Jesus Christ · The Sermon on the Mount
Do Not Worry
Right after telling the crowd they cannot serve both God and money, Jesus turns to the worry that even the God-serving fall into: “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat.” Four times over He argues from the greater to the lesser — birds, lilies, grass, your Father's own knowledge of what you need — and lands on a single reordering of priority: “seek ye first the kingdom of God.”
The Text
— Matthew 6:25–34Therefore 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?The command itself, and the reason: life is more than food.
Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?Argument one: the birds, fed without a barn between them.
And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?Arguments two and three: the lilies, and the grass cast into the oven.
Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.Argument four: your Father already knows what you need.
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.The reordering — seek first, and the rest is added.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.Today's trouble is enough for today.
These ten verses close chapter 6. They follow directly on “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (6:24) and land just before Jesus turns to judging others (7:1). The order is not incidental: having just named the choice between two masters, He goes straight to the worry that undermines the choice for God's side even after it is made.
The Birds and Lilies Observatory
— the argument from the greater, in specimen formSPECIMEN ONE · MATTHEW 6:26
Fowls of the Air
- SOW
- not
- REAP
- not
- GATHER INTO BARNS
- not
- FED BY
- your heavenly Father
SPECIMEN TWO · MATTHEW 6:28–29
Lilies of the Field
- TOIL
- not
- SPIN
- not
- ARRAYED BY
- no labor of their own
- OUTDONE
- Solomon, in all his glory
“which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” — worry has never once lengthened the ruled line.
What He Is Saying
— the argument, four times overJesus builds one argument and runs it four times: God provides for what cannot provide for itself — birds that do not sow, lilies that do not spin, grass that exists for a day — so how much more will He provide for you, whom He values above all of it? The fourth run is not a picture at all but a plain statement: “your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” The whole case rests on His character, not on luck or effort.
What the KJV's “take no thought” actually meansa 1611 phrase, easily misread today
The Greek verb behind “take no thought” means to be anxious, worried, or divided in mind. In 1611 English, “take no thought” meant “do not be anxiously preoccupied” — not “give no consideration to.” A modern reader can easily hear the KJV phrase as counseling thoughtlessness, which is not what it says. Modern translations render it “be not anxious” or “do not worry,” which is the sense Jesus intends: not the absence of thought, but the absence of corrosive, faith-undermining worry.
Not a command against workPaul commands both work and planning
This is not a case against labor or planning. Paul later commands both in plain terms — “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thess 3:10–12). Chrysostom makes the same distinction reading this very passage: Jesus ends the anxious care, not the work. A disciple still sows, still spins, still labors — only without the faith-undermining worry that assumes God will not come through.
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God” (6:33) does the same work as the birds and the lilies, but as a command instead of a picture: it reorders priority, it does not eliminate responsibility. What is sought first is not the only thing sought — it is the thing everything else is added to.
The Voices: Birds, Lilies, and the Argument from the Greater
— the church hears Matthew 6:26–30Will He see, then, His own children using all the means which reason dictates for procuring the things needful for the body--looking up to Himself at every step--and yet leave them to starve?
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 6:26
Behold the fowls of the air - The second reason why we should not be anxiously concerned about the future, is the example of the smaller animals, which the providence of God feeds without their own labor; though he be not their father. We never knew an earthly father take care of his fowls, and neglect his children; and shall we fear this from our heavenly Father? God forbid!
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), Matt 6:26
These examples are not to be analyzed like allegories. We must not inquire about the allegorical significance of the birds of the air or the lilies of the field. These examples are proposed so that more important things may be suggested from things of less importance.
Augustine of Hippo· Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.15.52 (on Matt 6:26)
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these--What incomparable teaching!--best left in its own transparent clearness and rich simplicity.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 6:29
It is His way of gently chiding the spirit of unbelief, so natural even to the best, who are surrounded by a world of sense, and of kindling a generous desire to shake it off.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 6:30
Not Against Work — Only Against Anxiety
— Chrysostom and Augustine on the distinctionIn fact, the labor lies, not in taking no thought, but in taking thought for these things. And as in saying, "they sow not," it was not the sowing that He did away with, but the anxious thought; so in saying, "they toil not, neither do they spin," He put an end not to the work, but to the care.
John Chrysostom· Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 22 (on Matt 6:28)
By this he means that you are to take food or drink or clothing when it is fitting that you do so. When the need for them is pressing, these things will be at hand; our Father knows that we need all these things.
Augustine of Hippo· Sermon on the Mount 2.17.56 (on Matt 6:34)
“Seek Ye First” — The Great Summing Up
— the church hears Matthew 6:25, 32–34When "careful (or 'full of care') about nothing," but committing all in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving unto God, the apostle assures us that "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Php 4:6, 7); that is, shall guard both our feelings and our thoughts from undue agitation, and keep them in a holy calm.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 6:25
Food and raiment are pronounced needful to God's children; and He who could say, "No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him" (Mt 11:27), says with an authority which none but Himself could claim, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Will not that suffice you, O ye needy ones of the household of faith?
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 6:32
This is the great summing up. Strictly speaking, it has to do only with the subject of the present section--the right state of the heart with reference to heavenly and earthly things; but being couched in the form of a brief general directory, it is so comprehensive in its grasp as to embrace the whole subject of this discourse.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 6:33
The precise sense of every word in this golden verse should be carefully weighed. "The kingdom of God" is the primary subject of the Sermon on the Mount--that kingdom which the God of heaven is erecting in this fallen world, within which are all the spiritually recovered and inwardly subject portion of the family of Adam, under Messiah as its Divine Head and King.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 6:33
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof--An admirable practical maxim, and better rendered in our version than in almost any other, not excepting the preceding English ones. Every day brings its own cares; and to anticipate is only to double them.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 6:34
Where It Points
— the same command, elsewhere in ScriptureBe anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.“Be careful for nothing” — Paul's own version of the same command, with prayer as the alternative to anxiety.
Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” — the same Father, the same invitation.
The Psalms carry the same confidence in their own way — Psalm 37's call to rest in the Lord rather than fret over evildoers, and Psalm 104's hymn to a God who feeds every living thing on its own schedule. Jesus is not introducing a new idea in Matthew 6; He is reminding His hearers of a Father Israel's own songbook already knew.
Closing
Nothing here tells a disciple to stop sowing, stop spinning, or stop planning. What it forbids is the corrosive worry that quietly assumes the Father has forgotten — the worry the KJV called, in its own 1611 English, taking thought. The birds do not out-earn their food and the lilies do not out-dress Solomon; they are simply looked after by the one Jesus tells His disciples to trust first, and about everything else, second.