John 6:27

ἐργάζεσθε. Work, not ‘labour,’ to keep up the connexion with John 6:28-30. They keep harping on the word ‘work.’ The meaning ‘work for’ is rare: ἐργ. χρήματα, Herod. I. 24. Comp. ‘Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again’ (John 4:13). The discourse with the woman should be compared throughout: ‘the food which abideth’ (see on John 1:33) corresponds with ‘the living water’ (see on John 4:14); ‘the food that perisheth’ with the water of the well. ‘Perisheth’ not only in its sustaining power but in itself; it is digested and dispersed (Matthew 15:17; 1 Corinthians 6:13). Comp. ‘Take no thought what ye shall eat’ (Matthew 6:25). Work, however, is needed to win the food that abides. Comp. the lines of Joan. Audenus;

Mandere qui panem jubet in sudore diurnum

Non dabit aeternas absque labore dapes.

ὁ υἱὸς τ. ἀνθρ. see on John 1:51. It is as the perfect Man that Christ in His communion with men sustains the life which He has bestowed (John 5:25). Hence He says, ‘the Father’ (of men as well as of Himself, John 20:17), not ‘My Father.’

τοῦτον γάρ. Keep the emphatic order; for Him the Father sealed, even God. To God belongs the authority to seal: He sealed, i.e. authenticated (John 3:33) Christ as the true giver of the food that abideth (1) by direct testimony in the Scriptures, (2) by the same in the voice from Heaven at His Baptism, (3) by indirect testimony in His miracles and Messianic work.