John 6:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

These words have this meaning: do not be anxious in the least about this food, but about that spiritual food. Yet some people who wish to live idly misuse these words, as though Christ rejected industrious labor in them. It is timely now to answer them also.

They slander the whole of Christianity, so to speak, and expose it to ridicule for idleness. But first we must turn to Paul’s saying. What does he say? Remember the words of the Lord, who said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

But from what would one give, if he himself has nothing? How, then, did Jesus say to Martha, “You are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good part” (Lk 10:41-42)? And again, “Do not be anxious about tomorrow” (Mt 6:34)?

“You seek Me,” He says, “because of the loaves, desiring to be filled with them. But you must not devote yourselves wholly to the belly. You must chiefly strive for what is spiritual, and not spend all your care on bodily food.” For He called this “food that perishes.”

Since many who wish to live idly, and especially the Messalians, use these words to defend their idleness, it is necessary to clarify this saying. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not say this because He wished to cut off bodily activity and incline men to idleness. “For idleness has taught much evil” (Sir 33:28).

"Labor not for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life."

Paul teaches us something similar, as though summing up and extending the discourse, when he says: "He who sows to the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life" (Gal 6:8).

Those sow to the flesh, he says, who slacken every rein through fleshly pleasures and rush headlong toward whatever they desire. They do not distinguish what is useful for them from what usually brings harm and evil.

They have never learned to value the will of the Lawgiver. They are senselessly carried away by what is pleasant and passing. They count nothing higher than what is visible.

Those sow to the Spirit, the Apostle says, who sow what the Holy Spirit wishes to adorn us with. They devote the whole effort of their soul to this, and use such intense care in cultivating the good that, if a natural and unavoidable law of necessity did not compel them to give food to the body, they would never allow themselves to stoop even to this.

Therefore I think we must not turn care for the flesh into lusts (Rom 13:14). Rather, we must devote ourselves to what is more necessary and diligently exercise ourselves in what raises us to eternal and divine life.

To honor the pleasures of the body and to count nothing higher than the fullness of the belly is truly bestial, and not far from utter senselessness. But to devote oneself to the good, diligently adorn oneself with virtues, submit to the laws of the Spirit, and gladly receive from God what can provide for our salvation, all this, I agree, truly befits one who knows his own nature.

Such a man is not ignorant that he was created a rational living being according to the image of Him who created him. So the Savior Himself says in one place: "Do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear?" (Mt 6:31).

Taking thought that "the soul is more than food and the body more than clothing" (Mt 6:25), let us be more concerned that the highest part of our being should be in good condition.

If the body is in good condition and is fattened by pleasures suited to it, this brings no benefit to the poor soul. On the contrary, great harm will even arise. It will descend into eternal fire, if those who have done nothing good must necessarily suffer punishment for this.

But if the body is restrained by proper reasoning and subjected to the laws of the Spirit, both body and soul must undoubtedly be saved together. Therefore it is utterly absurd for us to spend such care on temporal flesh, which is already almost about to perish, that we think we must deny it nothing that pleases it.

It is absurd to take care for the soul only in passing and count it as nothing. I think we ought to devote ourselves to care for the soul much more earnestly, insofar as the soul is better than what is fleshly.

Thus, preferring the higher to the lower, and having a just judgment concerning both, we shall prove to be righteous and wise judges. We shall not hand over sound judgment to another, but shall reserve it for ourselves.

Let us then, as the Savior says, "labor not for the food that perishes." Once it has entered the belly and gratified the soul for a very short time with a most trifling pleasure, it goes out into the latrine and is again expelled from the belly.

But spiritual food, which preserves the heart, strengthens man for eternal life. Christ Himself promises to give this to us, saying, "which the Son of Man will give you." He joins the human together with the divine, and gathers the whole mystery of the divine economy with the flesh in peace.

He points enigmatically, as it were, to the mystical and spiritual food through which, sanctified in both body and soul, we live in Him. Yet He will speak of this more clearly later, as we shall see. Therefore let discussion of this be kept for the proper time and place.

"Which the Son of Man will give you; for on Him God the Father has set His seal."

Again, as God, He was not ignorant of the accusations that would arise from Jewish ignorance, nor of the occasions on which they often fell senselessly into savagery. He knew that they would reason within themselves by looking only at the flesh and failing to understand God the Word who was in it.

They would say: who is this who arrogates to Himself words befitting God? Who is this who will provide men with food that preserves them for eternal life? Such a thing is wholly foreign to human nature and belongs only to God, who is over all.

