An Expositional Study Of The Sermon On The Mount
AWAY WITH WORRY
Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:25-34 (KJV)
THEREFORE I SAY UNTO YOU, TAKE NO THOUGHT FOR YOUR LIFE, WHAT YE SHALL EAT, OR WHAT YE SHALL DRINK; NOR YET FOR YOUR BODY, WHAT YE SHALL PUT ON. IS NOT THE LIFE MORE THAN MEAT, AND THE BODY THAN RAIMENT? BEHOLD THE FOWLS OF THE AIR: FOR THEY SOW NOT, NEITHER DO THEY REAP, NOR GATHER INTO BARNS; YET YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER FEEDETH THEM. ARE YE NOT MUCH BETTER THAN THEY? WHICH OF YOU BY TAKING THOUGHT CAN ADD ONE CUBIT UNTO HIS STATURE? AND WHY TAKE YE THOUGHT FOR RAIMENT? CONSIDER THE LILIES OF THE FIELD, HOW THEY GROW; THEY TOIL NOT, NEITHER DO THEY SPIN: AND YET I SAY UNTO YOU. THAT EVEN SOLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY WAS NOT ARRAYED LIKE ONE OF THESE. WHEREFORE, IF GOD SO CLOTHE THE GRASS OF THE FIELD, WHICH TO-DAY IS, AND TO-MORROW IS CAST INTO THE OVEN, SHALL HE NOT MUCH MORE CLOTHE YOU, O YE OF LITTLE FAITH? THEREFORE TAKE NO THOUGHT, SAYING, WHAT SHALL WE EAT? OR, WHAT SHALL WE DRINK? OR, WHEREWITHAL SHALL WE BE CLOTHED? (FOR AFTER ALL THESE THINGS DO THE GENTILES SEEK:) FOR YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER KNOWETH THAT YE HAVE NEED OF ALL THESE THINGS. BUT SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS; AND ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU. TAKE THEREFORE NO THOUGHT FOR THE MORROW: FOR THE MORROW SHALL TAKE THOUGHT FOR THE THINGS OF ITSELF. SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY IS THE EVIL THEREOF.
The Master now turns to deal with what is a great and common difficulty, even among some Christians. He begins with one of those seemingly inconsiderable words that are of fundamental importance to the understanding of Scripture: the word “Therefore.” He is going to show us how needless it is to worry, and by starting with this word, He throws us back to the previous verse, and in effect says that what He is about to teach arises out of, is based on, what is there contained. As we saw in our last lesson, the Lord says that it is quite impossible for anyone to be a bond-slave of two people; and presuming that we will make the right choice, He proceeds now to show that if we actually are God’s slaves there is no need and no excuse for worry. In other words, freedom from care grows out of giving ourselves to Him. Under Roman law, an owner was compelled to provide for the welfare of his slaves, to see that they were adequately fed, clothed, and housed. How silly, then, if the slaves themselves worried about such things. We are slaves; He is responsible; we worry – how utterly silly.
Take no thought
We must be careful about that phrase, “take no thought.” We are not to get the impression that the Master is advocating a reckless life. In the seventeenth-century Old English it meant, “be not anxious.” An illustration of that is found in 1 Samuel 9:5, where young Saul, who had unsuccessfully sought his father's strayed donkeys, thinks it is time to return home, “lest thy father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us.” The old gentleman would be getting anxious. That is Christ’s meaning here.
Three times over He says it – take no thought; be not anxious; do not worry. Do we think He says it in a hard, unfeeling, tone; or, do we catch the accent of tenderness in His voice? Seems we are ready to accept the admonition when spoken harshly, unsympathetically, by somebody whose own circumstances are pleasant and prosperous. But the Lord Jesus speaks out of an understanding heart. He did not overlook the fact that for the most part His audience was probably composed of people from the poorer end of the social scale. His excellent advice was all very well for rich people – yet, as a matter of fact, some of them are among the world’s worst worriers. But the poorer folk often face such difficulties and uncertainties, making freedom from anxiety humanly impossible – it would take a miracle to release some of them from worry. Of course, in any case it always is a miracle. But, from the outward and material conditions of His sojourn “in the flesh,” our Lord could truly enter into their fears and feelings. Our Master never forgot that He was the child of the laboring classes; that at birth His mother had brought the gift of the poor to the Temple; and that from boyhood He had been accustomed to the struggle of poverty. His frequent speech about patching garments and using old bottle- skins, about the price of sparrows, and the scanty pittance of a laborer’s life, indicate that His mind was turned on to the experiences of the poor. So, when He says, “Don't worry,” we can accept it because He knew the difficulties and so beautifully triumphed over them – and besides, He says it with such tender feeling.
