Jesus Sits Beside a Man Overcome With Worryby MuzFamily
6:27Matthew 6:27
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus asks who can increase bodily height even a little by anxious, worrying thought, showing that worry is powerless to control physical life or secure its needs of food, drink and clothing. He points to the birds that neither sow nor reap and to the lilies and grass clothed more gloriously than Solomon, to prove that the heavenly Father feeds and clothes His lower creation. Because men and women are formed in God's image, are much better than birds and flowers, have every detail of life recorded and even the hairs numbered, that same Father knows their needs and will make His gifts of life and body complete. Therefore they are to cease anxious self-reliance and distrust, trust the Father's constant sustaining care, and seek first His kingdom and righteousness with the promise that all needed temporal things shall be added. This does not excuse idleness or neglect of self, family and daily duty, but calls for diligent, patient work as God's coworkers without absorbing anxiety.
Words and Immediate Setting
The verse belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, spoken especially to the disciples within hearing of the gathered multitude. That sermon teaches the principles and conditions of God's kingdom. Its teaching stands against the doctrines of the scribes and Pharisees and presents God not as a stern, unfeeling judge but as a loving Father. It presents the principles of God's law as far-reaching, requiring the spirit of the law in the heart. It sets the holy standard of character in God's pure gospel and holy law, requiring love to God with the whole heart and love to neighbor as God requires, including right and holy methods in business, refusing to mingle human wisdom with the divine, refusing to gain means unjustly at another's expense, and refusing to divert means from its true object to serve ambitious designs and lust for gain and power, so that failure to meet the standard proves the holy law has not yet been learned and calls for repentance, conversion, and cleansing and purging of the soul temple.
Its immediate setting warns against laying up treasures on earth and continues that warning through the rest of the chapter, exposing the danger and unbelief of anxious thought about earthly things and teaching the necessity of walking by faith instead of worry. It calls for laying up treasure in heaven rather than on earth, for keeping the eye single so the body is full of light, and for refusing to serve two masters, since no one can serve God and mammon. It forbids taking thought for the life, what to eat or drink, and for the body, what to put on, because life is more than meat and the body than raiment. Worry about bodily needs cannot control or increase what God has given, but belongs to a lesson against serving material concerns and for trusting the heavenly Father for life's needs.
Jesus drew the lesson from familiar scenes in nature, the birds of the air and the lilies and flowers of the field in their natural loveliness, to illustrate immortal truth and make divine lessons plain, simple and memorable. The earthly has its place in illustrating the heavenly, and all nature is a lesson book and teacher to everyone willing to learn. This shows how open His spirit was to the influences of nature and how He delighted to gather spiritual teaching from the surroundings of daily life, using facts of life and experience familiar to the hearers, with language adapted even to the opening intellect of child-life, bringing hearers into contact with nature that they might listen to the voice speaking in all created things. His lessons held something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart, linking daily cares with things in nature and ordinary surroundings so they could be remembered amid work and concerns, so that birds and flowers reminded hearers of sacred truths, later sights of nature brought His lessons back to memory, the daily task instead of being mere toil bereft of higher thoughts is brightened and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and unseen, natural objects turn the mind from nature to its Creator and to God, and tender hearts and receptive minds learn to interpret the spiritual teaching of the scenes their eyes rest upon.
“Taking thought” means anxious, worrying thought about food, clothing and the future. “One cubit” means even a small measure of stature or height. The question shows that worry cannot change physical measure, increase height, lengthen life, or gain control over even a small part of physical life and what God alone provides. It likewise shows that worry cannot extend, preserve or keep life through continual anxious attention and self-monitoring, since life depends on God's sustaining power. The lesson from the flowers of the field therefore calls for trust in constant care and for bringing burdens to Him rather than letting cares separate from Him.
Futility of Anxious Thought
Anxious thought cannot add even a cubit to stature, increase height, change physical measure or alter what has been made, and worry cannot supply food, drink, clothing or other needs of life and the body. Worry about bodily needs is powerless, useless and futile, unable to control even a small measure of bodily growth. The question calls away from anxious self-reliance to simplicity and faith in the Father who knows human needs and cares for His creatures. It belongs to the lesson that God cares for creation and will provide for people who are more valuable than animals and grass, bidding them trust Him rather than be anxious about eating, drinking and clothing.
