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.
After too many months of unhealthy worrying, I have realized that I am also capable of setting worries in their place. Today I will tell you how it is possible and preferable.
Remember your relation to God (ver. 30). Therefore, do not give way to the slightest Anxiety about these things (ver. 31) because this is to fall to the level of the Gentiles, and also because God, whose children you are, knows your needs (ver. 32). But make his cause, without and within, your great object and all your needs shall be supplied (ver. 33). Therefore be not at all anxious, bear the burden of each day only as each day comes round (ver. 34). Because of this, he last mentioned the impossibility of dividing your service. Cease being anxious about things of this life, for Anxiety about these is a mark of your attempting this impossibility. I say unto you. Though the absence of the personal pronoun (unlike Matthew 5:22, etc.) shows that he is not here contrasting himself with them or with others, he still emphasizes his authority. Observe that forethought in earthly matters was practiced by our Lord himself (John 12:6).
The blessing of God is provided not to make us poor but to help others be able to make it with our assistance so that our giving increases as we make more. That is the story behind the scene in Luke 12. He calls the man who tries to keep it all to himself in verse 20, "But God said to him, You fool! This {very} night your soul is required of you; and {now} who will own what you have prepared?"
There are three enemies we have to handle if we are going to be close followers of Christ; worry, fear, and selfishness or greed. They are the unholy trinity of the disciple like life, and we all fight and battle with them. Observe there are two commands in this section on worry, and both are saying virtually the same thing. Verse 22, "For this reason, I say to you, do not be anxious (worried)."
When we are worried, our minds are on many things that distract us from life's main things.
We worry about things that are not our responsibility.
LUKE 12:22-23 "And He said to His disciples, For this reason, I say to you, do not be anxious for {your} life, {as to} what you shall eat; nor for your body, {as to} what you shall put on. For life is more than food, and the body than clothing."
Please think of the hours we all spend focusing on food and the garments we wear. We focus so much on our bodies, pallets, style, design, color, and fabric that we have lost touch with the vertical. Our Lord is not saying, "do not pay any attention at all," but instead not to become worried or distracted by focusing on the dress and the food, what we are going to serve, what we are going to eat, what is for supper.
The other worry is about things we cannot change or control. Verse 25, "Which of you, while being anxious, can add one inch to your height?"
One can worry all they want; they will not live a year longer; they may live a year or two less. We cannot make ourselves taller, and we cannot make ourselves live longer by worrying. We worry about those things that we cannot change. Worry does not change anything, except that we become worrying parents rather than nagging parents. God never built a strong Christian to carry today's duties and tomorrow's anxieties piled on top of it. You are not built that strong. When you revert to worry, you become a horizontal-thinking Christian and live just like you did when you were lost.
Horizontal existence feeds on worry, loves to worry, and looks for things to worry about. Vertical living focuses on God, waits for Him, trusts Him, talks to Him, and counts on Him.
Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard 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.
The Bible is necessary, and we should appreciate God's word. 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.
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."
People who observe God's precepts 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 followers 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 the area of worry.
There are three enemies we have to handle if we are going to be close followers of Christ; worry, fear, and selfishness or greed. They are the unholy trinity of the disciple like life, and we all fight and battle with them. Observe there are two commands in this section on worry, and both are saying virtually the same thing. Verse 22, "For this reason, I say to you, do not be anxious (worried)."
