Now what are these three teachings? Well, the first concerns the proper attitude of a Christian toward money. Oh that’s important because so many of our worries have to do with material things. In that section of the Sermon Jesus taught that the love of money is harmful because it is impossible for a person to serve God and money at the same time. Then he added that, for the same reason, His followers should not be anxious about some future happening or provision. We cannot serve God and worry about anything, including money, at the same time.
Now we can see this truth in two ways. First, remember the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” If that’s an accurate description of our Christian service, then it’s evident that we cannot serve God and glorify Him if we’re constantly filled with doubt about His ability to take care of us. The other way to understand Christ’s first point is by the old saying, “If you’re worrying, you’re not trusting; and if you’re trusting you’re not worrying.” That is literally true. It’s a proper restatement of Christ’s argument that you cannot serve God and keep on worrying at the same time. One commentator has written, “This recognizes the habitual attitude of the unsaved heart,” (he could have said of many Christian hearts, too) “toward the problems and difficulties of life. God commands us to ‘stop perpetually worrying about even one thing.’ We commit sin when we worry. We do not trust God when we worry. We do not receive answers to prayer when we worry, because we are not trusting.”1
The second reason that we are not to worry involves something else. It involves knowledge. It’s a reminder of a fact that every Christian should know the fact that God is both able and willing to care for those who trust Him. Jesus said in Matthew 6, “Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?… And why are ye anxious for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (26, 28-30).
Do you see the importance of these verses? It’s not merely that we are commanded not to worry. We are given reason why we should not worry. The command not to worry is based upon the demonstrable ability of God to take care of us.
1Kenneth S. Wuest, Wuest’s Word Studies (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1966), vol. 4, 43.
