Man does not live by bread alone

“And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward hungry. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 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.” - Matthew 4v2-4

When I was watching television recently I heard a comment on a talk show that man’s three driving forces were food, sleep, and sex. This sort of summarises the mindset of the world today. If a person has enough food, sleep, and sex everything will basically be okay. There was no mention of anything outside the physical.

This kind of thinking drove Satan to the His first temptation of Christ. After praying and fasting for forty days Jesus was led into the wilderness where He encountered the devil. Knowing His physical hunger Satan tempted Him by challenging His deity and telling Him if He really were God He could turn the stones into bread.

Jesus shot down the whole theory of what life was all about. Man does not live by bread alone. To fit the quote above we might also say that man does not live by sleep alone or sex alone. What else is needed for real, complete life? Jesus said that he lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. God’s word is a vital part of a real life.

That being the case we must take care never to neglect that part of our lives. Do we give God’s word as much emphasis as the areas mention on the talk show? How far off base we can become when we focus on the physical.