Life cannot be produced by human beings, and growth is in Christ's care so that people are not required to take that responsibility upon themselves. Human skill may copy the graceful forms and delicate hues of plants and flowers, yet no human touch can impart life to even one flower or blade of grass. Every wayside blossom owes its being to the same power that set the starry worlds on high, and through all created things thrills one pulse of life from the great heart of God. The God who gave the greater gifts of life and the body knows the need of food to sustain life and raiment to clothe the body, and will bestow what is needed to make His gift complete.
Anxious thought and striving for riches, place, position, honor and recognition cannot add anything to a person. True honor is sought in the right way by obedience to the word of truth and honoring Christ at every step, in contentment and yielding of the will to the control of the Holy Spirit. That yielding refuses to elbow fellow workers aside to make room for personal plans, puts away strife, hasty temper, cruel speech and unkind thought, and desires most to work in just the place assigned where He can look with approval, revealing the fruits of righteousness in words that bless and encourage.
As no one can increase physical stature by worry or effort, so no one can produce spiritual growth for another or secure it by personal anxiety and effort. All growth in the spiritual life is like growth in the natural world and depends wholly on the Lord. Each person must reach his own individual measure by growing up under God's supervision, growing by receiving from Christ what sustains spiritual life as plants and children receive what they need to grow.
Father's Care for Creation
The heavenly Father feeds the fowls of the air, the birds and ravens and little brown sparrows, which sow not, reap not, nor gather into barns, watching over them so that not one falls without His notice. He clothes the lilies and flowers of the field, which toil not nor spin, and the grass that today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, with a beauty more glorious than Solomon in all his glory, Solomon as the greatest king that ever wielded a sceptre. Since He so feeds and clothes them, He will much more feed and clothe His people of little faith. Divine attention is proportionate to rank in the scale of creation, and human beings are much better than birds and of greater consequence than birds and flowers. They were formed in God's image and likeness, with intellect to comprehend higher things and to be led into higher departments of divine truth. They are His purchased heritage, with names and life histories ever before Him, every particular of history recorded on a page in the book of providence, even the hairs of the head numbered, and His children never absent from His mind. The God who gave the greater gifts of life and the body knows the need of food to sustain life and raiment to clothe the body, and will bestow what is needed to make His gift complete. Human skill may copy the graceful forms and delicate hues of plants and flowers, but no human touch can impart life to even one flower or blade of grass. Every wayside blossom owes its being to the same power that set the starry worlds on high, and through all created things thrills one pulse of life from the great heart of God. He provides for temporal needs, but He cares even more for eternal interests, for the redemption of souls, for purification and a place with Christ, so anxiety over food, drink and clothing is an inferior concern beside eternity. God placed people in the world and continually cares for and sustains everything He has made. He watches each person in every circumstance and notices every tear and smile. This care, left in His hands, dismisses undue anxiety and brings rest of soul. It gives courage to the afflicted and hope to the downcast, for Jesus is a sympathizing friend to whom all troubles and griefs can be brought, calling for constant trust and bringing burdens to Him rather than letting the cares of life separate from Him.
Call to Trusting Faith
The question about adding to stature belongs to the teaching against anxious concern for the needs of life, and it shows that worry cannot increase height, change what has been made, or supply what is needed for life and the body. It calls for simplicity and faith in God rather than anxious self-reliance, for ceasing anxious thought about what to eat, drink, and wear, and for trusting the heavenly Father who knows human needs and provides what is necessary for the life He has given. The proof of worry’s uselessness and powerlessness is meant to enlarge views of God’s goodness by bidding people behold the works of His hands, the birds fed without sowing or reaping and the lilies and grass clothed without toiling or spinning with a beauty outvying Solomon’s glory though they wither in a day. Since care is proportionate to place in the scale of creation, human beings who are much better than birds, made in God’s image, His purchased heritage with names and life histories ever before Him, will much more be fed and clothed by the hand that upholds the world.
Anxious thought about eating, drinking, and clothing marks the Gentiles and little faith, and the lesson is to cease such anxiety, grasp God’s love, and trust the heavenly Father who knows all needs. The obedience of birds of the air and flowers of the field to the orders of God’s will stands as admonition and reproof for human ingratitude, distrust, unbelief, and disobedience. Though gifted with higher and nobler powers than the lower orders of creation, men have departed from God’s plan, lowered themselves to acts that dishonor their Maker, and dishonored Him whom Christ came to reveal, while birds and flowers obey. That rebuke keenly exposes every phase of distrust and unbelief and calls for unquestioning faith, for revealing pure unselfish love, for becoming through grace partakers of the divine nature and one with Christ and thus one with God, and for casting all care upon Him, since without His help the heavy burdens of life cannot be carried aright. God makes His will clearly known, gives evidence after evidence of His unwillingness that any should perish, and desires that all through believing and obeying His Word shall have eternal life, with thanksgiving and praise as the fitting response to His greater care for people.
