Do Not Worry - 5

Here Jesus’ words are directed against the error of denying God’s care and love on the assumption that people can secure their own futures by acquiring what they need for their temporary livelihood.

Saying = λέγοντες legontes = to express in words.

The present participle (λέγοντες) indicates ongoing verbal expression.

It is the repeated verbal expression of anxiety.

Repeated anxious speech tends to reinforce and deepen anxiety, because it continually expresses concern without directing the heart toward trust in God.

Matthew 12:33–37 (NIV84)

33“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.

34You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.

35The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

36But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.

37For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Both words and actions reflect the fruit on a tree.

These verses are focusing on speech; the words that we speak.

Persistent anxious speech can be a kind of “fruit” that reveals a heart struggling with trust—but it doesn’t automatically make someone a “bad tree” in the moral sense.

The heart is like a container, which may be filled with either good or evil. And whatever fills it, whether good or evil, overflows through a person’s mouth in the form of the words which he speaks.

It is what the heart is full of (abundance) that determines what anyone says. People do not speak out of character.

Ecclesiastes 5:1–3 (NIV84)

1Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

2Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.

3As a dream comes when there are many cares (much business, esv), so the speech of a fool when there are many words.

When we enter the house of God, we should have the attitude of being open and ready to listen to God, not to dictate to him what we think he should do.

The want (lack) of preparation of heart to speak in the Lord’s ear makes the heart careless and irreverent and brings guilt upon the holy exercise. The thought of the Lord in heaven sitting on his throne and the defiled sinner on earth standing before Him (Isa. 6:5–8), the infinite distance between his greatness and our vileness should make us sober.

V. 3, Thomas H. Leale, 1892: All speech that does not commence upon the solidities of truth is unsubstantial as a dream, the multitude of words only making the disordered mixture more bewildering.

The fool’s prayer is composed of—trifles—meaningless and unreal.

Many words show that you are a fool—just as dreams show that you have many cares.

Believers Church Bible Commentary: The dreams indicated here express that which is unreal, worthless, or short-lived, that is, insubstantial or transient.

Just as the dream (insubstantial) comes with many cares, so also the fool’s voice (insubstantial) is accompanied by many words.

Unlike the fool, the one who fears God will keep words to a minimum to avoid being foolish when talking to God.

A dream may come in the form of a vision while a person is asleep, or it may be a daytime activity as our thoughts wander. It can also signal our hopes or longings for the future.

Business has the sense here of work with effort rather than a commercial sense. A word like “worry” seems an appropriate way to think of it. nrsv suggests “many cares.”

“Many cares” translates a Hebrew term to describe the complicated, often burdensome dimensions of daily human existence. It is something beyond simple worry; it encompasses the pressures, preoccupations, and entanglements that consume attention and mental energy.

An anxious heart results in bad dreams, which can lead to many foolish words.

Don’t be quick to speak out of the abundance of your heart, all your anxious thoughts, cares, and worries.

Psalm 73:1–28 (NIV84)

15If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed (the generation of, esv) your children.

16When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me

17till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

V. 15, If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

Asaph had such a deep concern for the people of God that he was prevented from simply blurting out his doubts and feelings.

He puts it in a conditional clause: “If I had said, ‘I will speak like this,’” meaning speak the way that he had been thinking in this psalm, “I would have been faithless.”

The verb (בָּגַדְתִּי, betrayed; would have been faithless) is a strong word, meaning “to deal treacherously, unfaithfully,” as in breaking covenant responsibilities (it is used for destroying a marriage by divorce in Mal. 2:10–16).

Charles Spurgeon: So, he did not say what he thought. Some have said, “If you think so, you may as well say so.” But not so. You might as well say if you have a match, you may as well burn your house down.

Bad thought is bad to yourself, but it ends there; turn it into words and tell it to others, and it may do an infinite mischief.

It is not always wise to speak one’s thoughts; if they remain within, they will only injure ourselves; but, once uttered, their mischief may be great.

It’s not wise to speak about those anxieties within you to others. Those words can lead others astray.

Hebrews 12:14–15 (NIV84)

14Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

15See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Words are a primary vehicle for transmitting destructive emotions, conflict, and bitterness.

What we say is very important.

Romans 10:9–10 (NIV84)

9That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (leading to salvation, lsb; resulting in salvation, nasb95).

At the time of the writing of the book of Romans, for a person to accept Christ and confess Him as Lord typically resulted in persecution and, ultimately, death. At that time, to embrace Christ and confess Him as Lord, knowing that persecution was sure to come, was an indication of true salvation and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Outward professions of faith are rare when one’s life is at stake, and no more so than in the early church.

The phrase “you will be saved,” is not intended to reveal a condition for salvation by the public confession of a creed, but rather a definite fact that no one facing death would confess Christ as Lord unless indeed he or she was saved.

In Romans 10:10, we read, “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” The original Greek carries the idea of confirming with the mouth what has taken place in the heart and being thankful for it.

