Charles Ellicott Commentary John 4:34

"Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to accomplish his work." — John 4:34 (ASV)

My meat.—Better, My food, as before (John 4:8).

To do the will... to finish.—Better, that I may do the will, ... that I may finish. These verbs point out the end which He always kept in view. In some of the best manuscripts and in the received text, the tenses are different. This means: I may be constantly doing the will of Him who sent Me, and may then at last complete His work. .

This work He speaks of here, and in John 4:32, as actual food—as the supply of the truest needs and the satisfaction of the truest desires of His nature. (Compare the note on Matthew 4:4.) Analogies to this are within the limits of every man’s experience; and, faint as they are, they help us to learn something of what this spiritual sustenance was.

The command of duty, the cheering power of hope, and the stimulus of success are forces that supply weak and weary nerves and muscles with the vigour of a new life. Under them, the soldier can forget his wounds, the martyr can smile at the lion or the flame, and the worn-out traveller can still plod onward at the thought of home. We cannot analyse this power, but it exists. They have food to eat that those without do not know of.