Instead of seeking after food, drink, and clothing like the Gentiles, people must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, with the promise that all these things shall be added by the Father who knows all these needs. They are to work for something higher than bodily provisions, to consider the realities of eternity, and to treat anxiety over food, drink, and clothing as an inferior concern compared with eternal interests such as purification and a place with Christ. They must guard against having more anxiety than faith, and when the time to advance has fully come they must advance rather than hold back from worry over means. God has sustained His workers thus far and will continue to work for and through them as they walk by faith, so lack of needed help is no cause for discouragement and overanxiety does not honor Him; they are to recognize the greatness of the trust committed, do their best, and then leave the rest with the heavenly Father, who does not ask for burdens too heavy to carry, is not ignorant of weighing cares, knows the barrenness of the fields and their great need, and can inspire others to work unselfishly and cheerfully so that barren places are filled with trees of righteousness.
The teaching does not mean Christians should ignore temporal welfare, refrain from work, live in idleness, or regard caring for self and family as sinful, and to use it to support that extreme view is a misuse of Scripture. People should be diligent and patient and do what is theirs to do as God’s coworkers, placed in the world and continually cared for by Him, without absorbing anxiety that they must secure everything by their own effort. Concern about worldly needs such as food and clothing should not occupy the mind to the exclusion of serving God with humility and prayer. The lessons of the Sermon on the Mount are to be exemplified in daily life, and living them can make a deeper and more lasting impression on others than spoken sermons.
The sixth chapter of Matthew still holds lessons unlearned, teaching recognition of every gift as coming from God, gratitude for His goodness filling the heart and bringing a heavenly atmosphere around the soul, ordering life by the truth of God found in His word, and diligent study of the Scriptures as the truth of the living God, the foundation of faith and the assurance of hope of eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. Lack of time, the care of children, and busy domestic duties are no excuse for neglecting the study of the Word and God-given responsibilities, for no man lives to himself.
Daily Life Applications
The verse teaches contentment and yielding of the will to the control of the Holy Spirit, for anxious thought and striving for riches, place, position, honor and recognition cannot add anything to a person. True honor is sought in the right way by obedience to the word of truth and by honoring Christ at every step. It forbids elbowing a fellow worker aside to make room for personal plans, and puts away strife for place and position with hasty temper, cruel speech and unkind thought. The greatest desire is to work in just the place God has assigned, where He can look with approval, revealing the fruits of righteousness in words that bless and encourage.
Giving much time, thought and large sums of money to dress and to satisfy the never-ending demands of fashion is reproved as wasted time, since human worry cannot supply the needs of the body. Even professed children of God are to dress only neatly, tastefully, modestly and becomingly, leaving off unnecessary trimmings, jewelry and expensive dress, which give no true influence. They are to learn self-denial and teach it to children, to value natural beauty above artificial display, and to give God the heart's best affections. The means thus saved are to be laid aside to feed and clothe those suffering hunger and cold and to advance the proclamation of present truth. True power with God comes from the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit that results from devotion to the service of Christ, with kindness and forethought for others as qualities precious in heaven to be gained at once.
The words in Matthew 6:19-34 are given for the enlightenment of parents, who are teachers in the place of God to act out His mind and will in every particular. They are not to scold and fret at their children, nor to be harsh and punish them in anger. They are to bring up their children in habits of strict temperance.
In its wider lesson there is no need to worry about food, drink or clothing, but to live simply and trust the heavenly Father's care, who cares more for human beings than for birds and flowers. Such worries should not fill the mind, and people of little faith should trust God through hardship, remembering that Christ experienced poverty and hardship and that God can provide for those in need through people who have means. Preparations for the Sabbath, including putting clothing and boots in order beforehand, should be made in good time, because God means what He says about the Sabbath.
