Commentary - Matthew 6:25-34

Bird's-eye view

In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ delivers a frontal assault on the sin of anxiety. Having just taught that no man can serve two masters, God and Mammon, He now unpacks the practical implications of that choice. Service to Mammon is characterized by worry about material provision, while service to God is characterized by faithful trust in His fatherly care. Jesus systematically dismantles the logic of anxiety by pointing to its futility and its root in unbelief. He uses two powerful arguments from nature, the birds and the lilies, to demonstrate God's meticulous provision for His creation, arguing from the lesser to the greater. If God cares for them, how much more will He care for His covenant children? The passage culminates in the central positive command of the Christian life: to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, with the attendant promise that all necessary material provisions will be supplied. This is not a command to be idle, but to order one's life, work, and ambitions around the priorities of the King, trusting Him for the results.

This is a foundational text on Christian discipleship, teaching us that our internal state of mind is a direct reflection of our theology. Worry is not a personality quirk; it is a form of functional atheism. It is acting as though we are orphans in the universe, responsible for securing our own existence. Jesus commands us to live as sons and daughters of a heavenly Father who knows our needs and has all of creation at His disposal to meet them. The cure for anxiety is not a change of circumstances but a change of allegiance, a radical reorientation of our lives around God's kingdom and God's righteousness.

Outline

Context In Matthew

This passage is located in the very heart of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), which is the great manifesto of the King, Jesus Christ. It lays out the ethics and character of the citizens of His kingdom. The immediate context is Jesus' teaching on wealth and possessions. He has just warned against laying up treasures on earth (6:19-21) and has stated unequivocally that one cannot serve both God and Money (6:24). The command "do not be worried" in verse 25 is therefore a direct consequence, introduced by the phrase "For this reason." Because you cannot serve Mammon, you must therefore reject the central activity of Mammon-worship, which is anxiety about material things. This teaching flows seamlessly into the subsequent warnings against judging others (7:1-5) and the call to ask, seek, and knock (7:7-11), which again emphasizes our dependence on a good, gift-giving Father. The entire sermon is a description of a life lived in complete dependence upon and allegiance to God the Father through Christ the King.

Key Issues

Worry is Practical Atheism

We must be very clear about what Jesus is doing here. He is not giving us gentle advice or therapeutic suggestions for stress management. He is issuing a command. "Do not be worried" is in the imperative. This means that worry is not an unfortunate emotional state; it is a sin. It is disobedience to the King.

Why is it so serious? Because worry is a form of practical atheism. When we worry about our food, our drink, or our clothing, we are acting as though we do not have a Father in heaven. We are acting like spiritual orphans, alone in a cold and indifferent universe, where our survival depends entirely on our own frantic efforts. Jesus says this is how the pagans think, the Gentiles, those who do not know God. For them, it is logical to be consumed with these things. But for us, who have been adopted into the family of God, it is a profound contradiction. It is a denial of the character of our Father. It is a slap in His face. Every moment spent in anxiety is a moment we are testifying to ourselves, and to anyone watching, that we believe our circumstances are bigger than our God.

Verse by Verse Commentary

25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

The command is grounded in the preceding statement about serving God, not Mammon. "For this reason," because you have chosen your master, now live like it. The command is comprehensive, covering the basic necessities of life: food, drink, clothing. Jesus then immediately provides the foundational logic. God gave you the greater things, life and a body. Will He not then provide the lesser things, food and clothing, which are necessary to sustain them? If He started the project of your life, do you think He is going to abandon it for lack of basic supplies? The Creator does not create and then forget. The Giver of life is also the Sustainer of life.

26 Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

Jesus now directs our attention to the natural world. Look at the birds. This is not a command to be lazy. Birds are not lazy; they are constantly busy being birds, building nests, finding worms, and doing all the things God designed them to do. The point is that they do not engage in the kind of long-term, anxious, agricultural planning that characterizes human society. They do not have silos or storehouses. They live in daily dependence on God's provision, and God, their Creator, whom Jesus here calls your heavenly Father, feeds them. The argument is what we call a fortiori, from the lesser to the greater. If God provides daily bread for His sparrows, what do you think He will do for His sons and daughters, created in His image and redeemed by His blood? The question "Are you not worth much more than they?" demands an affirmative answer. Our value is not intrinsic; it is assigned to us by our Father. And He has valued us at the cost of His own Son.

