John’s writings are not mainly for study and understanding; they are primarily for the enjoyment of God’s children. When you come to a feast, it is not your purpose to study the different courses of food. Study at such a time would frustrate you from the enjoyment of eating. In like manner, we should come to John’s writings—to his Gospel, Epistles, and Revelation—regarding them as courses of a spiritual feast. When some hear this, they may wonder how we can say that John’s writings are a feast. The answer is that no other writings in the Bible emphasize the matter of eating as much as John’s writings do. Of course, Paul speaks about spiritual eating, but he does not speak about this as much as John does. One chapter in the Gospel of John, chapter six, is almost entirely devoted to eating. There the Lord Jesus says, “I am the bread of life” (vv. 35, 48). Then He goes on to say that He is the living bread and that if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever (v. 51); that unless we eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, we have no life in us (v. 53); that he who eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life (v. 54) and abides in Him (v. 56); and that the one who eats Him will also live because of Him (v. 57), for he who “eats this bread shall live forever” (v. 58). To be sure, eating is strongly emphasized in chapter six of John’s Gospel. To eat of the Lord as the bread of life is to feast on Him.
John also has much to say concerning eating in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 2:7 the Lord Jesus says, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” To eat of the tree of life is to enjoy Christ as our life supply. It was God’s original intention that man should eat of the tree of life (Gen. 2:9, 16). But due to the fall of man the tree of life was closed to him (Gen. 3:22-24). Through the redemption of Christ, the way to touch the tree of life, which is God Himself in Christ as life to man, has been opened again (Heb. 10:19-20).
In Revelation 2:17 the Lord Jesus says, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna.” Manna is a type of Christ as the heavenly food enabling God’s people to go His way. The children of Israel ate of manna during their years in the wilderness (Exo. 16:14-16, 31). To partake of the hidden manna certainly is to enjoy Christ by eating Him.
Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me.” In this verse “dine” means to take the principal meal of the day at evening. Here the Lord promises to dine with the one who opens the door to Him. To dine is not merely to eat certain foods, but it is to enjoy the riches of a meal. This dining may refer to the eating of the rich produce of the good land of Canaan by the children of Israel (Josh. 5:10-12).
These verses from the book of Revelation indicate that the Lord desires to recover the eating by God’s people of the proper food as ordained by God and typified by the tree of life the manna, and the produce of the good land, all of which are types of the various aspects of Christ as food to us. In his writings John definitely emphasizes the rich enjoyment of Christ by feasting on Him.
John also speaks of eating in the last chapter of Revelation. Revelation 22:1 and 2a say, “And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life....” The tree of life is for God’s people to receive and enjoy. For eternity all God’s redeemed ones will enjoy Christ as the tree of life as their eternal portion. According to these verses, the tree of life is the life supply available along the flow of the Spirit as the water of life. Where the Spirit flows, there the life supply of Christ is found.
In Revelation 22:14 we have a promise concerning the enjoyment of the tree of life: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city.” This verse may be regarded as a promise related to the enjoyment of the tree of life, which is Christ with all the riches of life. Through Christ’s redemption, which has fulfilled all the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness, the way to the tree of life is opened to the believers. Therefore, those who wash their robes in the redeeming blood of Christ have the right to enjoy the tree of life as their portion.
All these quotations from John’s Gospel and Revelation show the importance of eating in John’s writings. This also indicates that his writings are mysterious, far beyond our natural understanding.
The writings of John can be compared to a Chinese feast consisting of many courses. It would exhaust our mentality to study all the courses of such a feast and their ingredients. You come to a feast not to study, but to enjoy the food by eating it. The principle is the same with John’s writings. It is impossible for us to say how many “courses” are found in these writings. We need to come to John’s writings for nourishment, that is, to eat and digest the spiritual food they contain.