partakers of the divine nature, formed into a character like His, escaping the world's corruption, and sharing in a transformed experience through which the Word enters the life. They grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, receive nourishment sufficient for all the needs of the soul, receive forgiveness of sins, and are sanctified unto eternal life, so that though they may die His life is in them and He will raise them at the last day. Whoever will do God's will shall know whether the doctrine is of God, and receiving His words in this way brings life as a privilege with practical, lasting value.
Why Disciples Stumbled
Their limited comprehension could not discern the spiritual meaning of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, because they lacked depth of faith and spiritual perception to understand that feeding on the divine Word gives spiritual life and growth. The difficulty came from unbelieving and selfish minds that could not grasp the figure for receiving His life and character, and the natural heart cannot comprehend plain truth about the bread from heaven and eternal life. Many today have no greater depth of faith and spiritual perception and turn away for the same reason when human ideas and maxims are held above the Word that gives strength, wisdom, integrity, and moral power.
With earthly minds they misread His symbolic words about His person and office, made them insufferable to themselves, misconstrued them, and misinterpreted messages sent by God. Pure truth was strange to senses corrupted by worldly ideas and maxims, so superficial understanding could not comprehend truth that is deep, pure and unadulterated, and only those who serve Him from pure, loving hearts can receive His Word. The saying concerns receiving Christ and His life-giving words in faith, not literal eating, and He did not soften or dilute the symbol to remove the offense but left the truth so all who desired could trace it out, explaining that the Spirit gives life, the flesh profits nothing, and His words are spirit and life to be each received for himself by faith and obedience unto partaking of the divine nature and oneness in spiritual life with Christ.
Many had followed for miracles and hopes of worldly benefit and an earthly kingdom, including freedom from Rome, and the further revelation tested those so drawn. When He presented Himself as the bread of life and made clear His kingdom was spiritual and rejected earthly rule, the teaching became difficult and mysterious to minds fixed on hope that He would be received as a national Messiah and establish a temporal reign. Receiving Him meant accepting His character and teaching, surrendering cherished ambitions, and living self-sacrificially, meekly, and humbly, but worldly-minded people, including some professing to be His disciples, had no desire for His spiritual kingdom or His self-sacrificing way and turned away.
The truth exposed their sins and showed their need for a complete change, unreserved consecration, self-denial, and the cross. They were unwilling to give up self-righteousness, worldly desires, cherished sin, and self, to share His trials, obey under temptation, and walk as He walked, so people who welcome truth at first are offended when it calls for self-denial and a changed life. They welcome praise but turn from truth when it calls them to repentance and obedience, and those who receive the truth gladly may later take offense at correction and refuse the effort and self-denial required to change their lives, though a clean heart and pure life with repentance shown in conduct are necessary and outward profession and religious forms cannot take their place. Offended by reproof they turned away, illustrating how truth separates those willing to receive it from those who reject it, how people who welcome the gospel while life is easy may be offended when God's word confronts cherished sin or brings reproach and trial, and how stony-ground hearers faint when tribulation, persecution, reproach, or the pointing out of cherished sin comes.
They would not accept truth that rebuked them or exposed their lives as out of accord with righteousness, but welcomed praise and preferred human praise and flattery to God's admonition. Rather than undertake self-denial and reform they were displeased, counted the way too strait, and thought the call to return and the responsibility to work with Christ too hard, whether that call is to return to God, to live apart from the world, to accept self-denial and sacrifice instead of only hearing of reward, or for Christians in business to work with Christ according to entrusted gifts. There is no harmony between the children of light and the children of darkness, so the call to live apart from the world feels like a hard saying that worldly-minded people cannot accept or understand, yet the call must be heeded, the Spirit's work revealing that a person is helpless to save himself, and those who share His sufferings will share His glory.
