Why are we told, "Do not worry about your life" in Matthew 6:25?

The Lord applies this also in another way. Passing as pilgrims and strangers through this world we have certain needs. We are independent of the scene altogether excepting as regards our bodies. In all other respects we are made to feel with the Psalmist that it is a dry and thirsty land where no water is. But our bodies have needs; they must be fed and clothed. Our blessed Lord, in His tenderness for and sympathy with us, takes notice of these our wants; and He does so because He knows how often care, springing out of these necessities, comes between our souls and Himself, and prevents all possible enjoyment of the Father's love. In the parable of the sower indeed He mentions the cares of this world as one of the things that choke the seed of the Word, so that no fruit is brought to perfection. He therefore provides also an antidote for this evil. He tells His disciples to take no thought, i.e. to have no anxiety, for their life, what they shall eat, nor for their body, what they should put on. And, to enforce the exhortation, He reminds them that the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment; and then He adduces two illustrations of God's care that would ever meet their eyes — the fowls of the air, and the lilies of the field. They could scarcely step out of their houses without seeing bird or flower, and then He would have them remember that God fed the one and clothed the other, and that if so, seeing they were of more value in His eyes than either ravens or lilies, much more would He feed and clothe them.

"Mammon" is not a word we get often in scripture. It is only here, and in Luke 16. From the context in each case we see worldly gain to be the prominent thought. Worldly gain, or earthly riches, is called "the mammon of unrighteousness" in Luke 16. So the grand lesson is, that we should give the Lord the first place in everything, and not to be double-hearted, or double-minded. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Then the thought may arise, "Well, if I pursue that path it may take me into a path of trial —." So it will, and this is the lesson of chap. 8. If they had gone on with the multitude they would have escaped the storm. But it is a path of faith. The Lord will take care of those who are concerned for His glory. God's glory and our good are inseparably linked together for the believer. If we care for His glory, He will take care of our good. This verse 25 has puzzled not a few. J.N.D. gives, in his translation, "Do not be careful about your life, what ye should eat and what ye should drink." It means "anxious thought" take no anxious thought for your life. Now, we christians get further instruction in the Epistles: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." What a relief to the soul, to be able to hand up everything to the One who loves me perfectly, who has almighty power, and is always to be trusted! If this is realised, there will be always God's peace keeping the heart and mind. We have no power to keep our own. There we are let into the secret how it can be. You get eating and drinking and raiment here, and some have confined the teaching of 1 Tim. 6:8 to food and "raiment" (A.V.), but this latter word is really "covering" and takes in the shelter of a roof as well, a place to lie down in, as we have already remarked.

How blessed to realise we have a God who has given us Christ! He was not withheld, He was not spared. How becoming of faith then to say, "How shall he not with him also freely give us all things"! Paul's confidence in the Lord's gracious care of him comes out very beautifully in Phil. 4:19. He knew both how to be abased, and how to abound, and he knew how to suffer need, but he says, "My God shall supply all your need" (not from, but) "according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." If a mechanic met a mechanic who told him he was in need, and he gave him five shillings, it would be according to his comparative riches; but if he met a millionaire and he gave him a like sum it would be "from" but not "according to" his wealth. Twenty pounds would be less to him than five shillings to the mechanic. We all have occasion to be thankful that He has given us natural life. He who has formed the body and given it life, will surely supply the needs of that body! This is full of comfort to us, and encourages us to trust, and not to be afraid to go on in the path of faith. What follows shows us we can learn lessons from what surrounds us continually. The Lord drew lessons from the fowls and, farther on, from the sparrows. "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they?" The word "feed" has the sense of "nourish." Man is in the place of responsibility to sow, and reap, and gather into barns. Isaiah 28 shows us that God has instructed him how to do it. There is a deeper lesson there, I know. If God taught man thus to use the different resources of nature, He Himself has a purpose in all His different dealings and dispensations. But it is encouraging to see God's gracious care of His lesser creatures. Look at the sparrows, two sold for a farthing, five for two farthings; and yet not one of them forgotten before God! Our poor hearts if left to themselves want to look a long way ahead. Yet scripture shows us all the time that "it is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in princes." As to our path we have to walk individually, and one cannot lay down a rule for another, but a word of J.N.D.'s has been helpful to many, "Never go before your faith, and never lag behind your conscience."

