THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN - Chapter 6 - Verse 27

Verse 27. Labour not. This does not mean that we are to make no effort for the supply of our wants (comp. 1 Ti 5:1; 2 Th 3:10), but that we are not to manifest anxiety, we are not to make this the main or supreme object of our desire. See Barnes "Mt 6:25".

The meat that perisheth. The food for the supply of your natural wants. It perishes. The strength you derive from it is soon exhausted, and your wasted powers need to be reinvigorated.

That meat which endureth. The supply of your spiritual wants; that which supports, and nourishes, and strengthens the soul; the doctrines of the gospel, that are to a weak and guilty soul what needful food is to the weary and decaying body.

To everlastingly life. The strength derived from the doctrines of the gospel is not exhausted. It endures without wasting away. It nourishes the soul to everlasting life. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint," Isa 40:31.

Him hath God the Father sealed. To seal is to confirm or approve as ours. This is done when we set our seal to a compact, or deed, or testament, by which we ratify it as our act. So God the Father, by the miracles which had been wrought by Jesus, had shown that he had sent him, that he approved his doctrines, and ratified his works. The miracles were to his doctrine what a seal is to a written instrument. See Barnes "Joh 3:33".

{1} "Labour" or, "Work not" {k} "that meat which endureth" Jer 15:16; Joh 4:14; Joh 6:54,58

{l} "him hath God" Ps 2:7; 40:7; Isa 42:1; Joh 8:18; Ac 2:22; 2 Pe 1:17