“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” John 6:27
This was Jesus’ reply to the Jews the day after He fed the multitudes. He gave them a beautiful analogy of food to help them understand what He was saying.
When you think about food, you also think about hunger. There are two kinds of hunger we will experience in our lives. First, there is a physical hunger, which only physical food can satisfy. The second hunger is spiritual — spiritual hunger cannot be satisfied by anything this world offers.
Jesus is saying here is that we need to not let anything come before the feeding of our soul. Man consists not only of body, but of spirit and soul as well. We should not devote all of our strength, talents and time to the feeding of our bodies, which in a few, short years will rot away and be eaten by worms. Rather, we need to focus on feeding our souls, by being in the Word and prayer.
Jesus is making a point here; He isn’t just talking about food. It there anything that is getting in the way of you feeding your soul? Are you laboring for a better job at the sacrifice of being in community? Are you laboring for more clothes, better toys, electronic devices? Are you laboring at work so you can have more free time to play video games and to hang out with your friends? The point Jesus is making, is that we need to look at our lives, take inventory of the things we are laboring for, and prioritize them. If all of these things are taking us away from our prayer time, our quiet times, our church time, our community time, then we need to re-evaluate what we are working for.
WHAT ARE YOU LABORING FOR?
Christian, we need to make sure we understand this challenge — do not labor for things that perish. Rather, we should make sure our souls are fed day by day with the Word of God… “Man shall not live on bread alone but by every word of that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Luke4:4). We need to work tirelessly for a better knowledge of the Word of God. Soak it in! Let it sink down into the depths of your hearts and soul.
Let us be known as a church that labors for eternal things, not temporal things.
Tony
Posted in A Word from the Pastor