After one of Jesus’ teachings, we read that “From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”
Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:66-69 (CSB)
The expression “eternal life” is not really a reference to unending life so much as the highest quality of life possible to us, essentially, the life of God. So Peter was affirming that from Jesus alone came the “words of eternal life” — that is, words that would bring them into experiencing God's life. They could be found no where else.
The implication? Everything in our lives derives its value based on what Jesus thinks of it. Only what matters to Him matters. Only what He values is valuable. Only what He considers important is important. Only what He wants to see happen is what must happen. All that He wants avoided must be avoided. Anything He’s not interested in is a waste of time. So we do well to keep questions like these in mind in all our decision making to see if our actions correspond to the life of God or not:
The more we practice that kind of scrutiny of the decisions we are about to make, the more we position hearts to hear what Jesus has to say to us — words of eternal life.
