I was rather surprised to see a Christian who didn't understand the scriptural meaning of 'flesh' just the other day.
Considering how much this word gets used, that is a lot of the Bible that cannot be understood by them.
It also meant the poor man could not yet eat Jesus' flesh, which explained why he says so many strange things.
So I will attempt to show here, what 'flesh' means in our new tongue, and why.
And of course, I will begin with Jesus' saying to eat His flesh.
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.
John 6:53
To Jesus, this clearly was critical, to be making such a damning statement.
No life?
How can that be? I have been alive since I was born, haven't I?
He goes on.
Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life;
and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:54
Okay, so now we a distinction. Eternal life.
No flesh, no life,
eat flesh, eternal life.
Even from the very first time I read the Bible, this struck out at me as being Jesus' most critical statement,
and I knew I had to get to understand what Jesus is saying here, else, no life.
At least, not His eternal life, which is the fundamental promise of Christianity, besides the kingdom of heaven.
Isn't it.
And of course, I knew about the Eucharist ritual in churches, how they take a wafer and wine,
but clearly that is a substitute. Giving it the fancy name, "transubstantiation" should not fool anyone.
No one got life from a wafer and wine.
In fact, all I really knew about that was from movies, were I remembered seeing the parishioners
that were all filing out of the pews into a single line to receive the wafer from the priest, like lifeless automatic robots.
So when remembering that, I was even more aghast at what Jesus was saying.
And at what the churches have done to the people.
I know some believe by doing the ritual, Jesus somehow does it for real for them.
But no. If you're honest, you can see how lifeless these people are, so clearly, they are wrong.
To me, there was something still to be unraveled here.
Jesus goes on
For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
John 6:55
His flesh is meat.
This is like a clue that He gives us, and really, it should have given us the answer.
Maybe it was the jolt which the previous two verses gives us, that makes us miss it.
For I did miss it at first. And evidently most people miss it.
We know meat is spiritual substance, as opposed to milk, from St Paul's sayings,
and from all the Christians who preach Paul's word.
Food for the soul, is how I interpreted it, when a Christian uses the word 'meat'.
It was still a bit vague, for me.
So then I looked for; what else does Jesus say that gives life, or eternal life?
And we find this soon after.
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
John 6:63
I had to look up what quicken means.
And I found out Aeroplane jelly quickens.
![Oops! :oops: :oops:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
huh?
Oh, that means 'sets', like liquid jelly sets when you put it in the fridge.
So spirit sets.
The next part also was a mystery, the flesh'' profits nothing.
Is He talking about our bodies? There is that word again.
I still didn't understand, for still not understanding the use of the word 'flesh'.
I thought, this might become clear later.
But what we do have is a definitive statement of what 'life' is,
the words that Jesus spoke to us are life.
I couldn't see how.
A little later, Peter says it.
Then Simon Peter answered Him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
John 6:68
I still needed more. Full understanding had not yet come.
So I looked for defining statements.
This is the next one.
And I know that His commandment is life everlasting:
whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak.
John 12:50
Now this felt like I was getting somewhere.
A clear defining statement, which even says, 'life everlasting'.
Not just the normal life we are born with, which Jesus called 'no life'.
And He is saying
God's commandments are that life everlasting,
and that is what Jesus is speaking to us, and why He is speaking to us.
Could I find more?
I still needed to know, how His spoken word, and how God's commandment, are 'eternal life',
because, as far I knew, I had ever eaten a word or a commandment before.
Then His words in chapters 14 & 15 sealed it for me.
If ye love Me, keep My commandments.
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever;
John 14:15-16
Because He said God's commandments are the life at verse John 12:50
and He informed us that is what He is speaking,
we can interchange "the words I speak to you" with "My commandments" with "God's commandments". Can't we.
And now we are also getting the definition for what Jesus meant by "eat".
If we "keep" His commandments, God will bless us with His Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
Surely that would be the 'life everlasting' if we have God's eternal spirit.
And I remembered that He also said
the words He speaks to us are spirit, not just life, at John 6:63.
He says more.
He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me:
and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.
John 6:14
Firstly, let me say here, this is the most wonderful promise in the Bible and in the world.
Jesus will manifest Himself to us!?!?
When I read this, I said in my heart,
I am holding you to this promise Jesus.
But I also knew, for that, I would have to hold His part of the bargain.
Which is, I had to
have His commandments, and keep them.
I knew I still had a long way to go, but now I knew these things.
His words are life, He speaks God's commandments.
And eating His words means having His commandments and keeping them.
So His words is God's words is His flesh.
Then it dawned on me.
We were told this in the very beginning of John's gospel.
The word was made flesh.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,
(and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,)
full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
&
In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.
John 1:4
The word was made flesh, and then He told us to
eat His flesh.
Now I felt I was beginning to understand what 'flesh' is, in the scriptural meaning for the word.
But we were not finished yet. Yes, I am sorry, this is a long one.
But it can't be helped. Hope you are still with me
We were still in chapters 14 & 15.
Judas Thomas ask Jesus, how will You come to us?
Jesus answered and said unto him,
If a man love Me, he will keep My words:
and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.
He that loveth me not keepeth not My sayings:
and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me.
John 14:23-24
Again, the key commandment here is keeping His words
which we now know is eating His flesh,
and with a reminder that His words are God's words.
And then, in the next chapter, and this one is critical too.
(
For I see, I don't know about you, but I see this being left out of most people's preach for Jesus.)
If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you,
ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples.
John 15:7-8
What I see is most Christians are saying we just have to keep the one commandment of Jesus,
to love one another.
Even in this, they leave out that Jesus also said "as I have loved you".
So they keep one half of one saying of Jesus, and preach Him crucified,
instead of allowing all of Jesus' words to abide in them, and they being His disciple.
And in other words, instead of eating Jesus' flesh.
Still not finished.
This one I found much later, because it does not mention 'life', so it didn't come up in my searches.
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death.
John 8:51
Saying 'shall never see death' is the same as saying 'has everlasting life'. Isn't it.
And saying 'keep My saying' is the same as saying 'keep My commandments' is the same as saying 'keep My words'.
So this verse is confirming all the previous sayings I put above.
And now for the finalé.
At the last supper.
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread,
and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples,
and said, Take, eat; this is My body.
Matthew 26:26
What was Jesus doing here?
A piece of bread isn't His body. So He must of been being symbolic here.
The clue to this is back in chapter 16.
How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread,
but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Matthew 16:11-12
So, putting this all together,
when Jesus held up a loaf of bread, and called it His body,
and since His words are God the Father's words, which are doctrines,
and He is the word come in the flesh,
the loaf of bread was symbolism for the whole 'loaf' of God's word, which is the word made flesh.
And this can be confirmed.
I am that bread of life.
John 6:48
This is the bread which cometh down from heaven,
that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
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 6:50-51
For those that stuck with me to the end, hope you enjoyed.
Bless you and Bless your bread.
![Heart suit :hearts: ♥️](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/2665.png)