It is an arresting word, "take no thought for your life," whether in regard to daily food or necessary clothing. Though necessary, these things must not be allowed to occupy time and thought as though they were vital matters. We have far more than this to live for. The birds are a pointed object lesson for us. They make no preparations for obtaining meals, yet God the Father has provided this necessity for them in such a way that they simply obtain their food as they need it. True it is that we could not exist in the same way, but faith may nevertheless count upon God to provide through giving employment, health, strength, or whatever is required to take care of these things. Faith in a living God is the vital matter here, faith that does not degenerate into anxiety. Man, who is capable of a conscious knowledge of, and communion with, his Creator, is of much more value to God than the birds.

Again, if one has disturbed thoughts because his stature is short, will his thoughts change this so much as one cubit (18 inches)? Worrying therefore is senseless, for it causes confusion and changes nothing.

Now just to connect this part of the chapter with what follows — and the connection is very beautiful — you will notice in verse 13 that one of the company said to the Lord, "Speak to my brother, that he may divide the inheritance with me." But the Lord said to him, "Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you?" He had not then come for that purpose; and then He draws the lesson, "Take heed, and beware of covetousness." Then He brings in a parable in verse 16, and thus the foundation is laid on which the second lesson is built up. The man in the parable has his abundant crops, but he has not sufficient room to garner them. He says, "What shall I do? I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." That is, all his thoughts were confined to the present moment. He wanted, as many of us have often wanted, not only abundance in this world, but also enough to last as long as we continue in this life. And that was all he cared for. I am sure many of us have known that temptation. If you set your hearts upon things in this life, you are shutting out your responsibility; and so in the parable God says, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee"; and then the question is put, "Whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?" And now comes the lesson: "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God." I will not dwell upon that, but I want to call attention to one point in the next verse (22) which shows the connection. The Lord says to His disciples, "Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat," etc. "Therefore," the whole thing turns upon that word; it is the deduction which the Lord draws from the example He has given in the parable.

Now we come to the second lesson. The first is deliverance from the fear of man, the second is deliverance. from anxiety, from carking care, which oftentimes robs us of our peace. In the parable of the sower in the Gospel you get this, the seed that fell among thorns is choked by what? Cares, and the pleasures of this life. The cares are in the same category with the pleasures of this life. The Lord thus proceeds to deliver His disciples from care, that they may be able in their hearts to maintain the attitude of waiting for Him. If my thoughts are down in the dust, how can I be found waiting for Christ? He therefore comes in, and would deliver us from the cares of this world, from anxiety concerning what we may put on, or our daily food. "No," He says, "there is no need for that and He gives an example, firstly, of the ravens, and, secondly, of the lilies of the field. They are not anxious about things, but the ravens are fed, and the lilies are clothed, and clothed in such a way, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of them. If we take that home, we shall understand how foolish it is to be anxious. The truth is, beloved, we are dependent upon God.

He next gives the way of deliverance from anxiety. He says in verse 29, "Seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after; and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." If we did but live in the sense of that! "I am in want," you say; well, the Father knoweth. There is not a single thing that can affect one of His people that does not affect the heart of God. A sentence which I read many years ago, and which has never passed from me is this: "Whatever might be a care to you produces a care for you in the heart of God." And so it does; do we not read in the Epistle of Peter, "Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you"? "Your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." He watches over us even to the smallest and most minute things that might trouble us. Will He forsake us? No, beloved! If you remember the Apostle Paul brings it out in the Epistle to the Hebrews; he says, "Be content with such things as are present, for He has said I will never leave you nor forsake you," so that, as the apostle goes on to say, "We may boldly say the Lord is my helper, and I shall not fear what man will do unto me." So the Lord casts us upon the Father's knowledge and the Father's heart. Then, beloved, He gives the reason why it is we don't enter into the comfort of this: it comes out in the next verse, "But rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you" (v. 31). Now let me point out one beautiful thing. In verse 30 He says, "All these things" (eating and drinking and clothing) "do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things"; then, "But rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things" (about which He has been speaking) "shall be added unto you." But there is a condition annexed, and I will just call attention to it for one moment. It is all summed up in two lines of an old hymn -

226 - 15. He says as a principle of life to the multitude: "Keep yourselves from all covetousness," for your life is not in this. But He draws from the consideration of this subject this guide to His disciples: "Be not anxious about what is necessary," adding many considerations why they should not, for God recognises the necessity of food and clothing, and will therefore provide for them that trust in Him, so as that they need not be anxious. But He warns all to keep from covetousness as an evil in itself. It is common with our Lord in His discourses to address Himself to the multitude on the principles of good and evil, life and death, and to His disciples on principles on the same subjects flowing from their state of grace and faith.

