Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through Matthew’s gospel, and specifically through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus comes to a challenging message, but unlike some of the previously challenging messages, this challenge is about something that isn’t specifically a sin, but a challenge related to trust.

Let’s read what Jesus told the crowd, before unpacking how this is relevant in our lives over 2,000 years later. Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 6, and we will read it from the New Century Version. Starting in verse 25, Jesus continued preaching, saying:

²⁵ “So I tell you, don’t worry about the food or drink you need to live, or about the clothes you need for your body. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes. ²⁶ Look at the birds in the air. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. And you know that you are worth much more than the birds. ²⁷ You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it.

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? Look at how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t work or make clothes for themselves. ²⁹ But I tell you that even Solomon with his riches was not dressed as beautifully as one of these flowers. ³⁰ God clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today but tomorrow is thrown into the fire. So you can be even more sure that God will clothe you. Don’t have so little faith! ³¹ Don’t worry and say, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³² The people who don’t know God keep trying to get these things, and your Father in heaven knows you need them. ³³ Seek first God’s kingdom and what God wants. Then all your other needs will be met as well. ³⁴ So don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will have its own worries. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In this passage and message to everyone present, Jesus challenges us on the validity of worrying about things in our lives. Jesus basically says in these few verses that worry is worthless. Worry does not gain us anything positive.

So then why do we worry if it isn’t productive or positive?

I don’t have a good answer for this question, except to give the theory that worry comes from a lack of trust. For those who believe in God, worry comes from not trusting that God will have all the details worked out. For those who don’t believe in God, worry is simply not trusting that things will work out in the end.

Sometimes this fear is warranted. Sometimes, God, or life, doesn’t make things work out for us. Sometimes bad things do ultimately happen. While this could be a great place to talk about why bad things happen to good people and bad people alike, I will resist the urge to do so here.

Instead, our passage focuses us on the singular topic of worry. Jesus directly gives us the challenge in verse 27, “You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it.”

Worry is not productive. Worry does not benefit our lives in any way. In contrast to worry, we might spend a few minutes planning some “what if” scenarios, but after we have decided on the various courses of action, then we move forward with life ready to take whatever action is planned out based on the outcome of what we are concerned about.

This strategy balances planning and trust. If we are concerned about something we cannot change or affect, then worrying about it doesn’t do any good. Instead, we should plan what we will do when an outcome to the situation happens. Having a plan lessens worry.

In contrast, the things that cause us to worry where we can change the outcome are not things worth worrying about. Instead, we must intentionally work to improve the situation and to bring about the change we would like to see happen. While most situations have more variables we cannot control than the variables we can, we must focus on doing only what we specifically can and then trusting God will work out the other details.

There is no getting around trust being the antidote for worry. However, when we are tempted to worry, there is something else we can do can help grow our trust if it is weak. This other thing will seem obvious and maybe a little cliché when I say it, but that doesn’t change its validity.

When we are tempted to worry, we should turn to God in prayer and ask Him for two things: We should ask Him to help the situation we are worried about in the best way possible from His perspective, and we should ask Him for help trusting that He knows best.

While we might have an idea of what outcome we would like to see in any given situation, our perspective isn’t God’s, and it is better to defer some of the big decisions and big challenges to God because some of these things are better left in His hands.

Remember that above everything else, God wants each of us to ultimately end up with Him in heaven. This means two things. First, this means that we have faith in Jesus and that we have a saving relationship with Him. Secondly, this means that we must actually want to go to heaven. While the first is obvious for most people, the second is where things get challenging.

If God were to take every single piece of bad out of this world, there would be very little desire to go somewhere better. In a way that I don’t understand all that well, when bad things happen in this world, one outcome that is positive is that we are reminded that God has a better place in mind for our future, and that we can trust He will take us there when He returns.

Remember that when bad things happen or when we are tempted to worry about a potentially bad thing happening, trusting in God is the antidote for our worry. We can mix this trust with a few minutes planning some “what if” scenarios, but after we have these plans in place, we trust God will work things out as He knows best. We can even pray for His best outcome to happen and that He will help us trust that whatever happens is for the best from an eternal perspective.

Worry by itself is worthless. However, if worry prompts us to plan, act, and trust in God even more, then it accomplished what it was designed to do. Worry is only present to remind us we are not trusting God, and when we trust God, worry get’s pushed away.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, continue to seek God first in your life, and when worry wants to challenge your trust in God, take your worry to God in prayer, asking for more trust, and asking for guidance moving forward. While we can make plans for what could possibly happen, regardless of what happens, we want to follow the path God knows is best when He brings resolution to what we are concerned about. Prayer is the best way to ask God for help with trust when worry wants to invade our lives.

With our prayer, we should also be sure to regularly study the Bible for ourselves to learn how God has worked in the past and how He has promised us He will do the same in our lives. While our lives and our world are very different from the world and lives of those who lived back then, trusting God when challenges come is always relevant.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or be scared away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Immediately following Jesus’ encounter with the Sadducees, we learn that another religious teacher brings a question to Jesus. However, unlike other challenges, this one ends in a unique way that is worth us paying attention to. Instead of ending the discussion with the religious leader looking foolish or scratching his head, this discussion ends on a positive note, which is very unusual.

