How do I perform different math functions depending on a variable?

I'm trying to create a function that checks the value of a playerstat and compares it to a given value.

For example if a player tries to buy something it should check if the playerstat (money) is more than or equal to the given value (the price of an item).

However there are other situations where I have to check if the playerstat is either greater than or lesser than the given value.

I'm having trouble figuring out how to tell the script what math comparison to do. I tried storing math operators such as > and == in a table or variable but found out you can't store those.

For example I can't do (as a watered down version)

equalTo = ==
lessThan = <

function blah(operator, arg1, arg2)
    if arg1 operator arg2 then
        print(true)
    end
end

blah(equalTo, 5, 5)

I have done a lot of searching but feel like I don't know the correct lua terms to find what I'm looking for if it is out there. Any help appreciated, thanks!

edit: I made it work with the biggest hackjob of if statements for testing sake but surely there's a better way

local operators = {"==", ">", "<", ">=", "<="}

function PlayerModule.CheckData(player, dataName, value, numerator)
    data = playerData[player]
    for i, dataValue in pairs(data) do
        if i == dataName then
            for x, y in pairs(operators) do
                if y == numerator then
                    if x == 1 then
                        if dataValue == value then
                            return true
                        end
                    elseif x == 2 then
                        if dataValue > value then
                            return true
                        end
                    elseif x == 3 then
                        if dataValue < value then
                            return true
                        end
                    elseif x == 4 then
                        if dataValue >= value then
                            return true
                        end
                    elseif x == 5 then
                        if dataValue <= value then
                            return true
                        end
                    end
                end
            end 
        end
    end
end