Worry – a weakness?
After carefully and prayerfully studying this passage, we will no longer look on worry as weakness, but as wickedness. We will never learn to conquer it until we rightly give it its name. When, in our nightly prayer, we ask God’s forgiveness for the day’s sins, do we ever include worry? As we will soon see, anxiety evidences a disbelief of His Word and a doubt of His love – so, is worry a weakness or wickedness? The old saying is true: to trust is not to worry; to worry is not to trust. So, let us put an end to worry. Observe that our 25th verse introduces two matters of which the following verses will cover, two specimens of those everyday matters about which we are so apt to worry; first,
What we shall put in
“Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink.” That is an absolute necessity of life; but there is no need for a Christian to worry about where food is coming from. Our Lord drives that home by an argument from our very being – “Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” It is a fundamental characteristic of the life He has created that it must have food; and do we really suppose that having made this life He will be unmindful of its support? The less is included in the greater – He will certainly care for the food and clothing necessary for life and the body that He has brought into being. Everything in God’s universe fits together, like a lock and key. Because there is the light, there is the eye to use it; because there are sounds, there are ears to appreciate them; conversely, the fact that the eye and the ear exist is a guarantee that there will be light and sound, which alone can satisfy them and justify their existence. Of course, the point is this: God would not have created life with its specific propensities without seeing to the provision needed to sustain it.
The world of nature
Our great Teacher also uses an argument from the world of nature. In the best sense, He was an out-doors Man, a nature-lover. He often turned to it to illustrate and enforce His teaching. Surely we can agree that in abundant measure there is Spiritual law in the natural world. The Master was constantly drawing it out of us. And so here – “Behold the fowls of the air.” Vivid, almost dramatic word: “Behold.” Look – there they go. Pigeons flying, swallows darting, sparrows chirping – probably before the very eyes of His hearers. That use of visual illustration seems to have been a feature of the Master’s method. Now He reminds His listeners, “Your heavenly Father feedeth them.” How thoughtful He is for their need and welfare. One example of that is the mother who taught her child, “When you see bushes crowded with berries, it’s going to be a hard winter.” “But why?” the child asked. She replied, “That is God’s provision for the extra needs of the birds.” Then, too, He puts it into the minds of kindly people to put out a bowl of water for them during the hot summer, or a tray of food when the snow is on the ground. God is no doubt pleased when He sees one caring for His little feathered friends. But, sometimes we let God down. The story is told about a poor little ragged, homeless, friendless, orphaned boy wandered into a church building. After hearing about Jesus Christ, he went forward and was baptized then and there. Soon afterward, someone who had seen him come in and saw him go forward to be born again started questioning him in a rather hard way – apparently not happy with his quick response to the Gospel. “I see you have been converted.” “Yes, that’s right.” “Then I suppose you think God loves you.” “Oh, yes I do.” “Then, if God loves you, why doesn’t He tell somebody to look after you and care for you?” – Hard question for a young boy. But the story goes that the little man came back with a quick answer, “I expect He has told somebody, but that somebody has just forgotten.” It is so true, that far too often we do forget to do what God tells us – whether it is to care for birds or people, for “Are ye not much better than they?” One could buy two sparrows for a farthing (Matt. 10:29); that makes four for two farthings, but, if one spent the sum, he would actually get an extra one thrown in, “five . . . for two farthings” (Luke 12:6). And “not one of them is forgotten before God” – not even that odd one. Will He not look as lovingly look after our interests? Then why worry?
