Matthew 6:25–34

²⁵ “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? ²⁸ “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Commentary

Vs. 25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Previously the Lord Jesus Christ gave us warnings about the deceiving and corrupting influence that mammon can have on our persons and lives, especially when ones trust is in it, or their heart is set on it. And so here Jesus goes a step further and warns us about the common and most held fear that people have in forsaking all and following Him; and that is how are we going to get our food and clothing, i.e. the necessities of “life”. And so to free us from our anxieties and fears so that we may freely follow Him in discipleship the Lord Jesus will give us some very simple but exceedingly profound analogies on just how God watches over and provides for not only His creation, but more importantly us as well, because as the Lord Jesus Christ says, life is more than just food and clothing, life is found fulfilled in all its significance and glory when one forsakes all and follows Him in whatever calling and purpose God has called one to fulfill and serve Him in.

Vs. 26 “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

God’s loving oversight of all of creation is self evident, and so here the Lord Jesus points to some of God’s works in it to help ease our anxieties and fears. Obviously the birds of the air don’t sow seed for crops, and they certainly don’t reap a harvest from the same. Nor do they lay up for themselves what they have harvested in barns, and yet by the loving oversight of God they are always fed. Therefore the Lord Jesus asks us all to consider that if God so feeds them, will He not also feed us, since we are of much more value to Him then they.

Vs. 27-31 ²⁷ Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? ²⁸ “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹ and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Now worrying is not only stifling to ones faith, keeping one back from fully following Christ, but it is self-destructive. And so the Lord Jesus in His gentle way now seeks to calm our fears with a little levity by asking us all, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” Now a cubit is an ancient unit of measure, about 18 inches or so, and would be like saying to us, “which of you by worrying can add one foot to his stature?” Obviously we can’t change the height of our persons by worrying about how tall or short we are. And so to do so is rather pointless. Therefore the Lord Jesus takes that and asks us all; “why do you worry about clothing?” As if by worrying about clothing we can assure ourselves that we will have clothes, or provide ourselves with the same. Therefore Jesus to show us how God will provide for us now draws an analogy from the lilies of the field, for though they neither toil nor spin, they both grow and are arrayed with such glory and beauty so as to put even King Solomon to shame (vs. 28-29). Therefore the Lord Jesus also says that if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven (i.e. as fuel for ancient clay ovens), will He not much more clothe us, of course He will!

Vs. 31-34 ³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

In light of these very observable truths the Lord Jesus says to us all not to worry about food, drink, or even clothing, because that is what the Gentiles (i.e. unbelievers do); spend their lives worrying about this and that, and pursuing the same for themselves; and our heavenly Father knows that we need all these things (vs. 31-32). Therefore rather than living a life of fear about what tomorrow may or may not bring, Jesus says we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things shall be added to us. That then is the Gospel paradigm shift that demands we move our focus from just living for providing for our own daily needs, and to focus on seeking the Kingdom of heaven and God’s righteousness first, then says the Lord Jesus Christ all these things shall be added to us. Now obviously this doesn’t mean that as Jesus Christ’s disciples we don’t work, of course we do, but we don’t live for work, we live for the Lord Jesus Christ and doing and pursuing His Will for us, that is what we live for! And so this may mean forsaking ones job, or career, or earthly pursuits or desires in order to follow His Will for us. Therefore rather than letting your own anxieties and fears keep you from pursuing and doing God’s will for you, live each day, with a Kingdom of heaven focus, and deal with each day and its troubles as it comes to you, just as the Lord Jesus tells us too, saying: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.