Who has the tastiest barbeque, whom shall I befriend, possibly, whose financial advice should I take, which one of these medications would best mitigate my symptoms, and what careers would be best for me to pursue? These are all examples of the multiplicity of questions we can ask someone or a group of people at any given moment as we try to garner advice throughout this life.
In the sixth chapter of John, the disciples, stirred by what Jesus told the Jews in Capernaum, left, and would no longer walk with Him. Jesus then said to the twelve in verse sixty-seven “You do not want to leave also, do you?” (NASB20201), to which Peter then asks in the following verse, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” When we face trying or soul-stirring situations in this life that cause us to have feelings of defeat so strong to where we are tempted to give up our faith, it is important to ask the same question as Peter did so long ago, know to whom we should and should not go to, and why, as we will now see.
Words of Life Will Not Always Seem Lively
The first thing to point out is that words of life will not always seem lively. When we go back to John chapter six, we notice in verse forty-one that the Jews, after Jesus told them He was the bread that came down out of heaven, did not take this description of His very well, and would not react to it any better in the passages we are about to read.
Starting in verse forty-eight, Jesus says: “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down out of heaven so that anyone may eat from it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I will give for the life of the world also is My flesh.” v. 52: “Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, the one who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
Not only would the Jews react poorly to that metaphor, but it would also leave a bad taste in the disciples’ mouths, too.
In verse sixty, it mentions, “… many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This statement is very unpleasant; who can listen to it?”, verse sixty-one “But Jesus, aware that His disciples were complaining about this, said to them, “Is this offensive to you? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh provides no benefit; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and are life.”
Some definitions that Dictionary.com gives for lively include the following: “animated, spirited, vivacious, or sprightly,” “eventful, stirring, or exciting,” and “fresh or invigorating”.2
When we think of the word “lively” in general, there is a connotation of happiness when this word comes to mind, with most things that are unpleasant being in hindsight.
There was certainly liveliness in the sense that the metaphor Jesus used to describe himself stirred both the Jews and disciples, but the grotesque wording was anything but.
We don’t have to go too far back in scripture to understand that words of life are not always lively; in fact, words leading to life have not always been that way from the beginning.
Throughout the Old Testament, laws relating to things that are typically considered crass to expatiate upon in a religious setting nowadays were put in place so people could have a right relationship with God and live with Him.
Without going into too much detail, consider these two Old Testament examples: In Genesis 17:14, if a male was uncircumcised, he would be cut off from his people. In Leviticus 20, a person would either be cut off or put to death for immoralities such as cursing parents, having sexual affairs with animals, and acting incestuously in various ways.
Not only is it important to consider the magnitude of what people would have to suffer if they failed to abide by God’s word in a covenant of old, but the severity of what the New Testament has to say about hell and a person’s spiritual death he or she will be conscious of (John 5:28-29, Daniel 12:2) should also be taken into account as it pertains to words leading to life.
In Romans 2:8, it mentions that “… those who are self-serving and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, He will give wrath and indignation.”, in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul writes, “These people will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,” these people will end up in a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:50), the smoke of their torment eternally rises, and are restless for the same amount of time (Revelation 14:11).
At this point, you might ask, how are these words of life, exactly? Though there is more mentioned about death in the previously mentioned verses than life, it is important to understand that passages like these exist to warn and sober us about the consequences we will face if we fail to abide by the will of God so that we may be moved to choose an eternity where all is peace, joy, and love, as opposed to someplace where there is perpetual torture and unrest.
Consider the last three verses of 2 Timothy 2, with special focus on the other two.
Starting in verse twenty-four, it reads, “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, skillful in teaching, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, (watch this) if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”
The most important thing to glean from this is when we come across words of life that don’t seem lively; we must not retreat like the disciples did and try to make a daintier book out of the Bible; otherwise, we might miss life.
“…the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12, ESV3)
There Are Places Not to Look for Words of Life
The second thing I want to bring to your attention is that there are places not to look for words of life.
