Shall Not Live

One of my favorite passages of the Bible is Matthew 4:1-4

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’””

Hmm!

So, “Man shall not live on bread alone”

Then, what does man need more than bread? Meat to get protein and Vitamin B12 and vegetables and fruits to get all the vitamins and other important minerals?

No, that is not what Jesus is talking about.

Here is the thing: When we read the Bible, we repeatedly find in the Bible how God wants us to live our lives here on earth. If you notice the kind of life God is calling us to is a kind of life that is too hard for all of us to do.

I mean, think about it. I am a very opinionated and independent woman. I love being a woman.

Then when I read the Bible, it says that my husband is my head and I need to submit to him. A woman is created for a man, not a man to a woman. It is a woman who was deceived first, not the man. A woman should not teach and take authority over the man.

“Okay,” I said to myself, for the first time I came across those chapters of the Bible (like Ephesians 5:21-33; 1 Peter 3, 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Peter 2), “I will read and enjoy the other Books of the Bible especially Psalm and Proverbs but not these ones.”

So, I began skipping those chapters of the Bible.

Then I soon learned that I needed to wrestle with those passages I had a problem with if I truly wanted to follow Jesus Christ. I learned that I have to believe and accept everything in the Bible or I have to deny everything.

Then I learned from Matthew 4:4 that I needed to eat the Bread that came from above to live a life that is demanded from me by the word of God; and that life is a life that can only be lived by Jesus Christ, not by me.

What does that mean?

I have to let Christ live in and through me by reading, studying and meditating on the word of God day and night.

So, Paul writes: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

So, yes, it is very true that “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4

the “word” that comes from the mouth of God is called “Bread of Life.”

Listen what Jesus says:

“Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:32-35

Have you ever seen people who come to church but deny Christ by the way they live their lives?

Yes, I have.

Most of these people are very far from the word of God and they only believe some passages of the Bible, not all. So, all they can do is to live this earthly life. They go to work or school, make some money, come home and watch YouTube and say whatever they want to say, no filter to their mouth and they do life as they like and want to as they learned from the movies and other entertainment media. Do they still come to church? Yes!

How do I know about them?

I was one of those people. ///