S.O.T.M. Do Not Worry [Matthew 6:25-30]

We return to our study through the sermon on the mount. We start a new section starting in verse 25 and we will be in the section, the remainder of chapter 6, for a few weeks because of the enormous implications and content in it as well as the importance of not being consumed with the cares of this world.

Stand for the reading of the word of God [Matthew 6:25-30]

Worry is kind of a big deal, wouldn’t you say? Worry has been defined as a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. Worry has been likened to a rocking chair; it’ll give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.

Starting at verse 25 we start a new section in the sermon on the mount. It is in reality a sub-section of the major theme which we have been considering in chapter 6, namely that of the Christian walk or the Christian life and the Christian living in this world in relationship with the Father.

There are two main aspects to be considered—what the Christian does in private, and what he does in public. You see how practical this Sermon is. It is far from being something remote and theoretical. It deals with the practicalities of the personal, private life—all I do, my life of prayer, my life of attempting to do good, my life of fasting and self denial, my personal devotion, the nurture and culture of my own spiritual life.

But I do not spend the whole of my time in these occupations. That would be to become a monk or a hermit. I do not segregate myself. No; I live in the world, and am engaged in business and in real things with real pressures, and have these multitudes of problems pressing in upon me. Above everything else our Lord reminds us in the second section, starting at verse 19, that the big problem that confronts us is that of worldliness, which is always there and always attacking us.

That is the theme from verse 19 to the end of the chapter. But we have seen that it is divided into sub-sections. First of all there is the section we have already considered, consisting of verses 19–24 and lay not up for yourself treasures on earth. Here now, from verse 25 to the end of the chapter, we come to the second section, do not worry about things of this earth. It is still the one theme, the danger of worldliness, the danger of mammon/money, the danger of being defeated by the mind, outlook and life of this present world.

There are perhaps two main ways of looking at the difference between verses 19–24 and this section. One way is to say that in the previous sub-division our Lord was chiefly emphasizing the danger of laying up treasures upon earth, hoarding them, amassing them, living to do that. Here in this section from verses 25 to the end of the chapter, He is concerned not so much with our laying them up, as with our worrying about them, being anxious concerning them. And of course the two things are different.

There are many people who may not be guilty of laying up treasures upon earth, but who nevertheless can be very guilty of worldliness, because they are always thinking about these things, being anxious about them and dwelling upon them constantly. That is the main difference between these two sub-sections. But it can be put in another way. Some people say that in verses 19–24 our Lord was chiefly addressing rich people, people who are well-off in this world’s goods, and who therefore are in a position to lay them up and to amass them.

But they suggest that from verse 25 to the end of the chapter He is thinking more of people who are either actually poor, or else those who cannot be described as rich, those who just manage to make ends meet, those who are face to face with the problem of making a living and keeping things going in a material sense. To these people the main danger is not the danger of laying up treasures, or worshipping treasures in some shape or form, but the danger of being burdened by these things and being anxious about them.

It does not really matter which interpretation you take. Both are true, for it is possible for a man who is really wealthy to be worried and burdened by these worldly matters; so we need not press the antithesis between rich and poor. The great thing is to concentrate on this danger of being oppressed and obsessed by the things that are seen, the things that belong to time and to this world alone.

Here, we are reminded once more of the terrible subtlety of Satan and of sin. It does not matter very much to Satan what form sin takes as long as he succeeds in his ultimate objective. It is immaterial to him whether you are laying up treasures on earth or worrying about earthly things; all he is concerned about is that your mind should be on them and not on God. And he will assail and attack you from every direction. You may think you have won this great battle against Satan because you conquered him when he came in at the front door and talked to you about laying up treasures on earth and you said, “I didn’t fall for that, I’m not consumed with treasures on earth.”

But before you are aware of it, you will find he has come in through the back door and is causing you to have anxious concern about these things. He is still making you look at them, and so is perfectly content. He can transform himself into ‘an angel of light’. There is no end to the variety of his methods. His one concern is that we should keep our minds on these things instead of centering them upon God and holding them there. But fortunately for us, we are led by One who knows him and his methods, and if we can say with Paul that ‘we are not ignorant of his devices’, it is because we have been taught and instructed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. How subtle was the devil’s threefold temptation of Him in the wilderness! ‘If thou be the Son of God.’ We are subject to similar attacks but, thank God, our Lord has instructed us concerning it here, and His teaching is given in a very plain and explicit manner.

Our Lord continues His warning, He takes nothing for granted. He knows how frail we are; He knows the power of Satan and all his horrible subtlety, so He comes down to details. Again we shall see here, as we saw in the previous section, that He is not content merely to lay down principles or to give a command or injunction. He provides us with arguments and gives us reasons, He puts it to our common sense. We are reminded again that He puts the truth to our minds. He is not concerned to produce a certain emotional atmosphere only, He reasons with us. That is the great thing we need to grasp. So He again starts with a ‘therefore’—‘Therefore I say unto you’. ‘Therefore’ always connects to what was previously said.