Sheer futility of the thing
Still one more thing He considers – an argument from the sheer futility of the thing. “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” The word translated “stature” means also “age,” and that seems to be the meaning here. For, as Luke 12:26 says, this thing desired is a “thing which is least” – a very small thing. In other words, one who is 5’6” tall would be 7’ – for a cubit is 18”. That distance in length would be only a small thing, and perhaps the Master is referring to length of days: our age. The word is so rendered in John 9:21, “He is of age, ask him.” Each of us has an allotted span – “My inch of life” as William Harrison often called it: and no amount of worrying will lengthen that span. In fact, the more we worry the more likely we are to lessen it; wearing ourselves out before our time. The first argument shows us that worry is needless; the second that it is senseless; this third, that it is useless. So again, why worry?
Not flippant
We stress that this does not mean that the Master encourages us to be flippant. In the last resort, we are dependent on God; but we are also to be diligent in caring for ourselves. The birds neither sow, nor reap, nor gather: they can’t, so they are not expected to – God never expects the impossible of anyone. But we can; and therefore He does expect us to diligently do our part. Therefore, we may confidently depend on Him to do His part and to see that we do not lack. No, it is not forethought that He is here deprecating, but foreboding; it is not work that he is discountenancing, but worry. After all, we must not forget that by the Holy Spirit He has inspired His servant Paul to write in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If any would not work, neither should he eat.” So let us sum up by saying that, yes, we are to work, but when we do, we are then not worry concerning what we will gain. Now let us turn to
What we shall put on
“Take no thought . . . for your body, what ye shall put on.” Again, clothes are a natural necessity. Once more our Lord goes to the life of nature, and draws an illustration from the flowers – “Consider the lilies of the field.” Simple, common, transitory, little things as they were, with what beauty has God clothed them. Even Solomon’s royal raiment cannot match their loveliness. If placed under the microscope, his scarlet robe of finest fabric would be “found out” to be like sack-cloth. But regarding these lilies, the more perfect lens, and the more exquisite would appear the texture. These pass in a night, we persist through eternity – do we suppose that God is less concerned with our necessary clothing?
Gentiles
Next comes an illustration from the Gentiles – “after all these things do the Gentiles seek,” the pagans. They might be excused for perpetual anxiety, for as Ephesians 2:12 reminds us, they are “without God in the world.” They have no loving, Almighty God to turn to or lean on. But it is different with us, says the Master. Yet, because of worry we are often “of little faith.” There is something very loving in the way our Master utters the rebuke, as He does several times. For instance, in Matthew 8:26, the disciples in the boat during that fierce tempest (so fierce that it frighten hardened fishermen who were aware of the sudden squalls that swept down the sides of the hills to lash the water of Galilee into a fearsome fury), woke up the Master, asleep in the hinder part of the vessel, Who rebuked their panic, yet with understanding of their very human frailty, “O ye of little faith” – their faith should have prevented fear, but it was not big enough. Or again, in Matthew 14:31, when Peter, walking on the sea, took his eyes off the Master and observed the violence of the waves, “beginning to sink,” cried out “Lord save me,” the Lord Jesus immediately came to his rescue, and said, “O thou of little faith.” In other words, “When you asked permission to walk on the water and stepped out of the boat, I thought you were a man of great faith, but after all it turns out you have only little faith: your faith should have mastered your feelings, but it was not big enough.” In our present passage, the Master is not dealing with the emergencies of life, as in the above cases, but with the everyday things of life – perhaps faith has an even harder testing in these latter affairs: there is no excitement, no thrill, about them, that might whip us up to special effort. Yet, our faith should always be big enough to free us from worry: if it is not, we are little advanced beyond the Gentiles, who might well anxiously “seek” life’s wherewithal.
Illustration
To this is now added an illustration from the family – “your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” Earthly fathers are well aware that children need food and clothing, and a multitude of things of which those two are a small part. Faithful fathers do their utmost to provide every need. It would be unnatural if they did not. Do we suppose that our heavenly Father, Who knows all, will be less concerned for His children? He knows and cares and He provides for His own. To grasp this truth leaves little room for anxiety. The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) knows this – “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Ps. 84:11). The New Testament knows it, too – “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28). No wonder His trusting children are relieved from worry.
