Key verses (31-35)
John 6:22-40 portrays the underlying outcome of Jesus’ feeding of the thousands the day previous. The people’s real longing is for another extraordinary and supernatural scene and all the free food. In this entry, Christ starts to clarify the genuine significance behind His wonder and His service. This incorporates the first of seven “'I AM” explanations in the Gospel of John, where Jesus proclaims His divinity. Jesus explains that actual physical things, for example, bread are intended to be images of a spiritual truth. In the accompanying portion, the group will quit looking and seeking and then begin their whining and complaining.
Jesus condemned the individuals who followed Him just for the physical and worldly advantages, not on the grounds that they were hungry for spiritual things. Numerous individuals use religion to acquire notoriety or solace. Nevertheless, those are egotistical thought processes. Genuine believers follow Jesus basically in light of the fact that they realize His direction is the correct way to live.
Numerous true searchers of God are confounded about what He wants them to do. The religions of the world are humankind’s endeavor to respond to this inquiry. Regardless, Jesus’ answer is brief and straightforward: we should have faith in Him whom God has sent. Fulfilling God does not come from the work we do, yet from whom we accept. The initial step is accepting that Jesus is who He professes to be. All spiritual growth is based on this confirmation. We are to announce in supplication to Jesus that “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and begin on an existence of conviction that is fulfilling to our Creator.
We eat bread to fulfill actual physical hunger and to support real life. We can fulfill spiritual hunger and support spiritual life simply by a right connection with Jesus Christ. It is no shocking surprise that He called Himself the Bread of Life. In any case, bread should be eaten to give life, and Christ should be welcomed into our day-by-day walk to give spiritual life.
Jesus did not work autonomously of God the Father, yet in association with Him. This gives us considerably more affirmation of being invited into His presence and being secured by Him. Jesus' motivation was to do the desire of the Father. We ought to have that equivalent reason.
It seems that at sometimes in our lives, we become so dependent on the pastor or a preacher to feed us that we have forgotten how to feed ourselves. Why is that, especially for the mature Christians? And I am not talking about those of physical age, yet to those of spiritual age. New Christians, or new converts, are “Babes in Christ,” and they do not fully understand and know the Word of God. They are fed the milk of the Word, that which is easy to digest and to understand.
The older Christians, or I should say the mature Christians, they should be obtaining their spiritual nourishment from the meat of the Word of God. That is the portions that are more in depth which takes deeper study and understanding of the Word of God.
The older believers should be helping to nurture the new converts, as well as to each other. And, as the new converts begin to grow in spiritual maturity, they should learn to feed on the meat of the Word. This means getting into a more in-depth study of God’s Word. Granted, we all need something to help wash down what we are feeding on, so we should on occasion, take in a little of the milk of God’s Word.
Sometimes new converts are left to learn on their own. They may not know how to apply that learned knowledge from a Bible study or from Sunday school. They have not truly learned to obtain the Word on their own, or maybe it is that they only get the Word on Sunday. Lord forgive us! Older Christians should be ashamed and embarrassed about this.
As babies, parents must feed their young children until the children learn to feed themselves. In doing so, the children learn what is good for them. When the children (new converts) are ready for school, they do not go through school without doing some type of homework. That same concept applies to their spiritual growth. New converts need to learn to take responsibility to study the Word, and to do so mature Christians need to guide them.
If the only spiritual food is taken in on the Sunday morning service, by the next week that person is starving spiritually. Some may not be physically able to attend multiple services during the week, which should not prevent people from reading the Word and from studying the Word. Turn off the distractions. It may be a promising idea to take the Word to those that are shut ins.
Mature Christians need to learn that there is more to do than just “winning souls.” Do not think that just because we led someone to Christ that the job is done, especially if that new convert stays within our local church body. And for those new converts that may not be in our local church body, we need to point them in the right direction.
• John 6:48, I am that bread of life.
• John 6:51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
• John 6:58, This is the bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
• 2 Timothy 2:15, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Jesus is speaking on the subject that He is what we need to sustain our spiritual growth. But how could Jesus give us His body as bread to eat? To eat living bread intends to join ourselves to Christ. We are joined with Christ in two ways: (1) by having faith in His death and resurrection and (2) by dedicating ourselves to living as He requires, relying upon His teachings for direction, and confiding in the Holy Spirit for power.
We must take heed to what the preacher is giving us (spoon fed) from God, but do not try to live our lives solely on that. We need to learn to feed ourselves in between the “mealtimes” (worship services).
We eat breakfast, but before lunchtime we may get hungry again. Do we just wait, or do we get ourselves a snack? If the only spiritual meals that we take in are at Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, and possibly a Wednesday evening service, the rest of the week we are doing without spiritual food unless we have learned how to feed ourselves. Fasting from spiritual food is not the same as fasting from physical food. Doing without spiritual food makes one weak.
We need to learn to belly up to the spiritual table when the spiritual meal is prepared for us, but also, we need to learn to snack on the spiritual goodies until it is time for that next full spiritual meal.
