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)
Labor is the expenditure of energy to perform a task. It is the outflow or disbursement of means to generate product from inputs. It is the rational and intelligent factor of product. Labor is work.
In our contemporary Societies and World at large, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a unique metric that measures or defines the wealth a people or Nation. It is a factor implicitly used to determine the productivity (labor utilization) of a people measured by the monetary (market) value of goods and services they produced within a given period. The higher a people or country’s GDP, the wealthier that people or country is ranked reflective in their per capita income. It must be noted that the context of Labor utilization is not in the volume of activity rather in the quality (intelligent worth) of its productivity translated to wealth.
Labor in effect produces wealth. The Bible puts it thus, “In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. (Prov. 14:23 KJV) Labor must never be viewed at a negative element or event; it is its poor or non-utilization that is derogatory and offensive.
We must the careful not to labor in vain. It is this noxious and exasperation deployment of labor that our Lord Jesus was correcting in the referenced scripture when He said, “Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life…” (John 6:27 KJV)
Few important notices are necessary here; 1) Labor is part of life. 2) Labor produces result (meat). 3) Some meats (results) produced by labor eventual comes to naught or are destroyed – perish! 4) Some other meats (results) produced by labor endures forever or is eternally lasting. It produces a result that has perpetual and gainful result.
Beloved, we must be smart. The notice here by our Lord Jesus to our consciousness on how we utilize our labor (energy). What do we produce with our labor? Are the outcomes of what we labor for fleeting or perpetual? Are we able to secure perpetual (eternal) rest after our labor? These are intelligent perspective that must be built into our labor utilization lest after our labor is gone (utilized or diminished) we suffer unrest as a result of perished or perishable results
But there’s hope; Jesus said, “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…” Notice He said, He gives “…meat which endureth unto everlasting life” This meat is “The Word of God”. (See John 14:10)
When we direct or utilize our labor guided by the Word of God, doing what God says, abstaining from what He refutes, we build a future that is secure, perpetual and restful against which no wallow can billow rather full of blessed and quiet assurance.
I welcome you to REST.
