John 6:63

It is the spirit that quickeneth - It is the spiritual sense only of my words that is to be attended to, and through which life is to be attained, Co2 3:6. Such only as eat and drink what I have mentioned, in a spiritual sense, are to expect eternal life. The flesh profiteth nothing - If ye could even eat my flesh and drink my blood, this would not avail for your salvation. These words contain a caution that the hearers should not understand his words in the strict literal sense, as if his body were really Bread, and as if his flesh and blood were really to be eaten and drank. The words that I speak - Or, I have spoken. Instead of λαλω, I speak, I read λελαληκα, I have spoken, on the authority of BCDKLT, thirteen others; the Syriac, all the Arabic, all the Persic, Coptic, Ethiopic, Gothic, Slavonic, Vulgate, all the Itala; Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius, Basil, Cyril, Chrysostom, Tertullian, Ambrosias, Augustin, Gaudentius, and Vigilius Taps. This is an important reading, and plainly shows that our Lord's words here do not refer to any new point of doctrine which he was then inculcating, but to what he had spoken concerning his being the living bread, and concerning the eating of his flesh, and drinking of his blood, in the preceding verses. Are spirit, and they are life - As my words are to be spiritually understood, so the life they promise is of a spiritual nature: see Bishop Pearce.

the flesh profiteth nothing--Much of His discourse was about "flesh"; but flesh as such, mere flesh, could profit nothing, much less impart that life which the Holy Spirit alone communicates to the soul. the words that I speak . . . are spirit and . . . life--The whole burden of the discourse is "spirit," not mere flesh, and "life" in its highest, not its lowest sense, and the words I have employed are to be interpreted solely in that sense.

And he said, therefore said I unto you,.... Referring to Joh 6:44, where the substance of what is here said, is there delivered; though the Ethiopic version reads, therefore I say unto you, what follows: that no man can come to me, except it be given him of my Father; which is the same, as to be drawn by the Father; for faith in Christ is the gift of God, and coming to him, is owing to efficacious grace, and is not the produce of man's power and freewill; See Gill on Joh 6:44.

In this chapter we have, I. The miracle of the loaves (Joh 6:1-14). II. Christ's walking upon the water (Joh 6:15-21). III. The people's flocking after him to Capernaum (Joh 6:22-25). IV. His conference with them, occasioned by the miracle of the loaves, in which he reproves them for seeking carnal food, and directs them to spiritual food (Joh 6:26, Joh 6:27), showing them how they must labour for spiritual food (Joh 6:28, Joh 6:29), and what that spiritual food is (v. 30-59). V. Their discontent at what he said, and the reproof he gave them for it (Joh 6:60-65). VI. The apostasy of many from him, and his discourse with his disciples that adhered to him upon that occasion (Joh 6:66-71).

6:63 The essence of Jesus’ gift is found in the Holy Spirit alone, not in human effort (literally the flesh). Life and understanding come through the gift of the Spirit (see 14:15-20; 20:21-22). True life can be found only when the Holy Spirit infuses human life.