I'm breaking in here.
I haven't read everything you've written, and I entered into this thread late.
How is your explanation any different than what Jesus commanded - "do it" / work to get fed (which in a way sounds even more meritorious)?
Here is the language just using the basic sense of the present tense:
- Do not work [for] the food [that] perishes
- Rather, [work for] the food [that] lasts into eternal life
- which the Son of Man will give [to] you
Yes, Jesus is redirecting their efforts and reasons they're working to following Him.
Yes, Jesus is talking about spiritual food - the Good News of who He is.
And Jesus is commanding these unbelievers to work for the information He's teaching about Himself.
This is what the Text clearly says, and I came to see it's a mistake to explain it away as if He didn't command unbelievers to work to hear and learn from the Father as Jesus will soon explain in regard to the Father's drawing men to come to Jesus.
I simply don't reconcile Jesus to Paul but Paul to Jesus. In the end it's really that simple.
Yes, it is the Spirit/Words/Life/which gives Life and Jesus gives EL and the 'by grace salvation through faith" is the Father's gift. Whatever we've been commanded to do and have done in the receipt of the Gift is not worthy of a wage and nothing we are to boast about. But to say we have done nothing is not accurate and also leads to problems.
In effect, yes, Jesus did command unbelievers to work to get saved - to work
to hear and learn then believe and He will give eternal life (there's also some more to add here but not now). This is quite different than Paul dealing with works of law.
It's really just another of those times that God commanded men to believe in His Son. And this is why the discussion has to go into what Faith is and how it is spoken of in the Text in effect as a two-sided coin with Obedience as the other side. And this is why I asked earlier about your phrase "works of obedience" (as I recall).
I expect you to continue kicking and being rude. I kicked against some of these Scriptures for some time also until I decided to just let the Text say what it/He says and let go of what others had taught me. That took place after I became proficient in translating myself and a few other things happened that convinced me to sit in relative isolation for years and do my own work asking for His help.
FWIW, in regard to the languages, I completely understand what you meant about men who know them remaining in disagreements. During what I recall was my last year in language training when we were doing practical translating and interpreting, we had just completed work in one of the Thess letters as I recall. It seemed everyone was pretty happy with themselves, and the professor asked about a section that I had been troubled by and had done some extra work in for that reason. We all knew what the language and grammar said down to the level of every word and clausal structure. But the professor asked what a certain verse meant. The room went silent and the deer in the headlights look was everywhere. No one answered. Being the old guy in the room and having already given it some thought during my translation and interpreting work, I answered him. He agreed. Moral of the story is that language work is not always the end of the story.
Moral of our story at this point from my perspective is that theological traditional instruction is not really the end of the story, and it typically makes some into aggressive camp-based soldiers.
We can get deeper into the language of John6:27 and close context if you'd like. I assume you are able to discuss not only word definitions but some parsing issues and resultant meanings of words and phrases.
Differences like the ones we see here will come into discussion:
NKJ John 6:28 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
NET John 6:28 So then they said to him, "What must we do to accomplish the deeds God requires?"
ESV John 6:28 Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?"