Labour Not…

John 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. KJV

In the Family…

For Family members, John 6:27 is usually seen as strong encouragement to ‘work for the Lord’ as opposed to working in a ‘regular’ job. The teaching is that Jesus wants his followers to ‘forsake all’ (Luke 14:33), and not only abandon selfish pursuit of wealth but also refrain from working in any secular employment, which would then enable them to devote themselves entirely to His service. Naturally, as the teaching goes, the best place to serve Him is in the Family.

It is the first half of the verse on which the Family interpretation focuses, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,” which is taken to mean ‘Do not work for material possessions; do not even work for the essential physical needs for God can give them to you. Work instead for Jesus, serve Him full-time (in the Family of course) for in so doing you are working for eternity.’ The verse is said to apply primarily to what Christians spend most of their time doing in their professional lives as their career or simply what they do with their lives. Naturally, all Family members are seen to be ‘working for the meat which endures to everlasting life.’

John 6:27 is seen as complementing Matt 6.24:

Matt 6:24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. NKJV

Thus, ‘labouring for the meat that perishes’ is seen to be analogous to ‘serving mammon,’ and ‘labouring for the meat that endures to eternal life’ is seen to be analogous to ‘serving God.’ John 6:27 is listed in the Word Basics under ‘Discipleship, dedicating oneself totally to the Lord, Forsaking worldly and materialistic ambitions,’ thus implying that the ‘meat which perishes’ means ‘worldly and materialistic ambitions.’

This study does not address the issue of secular employment. Rather, it examines the meaning of John 6:27 in the context of the sixth chapter of John to determine what it was that Jesus was talking about. Was He really condemning secular employment? In this verse, was He advocating full-time service to God?

The book of John

The book of John is one of the few books of the Bible in which the human author recorded plainly his intentions for putting pen to paper. In most other books the purpose is discernible from the content, but in his Gospel, John actually explains why he wrote it:

John 20:31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. NKJV

John gives two reasons: first, that his readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and second, that through this belief they may obtain eternal life. The other three Gospels take a more narrative approach, although each with its particular purpose and intended audience. John chooses to omit many of the incidents recorded in Matthew, Mark and Luke, carefully selecting the events and sermons that illustrate his purpose. And indeed, John’s two purposes come out clearly throughout the entire book: from the first verse, “In the beginning was the word,” in Jesus’ message to Nicodemus, “you must be born again,” in the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and in the Last Supper discourse. All are written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that we may thus obtain eternal life.

Written to the same readership as the epistles of John, the Gospel addresses similar issues. Apparently various Gnostic teachings were circulating, saying that Jesus could not have been both man and God. This explains the emphasis John puts on proving exactly that point, that Jesus of Nazareth the man was also the Christ, the Son of God. It is a theme that permeates the Gospel and his epistles. John does not miss an opportunity to bring out this point: Jesus was a man, but He was also the Christ, the Son of God: He was God in human flesh. His second purpose is that faith in Jesus’ deity as the Christ brings eternal life, and this is also expressed from the first chapter to the last. John is completely focussed on these two points. This is not to say that he doesn’t mention other issues, he does, but he never loses sight of his goal.

This is the general context of the book of John, into which the sixth chapter fits perfectly.

John chapter six

The chapter opens with the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 (verses 1-13). After the food scraps were collected and the magnitude of the miracle became obvious, the crowd of people realised that such a useful miracle-worker should be kept with them. So, they decided to force Jesus to be king (vs.15). Seeing this, Jesus left so quickly He did not even have time to preach a sermon. In fact, it almost seems like the miracle had been wasted, apart from the fact that a crowd of people received a free lunch. Jesus had no opportunity to preach, nobody repented, and the people came to the wrong conclusion.

Nobody knew where Jesus had gone, not least the disciples, who eventually gave up waiting and decided to return to Capernaum (vs.16-17). Apparently the crowd of people were watching closely, for they knew that Jesus did not get into any of the boats. During the voyage across the lake, a storm blew up and Jesus walked across the water to get into the disciples’ boat, which then “immediately reached the shore where they were heading” (vs.18-21).

By the next day, most of the crowd had arrived in Capernaum, and they were quite puzzled by how Jesus had got there (vs.22-25). Some of the fervour to crown Jesus king had died down, but they were still interested in seeing what they could get out of the situation. A source of free food would be very useful! Jesus rather bluntly points this out to them (vs.26).

Jesus’ next words are recorded in John 6:27, which sets the theme for an extended sermon, which continues to the end of the chapter. This sermon marks a turning point in Jesus’ popularity, for upon hearing that they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood (vs.53), “many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (vs.66). Some people even wanted to kill Him (Jn 7:1).

