Mar 6:37 Give them to eat.

Perhaps the simplest of all instructions and something that is done naturally in personal relationships. When someone comes to your house, you offer them food. Here, Christ applies this same rule to the gathering of a large group of people in the desert. He sees the natural world as his home and he sees his relationship with all people as personal.

While Christ warns us about seeking status and recognition from anonymous society, taking from society, the same rule does not apply to giving to society. We ask God not other people to provide our food from the environment (the first request of the Lord's prayer), however we all work to feed ourselves by working together in the social network. We are all debtors to God, but in human society we play both roles as givers and takers. Christ sees this balance as giving so that we can receive. We give first. We offer value for others.

Since this chapter in Mark is all about our relationships with others in society, Christ is merely instructing us on what is natural. If we see a need, we should first seek to fill it.

"Give" is from didômi (didomi), which means "to give," "to grant," "to hand over," and "to describe."

"Eat" is from phago (phago), which is a form of the word, phagein, which means to eat," "to eat up," and "to devour." A synonym for esthiô (esthio).