They had listened but had never been partakers with Christ nor eaten the truth as bread from heaven, so the demand to eat His flesh and drink His blood offended them. That offense reveals an unsanctified heart that has not beheld Him as the Lamb of God and has not been molded by the Holy Spirit, and hearing and recognizing truth as correct is not enough unless the heart also accepts and lives it and keeps pace despite further trials. Those who remain satisfied with a low Christian life, trust in their own activity, planning, study and teaching, and fail to see that without Him they can do nothing, will at last reject as too hard the requirement to receive His transforming grace in the heart, have thoughts and imagination purified and brought into captivity to His will, become one with Him instead of mingling the sacred with the common and carnal and nurturing self. Teachers among them had theories but no abiding, living experience and were spiritually starved because they do not receive Him as the source of life, for the teaching calls for actual spiritual experience, genuine conversion and new birth, and tasting that the Lord is gracious, not merely naming Him.
Their reaction exposed unbelief allowed to grow into habit, showing faith not genuine and position weak. The hard saying tested whether they would receive His words or cling to human ideas and reject the blessing He offered, and their departure was the result of unbelief. Their hearing was superficial with a shallow foundation not dug deep and riveted to the Eternal Rock and without a sure foundation in God's word, like stony-ground hearers who receive the word at once with joy but have no root, do not count the cost or bring the word face to face with habits of life. When test and trial comes to every soul, those not firmly grounded murmur when the Lord's words seem too demanding and abandon Him when tested, becoming heady, highminded, self-sufficient traitors who make shipwreck of faith and walk no more with Him.
Testing and Turning Away
On hearing the teaching many of His disciples murmured at it and were offended by it, calling it a hard saying that no one could hear, and from that time many went back and walked no more with Him. They stumbled because they found the word about eating His flesh and drinking His blood difficult to accept, lacking the spiritual perception to grasp that His words are spirit and life and that true life comes by receiving Him rather than by a merely physical understanding. Some heard and yet turned away, though His words give life and all who believe in Him receive everlasting life, never hungering and never thirsting for higher or more satisfying food.
His words tested every soul, exposing character, vital relation to Christ, and hidden temptation at work. The test revealed unbelief allowed to grow into habit, faith not genuine and position weak, as men were brought to decide for or against Him and to reveal their true feelings whether they would receive His words or cling to human ideas and reject the blessing offered. Those not wholly with Him were thus shown to be those who would oppose Him at His trial, and some who did not believe, were offended by His sayings, and left Him became His bitterest persecutors, in contrast to true disciples who practiced His teachings and taught others to do the same.
The turning away sets up the contrast with the Twelve, for when asked if they also would go away Peter remained because he recognized that Jesus had the words of eternal life. Jesus had spoken those words to test them, and while many turned back and stopped following Him, Peter stayed with Him on that ground.
What was plain to believers became a stumbling block to them, for the natural heart could not comprehend it and moral darkness kept them from fully comprehending His lessons at the time. The lessons were intended to expose self, and what they murmured at then was afterward made plain by subsequent events and by the resurrection. After His resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the Spirit joined divine truth to their minds and gave saving understanding of His teaching as spirit and life, and His words became a stay to their hearts when He walked no more with them.
In this the verse shows how truth separates those willing to receive it from those who reject it. Because the truth exposed their sins and showed their need for a complete change, those offended by reproof turned away rather than give up self-righteousness and worldly desires and take up self-denial. People whose hearts resist the truth may leave rather than give up their own ideas when those ideas conflict with it.
Living by the Words
John 6 holds lessons that are precious and important yet only faintly understood, setting out the conditions of eternal life and a life that measures with the life of God. The chapter must be read and studied with prayer for understanding, with clearness of understanding asked of God, and its teachings must be brought into practical daily experience. That daily living of the fifth and sixth chapters of John is the mystery of godliness, and the knowledge so gained enables distinguishing the true from the false in days of peril. Spiritually men and women are built up from the food they give the mind, for the Bible contains the bread sent down from heaven that gives spiritual growth, while books and magazines that lead the mind astray hinder growth and are not to be spent time in reading. Those truths rebuke spiritual weakness and show that strength comes from walking in the light given, depending on God and not on human beings, refusing to look to any human for power, experience, strength, guidance, or wisdom and refusing bondage to man, but looking to Jesus as the true Light, following Him to have the light of life, and receiving Him by faith to have sanctification and righteousness and an exceeding great reward.
