At least one behavioral food expert believes that the way we eat and our instinctive food habits reveal our character traits and our true nature.
For instance, slow eaters supposedly value routine and are stubborn. They savor their food like they savor every experience. These people put themselves first, and their own needs before the needs of others. In contrast, fast eaters reveal a lack of balance. They put other things before themselves, are productive and do well at finishing projects.
Another food habit is mixing it on the plate. People who do this supposedly also can deal with many responsibilities efficiently, but could struggle with priorities and concentrating on a particular task. On the other hand, those who eat one food at a time are task-oriented, methodical, and less flexible.
All this is news to me. However, I have heard about a connection between eating habits and job skills. Those who do the hiring should take a prospect for lunch and observe how they eat. For instance, cutting meat all at once reveals that a person is methodical, strategic, and forward thinking. This person will fit in a job that requires logical thinking and precision, such as engineering, accounting, or computer technology. (This actually fits my husband.) This researcher says that people who are excited about trying out different types of food do well in creative positions because they're willing to explore new things and are apt to come up with fresh ideas.
In a different vein, those who ask questions about the menu reveal that they have an open-mind. Those who season their foods without first tasting them or don't bother looking at the menu before ordering are stubborn and do not like change.
I wonder what this food expert would say to these words spoken by Jesus. How would she characterize those who feast as He describes?
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. (John 6:51)
Jesus says one thing is certain — those who partake in Him will live forever. This is true because His life becomes their life. I am alive forever because the eternal life of Jesus Christ is in me. Because of that, my destiny is changed. But what about my personality?
The Bible says a great deal about the new life I have in Christ and this new life is all about change, right from the get-go. That means that “feasting on Jesus” does something to who I am. The Bible is clear about this too.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
From that beginning, I’m told to put off the old, put on the new. In other words, I’ve been made new and now I need to spend the rest of my life learning how to act like the new person He has created.
God helps me with that. Romans 8:28-29 says, “And we know that God works all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. . . .”
The issue is, I cannot possibly know what being like Jesus looks like unless I keep my focus on Him, the One into whose image is my destiny. Hebrews 12:2-3 says I am to fix my eyes on Him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells me that the more I gaze at His glory, the more I am transformed into His image.
The food/personality expert says that my nature is revealed by the way I eat. Jesus says the opposite, that when He is on the menu, even just by looking at Him, my nature is transformed into something new. How cool is that!
Actually, I bake our bread most of the time, but on occasion we buy bread at a store or bakery. The price can range from a dollar “on special” to five dollars or more a loaf. I’ve not figured the cost to make it, but even then, bread is not free.
In the Bible, bread was both an important part of Israel’s worship and a symbol. Old Testament sacrifices included bread. Ritualistic Showbread was placed weekly in the Jew’s place of worship, then removed at the end of the week and eaten by the priests. The showbread symbolized God’s presence with His people.
After the Israelites fled from their bondage in Egypt, God fed them with Manna that fell miraculously from heaven. They also remembered this Exodus annually by eating unleavened bread for seven days.
In the New Testament, Satan tempted Jesus who had been fasting. He said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’ ” (Matthew 4:3–4).
Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” which could be a request for physical food, but also spiritual nourishment. He called Himself “the true bread from heaven,” “the bread of God,” “the bread of life” and “the bread which came down from heaven.” John 6:51 says,
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.
Symbolically, Jesus is my heavenly manna, the spiritual and supernatural nourishment given by my heavenly Father and available to all who open their hearts to Him. (See Revelation 2:17.) Jesus used this symbol on the night before His crucifixion also as an invitation.
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body’ (Matthew 26:26).
By offering His body, Jesus was not only the sacrificial Lamb slain for sin, but also the Showbread of God’s presence. He is the Bread of Life for His people. We may eat of Him and with Him, finding in Him forgiveness of sin and eternal life. In keeping with the symbolism of bread and eternal life, Isaiah 55:1-2 offers the same invitation as Jesus offered.
Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
The Bread of Life gives me life, spiritual nourishment, satisfaction, and delight. Best of all, this Bread is without price — freely available to all who come to Jesus and ask for it.
Last week my son sent me a series of photographs showing what happened in an African country when a bull elephant died. Within fifteen minutes an army of hungry people descended on the massive body. At first they fought over it, but eventually worked together. They took the hide, the flesh, everything. For them, this meant life, survival. Even the bones were broken up for soup. In the last photo, all that remained was a patch of blood on the dry ground.
The elephant had no say in the matter. He was consumed so that others may live. While I felt queasy looking at the gruesome photos, I thought of them this morning when I read today’s devotional verse. Jesus is speaking:
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. (John 6:51)
Like the people of Zimbabwe, the world is starving. They sense a hunger, yet most do not realize it their condition is far worse; they are spiritual dead, separated from God and without hope. Hungry for life, they look in all the wrong places trying to find satisfaction for their souls, sometimes in religion but usually in material goods and pleasurable pursuits that will not last.
Unlike the people of Zimbabwe, those who are spiritually dead do not recognize that the Bread of Life has willingly given His flesh up to death that they might live. Instead of descending and participating in Him, God’s gift of eternal life, they either fight over or ignore the body.
