Man Does Not Live By Bread Alone (2)

Chapter 1

Man does not live by bread alone - Dt. 8:1-3; Mt. 4:4

Deuteronomy

8 All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.

2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

Matthew 4:1-4

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

The revelation and understanding concerning man not living by bread alone is so important, it was highlighted at two moments in history that were so important, the vital need to reiterate the foundation of the absolute necessity of living by the word of God, which is the Holy Scriptures, was communicated.

It has to be understood that the context of this revelation is obedience to God's revealed commands. To live by the Word of God is to obey it. It isn't some type of incomprehensible mystery God was revealing to His people. He was simply saying when we live out our lives on earth, it's most important to seek productivity and success in light of how His Word tells us to do so.

If we manage to reach success and aren't living in obedience to God's commands, it's not only a shallow and temporary achievement, but it won't transition into eternity either, when we are rewarded according to our works. Those works must be the outcome of our faith, and faith can only come from hearing the Word of God, which means to obey it. We are to operate solely within the parameters of the Holy Scriptures.

There is also the idea conveyed in the Scriptures above that our lives aren't only to be lived in relationship to seeking that associated with providing our wants and needs. That's the meaning of not living by bread alone. There is more to life than only making money to reach certain goals, and even to give to God's kingdom work, as important as that is.

In Deuteronomy, God was giving His final instructions to Israel before they were to take the land given them by God, which was identified as being filled with milk and honey; there was no scarcity there. He wanted to understand His desire to bless them bountifully, but within the guidelines of remaining true and obedient to the commands and laws He had given them.

Jesus, symbolically, was also in the wilderness in the way the Israelites were, with the exception it was done over a 40-day period instead of 40 years. Forty represents a time of testing. It represented the difficulties of scarcity, and at the end when Jesus was hungry, the first thing the devil tempted Him with was concerning eating. The temptation was beyond that though. It also involved Jesus being tempted to bypass productivity and magically transform the stones in bread. He refused to, citing the Scripture that "man did not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

All of this is important because Jesus was once again reinforcing the fact that life is to be lived by the revealed Word of God. We aren't to pursue wealth and success as ends in themselves, but only as a means to another far more important end. More than that, we are to do this how God wants us to, if He has chosen to this way of life.

What brings contentment  

One thing I've learned over the years in regard to my own pursuit of serving others, is if all I do is focus on that part of my life, I got miserable and discontented pretty fast. But if I was centered on various areas of my life, not only did I enjoy serving others through my businesses, but found myself very content as well.

In the world it can seem that being driven towards a goal is a good thing, but that is only the case if that drive is tempered by enjoyment of the journey, by participating in all of life. After all, what is success and wealth if you can't use it to enjoy life or share with others?

The point is I was far more productive with my businesses and content with life when my sole focus wasn't on making the businesses work. When I stopped that type of obsession, not only was I relaxed and enjoying life, but also found answers customers were looking for. It's nothing different than the need to have some down time or quiet time to rejuvenate. Some people need it to different degrees, and I understand at times when a crisis comes there are periods of time that need to be set aside to deal with them. But over the decades I've found that to be only rare exceptions, and not the normal way things happen when serving customers. I'm talking about real crisis here, not a crisis as defined by a customer.

What we're created for

In the pursuit of success as a Christian, we need to have at least a basic understanding of why we were created in order to comprehend the place all we're doing has in the overall purpose of God.

We are told in Ephesians (3:10-12) about the eternal purpose of God, which means before the creation of the world there was something the Godhead had in mind for initiating their actions. The church was designed to revealed the many-sided wisdom of God to principalities and powers in heavenly places, and that will be accomplished by being conformed to His image. We're talking about conformity to Jesus as the perfect man, not His divinity. Conformity to His image is the end goal of God's purpose in creation, and it leads to the visible revelation of who He is in a people. That is to be spread across the entire earth.

With that in mind, it sets us on an incredible journey and task in this life of participating in this great endeavor to bring everything under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, starting with ourselves.

This is where our call to success comes in, and why drives us to serve well, which attracts customers to us, which in turn builds wealth. All of this means nothing if it isn't lodged within the purpose of God He created us for. But within that purpose, it can produce extraordinary results because He, over time, blesses the work of our hands. We can't do this on our own, nor does our labor produce the results, as if we have the ability to give the increase.

Rather, we are to plant and water and trust the sovereignty of God to give us the increase. This relates to all areas of life. God has an interest in all that we do, and expects us to seek and understand, with the help of the godly teachers, the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Spirit, how to apply His word to all areas of our lives.

Conclusion

To sum this up, we have to understand success isn't only measured by how much money we have or the stuff we collect. It's measured by our obedience to the Word of God. God has always desired to bless His people in all ways, but is frustrated in that by the propensity for people to start thinking they're special because of those blessings, rather than being the recipients of the grace and goodness of God.

History has proven it's hard for an individual or group of financially blessed people to enter the kingdom of God because they start to be tempted by how the world receives those things and how it uses them, rather than focusing on blessing our own families and giving to extend the kingdom of God in history. That's the motive behind why God blesses us with assets.

The other thing that people do is to forget how much we need God because we think we have everything because of our own power or wisdom. Only God can give power to get wealth, and as mentioned, it's for the purpose of establishing His covenant on this earth. What we are blessed with in this life isn't a testimony to our goodness or resourcefulness, but to God's.

If we understand and remember these things, it'll make it safer for us to be blessed by God for the purpose He wants to bless us, and it'll come with no regrets, tremendous contentment, and the desire to stay within the boundaries God has given us; something Satan refused to do.