John 6:27

John 6:27. Work not for the eating which perisheth. The rendering ‘work' is required to bring out the connection with the following verse, in which the same word is used. The language of the original is very expressive: ‘ Work,' use all the energies of your nature, not unto partaking of perishable but of imperishable food. It is not an act of life but the active life itself that is referred to, and the object of this whole life. When we bring together this verse and that which precedes, we cannot doubt that our Lord, in speaking of working for perishable food, alludes to the labour which the multitude had undergone in their persistent search for Him. As their object in thus seeking Him had been carnal, not spiritual, this act of theirs (good and wise in itself, most blessed, had the aim been higher and more true) was a fitting type of their life, a life occupied with the search after material good and the satisfaction of lower wants and desires.

But for the eating which abideth, unto eternal life which the son of man shall give unto you. In contrast with what they had sought in thus toiling to discover Him, Jesus sets the feast which it is His glory to offer and of which they should be eager to partake. As in John 4:14 He had spoken of the gift of water which had power to quench for ever the recipient's thirst, so here He speaks of an eating that abides and never perishes. That verse and this are closely parallel, and each helps to explain the other. In the one Jesus says what the water that He giveth shall become in him that receiveth it: here in like manner it is not of meat that He speaks, but of ‘eating,' not of food itself, but of food appropriated. In both passages the words ‘unto eternal life' occur; and in each case there is some difficulty in determining whether the phrase belongs to the word preceding or to the whole thought of the clause. Yet, as in the first it is probable that ‘life eternal' is the end attained when the fountain is opened in the soul, so in this verse ‘unto' does not seem to belong to ‘abideth,' but to express the object of that ‘eating' for which they may and ought to work. Not the eating that perisheth, but the eating that abideth, must absorb their labour, that they may thus win eternal life. If this is the connection intended by John, we must certainly join the second relative ‘which' (not with ‘eating,' but) with the words that immediately precede, viz. ‘eternal life.' There is nothing difficult in such a connection of the words: on the contrary, it is easier than any other, and best agrees with the following verses and with other passages in the Gospel. Almost uniformly in this chapter Jesus speaks of Himself as the bread of life, and of the Father as the Giver of the bread, while ‘eternal life' is the result of receiving Him as the living bread (John 6:33; John 6:51; John 6:54). A close parallel is found in chap. John 10:28, ‘I give unto them eternal life,' as also in chap. John 17:2; and the connection of the ‘Son of man' with this gift reminds us at once of chap. John 3:14. How this gift will become theirs the later verses explain: the two points here are that this life is obtained from the Son of man from the God-man alone, and that it is a free gift from Him. This is not inconsistent with the ‘working' of which Jesus has spoken. The multitudes had toiled, in that they had put aside all obstacles to come to Him: having come to Him they may receive His free gift. The reception of the gift is opposed to labouring for wages or for merit, but not to earnest effort. The gift can be bestowed in its fulness on those only whose one thought and one effort are bent on receiving it: were there no such activity on our part, we could not be in a position to receive the gift without destroying the nature we possess.

For him the Father, God, did seal . For this very purpose that He might be the Giver of eternal life, was He made the Son of man, was He sent by the Father into the world. (Compare chap. John 10:36; John 17:2.) He came commissioned by the Father: on Him the Father's seal was set. The reference is not to the miracle just related, as if Jesus would say that what they had themselves seen was the Father's attestation of Him, the evidence which should have led them to believe in Him. This is but a small part of the truth, as what is said in chap. 5 on the witness of the Father very plainly shows. There, however, the thought is made to rest on the continued and abiding testimony of the Father: here the whole attestation is looked upon as concentrated in one past act of the Father, as included and implied in the act of ‘sending' the Son: and this Father is ‘God,' that God whom they themselves allowed to be the supreme source and end of all things. The special reference to the Father in this verse, where Jesus speaks of the gift of eternal life, receives its explanation from John 6:57 (which see).