Feeding upon Christ's words as His very flesh and blood is the important education needed by children and youth and men and women to become workers together with God. That education includes being taught in regard to the law of Jehovah and the penalty of transgression, and understanding that God accepts the ransom made by the Saviour in behalf of each person who is obedient to the law. Eating the Word means taking its truth into the life and practicing it, and truth so received shapes influence and speech. Teachers must therefore know the Word through experience before they can properly teach it to others.
Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God is necessary to comprehend and appreciate the truth as it is in Jesus, meaning continual growth in grace, bringing truth into the daily experience, asking God in prayer for this blessing along with all other blessings, and being taught daily in the school of Christ. It is actual experience, being truly converted and born again and able to see and discern the requirements of the spiritual kingdom, tasting that the Lord is gracious rather than merely naming Christ. Its meaning must be studied and cherished in the heart as truth that works by love and purifies the soul, bringing thorough conversion, new life, and humility instead of self-esteem and boasting of personal capabilities. When the natural man, what hereditary tendencies, nationality, education, and circumstances have made him, is changed by grace, the Word received as spirit and life brings a new heart, new purposes, and new impulses, with fruit in the heart, fruit in the lips, and fruit in the character, some thirty, some sixty, and some one-hundred-fold.
Those who eat and drink open the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it, and receive light and understanding to the simple. They learn as newborn babes to desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby, the frivolous life is changed and forsaken, character is transformed, the feet are placed on Christ as the first round of the ladder heavenward, and step by step heavenward Christ is revealed in spirit, words, and actions. Through abundant grace they are built up as lively stones into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. God sets study of His Word before people as a rich banquet to feast on by partaking of it, and partaking increases spiritual strength and gives growth in grace and in knowledge of the truth, forms and strengthens habits of self-control, removes the infirmities of childhood such as fretfulness, wilfulness, selfishness, hasty words and passionate acts, and develops in their place the graces of Christian manhood and womanhood. Receiving Him and drawing continually from Him as the living bread gives eternal life and a fresh, living experience that gives power and freshness to teaching and witness, for His words are Spirit and life, while those who do not feed on these words are drawn into misleading pursuits that weaken character and mental strength, and receiving and obeying them purifies and strengthens the mind and leads to a life shaped by truth.
Its teachings, together with Christ's prayer, are to cure dissension and lead to unity with one another and with Christ. Living that prayer in practical life brings that unity, expressing God's will for His people.
The same murmuring appears in the last days when truth must be spoken in reproof and warning irrespective of consequences and when truths of momentous importance are presented. Many thought to be disciples become offended at the greatest Teacher, count the way too strait, and walk no more with Him, exposing a shallow foundation not dug deep and not riveted to the Eternal Rock. Those whose hearts are not in harmony with the truth as it is in Jesus, who cherish theories of their own that are not the truth and whose sentiments the truth does not harmonize with, rather than give up their own ideas become offended, make shipwreck of faith, turn from the truth, and leave those who obey it, as heady, highminded, self-sufficient traitors turning away from Christ. Others will receive the truth and take the places made vacant by those who became offended and left, and truth will bear away the victory. When a statement from the Word needed for purification of the soul meets pride, many who received the truth enthusiastically at first abandon Christ as false disciples, yet practical godliness applied strengthens the ranks, and this turning away over purifying truth has always occurred and will continue to the close of earth's history. To the believing soul the truth of God's Word is as eating from the tree of life, but unless men voluntarily appropriate it so that it becomes the very life of the soul, they have no spiritual life.
Mere outward connection with any church will not save, but personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ. The chapter defines the righteousness of Christ that must be accepted, without which a person does not have the wedding garment and is not fit for the marriage feast. It affirms the sufficiency of the Old Testament Scriptures, so that those who believe the Old Testament would also believe the New. Christ is the bread from heaven who satisfies the soul's hunger, yet feeding the mind on worldly entertainment leaves no appetite for this heavenly food or for spiritual instruction, so each person is called to choose whom to serve and to seek life and spiritual strength in Christ. Feeding upon Christ must be with contrition of heart because of sin and only with the leaven of sin put away, as the Passover lamb was eaten with bitter herbs pointing back to the bitterness of bondage and was kept with unleavened bread with no leaven allowed in the houses. To a converted heart God's Word as nourishment for the spiritual mind turns what once seemed barren into fullness of life and beauty.
