"When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?
What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him."
John 6:61-64
This is from part of Christ's ministry when some of his disciples stopped following him, either not understanding when Christ talked about the atonement, or not believing, or perhaps both, having once followed him and presumably had a testimony, but then losing it when it got difficult.
There are some interesting ideas here. One big one is that the spirit is what gives us life, and the body "profiteth nothing." That's very different from our largely body-obsessed modern world. Not that bodies are pointless of course, or that we shouldn't take care of them, because they matter, and we should. But we often go very far overboard focusing on our bodies and not on our spirits... prioritizing the needs of the body over the needs of the spirit, and worrying more about physical issues than spiritual issues.
Christ tells his disciples (and us) that his words are spirit and life, and yet some of them among even his closest followers didn't believe. I wonder how hard that must have been for Christ, knowing ahead of time who would betray him, and yet knowing it had to happen, and doing nothing to avoid the betrayal, allowing the people involved their free agency, and accepting the consequences, for all of us.
Today, let's remember that the spirit is life, and let's try to reshuffle our priorities to reflect that. Let's also avoid our own betrayal of Jesus Christ by taking our testimonies seriously and not accepting unbelief and doubt. If we don't know whether some part of the gospel is true, then let's do the work and find out... let's work to establish a foundation in the gospel that we can build on, rather than letting our faith die out because we have left it malnourished.
What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him."
John 6:61-64
This is from part of Christ's ministry when some of his disciples stopped following him, either not understanding when Christ talked about the atonement, or not believing, or perhaps both, having once followed him and presumably had a testimony, but then losing it when it got difficult.
There are some interesting ideas here. One big one is that the spirit is what gives us life, and the body "profiteth nothing." That's very different from our largely body-obsessed modern world. Not that bodies are pointless of course, or that we shouldn't take care of them, because they matter, and we should. But we often go very far overboard focusing on our bodies and not on our spirits... prioritizing the needs of the body over the needs of the spirit, and worrying more about physical issues than spiritual issues.
Christ tells his disciples (and us) that his words are spirit and life, and yet some of them among even his closest followers didn't believe. I wonder how hard that must have been for Christ, knowing ahead of time who would betray him, and yet knowing it had to happen, and doing nothing to avoid the betrayal, allowing the people involved their free agency, and accepting the consequences, for all of us.
Today, let's remember that the spirit is life, and let's try to reshuffle our priorities to reflect that. Let's also avoid our own betrayal of Jesus Christ by taking our testimonies seriously and not accepting unbelief and doubt. If we don't know whether some part of the gospel is true, then let's do the work and find out... let's work to establish a foundation in the gospel that we can build on, rather than letting our faith die out because we have left it malnourished.
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