He is carrying on the main argument, but He is going to put it in a slightly different manner. The theme of course is still this, the need of the single eye, the need of looking centrally at the one thing. You find Him repeating it, ‘Seek ye first’. That is just another way of saying that you must have the single eye, and serve God and not mammon. At all costs we must do this. He puts it three times over, introducing it by means of the word ‘therefore’.

v.25, ‘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?’ Then in verse 31, He says it again: ‘Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?’ Then in verse 34, He says it again finally: ‘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.’ There was never a Teacher in this world like the Lord Jesus Christ! The great art of teaching is the art of repetition; the true teacher always knows that it is not enough to say a thing once, but that it needs to be repeated. So He says it three times, but each time in a slightly different form. His method is particularly interesting and fascinating, and as we proceed to consider it we shall see exactly what it is.

Do not worry

First we consider the terms our Lord uses, particularly the expression ‘do not worry.’ Which has been misunderstood and stumbled over in the past. The stumbling has come from how the 1611 KJV has translated the phrase, it uses, “take no thought for you life...” but that phrase “take no thought” has changed in our way of thinking since it was used in 1611. If you consult Shakespearean writing, 1611 language, the phrase ‘taking thought’ was used in a sense of being anxious or tending to worry. That was it’s intent from the first, don’t worry, so our use of language has changed from 1611…the meaning has not.

So that the real translation at this point means, ‘Be not anxious’, or ‘Have no anxiety’, or if you prefer it, ‘Do not worry’, about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink. That is the real meaning of the word. Indeed the actual word that was used by our Lord is a very interesting one; [merimano] it is the word used to indicate something which divides, separates or distracts us, a word used very frequently in the New Testament. If you turn to Luke 12:29, a corresponding passage to this, you will find that the expression used there is ‘be not of a doubtful mind’. It is a mind which is divided into sections and compartments, and which is not functioning as a whole. We cannot do better therefore than say that it is not ‘a single eye’. There is a kind of double vision, a looking in two directions at one and the same time, and therefore not really seeing anything. That is what it means to be anxious, to be worried, to be ‘taking thought’ in this sense. It’s being distracted.

A still better illustration of the meaning of the term, better than me telling how words were used, a good picture is to be found in the story of Martha and Mary when our Lord was in their house (Luke 10:38–42). Our Lord turned to Martha and rebuked her. He said, ‘Thou art careful and troubled about many things.’ Poor Martha was ‘distracted’—that is the real meaning of the expression; she did not know where she was nor what she really wanted. Mary, on the other hand, had a single purpose, a single aim; she was not distracted by many things her focus was on one thing, the Lord. What our Lord is warning us against, therefore, is the danger of being distracted from the main objective in life by care, by this anxiety about earthly, worldly things, by looking so much at them that we do not look at God—this danger of living the double life, this false view, this dualism. That is what He is concerned about.

Our Lord is not teaching us here that we must not think about these things at all. ‘Taking no thought’ does not mean that. Many times in the history of the Church there have been zealous, misguided people who have taken this literally, and have felt that to live the life of faith they must not think about the future in any sense, they must make no provision at all. They just ‘live by faith’, they just ‘pray to God’ and do nothing about it. That is not the meaning of ‘Take no thought’.

Apart from the exact meaning of these words, the context alone, surely, and the plain teaching of the New Testament elsewhere should help us from that error. You don’t have to know the exact meaning of the Greek language to understand this, while it helps it’s not necessary; if you read the Scriptures, and if you watch the context, you should be safeguarded from these errors. Surely the context here, the very illustration that our Lord uses, proves that these people must be wrong.

He takes the argument of the birds of the air. Would you say that the birds just have to perch themselves upon the trees or upon a pole, and wait until food is mechanically brought to them. That is not true. They search for it busily. There is real activity in the birds of the air, so that the very argument our Lord uses at this point entirely destroys the possibility of interpreting it as a kind of passive waiting upon God and doing nothing.

Our Lord never condemns farmers for ploughing and sowing and reaping and gathering into barns. He never condemns that, for it was God’s command that man should live in that way, by the sweat of his brow. So these arguments are put in the form of illustrations and including also that of the lilies of the field—how they draw their sustenance from the earth in which they are planted—taken especially in the light of the teaching of the Bible everywhere, should have saved men from this ridiculous misinterpretation let go and let God.

The apostle Paul put it very explicitly in his second letter to the Thessalonians where he says that if a man ‘would not work, neither should he eat’. There were people then, misguided and somewhat fanatical, who said, ‘The Lord is going to return at any moment; therefore we must not work; we must spend our time waiting for His return.’ So they ceased to work and imagined they were being exceptionally spiritual. And that is Paul’s remark respecting them: ‘If a man will not work, neither shall he eat.’ There are certain fundamental principles governing life, and that is one of them.

In Philippians 4:6-7, we find the apostle Paul expounds on this principle laid out by our Lord, where he says, “do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made know to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard you hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Again the instruction is not to idleness, it’s a warning against worry and anxiety.