Let’s read about what happened from Mark’s gospel. Our passage is found in chapter 12, and we will read from the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 28, Mark tells us that:

²⁸ One of the teachers of the law came and heard the Sadducees arguing. He noticed that Jesus had given the Sadducees a good answer. So he asked him, “Which is the most important of all the commandments?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “Here is the most important one. Moses said, ‘Israel, listen to me. The Lord is our God. The Lord is one. ³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ And here is the second one. ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There is no commandment more important than these.”

³² “You have spoken well, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one. There is no other God but him. ³³ To love God with all your heart and mind and strength is very important. So is loving your neighbor as you love yourself. These things are more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴ Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely. He said to him, “You are not far from God’s kingdom.” From then on, no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions.

We’ll stop reading this passage here, because Mark includes the transition statement about Jesus not receiving any more questions after this. However, it’s possible that the questions stopped after what we will read about in our next episode, which covers one last question we find in a different gospel record that may have taken place immediately after the event we just read about.

In many ways, this passage appears to set the stage for what Jesus is about to say next. However, if we too quickly jump there, we might miss something profound Jesus says in this portion of this discussion.

From the question this religious teacher asks, from Jesus’ response, and from the way the religious teacher restates Jesus’ words, part of me wonders if this wasn’t the first time Jesus received this question, and I wonder if this religious teacher was already expecting this answer. When Luke’s gospel records a similar event, the person asking a question is described as a lawyer and he wanted further clarification regarding who we should consider as our neighbor.

That event likely happened before this one, so it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that this religious teacher already had a good idea of what Jesus’ response would be.

However, this teacher says something profound as he restates Jesus’ answer. When wrapping up Jesus’ words, the teacher concludes by saying, “These things are more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (v. 33b)

What we discover from this teacher’s words is an amazing, big truth: Love for God and love for our neighbor are more important than our offering, our sacrifices, and anything we give to God. This response teaches us that before we even think about bringing something to God, we should first have love for Him and we should have love for others. If these two foundations are not met, then our offerings and sacrifices will be tainted and we risk God not accepting them.

While the context of this discussion deals with the requirements of the sacrificial system, the language that we have with us today can also be used for all other types of giving and giving up.

When we bring something to God, whether it is money, time, an object or possession, or even our hearts, we call this an offering. These offerings are not burned on an alter like the burnt offerings in the Old Testament era, but we still call them the same word. I don’t think this is an accident. Instead, I believe these categories of modern offerings are equivalent, especially in the context of our discussion.

In a similar way, when we sacrifice something, we are removing it from our lives. While sacrifice is closely related to giving offerings, offering focuses on the giving act and specifically where our gift goes, while sacrifice focuses on the giving act and what we are giving up or removing from our lives.

Both aspects of giving are key to our discussion and to this teacher’s concluding statement. We must have love in our hearts before we give up anything from our life, which is called sacrifice, and before we give anything as an offering to God. Having love for God and love for our neighbor “are more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (v. 33b)

This passage wraps up with one more statement from Jesus. Verse 34 begins by telling us that “Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely. He said to him, ‘You are not far from God’s kingdom.’”

This is interesting because it implies that while this teacher knows the right answer, he was missing something that was needed for entrance into God’s kingdom.

Assuming that this teacher had love for God, love for his neighbor, and a solid track record of sacrifices, what could Jesus have been referring to in His final response? If all these other things are in place, the only thing missing is a belief in Jesus.

This man was not far from God’s kingdom because he knew all the right things, and he likely lived them out. But when challenged on whether Jesus was the Messiah God sent, this man sided with the traditional religious culture who believed Jesus to be an imposter. This man wasn’t far from God’s kingdom, but he was missing the key needed for entrance. Faith and belief in Jesus is that key.

In our own lives, while we might say and do all the right things, if we aren’t placing our faith in Jesus, we forfeit the life we are promised that comes through Jesus. In the end, being not far from God’s kingdom might then mean that we are close, but being close to the kingdom is still being outside of it. Accepting Jesus into our hearts and lives is the key we use to enter God’s kingdom.

While life inside God’s kingdom includes doing and saying the right things, the motivation for what we do and say is different. Those outside of God’s kingdom seek entrance through their actions. Those inside God’s kingdom live righteously as a thank you to God for everything He has already blessed us with – and these blessings and gifts rest on the foundation of the most important gift ever: Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to pay for our sins. Nothing is more important than this. It is the key for entrance into God’s kingdom.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

If you are worried that you aren’t good enough for God or that you cannot reach His standard, accept the fact that this is true. However, also accept the fact that Jesus came to live the life you couldn’t live, and to offer His life as a replacement for yours. Accept Jesus’ gift and change your focus from living righteously trying to please God to living righteously as a Thank You to God.

When we are living life from a Thank You perspective, we might stumble, but when we stumble, this doesn’t change our attitude of thanks. Instead, when we stumble or fall, our thankfulness towards God is increased, and we get back up and press forward. Living with a “Thank You” perspective is a completely different perspective than what many people are use to.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally towards God and towards Jesus. Personal prayer and Bible study grow a personal relationship with God, and a personal relationship with God leads to eternal life.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or wander away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!