Do not Worry About Your Life – Matthew 6:25

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? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Matthew 6:25-26

In my opinion, this is one of the most misunderstood and misapplied verses in the Bible. I have heard this passage taught countless times, in church services, Bible studies and even in books specifically focused on what the Bible teaches about finances and the love of money.

And the message almost always goes the same way.

1. Love of money is bad; you can’t serve God and Money
2. The Bible tells us not to worry about material possessions
3. Therefore don’t store up riches on earth; seek God’s kingdom and righteousness instead.

The above is all true — but this focus misses one important point;

Matthew 6:25 is not a warning against storing up riches! In fact, the entire passage (Matthew 25-34) never even mentions wealth or riches. Not once.

Rather, it refers to basic necessities. Food. Water. Clothing. Let’s look at vs 25 again. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. These are the worries that Jesus calls out.

So why is this important?

It is important because whenever we focus on the wrong aspect of a verse, we miss an opportunity for God to speak into our own lives and mould us into his image. By way of example, when I read this verse as it is generally taught in Christian circles, my thinking may go as follows:

1. Do I love money? No. Therefore, I serve God, not money. Check
2. Do I worry about acquiring material possessions (boats, cars, private jets)? No. Therefore I am not materialistic. Check
3. Do I chase after wealth and riches? No. Therefore, I must be seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness. Check

… and then we let the entire passage blow right past us.

So we leave church satisfied that we have held up our lives against the mirror of God’s word and ticked the box on all counts. The Bible passage, while interesting and informative, did not reveal any shortcomings in our lives this week. We are doing okay.

I would submit that this is a very dangerous path to walk, as believers.

Now let’s focus on the verse from a “Basic Necessities” point of view. I will answer each question below honestly from my personal life and experience. Your answers may be different. But I urge you to consider each question and answer honestly for yourself.

Do I currently serve God or Money?

(Author’s personal assessment)

Taking the pursuit of riches out of the equation, as this is not what Matthew 6:25 addresses, how might I consider this question?

The truth is, I spend almost every waking moment of my life working to earn money in order to support myself and my family. None of this is in the pursuit of riches; rather it is to ensure that I can provide for my family’s basic necessities like food, drink, clothing and shelter.

If I spend all of my time trying to earn money, who am I really serving? God or Mammon?

The answer to that question is a little scary for me. It gives me pause to thank God for his grace and shines a light on an area of my life that I should bring to Jesus and lay down at the cross.

Perhaps repentance is in order and maybe I need to consider how I can restructure my life to spend more of my time serving God and his purposes.

Am I gripped by materialism?

(Author’s personal assessment)

Once again, acknowledging that the pursuit of riches is not the context in which Matthew 6:25 is written, how might I think about materialism?

When I consider all the things I have acquired over the years and the bills I have currently racked up, I confess that part of the reason I head to office each day is to ensure that I earn enough money to pay for all the possessions I have acquired, many of them on credit. That makes me materialistic, by definition.

I have recently made some changes and reduced my monthly spending, learning to be content with what I have rather than always striving for more.

I don’t yet give as much as I know I should and I only recently began to acknowledge that all I earn is God’s and that I am a mere steward of those resources. I have begun giving more deliberately to God’s kingdom and also planting seeds for future harvest so that I can continue to increase my giving in the years to come — but I still have a long way to go.

Do I worry about earning enough for my basic needs in life? Food, water, clothing?

(Author’s personal assessment)

Well — yes. It is probably the reason I have willingly chained myself to a desk in the office every working day these past twenty years. Job security is important to me.

In fact, if I am honest, clinging to job security is not the means of overcoming my financial anxiety. Rather, I do it because of my financial anxiety.

The cost of that anxiety has been a life spent largely in pursuit of making ends meet rather than in living out God’s will and purposes for my life. I want to change this going forward.

I feel God’s word challenging me to truly trust my heavenly Father for provision of my family’s basic needs rather than my employment contract.

Do I worry about what I will eat or drink, or wear? I guess I have to put my hand up.

Matthew 6:25 – Conclusions

… and now that I have held my life up to the mirror of God’s word and seen my image clearly reflected, I have the opportunity to grow in Christ.

What are your thoughts on Matthew 6:25 and how did you fare in answering the above questions? Check in with me on Facebook and let me know.

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Author’s Note

The above verses form part of a widely-known passage (Matthew 6:25-34) that culminates in the famous phrase, ‘But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness …’. It is well worth studying the entire passage as a whole rather than just the two verses covered in this article.

It is also worth noting that the preceding verse (Matthew 6:24) is all about God and Mammon, ‘No one can serve two masters…’.