Not by bread alone phrase. Man does not live by bread alone meaning

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From the Bible (Old Testament, Deuteronomy, Chapter 8, Art. 3). Moses, calming his people, tired of the long return from Egyptian captivity, said that it was not in vain that God subjected the people of Israel to such trials: “He humbled you, tormented you with hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know and your fathers did not know, in order to show you that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. man lives."
In the New Testament, in the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 4), this expression is also found. When Jesus was in the desert and kept a long fast (vv. 3-4), “the tempter came to Him and said: If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. He answered and said to him: It is written: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
IN modern Russia the expression gained additional popularity after the publication (1956) of the novel “Not by Bread Alone” by Vladimir Dudintsev (1918-1998).
The meaning of the expression: for a person to be completely happy, not enough material well-being, he needs spiritual food, moral satisfaction.

Meanings in other dictionaries

Man does not live by bread alone

A saying that a person should not only be interested in material wealth, but also live a spiritual life. He is a busy man, he, as they say, has no time for the stars. But... man does not live by bread alone. It happens in life that one indelible impression will forever open a person’s soul towards beauty... Or maybe he’s just used to such miracles? (T. Kalugina. The midnight rainbow is shining). ...

Don't go, stay with me

From the romance “Don’t go, don’t leave” (1900), written by the composer N. Zubov to the words of the poet M. P. Poigin: Don’t go, stay with me, It’s so joyful and bright here, I’ll cover my lips, eyes, and forehead with kisses . Don't go, stay with me. I've loved you for so long. With my fiery caress I will drink and intoxicate... ...

Don't teach me how to live!

From the novel (chapter 22) “The Twelve Chairs” (1928) Soviet writers Ilya Ilf (1897-1937) and Evgeny Petrov (1903-1942). One of Ellochka Shchukina’s most favorite phrases (see Ellochka the cannibal), vocabulary which consisted of only 30 words. ...

I don't want to be a jester below the Lord God

From a letter (June 8, 1834) by A.S. Pushkin (1799-1837) to his wife: “...Now they look at me as a serf, with whom they can do as they please. Disgrace is lighter than contempt. I, like Lomonosov, don’t want to be below the Lord God.” “Below” is translated from archaic Russian as “even.” Pushkin's words - paraphrase famous words M.V. Lomonosov, who became winged (see Not only at the table of nobles...

“Man cannot live by bread alone” (Matt. 4:4)

How do our contemporaries understand this phrase?

This quote has a continuation. That is, if we hear God, trust His providence, do His will - this will be life. Because the bread is also from Him.

Svetlana, 41 years old, refugee from Lugansk region, Lipetsk:

For me it is when my son is nearby. When your loved one came home. When the "animal" is with me. When the sister and nephew express a desire to be together.

Maria, 24 years old, temporarily unemployed, Aachen (Germany):

Bread identifies material things. And for life, a person needs spiritual food, communication with God and knowledge of God. This is necessary for the salvation of the soul. People know how to live on “bread” alone, especially in European society, but I think this is not enough for the life of the soul.

Daria, 26 years old, civil servant, Sevastopol:

For a person’s life, spiritual food is much more important. This is what distinguishes us from animals.

Anton, 29 years old, employee of a real estate agency, Kiev:

I take this as cruel banter modern values society. Although, if you consider that the expression appeared long before modern society took shape, you want to cry. People have had, at a minimum, sketches of a constructive path of development for thousands of years, but “things are still there.” The phrase hints that a person is something more complex and higher than a simple animal with a set of physiological needs. There must be recharge and constant growth of internal, spiritual world. With the ability to empathize, love, forgive, think. Otherwise, a person risks sliding to the level of an animal, or entering into confrontation with his own inner world.

Patristic interpretation:

Moses, calming his people, tired of the long return from Egyptian captivity, said that it was not in vain that God subjected the people of Israel to such trials: “He humbled you, tormented you with hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know and your fathers did not know, in order to show you that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. A man lives."

In the New Testament, in the Gospel of Matthew, this expression is also found. When Jesus was in the desert and holding a long fast, “the tempter came to Him and said: If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. He answered and said to him: It is written: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

In modern Russia, the expression gained additional popularity after the publication (1956) of the novel “Not by Bread Alone” by Vladimir Dudintsev (1918-1998).
The meaning of the expression: for a person to be completely happy, material well-being is not enough; he needs spiritual food and moral satisfaction.

