Matthew 6 – Don’t worry about tomorrow

Welcome back.

In today’s post we’ll cover a longer section than usual, from Matthew 6:25 right to the end of the chapter (v34).

This section will conclude Jesus’ teaching on the theme of where our true number one priority in life lies.

Let’s read Matthew 6:25-34: “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? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If 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? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.“

This is the climax to Jesus’ teaching on treasure in heaven versus treasure here on Earth.

It can be quite easy to misunderstand or miss the point of what Jesus was trying to say.

What he was NOT saying.

Here Jesus was not teaching that God will always provide for your essential daily needs, such as food and clothing, in all circumstances.

And yet it’s very easy to read these verses that way. In the past, at times when I was out of work and uncertain where the money for next month’s rent would be coming from, I would read this passage as an encouragement that God would never allow me to run out of money completely and go hungry.

However, is that really what is being promised here?

It’s easy to read the passage that way if you live in a wealthy Western nation where most people rarely have to face the dangers of real hardship – but what about Christians living in the developing world? Many of them may have to go without daily food, clean water, adequate clothing or a safe place to live. They may have to watch their loved ones or even children die because of lack of access to these things.

Did God fail to keep his promise to these Christians? Or did Jesus get it wrong?

Or was his point something else?

What he probably WAS saying

Remember that these verses need to be understood in the context of Jesus’ preceding remarks about the need to place ultimate value in things that are in heaven, not things on earth. Recall also that he taught about the impossibility of true loyalty to God when our minds are focused only on material, this-world concerns.

His promise here in this longer passage is not so much that God will provide for our earthly needs. It’s not a guarantee of prosperity or comfort or even survival in this life.

His point is this: not to worry about where your next meal will be coming from or whether you’re going to have sufficient clothing and shelter to survive. God knows what you need and he knows exactly how to give it to you.

However, if you’re a Christian, then the thing you need most of all is not here on Earth at this moment. It’s to come in the future: the Kingdom of God.

Even if you are living through that worst case scenario in which you don’t have enough to last another day…you still have that hope. Not even death itself can separate a genuinely repentant child of God from the hope of the Kingdom.

God will always give you what you need in order to reach that Kingdom. He will always provide what is required for you to remain faithful.

This is implied in 1 Corinthians 10:13: …God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

At the same time, he may or may not always give you what you need for your daily life here and now. Jesus certainly taught that we should ask for our daily bread (see the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:9-13) and, by implication, be grateful when we receive it. In verses 22-23 of this chapter he made it clear that we’re expected to share with those in need.

None of this is to suggest that God won’t give you daily bread. As Jesus said, God knows what you need and he loves you. He doesn’t want to see you suffer, but he sometimes allows it to happen because that suffering is necessary to promote positive change in your character and actions. Without it, you can’t undergo that transformation necessary to be part of God’s Kingdom – and God would much rather have you in his Kingdom than make your life less painful now but leave you unprepared.

He will, however, never push you beyond what you can endure. You may face hardship or go hungry, you may lose everything – you may even die – yet God will never allow your pain or trauma to be so great that you can no longer remain faithful to him.

No matter how terrible or painful or distressing a situation you may find yourself in, it will always be possible for you to find the strength and the courage and the faith to face it without collapsing into despair and giving up on God.

That’s why Jesus’ advice is to always make God’s Kingdom, and your own transformation to be part of it, your number one concern at all times, no matter how difficult your circumstances may become.

A consistent theme

This is exactly the lesson God was trying to teach the children of Israel (see the Exodus narrative) after he rescued them from slavery in Egypt. He directed them to a wilderness region where they didn’t have the ability to grow their own food and provide for their own needs. Instead, God miraculously provided for them every day: water from the rock and manna from heaven (and occasionally quails too).

They were in a position in which their only option was to rely on God. They couldn’t return to Egypt. They couldn’t move into the promised land in Canaan – not yet. The area wasn’t suitable for agriculture. They couldn’t even store the food they gathered for the next day – it would spoil. All they could do was trust God to, quite literally, give them their daily bread.

Jesus picked up on this narrative in John 6 when – after he had miraculously fed a crowd with loaves and fish, and they’d come back the next day hoping for more loaves and fish – he taught them that what really mattered was the message of repentance and eternal life God had sent him to teach.

That’s what God was trying to teach the children of Israel in the wilderness. It’s what Jesus was trying to teach his listeners by the sea.

It’s also what Jesus wants you and I to learn from these verses which conclude Matthew 6.

There is no limit to God’s ability to provide for your needs – he can even perform miracles if necessary – yet your primary concern and focus of attention should always be the Kingdom of God, and the repentance and transformation necessary to get there.

Don’t worry about where food and clothing and shelter will come from. If God wants to provide for you, he will, and nothing can stop him. If he decides not to, he’s doing it for a very good reason, and even your death cannot separate you from the hope for which he is preparing you.