Genuine faith involves both confession with the mouth and belief in the heart. This is the only place in his letters where Paul speaks of believing ‘in the heart,’ and also the only place where he speaks of confessing ‘with the mouth.’ These are not separate activities but two aspects of the one expression of faith in Jesus as Lord.

Believing with the heart without confession with the mouth is not true faith.

Luke 12:8-9 (NIV84)

8 "I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God.

9 But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God.

Matthew 10:32-33 (NIV84)

32 "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.

33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

Confession with the mouth without belief in the heart would be hypocrisy.

Those who believe in their hearts and confess with their mouths are saved.

The order here in 10:10 (with the heart that you believe—with the mouth you confess) is the reverse of what is found in 10:9 (confess with the mouth—believe in the heart), indicating that there is no theological significance to the order.

Just as belief in the heart and confession with the mouth are so closely related that they cannot be separated, so too are justification and salvation.

Think of it like a plant and its fruit. The fruit doesn’t come after the plant in a sequential way—rather, the fruit is the natural outgrowth of the plant’s internal life.

Confession is the fruit and effect of faith; for the tongue confesses what the heart first believes.

The confession doesn’t happen as a second step; it flows spontaneously from what the heart genuinely holds. (It’s not a two-step formula.)

2 Corinthians 4:13–14 (NIV84)

13It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak,

14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.

When faith is truly present, confession follows—not as a separate obligation added afterward, but as the inevitable expression of that inward belief.

Matthew 12:34 (ESV)

34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

A heart filled with faith will result in a mouth that speaks of that faith.

Jack Cottrell: It is a confession of faith, a faith that is directed specifically toward Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

It is a confession of the full and sole efficacy (saving power) of Christ’s death and resurrection as the way to heaven.

The very essence of such a confession is thus a renunciation of any attempt to save oneself through one’s own futile works, and an open acknowledgment that salvation is all of Jesus, all of grace.

Matthew 6:31 (NIV84)

31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

These worries can be expressed in the form of complaining.

Numbers 11:4–6 (NIV84)

4The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat!

5We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.

6But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

Dissatisfaction comes when our attention shifts from what we have to what we don’t have. The people of Israel didn’t seem to notice what God was doing for them—setting them free, making them a nation, giving them a new land—because they were so wrapped up in what God wasn’t doing for them. They could think of nothing but the delicious Egyptian food they had left behind. Somehow, they forgot that the brutal whip of Egyptian slavery was the cost of eating that food. Before we judge the Israelites too harshly, it’s helpful to think about what occupies our attention most of the time. Are we grateful for what God has given us, or are we always thinking about what we would like to have? We should not allow our unfulfilled desires to cause us to forget God’s gifts of life, food, health, work, and friends.

Numbers 21:4–5 (NIV84)

4They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way;

5they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

J. Vernon McGee: The mixed multitude were the ones who had led them in rejecting the manna earlier in the march. Manna was a wonderful food, by the way.

God reminds them in the Book of Deuteronomy that their feet did not swell. A missionary doctor in the Philippines told me that the feet will swell and beriberi results from a diet deficiency. So, they were getting all the correct nutrition in the manna, and it was a very tasty sort of food. Yet they complained.

There are people who will complain about steak—they would want a hamburger for variety! It’s amazing how easy it is for us to complain, and especially to complain about that which pertains to the things of God.

When I was a pastor, people complained about the seats in the church. Yet I’ve seen folk go to a football game and sit on hard seats in a stadium (and there is no back on those seats) for hours and never complain!

Isn’t it interesting how we whine and complain to God? How many times do we thank Him and rejoice in His goodness to us?

Acts 6:1 (NIV84)

1In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

More complaints and worries about food.

Philippians 2:14 (AMP)

14Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining [against the providence of God, Amp (2015)] and questioning and doubting [among yourselves],

Complaining about others is the same as complaining against the providence of God.

Nothing happens without God allowing it.

Lamentations 3:37–38 (NIV84)

37Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?

38Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?

We must always be aware that God is sovereign, and we are not.

Acts 17:24–28 (NIV84)

24“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.

25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.

27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

28‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

1 Peter 5:6–7 (AMP)

6Therefore humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you,

7Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.

(5:7, Interlinear) “All the anxiety of you having cast upon him because to Him, because to Him it matters concerning you.”

Philippians 4:6–7 (AMP 2015)

6Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God.

7And the peace of God [that peace which reassures the heart, that peace] which transcends all understanding, [that peace which] stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [is yours]. [John 14:27]

Continue to make your specific request known to God.

Instead of “saying” what you’re anxious about; “say” your needs to God in prayer.

Don’t repeatedly voice your worries to yourself and others.

Express your needs to God.

1 Peter 3:8–12 (NIV84)

8Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.

9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

10For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.

11He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.

12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

What you sow, you will get back good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.

Pay back means doing something to someone as a result of what he has done; here it includes the idea of revenge or retaliation, which Christians are admonished not to do. Selah.

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