Many of His disciples heard His teaching that He is the bread of life come down from heaven and that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life, and they murmured at it as a hard saying no one could hear. The eating and drinking is not of literal flesh and blood, for the flesh profits nothing, but to believe in Him as Redeemer, receive Him by faith as a personal Saviour, and enter the living union in which He dwells in them and they in Him. It is to receive His words as spiritual food until they become part of the life, by studying the Scriptures, keeping them before the mind, and obeying His sayings and commandments in sanctified obedience. They stumbled because they lacked spiritual perception and faith, had followed for miracles and hope of an earthly kingdom, and were unwilling to accept the self-denial, cross, and complete change the truth exposed as necessary. His words deliberately tested every soul and revealed character, so that from that time many went back and walked no more with Him while those who recognized His words of eternal life remained, and the same separating work is done whenever purifying truth is presented.
Setting of the Saying
This saying belongs to the explanation of the spiritual meaning of the loaves after the feeding of the multitude, given as the Bread of life teaching, with the walking on the water standing between the miracle and the discourse. That spiritual teaching connected with the miracle was difficult for many disciples to understand and accept, and its further revelation tested those who followed Him. It exposed to a closer test those who were drawn by hopes of worldly benefit and who followed in hope of an earthly kingdom.
The hard saying was that Christ is the bread of life come down from heaven, that His flesh is meat indeed and His blood is drink indeed, and that a person must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life and be raised at the last day. It promised that the one who eats and drinks dwells in Christ and Christ in him, lives by Christ and lives forever by Him. The eating and drinking is receiving Christ's words as spiritual food and drink for the soul, receiving Him as a personal Saviour with true earnest belief, looking constantly to Him, and being united with Him through daily, hourly faith which works by love and purifies the soul. It is receiving the word into the life by carefully studying the Scriptures and carrying the Word into daily obedience to all its precepts, keeping His sayings and His commandments and thereby abiding in His love even as He kept His Father's commandments, by which believers become partakers of the divine nature and one with Christ and are formed into a character like His. Those who so receive draw spiritual vitality from Him as the branch draws nourishment from the vine, never hunger and never thirst for higher or more satisfying food, grow up into the full stature in Christ, receive nourishment sufficient for all needs of the soul, receive forgiveness of sins, and are sanctified unto eternal life, for it is the Spirit that quickens and Christ's words are spirit and life while the flesh by itself profits nothing. Whoever will do God's will shall know whether the doctrine is of God, but the teaching tests every soul, requiring willingness to share His trials, to obey under any temptation, to refuse to yield truth whatever the consequences, and to walk as He walked in order to gain eternal life in the kingdom of God.
Many hearers took the words literally as a command to consume blood, which the ritual law forbade, and treated them as sacrilegious instead of grasping their spiritual meaning. With earthly minds His symbolical words about His person and office were insufferable to them, and they misinterpreted their meaning. Moral darkness kept them from fully comprehending and understanding the lesson at the time. What was not understood then was afterward made plain by subsequent events, and His words became a stay to their hearts when He walked no more with them and sustained them after He was no longer with them.
Jesus knew in Himself that they murmured at this hard saying, asked if this offended them, and pointed them to His coming ascension to where He was before. He thereby challenged how they would respond when they saw the Son of man ascend up where He was before, since they already struggled to believe that He had come down from heaven, reproving them that if they could not receive His coming down they would be less able to receive His ascension. He explained that eternal life comes not from His human flesh itself, for the flesh profits nothing, but through faith in His words and in the saving power and efficacy of the sacrifice He would make for the world, for it is the Spirit that gives life and the words He speaks are spirit and life. His teaching and example, His life and death, are the heavenly food that gives spiritual life, vigor, strength, and everlasting life, as temporal bread gives strength to the body so faith in Christ and obedience to His teachings give spiritual vigor. Their murmuring complaint came from disciples who had never been partakers with Christ, who had listened as many listen to the Word but had not eaten the truth as bread from heaven, revealing an unsanctified heart that has not beheld Christ as the Lamb of God and has not been molded by the Holy Spirit, the same criticism, murmuring and unbelief His servants still meet, leading to going back and walking no more with Him in contrast to those who remain because He has the words of eternal life.
