63 τὸ πνεῦμά ἐστιν τὸ ζῳοποιοῦν, ἡ σὰρξ οὐκ ὠφελεῖ οὐδέν· τὰ ῥήματα ἃ ἐγὼ λελάληκα ὑμῖν πνεῦμά ἐστιν καὶ ζωή ἐστιν. John 6:63 (NA28)
63 The Spirit is who makes alive while the flesh does not profit anything. The words which I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life. John 6:63 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)
A study of 2 Kings 12-16 is horrifying to read. Why? The rampant apostasy in both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern King of Judah was beyond reproach. King Ahaz of Judah actually sacrificed his own son(s) to idols. I am sure things were just as bad, if not worse, in the Northern Kingdom. However, are any better in our time. In today’s study we will look at John Chapter 6 and see that apostasy in our Lord’s time was little different than we are encountering in our day. Many who know me well say that I seem to enjoy teaching from John’s Gospel and his epistles and Revelation than from any other parts of the Bible. I don’t know about that, but the Apostle John is someone I can identify with very well. I have been accused by those same people who who enjoy analyzing me so much of not being able to compromise at all. I have no grey areas. Things are either right or wrong. I agree with that assessment to a point and I see the same sort of view of non-compromising adherence to the truth with the Apostle John. However, let us not forget that what he wrote for us in God’s Word is that very thing. We are reading the inspired Word of God and in John 6, the very words of our Lord are, for the most part, in response to His critics who were in the darkness of unbelief. Don’t we have the same thing going on in our time?