Matthew 6:25-34

We Are Not To be Taken Up With Concern About Our Daily Needs, But Are To Ensure That Our Concern Is Fixed On Seeking God’s Kingly Rule And The Establishment On Earth of His Righteousness (6:25-34).

Having dealt with how His disciples should view their possessions, Jesus now turns to the danger of their being taken up with their needs, bringing out two opposing problems. Some stumble because they enjoy too much, others because they have not enough. We can compare here Proverbs 30:9; ‘Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with the bread of my portion, lest I be full and deny you, and say, “Who is the Lord?”, or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God’. Jesus provides the answer to both these problems, the answer to the first has been to lay up their treasure in Heaven, the answer to the second is now to trust their heavenly Father for His provision. For once they are committed to their Father, and to the Kingly Rule of Heaven, their ‘needs’ are not things that should concern them, for the simple reason that they can be sure that God as their Father in Heaven knows their needs and will provide for them. They must therefore concentrate their attention on seeking to establish His Kingly Rule and the introduction of His righteousness into the world (Matthew 6:33).

Analysis.

a A Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your life (Matthew 6:25 a).

a B What you shall eat, or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on (Matthew 6:25 b).

b C Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the clothing? (Matthew 6:25 c).

c D Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns (Matthew 6:26 a).

c E And your heavenly Father feeds them (Matthew 6:26 b).

d F Are you not of much more value then they? (Matthew 6:26 c).

e A And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to the measure of his life (or ‘to his stature’)? And why are you anxious about clothing? (Matthew 6:27-28 a).

f B Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin (Matthew 6:28 b).

f C Yet I say to you, that even Solomon in all his glory, was not ‘robed in splendour’ (arrayed) like one of these (Matthew 6:29).

f E But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven (Matthew 6:30 a).

f F Shall he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matthew 6:30 b).

e A Be not therefore anxious, saying (Matthew 6:31 a).

e B What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? Or, With what shall we be clothed? (Matthew 6:31 b).

d C For after all these things do the Gentiles seek (Matthew 6:32 a).

c D For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things (Matthew 6:32 b).

b E But seek you first his Kingly Rule, and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33 a).

b F And all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33 b).

a Do not therefore be anxious for the morrow, for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient to the day is its evil (Matthew 6:34).

Note that in ‘a’ they are not to be anxious about their future needs, and in the parallel they are not to be anxious about tomorrow. In ‘b’ the life is more than food and the body than clothes, and in the parallel their concentration is to be on the Kingly Rule of God (eternal life) and on His righteousness (the covering of His people (Isaiah 61:10), the clothing of His bride (Revelation 19:8)). In ‘c’ their Heavenly Father knows the needs of His creatures, and in the parallel their Heavenly Father knows the needs of His people. In ‘d’ they are of more value than the creatures (because they are His), while in the parallel the Gentiles seek all these things (because they are not). In ‘e’ they cannot by being anxious add to their length of life, why then be anxious about clothing, and in the parallel they are not to be anxious about what they will eat and wear. Centrally in ‘f’ let them note that the flowers are more gloriously arrayed than Solomon, while in the parallel they can be sure that God who clothes the vegetation, will also clothe them.