This well-known image appears in both the Old and New Testaments, and its meaning is quite clear. In fact, it means that our needs are not limited to satisfying only material needs. However, it is worth noting how categorical this statement is. Spiritual satisfaction is presented as a fundamental need of life, comparable to the need for food. Essentially, all other religions and spiritual traditions stand in the same positions: in order to live, we need “food for the soul.” In my opinion, this is true in a completely literal sense. The state of our spiritual life is directly related to the functioning of our body, including metabolism, digestion, respiration and all other types of physiological activities. But we often neglect or underestimate our spiritual needs. Of course, there are some signs that such behavior is gradually being replaced by something else - people are once again becoming aware of spiritual values. .

And yet the materialistic orientation, under the influence of which we were so long time, entailed very serious consequences, closely related to the prevalence in modern society tendency to bad habits. Since we are not fully aware of the need for spiritual achievements, it is not surprising that many people misunderstand the true needs human spirit. They discover a wide variety of overstimulating activities and an equal number of stress-relief techniques, replacing them with a state of “truly top class”—precisely that deep experience that Robert Johnson calls ecstasy.
This is unfortunate, because we need ecstasy. We need it as urgently as we need food, water and air. But in modern Western society this fundamental human need is not fully realized. Over the past thirty years, we have made significant progress in understanding how our physical environment has deteriorated and in overcoming these types of trends. But we have not yet been able to realize our spiritual needs as decisively. In problem bad habits I see a direct consequence of this fundamental oversight.
In every culture, in every era human history people felt the need for an ecstatic experience - for pleasure of one kind or another, going beyond the framework of everyday reality. Various cultures tried to satisfy this need with many in all possible ways, and some of these methods turned out to be much more spiritually oriented than all others.
In the 19th century, the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky argued that a person can feel satisfied only by receiving three types of experiences from society - miracles, sacraments and spiritual guidance, and that these experiences are much more important to him than the satisfaction of material needs. A person with an addiction seems to believe that through it he can obtain miracles and mysteries, and the lack of spiritual guidance makes this view even more seductive. Instead of considering addicts simply weak people, and even criminals, I prefer to see in them those who are destructive for themselves, but still quite in a clear way responds to the spiritual vacuum hidden behind our material abundance.
We all feel the effects of this spiritual vacuum. Depending on who we are and the circumstances in which we find ourselves, we respond to it in one of many ways. However, in our society, the human response to essentially spiritual aspirations often takes material forms.

Chopra Deepak

Nekrasov Anatoly – Building a space of Love

- this phrase is well known and is an image of both the Old and New Testaments, but its meaning is clear to anyone. Meaning this image is that material goods are not the only ones necessary for human beings, and this idea is expressed in a truly categorical form. The basic platform in human life is created by spiritual satisfaction, the need for which is similar to the need for food. In essence, any religion, any spiritual tradition is based on a similar thought: any life first of all needs spiritual food.

Man does not live by bread alone- this statement is true not only figuratively, but also in a completely literal sense: physiological processes occurring in the human body, functioning human body, metabolism, digestion and even breathing are directly related to the spiritual life of the individual. However, most people not only underestimate their spiritual capabilities and needs, but often completely ignore them. Of course, over time, it is possible to change behavior and attitudes and return the perception of spiritual values, but the influence of a materialistic orientation on humanity is too for a long time, created truly dire consequences, becoming a source for distribution in public environment tendencies to addictions.

It is strange to be surprised that people are partially or completely unable to understand the real needs of the spirit, because they do not have the ability to realize the need for spiritual achievements. Instead, people have the opportunity to discover stress relief and stimulating activities, using them as a substitute for the state of deep experience that is true ecstasy.

This fact is truly sad, since any person needs ecstasy along with food, water and air, although in modern world This truly basic human need is hardly fully realized. For last decades people were able to recognize the fact of how much their physical environment had changed for the worse, and to take certain measures to correct this trend. But the situation is much worse with the awareness of the spiritual needs inherent in everyone. And the problem of addictions stems from a lack of this awareness.

Ecstatic experiences in the form of need are characteristic of all people, and this need has manifested itself in all cultures and in all eras of our history in the form of pleasure of various kinds, capable of going beyond the limits of everyday life. Many cultures have sought ways to meet such needs, and some have focused on spirituality in to a greater extent than others.

