Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble

 

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they either toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore, do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

 

- Matthew 6:25–34 

 

We have been currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount.  In Saturday's reading, Jesus taught, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  The lamp of the body is the eye.  If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.  But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!  No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon." 

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?"   My study Bible comments that Jesus is warning against anxiety here, and not against thoughtful planning.  Our physical well-being is directly dependent on God, it says, and only indirectly on food, drink, and clothing.  Anxiety over earthly things can be a demonstration of a lack of faith in God's care.  

"So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they either toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"  Again, Jesus is putting faith in God first over anxiety over worldly things.  That is, we come to depend first upon God.  His warnings, as my study Bible put it, is against anxiety, as opposed to thoughtful planning.  

"Therefore, do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."  As the Gentiles served pagan idols, my study Bible explains, they remained consumed by dependence upon earthly things.  Those who follow God can be freed from this dependence.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."  Here is the central theme of Christ's teaching and the gospel message:  the kingdom of God, and God's righteousness is the subject of the Sermon on the Mount.  My study Bible comments that Christ calls us to be free from anxiety about earthly things, and directs us to look to heaven, secure in the faith that God will provide needed earthly blessings.  

So what does it mean to put God's kingdom first in our lives?  To seek first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness?  First of all, it is a way to set things in proper order in our lives, to put things in their right perspective.  This is not simply because God is Creator, but because God has the way for us to put in proper order and relationship that things in our lives -- which includes the right relationship to earthly things, material goods.  In Saturday's reading, Jesus taught  that we cannot serve God and mammon.  And it is clear that if we don't put things in proper order (that is, if we do not put the kingdom of God and God's righteousness first), we will wind up making an idol of material, earthly things.  When we are filled with excess anxiety over the things we might possess and use, then we dwell on them constantly.  We do not seek God's direction for how to live our lives, but wind up obsessing over things that really don't need to consume that much attention, and we take away from our faith.  We engage in practices that steal our own ability to live prayerful lives, to dwell in that Kingdom, so to speak.  This is not a teaching about escaping from material responsibility, or a two-tiered life divided into the spiritual and the material.  It is, instead, a teaching in which we're given the right recipe for wholeness, for right-relatedness to God and to the world, to put things in order, instead of living lives which are disordered and out of balance.  A modern vision that sees life as purely material, and focuses so heavily on what we wear, what we look like, what modern things we have, what our houses look like, isn't conducive to a focus first on the Kingdom and God's righteousness.  Neither is it a focus that leads to good judgment or mercy, as so much finally becomes measured by this material yardstick of "success."  This is a disordered way to look at life, upside down, one in which suffering even for one's faith, or for love, is simply seen as loss without meaning.  And that is truly a disordered worldview, because in the end it will rob everything of meaning.  Suffering is a part of life and of this world, it is the root of the very word for evil or "the evil one" in Greek (Matthew 6:13).  That word is πονηρός/poneros, the root of which means pain, and in its broader meaning includes suffering, trouble, and laborious toil.   But if it is for our faith we suffer, for the righteousness of God and the gospel of the Kingdom, then suddenly suffering takes on meaning, because we put real meaning first in our lives -- and this diffuses into everything, even the sacrifices we make for it.  It is the "good fight" (1 Timothy 1:18, 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7), the struggle for love and meaning, which is not blind to the darkness of the world but bears light into it.  A purely material yardstick leaves us with only winners and losers, anxiety and depression, a world filled with meaningless suffering.  Christ will transform and transfigure that world through the Cross, and we are given this righteousness as a way that leads us through life as more than just losers when we suffer, and as those with the opportunity to transfigure even worldly wealth into compassion when we win.  Now that is a great proposition, the good news indeed.