11/29/2023 0 Comments Matthew 6 25 33“Why are you anxious about clothing?” (6:28). The question elucidates the fact that to our heavenly Father, we are much more valuable than birds, and yet he provides for them. So Jesus is not teaching against working for a living, but against worrying as a way of living. As has many times been commented, the birds do not store, but they do peck around for food. He has told the illustration of the birds of the air. “Are you not of more value than they?” (6:26). This is not life and death-difficult as it may be, and in extreme examples could be. In other words, even if we were (worst case scenario, for anxiety loves to go to worst case scenarios) lacking food and clothing, is it not true that life and body are more than these things? It puts the issues in perspective. “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (6:25). This is brilliant teaching because the psychological experience of worry is often rooted in asking the wrong questions in our minds and hearts, as one thought races around another thought, and all these thoughts pile up on each other and generate anxiety. But if we are serving God, then we have no cause to worry-which Jesus will now explain. For one great source of anxiety is material anxiety, anxiety over possessions and provision. The answer here is that Jesus, having talked about money and our need not to serve money, now tells us not to be anxious. It begins with “therefore,” and as always when we see a “therefore,” we should ask “What is it there for?” In other words, what is this instruction building from in the previous section? This section is justly famous, wonderfully practical, and precious to Christians down through the ages.
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