He spoke these words deliberately, knowing that many followers would turn away because of them. He spoke them to test every soul, to bring His hearers to decide for or against Him, to reveal their true feelings and expose character and hidden temptation, showing those not wholly with Him who would oppose Him at His trial. He spoke the truth about His work and about the bread from heaven before leaving them so they could be proved in advance, so that their later apostasy would not surprise or unduly try the faithful disciples and would protect His future work from being turned onto wrong paths. The saying thus sets up the contrast with the twelve, for Peter remained because he recognized that Jesus had the words of eternal life.
Meaning of Eating and Drinking
The eating and drinking is not of literal flesh and blood, for the flesh by itself profits nothing; it is the Spirit that gives life, and Christ's words are spirit and life. The saying was not a command to consume human flesh or blood in a physical sense, but concerns receiving Christ and His life-giving words in faith, with true life coming from receiving Him rather than from a merely physical understanding. Earthly minds misread the symbolic words about His person and office, yet He does not dilute the symbol because it conveys truths about His person and work.
To eat and drink is to believe in Him as Redeemer, to receive Him as a personal Saviour, to look constantly to Him, and to receive Him by faith with true earnest belief. It is the necessary spiritual relationship with Him entered through the daily, hourly exercise of faith which works by love and purifies the soul, and a parable spoken in figure for true, earnest belief. Those who truly receive His word never hunger, and those who believe in Him never thirst for higher or more satisfying food, but draw continually from Him as the living bread and find eternal life and a fresh, living spiritual experience.
It is to receive and assimilate His words as spiritual food and drink until they become part of the life. This is done by keeping God's Word and truth continually before the mind, studying them, taking them in, understanding them, practicing their teachings, and bringing them into daily life. It means living by what God has revealed and keeping its precepts instead of leaving Scripture for human suppositions, for His words are the conditions of salvation and the mysteries of godliness are to be grasped in practical experience. Spiritually men and women are built up from the food given to the mind, the Bible contains the bread sent down from heaven that gives spiritual growth, while books and magazines that lead the mind astray hinder spiritual growth and are not to be spent time in reading.
It is to be doers of the Word by acting the flesh and blood now while it is called today, believing the Word, appropriating it, taking it into practical life, and obeying it. Eating His flesh is keeping His sayings and His commandments and thereby abiding in His love, even as He kept His Father's commandments and abode in His love, living in harmony with the Redeemer through sanctified obedience to all Scripture. The Bible stands as the great educating Book answering what to do to work God's works — first believe on Him whom God sent, next work — and the same lesson is taught under the symbol of the vine and its branches. The teaching addresses the heart and moral nature, takes possession of the will, calls for obedience to Christ, and feeds hungry souls with the word of the infinite God instead of froth and fables or human maxims and customs that blind the eyes.
His teaching, example, life, and death are the heavenly food that gives spiritual life, strength, and vigor through faith in His words and in the saving power and efficacy of the sacrifice He would make for the world. As temporal bread gives strength to the body, so faith in Christ and obedience to His teachings give spiritual vigor and everlasting life. The living oracles are His flesh and blood even before He was crucified, the directions given by Christ as the invisible Leader of Israel in the Old Testament Scriptures are full of marrow and fatness, and His work as the substitute for all sin was the only hope of ancient Israel. After God's plan was fulfilled in Christ's death the New Testament was written to reflect its light back upon past ages, giving significance to the whole Jewish economy and making its plain directions for practical holiness and obedience binding in the life of everyone who claims to be a Christian.
Those who so receive Him are made one with Christ in this life and remain one for eternity, dwelling in Him and He in them. They become partakers of the divine nature, formed into a character like His, escaping the world's corruption, and sharing in a transformed experience through which the Word enters the life. They grow up into the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, receive nourishment sufficient for all the needs of the soul, receive forgiveness of sins, and are sanctified unto eternal life, so that though they may die His life is in them and He will raise them at the last day. Whoever will do God's will shall know whether the doctrine is of God, and receiving His words in this way brings life as a privilege with practical, lasting value.
