Labour not for the meat which perisheth...

JesusisKingofKings

John 6:27 (King James Version)

27Labour 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.

From
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John 6:27;&version=9;


How or in what way can we labour for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life? if that makes sense...

If the meat which is written about here is Christs flesh that we take in communion ... we dont labour for it do we? and if the meat is the Word of God... Is reading considered labour?
or maybe we should labour to do good works and that is meat? or maybe when you do Gods commandments Christ will reveal Himself more to you through His word and that is labouring for meat? if I am truly making sense...

What do you think?

Safaa

You haven’t completed the whole verse, “ Do not labor 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 has God the Father set his seal." John 6 : 27
The Lord was talking about His Body in the Eucharist, and of course that had let His disciples to leave Him because they did not believe that He can give them His Body or He is the Manna from Heaven.
Believing in the Sacrament of the Eucharist requires a leap of faith which unfortunately the Protestant in generals do not believe. This faith is what Our Lord was meant as labour.

Unknown

The meat being referred to need not be restricted to the Holy Eucharist, but rather to all such things that are spiritually efficacious, and which will ultimately have permanent and lasting effects with respect to our spiritual dignity and hence our eternal salvation. In this sense, the meat which we are to labor for, and work hard to achieve and perfect, is not merely our partaking in the Holy Sacraments, but also prayer, fasting, studying the word of God, loving one another, assissting those in need etc. etc.

The verse can be paralelled with the following verse from the book of Matthew, which carries more or less the same implications: "Do not lay up for yourselves
treasures on earth ... But lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven " (Matt 6:19-0). The "treasures in heaven" spoken of here, can be likened to the "food that endures for eternal life." He is simply using such imagery of treasure or food to correspond with the subject that he is addressing, however the intended message is more or less generally the same.

JesusisKingofKings

thanx Safaa and Iqbal!