Our Scripture for today is John 6:22-71.
It is a long narrative filled with lessons about faith, belief, and the essence of spiritual sustenance. The great teaching of this text is that Jesus satisfies our real needs. I encourage you to read this text from your Bible.
The 5,000 in this story were the 5,000 who ate the loaves and fish. After eating, they sought Jesus not for spiritual reasons but for physical bread. Jesus pointed them to the bread of life, Himself, indicating that the deepest hunger is spiritual, not physical.
As he said in John 6:26–27,
“Truly, truly, I tell you, it is not because you saw these signs that you are looking for Me, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life.”
Any unbeliever can work for food for the body, but our true calling in Jesus is to work for food for the soul. He promises this in verse 35, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”
Jesus is identifying Himself as the only source that can truly satisfy our deepest need. Physical bread sustains physical life…temporarily, but the “bread of life” Jesus offers to sustain spiritual life…eternally.
This insight is profound: while physical needs are real and pressing, they are not the deepest needs we have. Our greatest hunger goes beyond the material to the spiritual, pointing to a need for meaning, purpose, and connection with the divine. Jesus teaches that He Himself is the fulfillment of this need.
This lesson encourages us to reflect on what we are truly seeking in life and to recognize that only in Christ can our deepest hunger be fully and finally satisfied.
Before we end today’s devotional, it is important to note that many of the 5,000 struggled with Jesus’ teaching, and as the Bible tells us, “From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.” (John 6:66)
May our response be like that of the Apostle Peter: “Lord, You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God” (68–69).
Lonnie Davis