There can be no question at all about the real danger of this whole matter. The moment we stop to consider and examine ourselves, we shall find that we are not only open to this danger, but that we have often succumbed to it. Nothing seems to be more natural to mankind in this world than to become anxious, to become burdened and worried. Anyone who has any kind of responsibility tends to be easily overcome with worry and anxiety. Unfortunately it tends to master and control us and people often become enslaved to worry.

In this section our Lord is teaching, as we look at the principles and the progression of illustrations He uses, our Lord is telling us in effect that this matter of worry and anxiety does not just apply to certain aspects of life but it affects the whole of our lives…There is no area of our lives that worry does not affect in some shape or form. So the question then is…why? Why should we not worry? Our Lord doesn’t just tell us not to worry and then goes on to the next thing....no He gives us reasons for not worrying and being overcome by anxiety. He starts first with a general reason.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

What does our Lord mean by this? The argument is a very profound and powerful one; and how prone we are to forget it! He says in effect, ‘Take this life of yours about which you are tending to worry and become anxious. How have you got it? Where has it come from?’ And the answer, of course, is that it is a gift of God. Man does not create life; man does not give being to himself. Not one of us ever decided to come into this world. And the very fact that we are alive at this moment is entirely because God willed and God decided it.

Life itself is a gift, a gift from God, how easily we forget this and take this for granted. So the argument which our Lord uses is this. If God has given you the gift of life—the greater gift—do you think He is now suddenly going to deny Himself and His own methods, and not see to it that that life is sustained and enabled to continue? God has His own ways of doing that, but the argument is that I need never become anxious about it.

Of course I am to plough and sow and reap and gather into barns. I am to do the things that God has ordained for man and life in this world. I must go to work and earn money and so on. But all He says is that I need never be concerned or worried or anxious that suddenly there will not be sufficient to keep this life of mine going. That will never happen to me; it is impossible. If God has given man the gift of life, He will see to it that that life is kept going. But this is the point: He is not arguing as to how this will be done. He is just saying that it will be. Take the birds of the air…God takes care of them.

This is probably one of the main troubles with man, we easily forget this fundamental principle…God is the life giver and the life sustainer. We would have nothing apart from God’s grace. Modern man in his arrogance thinks they’re perfectly capable of providing for oneself… I once talked with a man who was strongly opposed to God and he said to me, “what has God ever done for me?” For starters, he allowed you to breath His air. We owe every thing to God. For God is the giver of life.

Not only is God the giver of life and being and existence, amazingly...

God is concerned about us one by one

You, me, We should never have come into this world if God had not willed it. We must take a firm hold and grasp of this great principle. There should never be a day in our lives when we fail to thank God for the gift of life and food and existence, and the marvel and the wonder of the body that He has given us. These things are solely and entirely His gift. And, of course, if we fail to realize that, we shall fail everywhere.

We do well to stop and ponder this great principle. Our Lord sums up this teaching in these words, “O you of little faith.” He has in mind our failure to understand, our lack of comprehension of the biblical view of man and of life as it is to be lived in this world. That is the real trouble with us, and our Lord’s purpose in giving these illustrations, is to show us how we fail to think as we ought.

He asks in essence: ‘How is it that you do not see inevitably that this must be true?’ How do we fail to grasp and to understand these fundamental truths? Here it is in all its simplicity. It is God Himself who gives us life, and the body in which we live it; and if He has done that we can draw this conclusion, that His purpose with respect to us will be fulfilled.

God never leaves unfinished any work He has begun; whatever He starts, whatever He has purposed, He will most surely fulfil. We hear people say it all the time, almost flippantly, “God has a plan for your life.” The problem with that statement, though it’s true, is usually focus of that statement is on you and not on God…Your life is the subject of that sentence not God.

Perhaps a better way of putting that is that there is a plan for every life in the mind of God. The subject focus changes it’s God’s plan not my plan, it’s every life not just special old me. We can be certain that God has a plan and a purpose for our lives, and it will be carried out. So we must never be anxious about our life and about its sustenance and its support. Holding on to this simple truth helps us in any situation. Why should I worry and be overcome with anxiety when I know that when God starts something He carries it through. God who decreed all things at the beginning is carrying them out. God’s purpose for mankind and God’s purpose for the individual are certain and always sure. I don’t know what that looks life, but God does. That takes a burden off my shoulders.

This confidence is based ultimately on the sovereignty of God, that God is the Ruler of the universe, and we are known to Him one by one, and are in a personal relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ. It was the faith of all the great heroes of the faith described in Hebrews 11. That is what kept those heroes of the faith going. Quite frequently they did not understand but they said, ‘God knows and God undertakes’. They had this final confidence that He who had brought them into being, and who had a purpose for them, would not leave them nor forsake them.

He would surely sustain and lead them all the journey through, until their purpose in this world had been completed, and He would receive them into their heavenly habitation where they would spend their eternity in His glorious presence. ‘Do not worry about your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor about your body, or how it shall be clothed. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than clothing?’ This is very straight forward. Argue it out, start with first principles and draw the inevitable deduction. What do I need to worry about if God is in control? The moment you do so, care and worry and anxiety will vanish, and as a child of your heavenly Father you will walk with peace and serenity in the direction of your everlasting home.

We will take this up again next time.