Why Disciples Stumbled
Their limited comprehension could not discern the spiritual meaning of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, because they lacked depth of faith and spiritual perception to understand that feeding on the divine Word gives spiritual life and growth. The difficulty came from unbelieving and selfish minds that could not grasp the figure for receiving His life and character, and the natural heart cannot comprehend plain truth about the bread from heaven and eternal life. Many today have no greater depth of faith and spiritual perception and turn away for the same reason when human ideas and maxims are held above the Word that gives strength, wisdom, integrity, and moral power.
With earthly minds they misread His symbolic words about His person and office, made them insufferable to themselves, misconstrued them, and misinterpreted messages sent by God. Pure truth was strange to senses corrupted by worldly ideas and maxims, so superficial understanding could not comprehend truth that is deep, pure and unadulterated, and only those who serve Him from pure, loving hearts can receive His Word. The saying concerns receiving Christ and His life-giving words in faith, not literal eating, and He did not soften or dilute the symbol to remove the offense but left the truth so all who desired could trace it out, explaining that the Spirit gives life, the flesh profits nothing, and His words are spirit and life to be each received for himself by faith and obedience unto partaking of the divine nature and oneness in spiritual life with Christ.
Many had followed for miracles and hopes of worldly benefit and an earthly kingdom, including freedom from Rome, and the further revelation tested those so drawn. When He presented Himself as the bread of life and made clear His kingdom was spiritual and rejected earthly rule, the teaching became difficult and mysterious to minds fixed on hope that He would be received as a national Messiah and establish a temporal reign. Receiving Him meant accepting His character and teaching, surrendering cherished ambitions, and living self-sacrificially, meekly, and humbly, but worldly-minded people, including some professing to be His disciples, had no desire for His spiritual kingdom or His self-sacrificing way and turned away.
The truth exposed their sins and showed their need for a complete change, unreserved consecration, self-denial, and the cross. They were unwilling to give up self-righteousness, worldly desires, cherished sin, and self, to share His trials, obey under temptation, and walk as He walked, so people who welcome truth at first are offended when it calls for self-denial and a changed life. They welcome praise but turn from truth when it calls them to repentance and obedience, and those who receive the truth gladly may later take offense at correction and refuse the effort and self-denial required to change their lives, though a clean heart and pure life with repentance shown in conduct are necessary and outward profession and religious forms cannot take their place. Offended by reproof they turned away, illustrating how truth separates those willing to receive it from those who reject it, how people who welcome the gospel while life is easy may be offended when God's word confronts cherished sin or brings reproach and trial, and how stony-ground hearers faint when tribulation, persecution, reproach, or the pointing out of cherished sin comes.
They would not accept truth that rebuked them or exposed their lives as out of accord with righteousness, but welcomed praise and preferred human praise and flattery to God's admonition. Rather than undertake self-denial and reform they were displeased, counted the way too strait, and thought the call to return and the responsibility to work with Christ too hard, whether that call is to return to God, to live apart from the world, to accept self-denial and sacrifice instead of only hearing of reward, or for Christians in business to work with Christ according to entrusted gifts. There is no harmony between the children of light and the children of darkness, so the call to live apart from the world feels like a hard saying that worldly-minded people cannot accept or understand, yet the call must be heeded, the Spirit's work revealing that a person is helpless to save himself, and those who share His sufferings will share His glory.
They had listened but had never been partakers with Christ nor eaten the truth as bread from heaven, so the demand to eat His flesh and drink His blood offended them. That offense reveals an unsanctified heart that has not beheld Him as the Lamb of God and has not been molded by the Holy Spirit, and hearing and recognizing truth as correct is not enough unless the heart also accepts and lives it and keeps pace despite further trials. Those who remain satisfied with a low Christian life, trust in their own activity, planning, study and teaching, and fail to see that without Him they can do nothing, will at last reject as too hard the requirement to receive His transforming grace in the heart, have thoughts and imagination purified and brought into captivity to His will, become one with Him instead of mingling the sacred with the common and carnal and nurturing self. Teachers among them had theories but no abiding, living experience and were spiritually starved because they do not receive Him as the source of life, for the teaching calls for actual spiritual experience, genuine conversion and new birth, and tasting that the Lord is gracious, not merely naming Him.