Pointing children to birds, grass and flowers displays God's creative skill, love and tender fatherly care seeking their happiness, teaching them to trust His care and to value natural beauty above artificial display. His hand has made the lofty trees, the grass, the buds and the flowers, and every bud and flower is an expression of His love, while the lesson Christ points to in the lily of the field is simplicity and trust in God. Looking at these wonderful works diverts attention from self to God and uplifts minds from things seen to things unseen. The beauty of nature leads thought to the heavenly home, where nothing mars the loveliness, nothing taints or destroys, and nothing causes disease or death. When the sick are placed amid beautiful objects of nature to live out of doors in warm sunshine, pure air, beautiful scenery, flowers and trees, orchards and vineyards with outdoor exercise, nature acts as healer so they require less close care and nursing, become less inclined to discontent and repining, have their minds taken away from themselves to delight in God's handiwork, and are made ready to learn of the God of nature and acknowledge His care. This gives opportunity to uplift the God of nature before those seeking restoration of health, to reach their souls, and greatly aids recovery of health without drugs with reason to praise the Lord for providing such advantages.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus asks who can increase bodily height even a little by anxious, worrying thought, showing that worry is powerless to control physical life or secure its needs of food, drink and clothing. He points to the birds that neither sow nor reap and to the lilies and grass clothed more gloriously than Solomon, to prove that the heavenly Father feeds and clothes His lower creation. Because men and women are formed in God's image, are much better than birds and flowers, have every detail of life recorded and even the hairs numbered, that same Father knows their needs and will make His gifts of life and body complete. Therefore they are to cease anxious self-reliance and distrust, trust the Father's constant sustaining care, and seek first His kingdom and righteousness with the promise that all needed temporal things shall be added. This does not excuse idleness or neglect of self, family and daily duty, but calls for diligent, patient work as God's coworkers without absorbing anxiety.
Words and Immediate Setting
The verse belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, spoken especially to the disciples within hearing of the gathered multitude. That sermon teaches the principles and conditions of God's kingdom. Its teaching stands against the doctrines of the scribes and Pharisees and presents God not as a stern, unfeeling judge but as a loving Father. It presents the principles of God's law as far-reaching, requiring the spirit of the law in the heart. It sets the holy standard of character in God's pure gospel and holy law, requiring love to God with the whole heart and love to neighbor as God requires, including right and holy methods in business, refusing to mingle human wisdom with the divine, refusing to gain means unjustly at another's expense, and refusing to divert means from its true object to serve ambitious designs and lust for gain and power, so that failure to meet the standard proves the holy law has not yet been learned and calls for repentance, conversion, and cleansing and purging of the soul temple.
Its immediate setting warns against laying up treasures on earth and continues that warning through the rest of the chapter, exposing the danger and unbelief of anxious thought about earthly things and teaching the necessity of walking by faith instead of worry. It calls for laying up treasure in heaven rather than on earth, for keeping the eye single so the body is full of light, and for refusing to serve two masters, since no one can serve God and mammon. It forbids taking thought for the life, what to eat or drink, and for the body, what to put on, because life is more than meat and the body than raiment. Worry about bodily needs cannot control or increase what God has given, but belongs to a lesson against serving material concerns and for trusting the heavenly Father for life's needs.
Jesus drew the lesson from familiar scenes in nature, the birds of the air and the lilies and flowers of the field in their natural loveliness, to illustrate immortal truth and make divine lessons plain, simple and memorable. The earthly has its place in illustrating the heavenly, and all nature is a lesson book and teacher to everyone willing to learn. This shows how open His spirit was to the influences of nature and how He delighted to gather spiritual teaching from the surroundings of daily life, using facts of life and experience familiar to the hearers, with language adapted even to the opening intellect of child-life, bringing hearers into contact with nature that they might listen to the voice speaking in all created things. His lessons held something to interest every mind and appeal to every heart, linking daily cares with things in nature and ordinary surroundings so they could be remembered amid work and concerns, so that birds and flowers reminded hearers of sacred truths, later sights of nature brought His lessons back to memory, the daily task instead of being mere toil bereft of higher thoughts is brightened and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and unseen, natural objects turn the mind from nature to its Creator and to God, and tender hearts and receptive minds learn to interpret the spiritual teaching of the scenes their eyes rest upon.