The sermon

The bulk of the sermon is in verses 27 to 58. It is not a sermon in the sense that Jesus was preaching in a synagogue, but is more of a dialogue between Jesus and His audience, most of whom were having a very difficult time with what He was saying.

John 6:27 begins the message.

John 6:27 “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.” NASU

John 6:27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” NIV

John 6:27 Do not work for the food that disappears, but for the food that remains to eternal life – the food which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has put his seal of approval on him.”

This verse touches on several topics:

(i) work

(ii) the food which perishes

(iii) the food which endures to eternal life

(iv) this food is given by the Son of Man

(v) God the Father set His seal on Him

Interestingly, all five of these points are covered in the chapter. The ‘food that perishes’ obviously refers back to the miracle Jesus had done the day before, and to the temporary nature of such food.

His audience’s first question was as to what kind of ‘work’ Jesus meant (vs.28). Jesus’ reply was neither expected nor received warmly:

John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” NASU

The work we are supposed to engage in is to believe in Jesus the Christ. Remember the two purposes John had in writing the Gospel? This incident is included because of the truths it teaches about believing that Jesus is the Christ.

Oddly, the people then requested a miracle as proof that Jesus was who He said He was. Had they forgotten the loaves and fishes of the previous day? Or were they still hoping that Jesus would become their king? Perhaps they just wanted more food (vs.30-31).

Jesus then explains exactly what He meant by the food which endures to eternal life (vs.32-35):

John 6:33,35

33 “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”

35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.

NASU

The food which endures is Christ Himself. He is the bread of life; He is the eternal food that alone brings eternal life.

The people did not understand, and Jesus rather matter-of-factly explains that the reason why they don’t understand is because they don’t believe (vs.36). In other words, they were not ‘doing the work of God.’ The work is to believe, but the people didn’t believe so they did not get the ‘eternal food’.

Jesus goes on to explain the mission He was given by His Father (vs.37-40). This relates back to the ‘seal’ in verse 27, which could be a mark of approval (as in the NIV and NET) or an empowering for the mission.

Jesus explains that He came down from Heaven only so that He could accomplish His Father’s will, which was totally centred upon giving eternal life to those who believe.

John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father – for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him upat the last day.” NET

The people still didn’t understand, and some began turning hostile (vs.41-43). Jesus is not surprised about this, as faith itself is a gift of the Father (vs.44-46).

Jesus renews His emphasis on eternal life.

John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. NASU

The only way to get this eternal life is to believe in Him, and Jesus then rephrased this statement in a very graphic way:

John 6:48-51

48 “ I am the bread of life. 49 “ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 “ I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

NASU

It is Jesus Himself who is the food which endures. Eating this food is the only way to get eternal life (vs.53-58).

John 6:54 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. NET

Notice that here the result (has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day) is produced by eating (Jesus’) flesh and drinking his blood. Compare John 6:40 where the same result is produced by “looking on the Son and believing in him.” This suggests that the phrase here (eats my flesh and drinks my blood) is to be understood by the phrase in 6:40 (looks on the Son and believes in him). (NET Bible footnote).

Even His own disciples found this concept difficult to take. Jesus urged them to look at it in the spirit, and believe (vs.59-65). Some disciples left, although the twelve stayed (vs.66-71).

Work

The word ‘work’ in John 6:27 means “to work for, earn by working, to acquire” (NT:2038 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). Nowhere in John chapter six does Jesus talk about work as ‘place of employment’ either generally or specifically. Therefore, John 6:27 is not a directive about which kinds of employment we should or should not engage in. On the contrary, Jesus defined exactly what kind of work He was talking about in verse 29: to “believe in Him who [God] has sent.”

John 6:27

What then can we conclude about the meaning of John 6:27?

John 6:27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him. NKJV

Rather than being motivated by the endless acquisition of temporary benefits, our principle ‘work’ is to believe in Jesus the Christ, and so lay hold of eternal life. This belief in Christ is so thorough and all-encompassing that it can be spoken of as eating the bread of life and drinking the very blood of Him whose blood was shed for our salvation.

The question of whether or not one has a secular job has nothing to do with it. The verse does not exhort Christians to become full-time missionaries or preachers. In this passage Jesus was talking about a far more grave consideration, the question of whether or not we have eternal life.

The work of God is to believe in Jesus as the Christ, this is the faith that should motivate our lives. Nothing is more important than this: to find eternal life in Christ Jesus the Lord.

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