Live Life

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” (Joh 6:63 AV)

 

This statement agrees with a previous statement found in the fourth chapter.  Jesus told His disciples His meat was to do the will of the Father.  In reference to taking a meal, Jesus teaches His disciples it is far more important to reach those without Christ than it is to eat.  In the previous statement, we see the duty of ministry to the Lost compared to the physical necessities of life.  In our verse above, Jesus teaches plainly that a quality and quantity of life is tied more directly to the spiritual than it is to the physical.  In this passage, the LORD is feeding the multitudes that had gathered to hear him preach.  He performed a miracle in that He fed them with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish.  Thousands were fed with barely enough to feed one.  The chapter also is the scriptures wherein Jesus presents Himself as the bread of life that has come from heaven.  He is superior to the manna which Moses fed the children of Israel.  That bread only fed the body and the body would still perish.  The bread of Jesus springs up into life – eternal life.  The life Jesus promises is far more than eternal life.  It is spiritual life.  Spiritual life is far more superior and needful than physical life.  The flesh profits nothing.  It is the spirit that prevails.

Many years ago, I drove a school bus for special needs children.  These children ran the gamut from emotional or mental disorders to physical disabilities.  There were a few that were slower than most children their age.  There was no instability among them.  They were merely more simple-minded than most their age.  I transported many who were wheelchair-bound.  Others were autistic.  On the last day of school prior to Christmas break, I picked them up from school, and to a T, each expressed joy and happiness.  They had candy and presents from one another and their school.  They had party hats, bags of things, and blow whistles.  A few had balloons.  Most had crafts they had made for the holidays.  What was amazing is the life of the party was not dampened by their physical or mental challenges.  Their handicap did not slow them down.  They still knew how to live.  They didn’t look at the healthy children and resent them.  They had their own fun and appreciated it far more than those without challenges.  They knew how to live despite their handicaps.

When we are miserable because of the physical nature of our lives, we have not learned the spiritual is our source of life.  The bread which the thousands ate would come through the draught.  Their bodies would consume what they needed and then discharge the rest.  This happens day in and day out.  No matter how healthy they ate their bodies would eventually fail.  Moses’ manna could not keep them alive.  Old age would still claim their flesh.  If we live in the temporal, we will not live at all.  We will be consumed by it.  We must live in the spiritual.  That is where true life is.  This is where we find quantity and quality of life.  The spiritual is the key to a contented and fulfilled life.  And this spiritual is centered on the person of Jesus Christ.