Articles
Bread of Life
Bread of Life
What is our motivation to go to church? Is it just to visit with our friends? Is it just to ease our minds by checking off a mental box? Is it out of tradition or habit? Is it to please others, or just to relieve your conscience?
What should be our motivation to go to church? We see examples in the Bible of people who were going to worship for the wrong reason, such as the feeding of the thousands. In John 6:1-14, we read about Jesus taking a little bread and fish and miraculously managing to feed thousands of people. To the people’s astonishment there were even leftovers. However, after this miracle Jesus rebuked the people who were following him because they weren’t following him for the right reason. They should’ve been following him for the spiritual food, but instead they were following him in hopes of being physically fed more bread and fish.
Today churches around us often attract people to worship through offering food and social activities. Clearly these people have also missed the point in Jesus’ miracle. It’s true that He did this to prove Himself to be the son of God, but He was also making another point.
The fish and bread represent the spiritual sustenance our soul desires. When you partake of the spiritual food that is offered at church services, it will not only satisfy you, but leave you with more than you desire, as illustrated by the leftovers they had after they were physically filled. But the people that day weren’t spiritually minded. The only thing they saw was the physical aspect that if they follow Jesus they will get fed physically. They weren’t paying careful attention to the spiritual bread of life Jesus had to offer. They only followed him for the hope of a limited time reward that would leave them hungry again in a few hours.
This is also what we see in the world around us today. In many denominations the Bible isn’t read or adhered to. Churches draw masses of people to services with food, social activities, games, and theater productions. As Christians we can be guilty of the same if we are only showing up to see our friends or out of habit or tradition. It’s not enough for us to just show up for worship to fill a pew or to please our parents.
We must understand that the reason we go to church is to be mentally engaged, examine our lives, and make changes according to God’s commands. God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. In order to fill our soul’s longing for home, we must seek the spiritual, eternal life giving sustenance our soul desires.