This begins another branch of this part of the subject: "To his disciples." If these be the general principles, if it be thus with the world, do you who have a Father, even the Father, not be anxious or take thought for your soul or body, "What ye shall eat … nor what ye shall put on." I had customarily thought that this contained merely an a fortiori argument, that if God had given the greater He would surely give the less. But there is more - to you, believers, the soul or life must be more than merely meat. It is not that which it will occasion to you the care of; and the body worth more than raiment, as if that were the only thing it should give occasion to you for thought about, when indeed it was to put on and be the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This, however, was not yet revealed. It was, however, more than clothing, there was something more in it than that, and Christ spoke from, though He did not declare that knowledge, and so justly, for His subject, as it was comparative teaching, He was occupied with, and not express revelation of promise. Well then! if they be so, your thoughts should be in another channel, rising above such a view of the soul and body. Yet there is more in this. This is the natural care of it, for the natural man cannot go beyond it; "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Do not therefore take thought for the body or life, for taking thought for them, as in the world, is always natural and of the natural man. The life concerned service for God - eternal life, all He had to give that was life. But He proceeds to assign positive grounds operative upon them as believers in this world, to wit, instead of making these things the end of their thoughts as to soul and body, and their god as unbelievers must - to know God, and therein that these were subsidiary things which He provided when He was owned as God, for these things were His and under His ordering, and that He cared for them, and for much less even than they.

Verses 22-31. If it be thus with the world, do you who have a father, even the Father, not be anxious for your soul or body. Food and clothing were not just objects for disciples' care, but rather to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Their thoughts should be in another channel, rising above a mere natural view of the life and the body. But He proceeds to assign positive grounds operative upon them as believers. Needful things were subsidiary which God provided, for they were His and under His ordering. He cared for much less than they were. The fowls of heaven and the grass of the field read them no uninstructive lesson, as interpreted of Christ. And if there was, on the one side, God's provident care for the least of His creatures, on the other side let them bear in mind the utter weakness of their anxieties. Whatever might be natural to those who knew not God, they were not to be seeking what to eat or drink: their Father knew they wanted such things. Let them seek the kingdom of God, and all the rest should be added.

On the other hand the Lord Jesus wants to take off the disciples the pressure of worries for the necessities of daily life (verses 25-34). He points them out to the loving care of their Father in heaven and to their value in His eyes. At the same time He appeals to their hearts with urgent words: 'But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.'

The Lord Jesus has just warned His disciples against laying up earthly treasures and concluded with the words: 'Ye cannot serve God and mammon.' The now following teaching is in direct connection with the preceding: '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?' (v. 25)

Why is it that there is such emphasis upon our being without care? It is certainly not that we may settle down in comfortable self ease. In the parable of the sower some of the seed sown fell among thorns. The thorns sprang up and the seed was choked. In His explanation the Lord said the thorns are the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lusts of other things and the pleasures of this life (Matt. 13:1-9, 18-23; Mark 4:1-9, 13-20; Luke 8:4-8, 11-15). The cares of this world are first mentioned in each of the places where the parable occurs. The parable deals primarily with the initial reception of God's Word into the heart and the things that hinder this. However, what hinders this initial reception of God's Word will also hinder the fruitfulness of those who have truly received it. If we desire to live lives that are fruitful for God it is essential that the cares of this world are not allowed to displace His claims and interests. This is emphasised in Matthew 6 too. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”. As His interests are sought, as they are actively pursued, so we will find that our necessities are provided for. May we have grace to follow a course in line with these clear directions of Scripture.

In the previous article we considered the circumstances of those to whom Peter wrote and the anxious care which would naturally arise from those circumstances. They were directed to cast all their care upon God, who cared for them. In Matthew 6 the things that may give rise to this anxious care are much more general. They are not wants that arise only in exceptional circumstances, but everyday needs that all of us have. In particular the Lord speaks of food and drink for the sustaining of our lives, and clothing for our bodies. Perhaps most of the readers of this magazine, like the writer, have become accustomed to an abundance of these things. Some may be able to remember times when there was a shortage and the anxiety that was then felt. Many believers in the world today are in straightened circumstances and their concern about their needs, and those of their families, is understandable. Nevertheless three times in this passage the Lord instructs his hearers not to be careful, or anxious, about these matters1. It is in connection with them that He brings home the care of the Father and the provision made by Him.