The Bread and Water of Life
John wrote his gospel account of Jesus entirely different from the Synoptic gospel writers. It is remarkable to see the many portraits he paints in writing of the Savior. Among these, the apostle portrays Jesus as “the bread of life” and “the water of life”—two things necessary for survival physically and spiritually (which is the form he uses in his gospel— pitting physical events with spiritual lessons). In John 4:14, Jesus offers the water of life to the Samaritan woman. Later,
Jesus is the Bread of Life.
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).
Also, Jesus claimed to be the bread of life:
he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst…I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (John 6:35, 51)
From this picture, notice several lessons. Jesus is the source for the bread and water of life. If we are to find this bread and water of life, we will find them only in Jesus Christ. No one can find the bread and water of life in any other source, yet millions are looking for them in all the wrong places—denominationalism, humanism, hedonism, and such like.
The bread and water of life are conditional: “he that cometh to me…he that believeth on me” (John 6:35). Notice the importance placed in a distinction between physical and spiritual bread and water:
Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. (John 6:27)
This bread and water of life must be eaten—it is not enough just to possess these. Jesus said, “…if any man eat this bread, he shall live for ever…” (John 6:51). How many children of God possess the bread and water of life (Bible), but rarely sustain their souls by consumption of God’s truth? We must sustain ourselves spiritually every day—be a daily Bible reader!
This bread and water of life are complete in sustenance. As promised, one who partakes in these necessities will never hunger or thirst again. He continued to speak in spiritual rhetoric to emphasize the spiritual over the physical when he said,
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:53-54)
This bread and water of life give eternal life. The Samaritan woman was promised “a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). This “true bread from heaven” (John 6:32) is such, “that a man may eat thereof, and not die” (John 6:50).