I pray God touches these words and blesses these times we sit and feast on His gifts. I pray also He stirs us to labour for His food and reject what we have prepared.
Jhn 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
Jhn 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jhn 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
- How does the first half of verse 27 compare to Eph 2:8-9?
- What is meant by "sealed"?
To labor means a lot more in the Greek than to just work. It signifies and carries the meaning of being deadly earnest in your efforts. Oh that we would only make salvation the object of our intense desire and labor. I pray that man would give the same diligence to understanding the imperatives as they place on the minutia and temporal things. Now by know means do I wish to imply redemption is by any contribution of man. This is even clear here with the last half of verse 27 "which the Son of man shall give unto you". But I also by know means infer an excuse, but rather in the Word of God, an invitation and opportunity. Although difficult, we must strive to preserve, by the grace of God, the balance of truth. One must insist that redemption is by grace alone. That God choose His people before the foundation of time, died for them alone, and will in His time call His elect unto eternal salvation and security (John 6:39; 10:28-29; 17:9-10; Rom 9:11; Eph 1:4-11). But also allow us not to fail to uphold the sinner’s responsibility to seek the Lord with all our heart (Luke 13:24; Acts 15:17). Again we know and believe the total depravity of the natural man. His being dead in sins and inability to see or hear (John 6:44; Rom 1:30; Eph 4:18). But let us not neglect our duty of calling on others to repent and believe the Gospel (Mat 6:12). I pray that we may be deadly earnest in our efforts towards obtaining that meat which endureth forever while resting in the knowledge that God the Father has sealed it to us. This is the will of God that you believe on Him. Redemption is given to you through the Son alone, salvation is the faith and the knowledge of that unmerited gift from a sovereign God. Hunger not for what we do but feast and feed others on what He has done.
