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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

John 6:22

NIVUK

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realised that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone.

Jesus the Bread of Life

22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realised that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone.

Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

Once the crowd realised that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, ‘Rabbi, when did you get here?’

Words to the People

Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’

Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’

Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’

So they asked him, ‘What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”’

Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’

‘Sir,’ they said, ‘always give us this bread.’

Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.

All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.

For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.’

Words to the Jews

At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’

They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I came down from heaven”?’

‘Stop grumbling among yourselves,’ Jesus answered.

‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.

It is written in the Prophets: “They will all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.

No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.

Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life.

Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.

But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live for ever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.’

Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’

Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.

For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live for ever.’

Cross References

No cross references available for this verse.