Living By the Word

“But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’“ Matthew 4:4 

I don’t want to get on a soapbox here, but it seems like fewer and fewer people are living or even attempting to live by the Word of God these days. If you and I were going to build a house in which everything fits properly into place, we would have to choose a standard by which we measure things. We don’t have the luxury of using inches and feet one day and centimeters and meters the next. 

The Word of God is a standard by which we should live. We don’t have the luxury of choosing the parts we like and ignoring those things that seem a little harder to swallow. We can’t just make up doctrines and try to fit them into our theology. We can’t slant the sacred scriptures to suit our needs. They are a standard by which everything else is measured. 

Unlike the ruler my 6th-grade teacher would slap against his desk to get our attention, the Word of God is a treasure trove of wisdom and instruction against which we can measure right and wrong. It’s a lamp to guide our feet (Ps. 119:105). If we measure our lives against the Word of God we are sure to stay on the path of righteousness and avoid a whole lot of trouble. 

From Scriptures we see that the Word of God is: alive (Heb. 4:12), powerful (Heb. 4:12), eternal (Mt. 24:35), true (John 17:17), flawless (Ps. 12:6), God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16), and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). No wonder Jesus said, “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”