Question 1

What does Jesus mean when He says, "Labour not for the meat which perisheth"?

Accepted Answer

When Jesus says not to work for food that spoils, He is not telling people to quit their daily jobs or ignore real needs. He is correcting their main focus. The crowd came to Him mostly because He had filled their stomachs the day before. Jesus uses this to show there is something far more important than bread and fish. The food of this life is temporary and soon gone. He urges them to seek the “meat” that leads to everlasting life, which He alone gives. In other words, make your first effort to know and trust Him.

Question 2

What is "the work of God" that Jesus talks about in this passage?

Accepted Answer

When the crowd asks what they must do to work the works of God, they expect a list of tasks or religious duties. Jesus gives a very different answer. He says, “This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent.” The main thing God wants from them is not piles of good deeds done to earn favor, but faith in the One He has sent. Believing in Jesus includes trusting who He is, relying on His words, and resting in Him for eternal life. Other works flow out of this faith, but they cannot replace it.

Question 3

Why does Jesus call Himself the "bread of life" and the "living bread"?

Accepted Answer

Jesus calls Himself the bread of life to show that He is to the soul what bread is to the body. Bread was everyday food that kept people alive. He explains that the manna in the wilderness fed people for a time, but they still died. In contrast, He is the true bread that came down from heaven. Whoever comes to Him and believes in Him will never hunger or thirst in the deepest sense and will have everlasting life. Calling Himself the living bread shows that He gives a life that does not fade and that this life is found only in close connection with Him.

Question 4

What does it mean that the Father has "sealed" the Son of man?

Accepted Answer

When Jesus says the Son of man is sealed by the Father, He is talking about the Father’s mark of approval and the authority given to Him. Like a king’s seal on a document, God has set His seal on Jesus by sending Him, empowering Him, and publicly confirming Him. This shows that Jesus is the One appointed to give the food that endures to eternal life. He is not just another teacher. The Father has set Him apart from all others to reveal God, to bring people to faith, and to secure eternal life for those who come to Him.

Question 5

What does this passage teach about people coming to Jesus and the Father drawing them?

Accepted Answer

Jesus says that all whom the Father gives Him will come to Him, and that no one can come unless the Father draws them. This shows that faith is not something we work up by ourselves. God has to work first in the heart. He teaches, draws, and changes people so they are willing to come. At the same time, Jesus promises that anyone who does come to Him will never be cast out. The drawing of the Father and the welcoming of the Son fit together. Those who hear and learn from the Father come to Jesus, and He will lose none of them but will raise them up at the last day.

Question 6

Why were the Jews offended when Jesus said to eat His flesh and drink His blood?

Accepted Answer

The Jews were disturbed because they took Jesus’ words in a very literal way. When He spoke of giving His flesh to eat, they argued, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Eating human flesh and drinking blood sounded shocking and wrong to them. They could not see that He was using strong picture language to speak about deep faith and sharing in His sacrifice. To “eat” His flesh and “drink” His blood means to take Him in by faith, to depend on His death for the life of the world, and to live in close union with Him. Without this, He says, they have no real life in them.

Question 7

How is Jesus different from the manna that Israel ate in the wilderness?

Accepted Answer

Jesus points out that the fathers ate manna in the wilderness and still died. Manna was a gift from God, but it only sustained physical life for a time. He contrasts this with Himself as the true bread from heaven. Whoever eats this bread, meaning whoever truly shares in Him by faith, will not die in the eternal sense but will live forever. So the manna was a sign and a shadow, while Jesus is the reality. The old bread filled the stomach; the new bread gives eternal life. By coming to Him, a person receives a life that death cannot end.

Question 8

Why does Jesus say that whoever comes to Him He "will in no wise cast out"?

Accepted Answer

Jesus says this to comfort those who might fear being rejected. After speaking about the Father giving people to Him, He adds that anyone who comes to Him will never be thrown away. This shows His kindness and reliability. No true seeker is turned aside. The same God who draws people also promises they will be kept. Jesus came not to do His own will but the will of the Father, and that will is that He should lose none of those given to Him, but raise them up at the last day. So a person who truly comes to Christ can rest in His promise of welcome and keeping.

Question 9

How can believers today "eat" Jesus’ flesh and "drink" His blood in a spiritual sense?

Accepted Answer

To eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood is to take Him into the center of your life by faith. It means trusting that His body given and His blood poured out on the cross are for your sins and your life. Just as food must be taken in, chewed, and swallowed to help the body, so Christ’s words and saving work must be received, believed, and relied on. This is not about biting with the teeth but about a deep, ongoing dependence on Him. As you keep turning to Him, listening to His teaching, and resting in His death and life, you “feed” on Him and find your strength in Him.

Question 10

What does this passage show about eternal life and the last day?

Accepted Answer

Again and again in this passage Jesus ties believing in Him to eternal life and to being raised up at the last day. He says that whoever believes in Him has everlasting life already, and He also promises a future resurrection. So eternal life is both a present gift and a coming fullness. This life comes from being joined to Him, the living bread from heaven. Death ended life for those who only ate manna, but for those who feed on Christ by faith, death is not the end. He will raise them up, body and soul, when the last day comes, just as the Father has willed.

John 6:22

The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone;

Jesus the Bread of Life

metadata.crossReferences

John 6:22

The day following, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone;

share.title

share.allVerses

share.verseWithContext

share.currentVerse

Jesus the Bread of Life

metadata.crossReferences