Therefore the Savior forestalls them with His answer, and by a timely defense puts their expected unbridled words to shame. He says that the "food" nourishing unto "eternal life" will be given them by the "Son of Man." Yet at once He also affirms of Himself that He has been "sealed" by the Father.

He uses "sealed" in place of "anointed," for the one anointed is sealed. Or He indicates that He is formed by nature according to the Father. It is as though He were saying: I shall not be unable to give you the food that endures and raises you to eternal life and blessedness.

For even if I appear as one of you, plainly a man with flesh, yet I have been anointed and sealed by God the Father in exact likeness to Him. Indeed, He says, you will see Him in Me, and Me again in Him by nature.

Though for your sake I was born man of a woman, according to the ineffable ordering of providence, I can accomplish all things with divine authority. I lack nothing whatever of the power proper to Him who begot Me.

If God the Father gives you spiritual food that preserves unto eternal life, the Son will plainly give it also. Although He has appeared in the flesh, He remains the unchangeable Image of the Father.

By image one plainly understands likeness in every respect. This is not according to features of the flesh, nor according to anything conceived in bodily form, but in glory befitting God, equal power, and royal authority.

One must also observe that, after saying that the Son of Man will give what befits God, and that He is sealed according to the image of God the Father, He does not allow a division that cuts off the temple received from the Virgin from true sonship.

He defines Himself as one, and wishes Himself to be understood in this way. Indeed, there is one Christ over us, clothed, as it were, in royal purple by what He bears, that is, by the human body or temple of soul and body. Yet Christ is one from both.

But, beloved, the fighter against Christ will again say: grant authority to the truth. Do not twist the saying, ignobly forcing its meaning according to your own will. By these words too, he says, the Son is clearly shown to us as not existing from the essence of the Father, but rather as an imprint of His essence.

Let Him therefore be, he says, something such as we say. A seal or sign, when impressed on wax or on other materials suitable for this, inscribes only its own likeness. Then it is separated from the impressing seal without suffering any harm.

So too the Father, having implanted Himself wholly in the Son and somehow stamped Himself in Him through the most exact likeness, does not have Him from Himself as a part of His essence, nor as something conceived from that essence. He has Him only as an image and exact likeness.

Let the lover of inquiry see again that the adversary now rushes upon us like a serpent and raises high his head full of poison. But He who crushes the heads of the dragon (Ps 73:14) will crush this one also, and will give us power to escape their manifold devices.

Let the man who has just deafened us with dreadful words answer us this. Must a seal or sign, made from whatever material, whether iron or gold, designate in some engraving the thing of which it consists, that is, its own form? Or will it exist and be conceived as a seal even without an engraving?

I think each of them, drawn by the irresistible force of truth, will be compelled, even unwillingly, to admit that a seal must certainly stamp something in an engraving. Without an engraving, according to right reasoning, it cannot be conceived or exist at all.

Therefore, since divine Scripture testifies that the Son is "the χαρακτήρ of the hypostasis" of God the Father (Heb 1:3), being plainly in it and from it by nature, in whom does the Son have His own sign? Or through whom other than the Son will the Father stamp His own engraving?

No one will say that the Father lacks a form befitting God. This form is the Son, the image of His Begetter. If anyone beholds Him spiritually, he will plainly behold the Father Himself.

For this reason He says of Himself that He is in Him by nature, although He is also understood as being from Him according to a particular or personal property. It is like radiance in the one who radiates, and from the one who radiates.

Although it is something else according to our mental conception, it is again not another when considered in relation to Him. For it is said to be from Him and again to exist in Him.

This is not understood in the sense of separation or cutting off, either generally or according to essence. What is innate is shown to be identical in essence with that from which it proceeds. It is considered as being from it, while appearing to our mind as though it passed forth into something other and particular, yet without separation.

Therefore it is not the Word, who is from the Father's essence, that is sealed by the Father. That is, not the Word in Himself and incorporeal. Rather, what is raised through Him, as far as possible, to likeness with God is sealed.

So too we understand the saying spoken in the person of certain people: "The light of Your countenance, O Lord, has been marked upon us" (Ps 4:7). He calls the Son the countenance of God the Father, which again is the engraving.

By the light from it He means the grace that spreads through the Spirit upon creation. Through this grace we are transformed according to God by faith. Through the Son we receive, as by a kind of law, conformity to Him who is the image of the Father.

Thus what was created according to the likeness and image of the Creator is preserved in us completely. Since the countenance of God the Father is undoubtedly the Son, He must also be the engraving in which God seals.

Let it be so, says the opponent. We believe that God seals the saints through the Spirit. But your arguments have no bearing on the question before us.

Therefore again and again we shall say: a seal, whether imagined as iron or gold, engraves its likeness on whatever material without giving anything from itself. By the action of impressing alone, it leaves a sign on the material receiving the imprint.

