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.
Read Matthew 6:25-34 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Right in the middle of Jesus talking to His followers about money, He shifts His focus onto talking about worry. Right at the beginning of this transition, we find something fascinating in Jesus’ words.
Jesus opens this discussion on worry by saying, “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.” (v. 25)
What I find amazing in this verse is Jesus’ key point: “Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes.” Intuitively, we know this, but if we were to look at culture today, too much of our lives are consumed by what we will eat and what we should wear. Intriguingly enough, these are probably the two biggest areas of life that cost money that we spend time thinking about. Things like our mortgage, car payments, other debt, and utility bills will easily cost more, but as a general rule, we spend much less time thinking about these big cost items then the smaller cost items of food and clothes.
Well, I guess I should put quotes around “smaller cost items”. With the way trends are going, food and clothing can get really expensive if you wanted it to. If one eats out (doesn’t matter where) for the majority of their meals each week, they will end up spending a lot more money than if they were to prepare all their meals at home. The same is true for clothing. There are some “designer” items that are outrageously priced, but I guess there are people who buy them because they carry a specific brand or a label.
But here at the heart of Jesus’ words is a big truth we should remember when facing the craziness of life: “Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes.” What we eat and what we wear are minor issues when looking at our lives from the big picture. Who we will be, and how we will be remembered are pretty big issues we should answer during our respective lifetimes. Where we spend eternity – now that may be the biggest issue we each must decide over the course of our life.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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