Russian writer XIX century, F. Dostoevsky said that satisfaction is available to a person only when he can receive three types of experiences from society: sacraments, miracles and guidance of a spiritual order, and these experiences are much more important than existing material needs. Addictions for people deprived of spiritual guidance become an all the more tempting solution because with its help they hope to gain both sacraments and miracles. In essence, such people can be perceived not so much as those who are subject to weaknesses or are essentially criminals, but as those who, in a destructive way for them, seek to fill the spiritual emptiness formed on the basis of material abundance.

Dear Church, dear brothers and sisters!

I warmly welcome you! May grace and peace be multiplied to you!

May God strengthen you, give you wisdom and patience, bless and protect you from all evil!

The Bible says: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”(Matt. 4:4). The first thing that is clear from the words of Jesus Christ is that every person needs bread. Bread, i.e. food is vital for maintaining our strength, fulfilling necessary work requires our efforts, and without timely replenishment of these forces, a person simply cannot survive.

But then Jesus Christ says an equally important thought: man lives not only on physical food. For normal life we need the word that comes from the mouth of God. How physical food is vital for our physical person, so the word of God is necessary for our inner man, for our soul.

The Word of God written in the Bible is just a text consisting of letters and words that “comes to life” for those who communicate with the Author of the Bible and know Him personally. You can receive a letter from unknown person and it will not particularly please you, no matter what is said there. When we receive a letter from a family member or friend, we react completely differently. But it is much better to communicate with this person in person. Therefore, God wants us not just to read the Bible as a book, but to communicate with Him “mouth to mouth,” “face to face,” receiving living word from the living God through the Scriptures.

“When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him and asked Him: Lord! my servant lies at home in relaxation and suffers cruelly. Jesus says to him: I will come and heal him. The centurion, answering, said: Lord! I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will recover.”(Matt. 8:5-8). The centurion received a specific, living word from God about his situation, and his servant was healed! With this word a person will live! We all need just such a word that fills us with inner strength!

Without inner strength We cannot do anything good in life from God. Physically weak person A person who hasn't eaten for several days may understand what he needs to do, but he simply won't have the strength to do it. The same thing happens in the lives of many Christians: with their minds they understand how to live and do the right thing, but they can’t do it for one reason - they don’t have inner strength.

The Apostle Peter speaks of believers as those who “They are being kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in lately” (1 Peter 1:5). “Observed” means “kept.” We cannot be saved and go to heaven on our own - there is not enough enthusiasm. This is only possible by the power of God! How do we get this power? “By the power of God through faith” that comes “by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”(Rom. 10:17).

The Word of God is the deciding factor in our lives. Without the word abiding in us, problems are inevitable. Jesus Christ addresses people full of problems: “And you do not have His word abiding in you, because you do not believe Him whom He sent.”(John 5:38).

What is the first thing we think about when we first wake up and start our day? About urgent calls, urgent matters and problems surrounding us? What is first for us is our god. Why in Old Testament Was God talking about firstborns, firstfruits, first sheaves? Did He really want to take something away from people? No, not to take it away, but to show people who their god really is.

God wants to be our God. And God reveals His word and speaks to those for whom He is God, to those for whom He comes first.

If we set aside our first time when we wake up to spend it with God, the rest of the day will pass in God's blessing and device. For many people this seems impossible. But this time is worth setting yourself apart and dwelling in the kingdom of God, which is “not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

A normal Christian life is when our heart is filled not with fear and vanity, not with feelings of guilt and condemnation, but with righteousness, peace and joy! Jesus Christ came to give us abundant life, but how does this happen practically? When, despite all our busyness, we give the first time to God. Without doing this, we will still spend all our energy on solving problems during the day, and most of- for completely unnecessary things, vanity, worries, worries. So wouldn’t it be better to spend this energy on being in communion with God at the beginning of the day?

Without communication with God, our life becomes like an empty car: we try to go somewhere, achieve something, but nothing works, we stand still. We try to restore order, but it turns out to be even more of a mess. We endlessly “sort out our affairs,” but sooner or later everything falls into disrepair.

Dear brothers and sisters! Our lives can change and become different if only we decide every day, with consistency, to begin our day with prayer and the Word of God. Problems will no longer be solved only by our strength or calculations, but God Himself will help us and arrange everything in an amazing way, placing the hearts of people, giving us all the necessary wisdom and understanding in all our affairs. When the word from God is within us, we will be full of vitality, because “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.”

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

With love in Christ,
your brother and shepherd Leonid Padun

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