John 6: 26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” 28 Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”30 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?
(Observation) The passage follows Jesus’ feeding 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. When Jesus left by boat, the crowd followed him Capernaum where He tells them to work not for “food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life.” Ready to do the “works of God” they ask what it is. Jesus answers that it is to believe in Him. They respond by asking for a sign.
(Interpretation) I suggest to you that the reasoning of the crowd following Jesus for food is little different from the reasoning of those who have not yet believed in Jesus today. They accept the idea of attaining to “eternal life” by working for it, but when Jesus says that they only have to believe in Him, they ask (as if feeding 5000 wasn’t enough) for proof. So, then as now, the world wants salvation by works and faith by seeing, but the Bible tells us that salvation is by faith and that “good works” come as a result of faith. In other words the world says I will believe when I see and the Bible says believe and you will see.
(Cross-reference) 1 John 3: 23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. 24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Ephesians 2: 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
(Application) A man cannot avoid eternity in hell by works alone. Only by faith is a man saved from hell. So, believe and you will see eternity in heaven and the “good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them,” you will do while still living in this world.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Are there areas of your life that resemble the crowd’s pursuit of “the food which perishes?” If so, what would you change first?
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