The solution is the power of the Gospel in combination with the enlightening and life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. That combination can open blind eyes and give life to the dead. The Gospel is simple: Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. He offers eternal life to all who place their faith in Him.
The Holy Spirit brings that life. He is like the wind that “blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
I cannot make anyone understand that they are spiritually dead. I cannot convince anyone that the body of Jesus Christ has the power to give them life. I cannot make the wind blow or the heart soft. I can share the good news — God has provided life. Jesus is ours for the taking, for the participating. When anyone feasts on Him, they live forever.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
When Jesus talked to the crowds, I’ve wondered if some of what He said was more for those who would read His Word later since no one seemed to understand it at the time. The verse in my devotional reading is one of those sayings.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (John 6:51)
The Jews who first heard it would remember the manna that God sent from heaven to feed Moses and their forefathers in the wilderness. It was unlike anything they had seen before, but gave them the nourishment they needed. It was bread from heaven and they knew it.
That means Jesus made a claim that was not entirely foreign for them. However, their minds were not able to leap from the physical manna to the spiritual intent of Jesus’ words. Verse 52 says, “The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, ‘How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?’” This made no sense to them.
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 6:53–58)
If they were confounded before, this added to their confusion. The disciples grumbled also. They didn’t understand that Jesus was speaking in spiritual terms. He was talking about the intimacy of knowing Him, a deep relationship in which His people would participate in Him. He becomes not only our spiritual nourishment, but our very life as well. Because of His presence in me, I will live forever.
I shared this once with a Jewish friend. He retorted that it was very presumptuous to claim that I knew I had eternal life. He said that no one can know that. I’d agree — if I based my reason for eternal life on the same criteria that he used. In his mind, eternal life is a decision God makes based on whether a person is good enough or not. This is the opinion of many who assume that a place in heaven is earned by good deeds and a clean life.
The problems with this are many. For one thing, no one is perfect so where is the line drawn? I wouldn’t want to put that decision on anyone, not even God. It conjures a pitiful scene where some squeak over the line and others fall just short.
The other problem with it is that it makes useless the death of Christ. If we were not sinners in need of a Savior, then this perfect man who is God would not have had to die. Not only that, He would not make the claim that anyone who “eats this bread will live forever” because salvation would not be about Him but about those who pass muster when their deeds are evaluated.
The Jews did not like what Jesus said about eating His flesh. They took it literally and were repulsed. The disciples had that same image come to mind and were grumbling. John 6:61–66 tells how Jesus took them aside and asked them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.”
He knew that out of the many who followed Him at that time, some who did not believe and would betray Him. For this reason, He added, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
Jesus laid down a dividing line. It wasn’t about good deeds or being good enough. It was about having a God-given faith that drew people to Jesus and caused them to have this deep relationship with Him. At that, some of his followers knew that they were hanging around for the wrong reasons. They were not on the right side of the line. Verse 66 says, “From this time, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”
For me, this speaks of a continued walk of faith. God wants me to trust Him and cling to Jesus. My salvation is not about what I do but about who I know, and the One who knows me. It is about having the life of Christ and participating in that life.
Out of that faith and relationship will come good things, but I know that apart from Him, I can do nothing. To live is Christ means always being aware that He is my life. Without Him, I cannot please God.
My daughter cannot eat bread. She isn’t celiac but has a problem with gluten. I cannot imagine going without bread, even though Jesus said that I do not live by bread alone. . . . I think that I could, or at least I did.
Lately I’ve not been eating regular bread, only the sprouted grain variety. Yesterday I had some regular bread and my tummy didn’t like it. I’m glad this is not true of all bread, especially when I read this verse from my devotional book this morning.
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. (John 6:51)
Jesus talked to a crowd that chased after Him when they heard He had multiplied a few loaves of bread into enough to feed thousands. However, He knew why they were there. He 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)
They didn’t get it, but He kept talking. He told them that He was the living bread, the source of eternal life, but they had to eat this bread to have that life. They still didn’t get it.
Neither did His disciples. After the crowd was gone, they asked Jesus about this “hard saying.” In part, He told them, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)
Since I became a Christian, I’ve looked at many different views about Jesus. Almost all of them have no idea what it means to “eat” the flesh of Jesus. Some think it is a symbol. Some think it is a horrible cannibalism. Without the enlightening power of the Holy Spirit, I agree that this is a strange and hard saying. Yet God explains the key to understanding Jesus’ words through the words of Paul:
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:13–14)
Without the Holy Spirit, no one can fully understand the Bible. Even with the Holy Spirit, Christians get truth “here a little, there a little” for that is the way of God. He knows what I need to know. He does not give me all of it at once. To do so would be like trying to eat a bakery full of bread. My body could not tolerate it. Instead, God gives me a small slice at a time, just what I need. In the beginning, my first taste of Jesus meant that He gave me Himself. In doing so, He now lives in me and I have eternal life.