Their reaction exposed unbelief allowed to grow into habit, showing faith not genuine and position weak. The hard saying tested whether they would receive His words or cling to human ideas and reject the blessing He offered, and their departure was the result of unbelief. Their hearing was superficial with a shallow foundation not dug deep and riveted to the Eternal Rock and without a sure foundation in God's word, like stony-ground hearers who receive the word at once with joy but have no root, do not count the cost or bring the word face to face with habits of life. When test and trial comes to every soul, those not firmly grounded murmur when the Lord's words seem too demanding and abandon Him when tested, becoming heady, highminded, self-sufficient traitors who make shipwreck of faith and walk no more with Him.
Testing and Turning Away
On hearing the teaching many of His disciples murmured at it and were offended by it, calling it a hard saying that no one could hear, and from that time many went back and walked no more with Him. They stumbled because they found the word about eating His flesh and drinking His blood difficult to accept, lacking the spiritual perception to grasp that His words are spirit and life and that true life comes by receiving Him rather than by a merely physical understanding. Some heard and yet turned away, though His words give life and all who believe in Him receive everlasting life, never hungering and never thirsting for higher or more satisfying food.
His words tested every soul, exposing character, vital relation to Christ, and hidden temptation at work. The test revealed unbelief allowed to grow into habit, faith not genuine and position weak, as men were brought to decide for or against Him and to reveal their true feelings whether they would receive His words or cling to human ideas and reject the blessing offered. Those not wholly with Him were thus shown to be those who would oppose Him at His trial, and some who did not believe, were offended by His sayings, and left Him became His bitterest persecutors, in contrast to true disciples who practiced His teachings and taught others to do the same.
The turning away sets up the contrast with the Twelve, for when asked if they also would go away Peter remained because he recognized that Jesus had the words of eternal life. Jesus had spoken those words to test them, and while many turned back and stopped following Him, Peter stayed with Him on that ground.
What was plain to believers became a stumbling block to them, for the natural heart could not comprehend it and moral darkness kept them from fully comprehending His lessons at the time. The lessons were intended to expose self, and what they murmured at then was afterward made plain by subsequent events and by the resurrection. After His resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the Spirit joined divine truth to their minds and gave saving understanding of His teaching as spirit and life, and His words became a stay to their hearts when He walked no more with them.
In this the verse shows how truth separates those willing to receive it from those who reject it. Because the truth exposed their sins and showed their need for a complete change, those offended by reproof turned away rather than give up self-righteousness and worldly desires and take up self-denial. People whose hearts resist the truth may leave rather than give up their own ideas when those ideas conflict with it.
Living by the Words
John 6 holds lessons that are precious and important yet only faintly understood, setting out the conditions of eternal life and a life that measures with the life of God. The chapter must be read and studied with prayer for understanding, with clearness of understanding asked of God, and its teachings must be brought into practical daily experience. That daily living of the fifth and sixth chapters of John is the mystery of godliness, and the knowledge so gained enables distinguishing the true from the false in days of peril. Spiritually men and women are built up from the food they give the mind, for the Bible contains the bread sent down from heaven that gives spiritual growth, while books and magazines that lead the mind astray hinder growth and are not to be spent time in reading. Those truths rebuke spiritual weakness and show that strength comes from walking in the light given, depending on God and not on human beings, refusing to look to any human for power, experience, strength, guidance, or wisdom and refusing bondage to man, but looking to Jesus as the true Light, following Him to have the light of life, and receiving Him by faith to have sanctification and righteousness and an exceeding great reward.
Feeding upon Christ's words as His very flesh and blood is the important education needed by children and youth and men and women to become workers together with God. That education includes being taught in regard to the law of Jehovah and the penalty of transgression, and understanding that God accepts the ransom made by the Saviour in behalf of each person who is obedient to the law. Eating the Word means taking its truth into the life and practicing it, and truth so received shapes influence and speech. Teachers must therefore know the Word through experience before they can properly teach it to others.
Eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God is necessary to comprehend and appreciate the truth as it is in Jesus, meaning continual growth in grace, bringing truth into the daily experience, asking God in prayer for this blessing along with all other blessings, and being taught daily in the school of Christ. It is actual experience, being truly converted and born again and able to see and discern the requirements of the spiritual kingdom, tasting that the Lord is gracious rather than merely naming Christ. Its meaning must be studied and cherished in the heart as truth that works by love and purifies the soul, bringing thorough conversion, new life, and humility instead of self-esteem and boasting of personal capabilities. When the natural man, what hereditary tendencies, nationality, education, and circumstances have made him, is changed by grace, the Word received as spirit and life brings a new heart, new purposes, and new impulses, with fruit in the heart, fruit in the lips, and fruit in the character, some thirty, some sixty, and some one-hundred-fold.
Those who eat and drink open the mind to the entrance of God's word with determination to practice it, and receive light and understanding to the simple. They learn as newborn babes to desire the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby, the frivolous life is changed and forsaken, character is transformed, the feet are placed on Christ as the first round of the ladder heavenward, and step by step heavenward Christ is revealed in spirit, words, and actions. Through abundant grace they are built up as lively stones into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. God sets study of His Word before people as a rich banquet to feast on by partaking of it, and partaking increases spiritual strength and gives growth in grace and in knowledge of the truth, forms and strengthens habits of self-control, removes the infirmities of childhood such as fretfulness, wilfulness, selfishness, hasty words and passionate acts, and develops in their place the graces of Christian manhood and womanhood. Receiving Him and drawing continually from Him as the living bread gives eternal life and a fresh, living experience that gives power and freshness to teaching and witness, for His words are Spirit and life, while those who do not feed on these words are drawn into misleading pursuits that weaken character and mental strength, and receiving and obeying them purifies and strengthens the mind and leads to a life shaped by truth.
Its teachings, together with Christ's prayer, are to cure dissension and lead to unity with one another and with Christ. Living that prayer in practical life brings that unity, expressing God's will for His people.
The same murmuring appears in the last days when truth must be spoken in reproof and warning irrespective of consequences and when truths of momentous importance are presented. Many thought to be disciples become offended at the greatest Teacher, count the way too strait, and walk no more with Him, exposing a shallow foundation not dug deep and not riveted to the Eternal Rock. Those whose hearts are not in harmony with the truth as it is in Jesus, who cherish theories of their own that are not the truth and whose sentiments the truth does not harmonize with, rather than give up their own ideas become offended, make shipwreck of faith, turn from the truth, and leave those who obey it, as heady, highminded, self-sufficient traitors turning away from Christ. Others will receive the truth and take the places made vacant by those who became offended and left, and truth will bear away the victory. When a statement from the Word needed for purification of the soul meets pride, many who received the truth enthusiastically at first abandon Christ as false disciples, yet practical godliness applied strengthens the ranks, and this turning away over purifying truth has always occurred and will continue to the close of earth's history. To the believing soul the truth of God's Word is as eating from the tree of life, but unless men voluntarily appropriate it so that it becomes the very life of the soul, they have no spiritual life.
Mere outward connection with any church will not save, but personal faith in a personal Saviour brings the soul into spiritual union with Christ. The chapter defines the righteousness of Christ that must be accepted, without which a person does not have the wedding garment and is not fit for the marriage feast. It affirms the sufficiency of the Old Testament Scriptures, so that those who believe the Old Testament would also believe the New. Christ is the bread from heaven who satisfies the soul's hunger, yet feeding the mind on worldly entertainment leaves no appetite for this heavenly food or for spiritual instruction, so each person is called to choose whom to serve and to seek life and spiritual strength in Christ. Feeding upon Christ must be with contrition of heart because of sin and only with the leaven of sin put away, as the Passover lamb was eaten with bitter herbs pointing back to the bitterness of bondage and was kept with unleavened bread with no leaven allowed in the houses. To a converted heart God's Word as nourishment for the spiritual mind turns what once seemed barren into fullness of life and beauty.