JESUS continues his teaching concerning the Christian?s right attitude to the world. In the previous verses Jesus was speaking against the love of the world and how this damages our soul and usurps the Lordship of Christ in the life of the believer. In these next verses Jesus deals with the problem of how the world and our need to live in this world can take over our lives. Jesus wants us to have a right attitude to the world. We have to live in this world, and God has given us the good things of the earth for our sustenance and our enjoyment. Our trouble is that needs we have in order to live in this world take over our lives, and cause us to worry, and this is destructive to our joy and our spiritual lives.

It needs to be stressed that what Jesus is saying here is only really applicable to those who are Christians by faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord. The fact that he speaks of God as our heavenly Father makes this certain, but it is also true that the arguments Christ uses in these verses can only be truly valid for those who know God through Jesus Christ. The rest of humanity live for the world, and as Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 they are without hope and without God in the world, so the arguments here don?t apply.

The problem of worrying over how we shall live in this world is a very serious one, and all believers, to one degree or another, suffer from it, though some more than others. What Jesus calls us to do in these verses before us is to argue and reason ourselves out of worry, and see how unreasonable worry is, and how unnecessary. Jesus goes on to other ways of combating worry in the verses that follow these ones we are considering.

The first thing we can learn from the words of Jesus is that worry and anxiety is worldly and a denial of our faith and trust in Christ. Worry is caused by trusting in ourselves and the world rather than trusting in Christ. Because of this worry is sinful although we do not like to think of it in this way.

The first point Jesus makes is ?is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?? Jesus places this question before us. The record of this question in Luke?s Gospel (Luke 10:21) is helpful here. Luke reports this teaching of Jesus with the words ?life is more important than food etc.? I have to say that I have found it difficult to get my head around this argument, but the Luke record I found illuminating. The question is ?what is life?? In the world life is seen as having things, because having things is believed to be the source of happiness. So people seek to be rich, and successful. Worry comes in because we worry about how we can achieve this. When we face this squarely we can see that this is nothing else but worldliness and living for this world.

For the Christian life is living for God and in the will of God. Life is knowing God and being filled with the love of God. We need food and clothing to exist in this life, but we don?t need much, if not most, of things we worry about. Simple food and simple clothes are enough. The story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10:41 is helpful here. Jesus had come to the home of these two sisters, and Martha, the practical one, sets about providing for the comfort of Jesus, and particularly concerning the provision of a meal. She gets into a state of worry and stress over these practical matters, and in her stress gets angry with her sister, and asks Jesus to tell her to help. Jesus tells Martha the simple fact that all the preparations she was worried about were not necessary. A simple meal was sufficient which would have taken no time at all to provide, and then she also could have had time to listen to Jesus and learn as Mary was doing. We feel we have to have everything, when we need only necessary and simple things. We feel that we can?t be happy or satisfied unless we have all the things we collect in our homes, but much of them are not necessary, and we would be happier without them, and so able to nourish our souls in the presence of Jesus.

But Jesus argues on from here. He recognises that many things in life are necessary. We do need enough food, and we need to be clothed, and we need a roof over our heads. He recognises we worry over the provision of these needs. So Jesus puts before us the true Christian perspective.

The first thing Jesus reminds us of is that God is our heavenly Father. We have been brought into the family of God by adoption and grace. God has chosen us for this privilege, and led us to faith in Jesus. He has given us eternal life, that is spiritual life. He has given his Son for us even unto death. This is our blessing that God has chosen to be a Father to us, and so has brought us into life. Now this life is more than the body and more than food and clothing, and the argument is this that if God has given us life, and in love has made us his children, it is unthinkable that he will then forget about us, and so not provide for our needs in this world. Our heavenly Father will certainly not give us many things which he knows will not be good for us, but we may be sure he will provide for us. It is for this reason that worry is silly, and it is wrong, and it is casting doubts on the goodness of God. It is not possible for God to let us down by not providing for us. This is always true whatever the particular circumstances Christians may have to face, and is still true when things are difficult.

Jesus then enforces this argument by pointing us to the birds and animals. They are far less valuable to God than his own children which he has chosen to love and save. Yet God provides for them, even though they do not have to work for their food as we do. If our heavenly Father feeds them, he will most certainly feed his own children which he loves.

Jesus then adds further enforcement to the fact that worry is folly. Worry achieves nothing. Worry doesn?t suddenly cause food to appear or clothes to arrive. Worry produces nothing but stress and makes us ill. Worry in fact hinders the provision of the very things we are worrying over. Jesus makes this point by reminding us that worry can?t prolong our lives nor can it add an inch to our height. In fact worry has the opposite effect. Worry can shorten our life by making us ill, and it can cause such sickness that crumples our bodies, such as afflictions like arthritis.