Since that day, the Spirit has fed me many things. For instance, Jesus is the Word of God, the living Word for sure, but also the written Word. It is this Word that I feast on, reading, chewing, digesting — knowing, remembering, understanding, obeying. By doing this, I am feasting on Christ. He becomes my spiritual nourishment and sustenance. Without a proper spiritual diet, my spiritual life would weaken into uselessness.
Using the same ‘bread’ analogy, Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)
In this verse, the Greek term translated “word” is rhema. It means “that which is needed for the moment.” In other words, God gives me the portion that I need for each day, my “daily bread.” I cannot gorge myself. He controls the portions because He knows me as His created and adopted child and knows what I need to be strong and live for Him.
I marvel at the wonderful care of God. He gave me spiritual life in Christ then feeds that life by drawing me into His Word and near to Him. No banquet could taste better or be more important that sitting down to a meal with Jesus.
The Message is a contemporary translation of the Bible written in down-to-earth language. The translator, Eugene H. Peterson, wanted to preserve the sense and tone of the original languages yet make the Bible accessible to those who might struggle with older versions.
Peterson’s translation of the verses I’ve been reading about oath-taking add another dimension to this command from Jesus. He shows even more the importance of being a person who keeps my word.
You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong. (Matthew 5:34–37, The Message)
How many times have I told someone that I’d pray for them, then forgot? My intentions were good, I think. Maybe it said that because they were in stress and I didn’t know what else to say? Nonetheless, too often I have not kept my word.
In our world, reliability is rare. Those we should respect are no longer trusted as they used to be. In a poll of 2000 people, the BBC reports that the most trusted people are doctors; the least are journalists.
The Canadian Readers’ Digest gives these results from a poll of professions considered by Canadians as trustworthy. In order, the most trusted to the least: firefighters, ambulance drivers/paramedics, airline pilots, nurses, pharmacists, doctors, police, members of the armed forces, veterinarians, dentists, teachers and judges.
At the bottom of the list were lawyers, print journalists, actors/actresses, car mechanics, investment brokers, taxi drivers, psychics/astrologers, CEOs, real estate agents, home building contractors, politicians, car salespeople, and at the very bottom, telemarketers.
Clergy was somewhere in the middle, indicating at least two things: false teachers have brought down the credibility of all religious people, and Christians who do not obey Jesus and keep their word have put us lower in the polls than we should be.
While these polls are generalized and not true of everyone, they do indicate that many people will trust doctors, firefighters, pilots and so on with their lives, but trust far fewer people with their money and possessions. Very few will give the time of day to people with a ‘hit and run’ message on the telephone.
Where do I fit in this poll? I’d like to be a person that others would think trustworthy to the point that when I tell them the truth about their spiritual lives, they would believe me. I value truth and want to be a truthful and trustworthy person. I know that only Jesus tells the truth totally and without bias or deception. I want to be like Him.
The devotional reading asks, “What is the difference between swearing and cursing?”The question comes from this passage,
But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. (Matthew 5:34–37)
In the Old Testament, two Hebrew words were translated oath. One means making a solemn promise. The second one is a stronger word that pronounces a curse. That is, an oath is said with, “I will keep my promise no matter what.” However, an oath is also given when someone says, “Go to heck,” as a negative and judgmental appeal for God to inflict harm.
In the Old Testament, people reinforcing their oaths by invoking Yahweh to witness them, as in “By God, I will do this. . . .” However, those who did this placed themselves under a curse if they didn’t do it. Their oath was said to have been sworn deceitfully.
When Jesus came, the practice of making of oaths had deteriorated to the point where people swore by an object, such as the temple, so they would be absolved of any curse should they not keep their vow. Often they had no intention of keeping it anyway. It was this oath-taking that Jesus condemned.
As for the difference between swearing and cursing, this is a bit muddled these days. If the Lord’s Name is used in vain, this is called blasphemy, swearing or cursing. If someone seals a promise or makes a vow, this is called swearing (usually on a Bible etc.). If someone pronounces doom or says they want evil to happen to another, this is called cursing. I’m thinking that no matter the correct meaning of these words, Jesus doesn’t want me to do any of them.
I’m not to blaspheme. His Name is precious and holy. I’ve no reason to use it in a vain way, nor do I have any right to curse Him. Even writing such words makes me cringe. God is God and I am nothing. He is gracious to me. I know the power of His Name and I dare not misuse it.
I’m not to make vows and use His Name (or any other name) as an endorsement on my vow. He does not give me the authority or the right to use His Name that way. He wants me to be a person of my word. If I make a promise, or say I will do something, I’m supposed to do it. I don’t need endorsements. I just need to keep my word — as He does.
I cannot curse other people or things because I am in no position to decide the fate of anyone or anything. This is God’s business, not mine.
All that being said, several times Paul said that God was his witness. This was allowed, but only in one way. Paul could not demean God or use His Name improperly. Nevertheless, he could say that God was his witness and would put His stamp of approval on all the good things He had done in Paul’s life.
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. (Romans 1:9)
Other than giving Him glory, I cannot use His Name in any other way. I say with the psalmist, “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His Name together” (Psalm 34:3), and with the writer of Hebrews, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His Name” (Hebrews 13:15).
