Don't Worry [part 2] Series

WORRY [part 2]

INTRODUCTION

The Philosopher said, "life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forwards." in life, particularly that of a believer, many things are encountered that are not understood right away. Sometimes not even until the end of our lives do we grasp an understanding of the things that we encounter.

Something about the Scriptures provides a backward view of life while we live it in a forward mode. Usually, we are so consumed by the present that it prohibits our understanding of all that is transpiring. That is why the Bible is important and why we should appreciate God's word.

God gives us insight and wisdom through His word, which gives us understanding. The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:100, "I understand more than the aged Because I have observed Thy precepts."

SCRIPTURE—Matthew 6:22-34 (NIV)

22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness. 24 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow, reap, or store away in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? 28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon was dressed like one of these in all his splendor. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans, run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

COMMENTARY

These verses, except for the last, which should perhaps barely be included, are similar to the parallel passage, Luke 12:22-32. Their immediate sequence in Luke to the parable of the rich fool is no doubt perfectly natural. It seems probable that Luke preserves the more original form in the differences. What their original position was is another question. Most commentators accept it as original, but the connexion with the context here is so close that, especially with the probabilities of the case in vers. 22, 23, and ver. 24, St. Matthew may, after all, have recorded them in their original place. Our Lord says in these verses, "Dare to follow out this warning that I have given you about double service into your daily life. Do not give way to Anxiety about the things of life, but look up to God in steady gaze of faith; he will provide." 'Or, more in detail - If God has given you life, shall he not add the food and the clothing (ver. 25)? Anxiety about the support of your life is needless.

Persons who observe God's teachings and doctrines are given an understanding of life. For the believer, life must be lived in vertical and horizontal planes. While we are living life on the horizontal, we are moving from the past into the future, and God brings in wisdom in the vertical plain with insight and perception, which we would not otherwise have. The believer's goal is to live vertically in the horizontal world. We can think vertically, but we have to live horizontally. When believers get too vertical about life, they can become hard to live with. We can become pious, religious, and so heavenly-minded that we are no earthly good. We have to live horizontally because we have to live in the world. We have to deal with the things of life. In the meantime, God intercepts and interjects wonderful vertical truths to guide us through our lives, especially concerning worry.

In the twelfth chapter of the gospel by Luke, Jesus is teaching this vertical wisdom to a body of people walking in the horizontal plane. He has already begun to warn them about the leaven of the Pharisees, where leaven is a symbol of sin. He pinpoints the sin of the Pharisees, which was and always will be hypocrisy. He warns His followers to be on guard against it.