When the disciples went away from Jesus, they could have gone to any number of false gods or been given over to a Satanic mindset, but the text does not indicate likewise.
In Jeremiah 10:5, the prophet writes concerning idols, “They are like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, For they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good.” The Psalmist in Psalms 115:5 and 135:16 also talks about idols who are not able to speak.
Just because idols do not possess human qualities or those of an incarnate deity for that matter, does not mean it is unable to inflict spiritual harm and lead us away from life, in fact, 2 Corinthians 12:2 speaks of people who were led astray to mute idols.
Not only do idols lack words of, or leading to, life because they cannot speak, there is no life that is found in idolatry, either.
In Deuteronomy 17, it mentions that if a person transgressed God’s covenant by way of serving other gods, they would be stoned to death in verse five, and Revelation 21:8 mentions that idolaters will burn in the lake of fire, which is the second death.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:7-8, writing in relation to Israel’s blunders, says this: “Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.” Nor are we to commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.”, with that death referring to Numbers 25, where the Israelites followed Baal of Peor.
Just as the disciples could have easily gone to the majority of lowercase g gods that were available to worship during that time, we, too, can decidedly be captivated with the bouquet of idols this world has to offer today, whether it be carousing, sexually illicit things, monetary affairs, social status, political status, or any slew of things that can be made a deity.
However, it must be understood that these passages establish indubitably that there are no words of life to be found either in idols, because they are lifeless both physically and spiritually or Satan himself, especially in Genesis Three when he deceived the first man and woman in the garden.
Jesus Has the Words of Eternal Life
The last point I want to bring out is that Jesus has the words of eternal life.
In John 5:24, Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”, the same book, three chapters, and eight verses later, Jesus also says “and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
It is important to know that we are not without reasons to believe that Jesus has the words of life, consider what Paul said to the Church in Rome in 1:20 of that letter “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”, though the passage in its original context refers to the wrath of God being revealed to those who suppress the truth, it is an important verse to take up so we can know wholeheartedly that we have cause to partake of this living bread and living water.
Consider the intricacies of His creation, how the Earth is just the right distance from the sun, and the fine-tuning of the universe’s physics, the confirmations of His word through archeological discoveries such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and various Papyri Manuscripts of the New Testament that have surfaced over the years, the writings of secular historians such as Flavius Josephus and Cornelius Tacitus, and how, after process by way of elimination and reasoning through various factors, the tomb remained empty to give us the Resurrection and the life, so that by believing which leads us to accept all that God would have us to as far as being right with Him, we may have eternal life though our mortal bodies die and decay (John 11:25).
If only we were like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 who examined the scriptures daily to see those things were so, and kept the charge of 1 Thessalonians 5:21 to examine everything, especially this faith we hold to, we will see that the evidence is, in fact, plain to us, which allows us to say earnestly and genuinely, that Jesus is the way, truth, and life, and therefore, has the words of life.
Conclusion
As twilight steals over this lesson, let us remember that, one, words leading to eternal life will not always sound lively as we remember the Jews and apostles disgust towards the metaphor Jesus used to describe himself, and the handful of passages mentioned that warn about death both physical and spiritual , two, there are no words of life to be found in a mute image made with men’s hands, nor is there any life found when given over to idolatry or a Satanic mindset, and three, that Jesus has the words of eternal life, which we can prove, and are supposed to test, by multiple pieces of evidence (read Deuteronomy 19:15 and John 8:16-17 for additional comparison). Once we have received that evidence, we must apply it in order to best understand that He has given us His word, containing writings of inspired men, so that we may become a child of God by hearing, believing, repenting, confessing, and being buried in baptism’s watery grave for the remittance of sins, rising to walk as a new creature who remains faithful, and teaches others the words of life. “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires, take the water of life without cost.” Revelation 22:17. This hour, if you would like to begin a new life in Christ, who is the way, truth, and life, come to the Savior, and make no delay as we will not stand and sing, but rather transition to the next speaker.