By: Orean Brown
We all know and understand that eating the right foods and eating healthy, can keep us strong, energetic, and most important help us fight off diseases. However, eating healthy is not easy, it takes a lot of dedication and effort. Have you ever noticed that it’s easier to get access to unhealthy or bad foods than it is to healthy ones? Today with restaurants and fast-food eateries on every corner the access to unhealthy foods are not only easy but also quick. With the fast pace of today’s world people rather settle for the quick unhealthy choices than time-consuming healthy choices. It’s the same in our spiritual choices. Do we choose to dine with Satan and make unhealthy fleshy (physical) choices because it’s easy and accessible that will eventually lead to death and destruction? or Will you choose to dine with Christ and make healthy (spiritual) choices that will lead to eternal life. Jesus talks about making this in John 6:31-40 which states, “Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.” Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still, you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” Let’s put the discourse recorded in John 6 in the proper context. Jesus had feed over 5,000 people miraculously and this created a crowd of people wanting Jesus to repeat this miracle. “Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” (John 6:26-27). This did not deter the people. As the conversation continues, they attempt at every turn to argue that Jesus should provide them with free food. In response, Jesus answers that they are looking for the wrong thing. They are only looking for physical food which will temporarily fill their stomachs. They should be looking for spiritual food which will give them eternal life. “Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. … And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:34-36, 40). Notice how partaking of bread Jesus is offering is equated to believing in him. Jesus stated, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” The Jews, therefore, quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven–not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:51-58). The theme hasn’t changed. The bread is Jesus’ sacrifice for the sins of the world. Unless a person “partakes” through faith in Jesus’ death, he cannot have eternal life. You see by nature, man is neither carnal nor spiritual, but he chooses to be one or the other. He has the capacity of choosing which way he wants to go. Partake of the physical which represent fleshy worldly living or partake of the spiritual bread of life which lead to eternal life. Now add to this what Paul later taught. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law but under grace.What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members’ servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:11-23). Notice that the same themes of death and life are being stated, though worded in a different way. Finally, my brethren the choice is yours. Do you choose the healthy, “bread of life” that will lead to eternal life? Or will you choose the easy, accessible, unhealthy choice that will lead to death?