So we understand the Father's imprinting of the Son. The Son has nothing from the Father's essence, but has received only exact likeness and exists as something other, distinct from Him, as image in relation to archetype.

What immeasurable madness, and what dizzy thoughts! How easily you have forgotten what we were just disputing. We said that the Son is the engraving of the Father, and that what is foreign is sealed in Him, not He Himself, lest He be conceived as the engraving of Himself.

You, however, unjustly setting aside our argument about this, are not ashamed to attribute likeness to Him by action alone and not by essence. Therefore, according to you, the Son will be God by engraving alone and not at all by nature. He will be God only by imprint and formation according to likeness with the Begetter.

Indeed, not even with the Begetter. Because of this it is time for you to abolish generation. Rather, it is absolutely necessary, even if you do not wish it. We have already made a long argument about the need to believe that the Son is begotten of the Father, and we shall make it again in its proper place.

Let your hands do "what is good," so that you may have something to give to one in need (Eph 4:28). Let your heart always be turned toward the Lord, and then you will be making "the food which endures," and not that which perishes.

He Himself is a sign for us, that is, a banner of perfection and love. For the Father, in loving, has marked the Son.

“Work not for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures unto eternal life.” Care not for perishable food, but for imperishable food. Care not for what nourishes the flesh, but for what nourishes the soul. Such food is faith, as Jesus Christ will say further on.

By “working for perishing food” He does not mean what is necessary, but what is excessive, that is, constant and unceasing concern for sensible food. What is necessary is not forbidden.

Therefore the Apostle Paul, in many places of his Epistles, not only permitted work with one’s hands, but even clearly commanded it, saying, “If anyone will not work, neither let him eat” (2 Thess 3:10).

The nature of seals is such that they display the form of the object pressed into them. They transmit its image exactly, and when they receive everything impressed into them, they present the complete representation of what has been impressed.

Yet this example does not suit the divine birth. In seals there is material, a difference between two materials, and an impression by which the softer nature receives the image of the harder.

What God has sealed must bear within itself nothing other than the image of God Who seals.

Monks do not hold to a mind opposed to the Church, but strive to follow the mind of Christ, according to the Apostle’s words: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:5-7).

Know, then, that such a way of thought and life is given by God and begets a great virtue, humility of mind. The Lord commanded that this work be performed in the Church, saying: “Labor not for the food that perishes, but for that which endures unto eternal life” (Jn 6:27).

The man learned in the Law said, “I ask you, tell us, that we too may know: what is this work?”

"Do not labor for the food which perishes," says the Lord, "but for the food which endures to eternal life"; that is, fulfill the commandments, [...]

The return to Capernaum of those miraculously fed in the wilderness.

The multitude of many thousands, miraculously fed and then calmed by Jesus, remained overnight on that same deserted shore where the miracle had taken place. All saw that only one boat stood by the shore. They saw that Jesus’ disciples entered that boat and departed, while Jesus, without even entering it, went up the mountain.

The next morning they apparently sought Jesus, but did not find Him. His disciples were not there either. Meanwhile, in their sight, boats from Tiberias, a city on the western shore of the lake, came to land.

Saint Mark, explaining the Lord's words, "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life" (Jn 6:27), teaches that their meaning is this: seek the kingdom of heaven through prayer.

This kingdom is within us (Lk 17:21), as the Lord said. He promised those who seek the heavenly kingdom that He would provide all bodily necessities by His divine Providence (Mt 6:33).

“Labor,” or more precisely, “work,” “not for the food that perishes,” and so forth. Seek Me and come to Me not because I fed you, but because I have food that gives eternal life. Seek this food from Me, and not that other food.

Yesterday’s miraculous food strengthened you, but only for a short time. Today you already wish to eat again. Should bread be multiplied again for you? Again it would strengthen you only briefly.

No. Seek from Me another food, which would nourish you forever, the food that endures unto eternal life. And this food I will give you.

Clearly this speech is figurative and has the same meaning as the discourse with the Samaritan woman about the living water. Whoever drinks it will never thirst forever (Jn 4:13-14).

"You seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled," the Lord said. He does not answer the question, "When did You come?" He speaks about the state of their hearts and about what these poor souls need.

These people, who had seen several miracles of Jesus, valued in the miracle itself only its usefulness for earthly life. They were of one leaven with the utilitarians of the modern age.

For such people the spiritual is important only insofar as it is profitable for earthly life. Otherwise some of them would not give a sigh for it.

What, then, was said to such people? "Do not seek the food that perishes, but the food that endures unto eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you."