27 And who of you by being worried can add a single cubit to his life span?

This is the argument from futility. Worry is not only sinful, it is stupid. It is utterly useless. It accomplishes nothing. Jesus uses a curious phrase here. A cubit is a measure of length, about eighteen inches. He might be speaking metaphorically of adding to the length of one's life, or perhaps the Greek word for "life span" could also mean "stature." Either way, the point is the same. All your frantic fretting cannot add one inch to your height or one hour to your life. In fact, modern medicine tells us it can do the exact opposite. Worry is a complete waste of energy. It is attempting to control things that are entirely in God's hands.

28-29 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

He returns to the classroom of creation, this time for a lesson in fashion. Consider the wildflowers. They do not work in textile mills or sweatshops. They simply grow, effortlessly receiving the beauty God bestows on them. And the result? Jesus, who saw Solomon's kingdom firsthand, tells us that the richest king in Israel's history, in his most glorious royal robes, looked drab in comparison to a common lily. Solomon's glory was manufactured; the lily's glory is God-given. The point is that God is an artist who loves to create extravagant, unnecessary beauty.

30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

Here is the second a fortiori argument. God lavishes this incredible artistry on the grass of the field, a temporary creation whose ultimate destiny is to be cut, dried, and used as fuel for an oven. If God takes that much care with something so ephemeral, how can you possibly think He will neglect you, His eternal children? The logic is inescapable, and it leads to Jesus' gentle but sharp rebuke: "You of little faith!" The root of anxiety is not a lack of resources; it is a lack of faith. It is a failure to believe what God has said about Himself and about you.

31-32 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

Jesus restates the command, summarizing the content of our worries. This constant, fretful questioning is the mark of the pagans, the "Gentiles." They scramble and strive for these things because they have no heavenly Father to rely upon. Their gods are distant, capricious, or non-existent. But your situation is entirely different. You have a Father. And not just any father, but a Father who is omniscient. He knows that you need all these things. Your need is not news to Him. Your prayer for daily bread does not inform Him of a problem He overlooked. He knew your needs before you did, and He has already made arrangements to meet them.

33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

This is the heart of the passage and one of the central commands in all of Scripture. After telling us what not to do (worry), Jesus tells us what to do instead. The Christian life is not a vacuum. You cannot simply stop worrying; you must replace that worry with a new, all-consuming pursuit. And that pursuit is the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This means ordering your entire life, your decisions, your ambitions, your finances, your family, your work, around this one priority: advancing the reign of Christ and cultivating His righteous character in yourself and in the world. It is a call to a radical reorientation of priorities. And attached to this command is a glorious promise: if you take care of God's business, He will take care of yours. All these things, the food, the drink, the clothing you were so tempted to worry about, will be "added to you." They are the fringe benefits of kingdom living.

34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

He concludes with a practical application of this principle to our use of time. Live in the present. God gives us our lives one day at a time, and He gives us grace one day at a time. Today has its own set of challenges and troubles that require your full attention and God's sufficient grace. Do not cripple your effectiveness today by borrowing trouble from a tomorrow that has not yet arrived and which you cannot control. When tomorrow comes, it will have its own troubles, but it will also come with its own portion of God's grace. Deal with today's battles, and trust God for tomorrow's.

Application

The application of this text must be ruthless and practical. First, we must repent of our anxiety as a sin. We must stop baptizing it with other names like "being responsible" or "planning for the future." Prudent planning is biblical; anxious fretting is a denial of God's fatherhood. We must confess our worry as a failure to believe God's promises and a slander against His good character.

Second, we must actively cultivate the habit of trust. This is done by redirecting our thoughts. When a worry arises, we must meet it head-on with the truth of this passage. We must preach to ourselves: "God feeds the birds. God clothes the lilies. I am His child. He knows my need. He will provide." This is the fight of faith.

Third, and most importantly, we must obey the positive command. The best way to starve anxiety is to pour all your energy into seeking the kingdom. Get busy with the work God has given you. Are you sharing the gospel? Are you discipling your children? Are you serving faithfully in the church? Are you pursuing justice and righteousness in your vocation and your community? A soldier who is fully engaged in the battle has no time to worry about whether his supply lines will hold. He trusts his commanding officer for that. Our King has given us our marching orders. Seek His kingdom first. Put all your energy there, and watch how He takes care of everything else.