Another illustration
And last of all an illustration from the days – “the morrow . . . the day.” Each day has its own program of need, each its sufficiency of supply – do not mix up tomorrow’s with today’s. Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it empties today of its strength. Do not add tomorrow’s burden to today’s; it has enough to do to carry its own. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” – that is to say, sufficient for each day is the evil, the burden that properly belongs to it: leave tomorrow’s for tomorrow. One of the pieces of ripe wisdom that Moses had learned from his busy, adventurous, and exciting life was, “as thy days, so shall thy strength be” (Deut. 33:25). There is a beautiful matching of the strength and the day – when tomorrow’s needs are with us, tomorrow’s grace will be there to meet them. God will not suffer us to anticipate future grace, as employees sometimes borrow an advance from next week’s wages; so do not by worrying drag in future problems into the present, upsetting the balance. There is wisdom in the old saying: don’t cross bridges till you come to them. Hebrews 4:16 says we will “find grace . . . in time of need,” not before the time: so, since we can not anticipate the grace, do not anticipate the need. Just don’t worry.
Four illustrations
So by four illustrations followed by three arguments, our Lord reiterates the unwisdom of worry. And yet, we worry. Preachers often tell us what we ought to do or be, and then just stop – usually without telling us how. The Master does not preach that way. If we may, without irreverence, put it this way: He always has three main “headings” to His sermons – what, why, and how. Perhaps it is the not knowing how that accounts for our failure to carry out the teaching. As Mark 4:27 puts it, that “he knoweth not how.” It is also true that “the Lord knoweth how” (2 Pet. 2:9). Listen carefully, as the Master draws this part of His sermon to a close – He has been plainly showing us what ought to be; and now as clearly, He will tell us how it can be. We cannot but realize that as we saw at the beginning of this lesson, worry is a sin; and now as we close it, we want to find out what hope there is for a real victory. Is that a daily possibility? If so, what is the secret? Truly, “the Lord knoweth how,” and here it is:
What we shall put first
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” To begin with, note the proper order – God first. William Harrison wrote about providing transportation for an old preacher of the Gospel arriving in Paris: “I picked him up at the airport. Carrying his luggage to the car, I noticed that both his bags had a sticker with two words – God first – stuck on them. Evidently these two words were also stuck to his heart, and that must have been the explanation and secret of his grand life. It is the deep secret of every spiritual blessing, of every real victory; it is the secret of a quiet and restful spirit, the secret of not worrying.”
Consider the joys and blessings of the world in Genesis 1 and 2. What was the secret? Why, God first – “In the beginning God.” In chapter 3, God was disposed from that first place; and from that moment everything went wrong, and all the sin, sorrow, suffering, tragedy and misery of this old world began. God first: are we prepared for that? Making His things, His kingdom and His righteousness our prime consideration? William Harrison often closed his sermons with, “Above all things don’t touch Christianity unless you are willing to seek the kingdom first. If you seek it second, all I can promise you is a miserable existence.”
Summary
But when God is first, then see the promise following – “all these things shall be added unto you.” What we will put on, what we will put in and all those other things that these represent are assured to us by the God Who never breaks His Word. If we are God’s child, and if He is put first in our life, then – though we may be out of work, and things look black – we may rest unworried on His plain promise. Dare to happily trust Him, and see. Get the “first” right, and all the rest falls into its proper place, in the right way. In the days of long ago, a small girl going to a party was trying to put on a pair of those old long gloves with endless buttons right up the arm. She got into such a muddle that at last she called out, “Mommy, they won’t do right.” But presently her mother explained, “Here is the first button, and here is the first hole; get the first one right, and all the rest will easily follow.” And it worked out just that way.
And so it will always turn out – if we make up our minds to put, and keep, God and His things first. If we do that, God will look after our life in a grand way. So, let us get rid of worry and put God first in our lives.
