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31 Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. ~ Matthew 6:31-34
Today, we conclude our study of Matthew 6 where the Lord Jesus has used birds, lilies, and grass to illustrate the fact that God is the One who ultimately meets our needs and the more we are convinced of this the more we will choose to believe in and trust in Him. Matthew 6 is one part of the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7, and it is sanctification teaching not justification teaching. There is only one ticket that justifies us in the eyes of God and gets us into heaven and that is the work the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross on the behalf of all who would believe in Him. As mentioned before, sanctification is the process involved whereby God inculcates His kingdom into our souls.
In v.31-32 of today's passage we read, "31 Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."
Rather than focusing on our earthly, temporary needs, the Lord Jesus admonishes us to get into the habit of trusting Him to meet our needs as He has promised. Just as God has placed us on this earth, He has also provided for us all things needed to sustain. We are a part of this ongoing cycle that is designed to aid us in learning to trust Him who is all-knowing to provide for us and to not worry about what lies ahead. This is the second time in this chapter that the Lord Jesus commands us to not worry. When we seek first the kingdom of wealth, we will worry over every dollar. When we seek first the kingdom of God, God will make sure that we find it.
The word translated "Gentiles" in v.32 means ethnic peoples. It is a word associated with the people of the non-Jewish nations of the earth. This word is derived from the word that means culture. The Lord Jesus noted the nations who do not know the Lord as God and as a result they don’t possess sufficient knowledge to understand that He is there tending to them and taking care of them. Yet, they "seek" the things of the world and they do not seek God. As they cannot trust in God beyond this world, their trust must be placed in what is derived from this world.
The believer in the Lord Jesus is different. We should seek the all-knowing One, the One who knows all things that we need even before we know of it. As we learn to trust the Lord, we will walk in His ways and we will learn to be defined by Him through His Word. Walking with the Lord translates into us obeying the Lord. The more we experience God's faithfulness, the more our faith in Him will grow. The more our faith in Him grows, the more we will trust His culture as He is inculcating it into us daily. To the degree that we are humble and willing enough to allow Him to define us will reveal the degree that we will know His kingdom come.
In v.33 of today's passage we read, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
The Lord Jesus encourages us to "seek." He didn’t encourage us to find here. It is our nature to stop seeking once we have found. The emphasis here is to not stop seeking. The Lord said, if we seek Him and His ways, we will find what we need to find when we need to find it in order to continue seeking. So, the Lord Jesus implores us to follow our quest of seeking Him and His ways and then our needs will be met by Him. But, when our needs are met we must not resort to not seeking Him. This all emphasizes the relational nature of Christianity and God's emphasis will always be upon that. We must be resigned to value our relationship with Him more than any other relationship, even the meeting of our basic daily needs.
Most often when we pray to God we pray for our will to be done. This is foolish. The word "kingdom" means the reign of God in our lives. To the degree that we obey Him will be the degree that His kingdom has come to us. But, it is not only just seeking the Father, involved also is seeking His righteousness. In other words when we seek Him and He shows up in our lives His righteousness will be put on full display and we will live out of His definition of things. This means we will pray regularly to Him because He has told us to converse with Him daily. Seeking God’s righteousness is to seek that His will is done at all times in our lives before Him. The Lord Jesus taught us to have His priorities. Put God first, and God will still give us these things. We will not be without them, but the possessions will be in the right place in our life.
In v.34 of today's passage we read, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
This is the third time in this chapter that we are admonished not to worry. The Lord Jesus instructs us to not let what is ahead in time, and completely out of our grasp, define us. It is inconsistent with our faith in the Lord to reach into the next day and start agonizing over what may transpire. The only thing that this type of reaction will do is to rile up any chance of mental calmness on a day that has nothing to do with the next. Understanding this, the Lord Jesus next said, "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." That is to say, like any other day that comes to pass, there are to be expected complications, difficulties, sadnesses, moments of confusion and loss. Bad things will happen to us in each day. Each day can be expected to have enough evil to fill it that inserting the problems of a day ahead will only lead to a day overflowing with anxiety and worry.
The best approach to life is to allow the future to unfold as it will without the added stress of worrying about how it will do so. We make plans, but the events that follow must be left to the overarching providence of God. We must live with the future planned to whatever degree is necessary, but to do so knowing that the Lord may have other plans. And, no matter what, He is in control. Our future in His presence is assured because of the work the Lord Jesus accomplished on our behalf. We just have to get through this unknown earthly walk as best as we can in the process, learning to trust Him with each step as we go.
