The cost of living

Rising food prices, rising fuel prices, rising energy prices, rising interest rates, falling real wages and shortages of goods and materials – all these are problems which we are having to contend with in our present troubled times. Small wonder there is widespread unrest and discontent.

Faced with all this we may well ask: “Is there any remedy for these problems?” Jesus once said quoting the Psalms, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4, NKJV) In saying this, Jesus directs our thoughts beyond today’s material problems towards higher spiritual values presented by the word of God, that is the Bible.

The Bible teaches us that the present day problems in the world are fundamentally rooted in the problem of sin. The first sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden resulted not only in human mortality but also the curse upon the natural order. To Adam God said, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you…in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground” (Genesis 3:17-19, NKJV)

But the Bible explains that Jesus overcame sin by dying on the cross as a sinless man so that those who follow him may obtain forgiveness for their sins and so have hope of obtaining eternal life in a perfect world which Jesus is to establish when he returns to earth. Then the curse upon the earth will be removed and there will no more poverty in the earth as we read in the Bible: “There will be an abundance of grain in the earth, on the top of the mountains; its fruit shall wave like Lebanon; and those of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.” (Psalm 72:16, NKJV)