What kind of meat are you working for? The multitude followed Jesus across the Sea of Galilee when they saw that He could feed them. They wanted to know what they needed to do in order to keep getting bread (v.28). They were even willing to make Jesus their king in order to get it (v.15). They reminded Christ that Moses had fed their fathers manna in the wilderness (v.31).
Yet Christ reprimanded them for their evil desires and introduced them to the true bread of life. “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life” (v.27). “For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world” (v.33). When they still did not get it, Christ plainly told them, “I am the bread of life” (v.35). Jesus is the only path to eternal life. He came that “every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life” (v.40).
So, Christ is the bread that gives eternal life to whose who believe. But what about after receiving Him? For what meat do we labor? We should not spend all our efforts on the meat which perishes (v.27). Here again, Christ provides our example. “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34). The testimony of Jesus: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (v.38). Again, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30).
What is your bread? Or meat? Is it to know God and to do His will? Is Christ your bread of life? Are you laboring for the meat that will never perish? May we all search our hearts in this matter.
