“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” John 6:51-52
The context here is that Jesus has just fed the 5,000. The people seeing that Jesus had the power to put bread in their stomachs wanted to make Him King. Jesus wanted them to get their focus off of their stomachs and on to the satisfaction He could give to their souls. He explains to them that He is the bread of life, giving eternal life to all who would believe and receive Him.
Rather than consider the source of life before them and make the application to their lives, they decide to argue about the meaning of Jesus’ words. Jesus referring to these kinds of people said in Matthew 23:24, “You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” But before we come down too hard on these religious leaders we must admit that all too often the same thing occurs in the church today. We would rather debate the meaning of the words rather than make an application of the Word in our lives.
Here the Jews, which is usually referring to the religious leaders, are ignorant to the symbolism Jesus is using and want to criticize His message. The word used in our text is “dispute” which means to wrangle or quarrel over. A failure to believe or embrace Christ’s words often results in bad behavior which gives way to strife, bitterness and criticism.
The teachings of Jesus were always straightforward and easy to understand by the common person. His use of the phrase, “eat my flesh,” simply meant that just as physical food becomes a part of your body after you take it in, so we must receive Christ into our innermost being so that He can give us eternal life.
We now live in a society where people would rather debate the proper prayer to pray to receive Christ than to hold forth the Bread of Life that people may come, eat and live. I’m always leery of the one who prefaces their claim to know Him whom to know is eternal life, by stating what they don’t have to do or can continue to do and still be a disciple of Christ. We need less debate and more application.
My heart is often heavy for those who judge and stifle the service of others as they look down their nose finding fault with their life, yet all the while failing to do the hard work of repenting and restoring relationships. We need less debate and more application.
Christianity, the Bible and Jesus Christ have become nothing more than an argument for a select bitter band of people who claim the name of Christ. Their mantra is, “You’re not doing it right, you’re not following Him right, or you’re not believing correctly.” Perhaps what has brought this mindset to the surface is really a soul that is famished for the Bread of Life.
I believe with all of my heart that, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” ( 2 Timothy 3:16-17). However, I also believe that a careful study of God’s Word without a heartfelt application results in a hypocritical legalism that fails to exude the aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15), in our conversations. It’s definitely time for less debate and more application in the family of God.
david ><({‘>
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