John 6:27

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.

Ver. 27. Labour not for the meat, &c.] When Basil was tempted with money and preferment, he answers, Pecuniam da quae permaneat, ac continuo duret, gloriam quae semper floreat. The fashion of this world passeth away, as the water of a river that runs by a city, or as a fair picture drawn upon the ice that melts away with it. Men come to the world's felicities, as to a lottery, with heads full of hopes, but return with hearts full of blanks.

Labour for the meat that endureth] We may not dream of a delicacy in God's ways, or think that good things will drop out of the clouds to us, as towns were said to come into Timothy's toils while he slept. We must be at pains for heaven. Laborandum Working was one of the emperor's mottoes, and may be every Christian's. Strive they must even to an agony, Αγωνιζεσθε , Luk 13:24 ere they can get into the strait gate; together with our stooping, there must be a certain stripping of ourselves.