“Taking thought” means anxious, worrying thought about food, clothing and the future. “One cubit” means even a small measure of stature or height. The question shows that worry cannot change physical measure, increase height, lengthen life, or gain control over even a small part of physical life and what God alone provides. It likewise shows that worry cannot extend, preserve or keep life through continual anxious attention and self-monitoring, since life depends on God's sustaining power. The lesson from the flowers of the field therefore calls for trust in constant care and for bringing burdens to Him rather than letting cares separate from Him.
Futility of Anxious Thought
Anxious thought cannot add even a cubit to stature, increase height, change physical measure or alter what has been made, and worry cannot supply food, drink, clothing or other needs of life and the body. Worry about bodily needs is powerless, useless and futile, unable to control even a small measure of bodily growth. The question calls away from anxious self-reliance to simplicity and faith in the Father who knows human needs and cares for His creatures. It belongs to the lesson that God cares for creation and will provide for people who are more valuable than animals and grass, bidding them trust Him rather than be anxious about eating, drinking and clothing.
Life cannot be produced by human beings, and growth is in Christ's care so that people are not required to take that responsibility upon themselves. Human skill may copy the graceful forms and delicate hues of plants and flowers, yet no human touch can impart life to even one flower or blade of grass. Every wayside blossom owes its being to the same power that set the starry worlds on high, and through all created things thrills one pulse of life from the great heart of God. The God who gave the greater gifts of life and the body knows the need of food to sustain life and raiment to clothe the body, and will bestow what is needed to make His gift complete.
Anxious thought and striving for riches, place, position, honor and recognition cannot add anything to a person. True honor is sought in the right way by obedience to the word of truth and honoring Christ at every step, in contentment and yielding of the will to the control of the Holy Spirit. That yielding refuses to elbow fellow workers aside to make room for personal plans, puts away strife, hasty temper, cruel speech and unkind thought, and desires most to work in just the place assigned where He can look with approval, revealing the fruits of righteousness in words that bless and encourage.
As no one can increase physical stature by worry or effort, so no one can produce spiritual growth for another or secure it by personal anxiety and effort. All growth in the spiritual life is like growth in the natural world and depends wholly on the Lord. Each person must reach his own individual measure by growing up under God's supervision, growing by receiving from Christ what sustains spiritual life as plants and children receive what they need to grow.
Father's Care for Creation
The heavenly Father feeds the fowls of the air, the birds and ravens and little brown sparrows, which sow not, reap not, nor gather into barns, watching over them so that not one falls without His notice. He clothes the lilies and flowers of the field, which toil not nor spin, and the grass that today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, with a beauty more glorious than Solomon in all his glory, Solomon as the greatest king that ever wielded a sceptre. Since He so feeds and clothes them, He will much more feed and clothe His people of little faith. Divine attention is proportionate to rank in the scale of creation, and human beings are much better than birds and of greater consequence than birds and flowers. They were formed in God's image and likeness, with intellect to comprehend higher things and to be led into higher departments of divine truth. They are His purchased heritage, with names and life histories ever before Him, every particular of history recorded on a page in the book of providence, even the hairs of the head numbered, and His children never absent from His mind. The God who gave the greater gifts of life and the body knows the need of food to sustain life and raiment to clothe the body, and will bestow what is needed to make His gift complete. Human skill may copy the graceful forms and delicate hues of plants and flowers, but no human touch can impart life to even one flower or blade of grass. Every wayside blossom owes its being to the same power that set the starry worlds on high, and through all created things thrills one pulse of life from the great heart of God. He provides for temporal needs, but He cares even more for eternal interests, for the redemption of souls, for purification and a place with Christ, so anxiety over food, drink and clothing is an inferior concern beside eternity. God placed people in the world and continually cares for and sustains everything He has made. He watches each person in every circumstance and notices every tear and smile. This care, left in His hands, dismisses undue anxiety and brings rest of soul. It gives courage to the afflicted and hope to the downcast, for Jesus is a sympathizing friend to whom all troubles and griefs can be brought, calling for constant trust and bringing burdens to Him rather than letting the cares of life separate from Him.
Call to Trusting Faith
The question about adding to stature belongs to the teaching against anxious concern for the needs of life, and it shows that worry cannot increase height, change what has been made, or supply what is needed for life and the body. It calls for simplicity and faith in God rather than anxious self-reliance, for ceasing anxious thought about what to eat, drink, and wear, and for trusting the heavenly Father who knows human needs and provides what is necessary for the life He has given. The proof of worry’s uselessness and powerlessness is meant to enlarge views of God’s goodness by bidding people behold the works of His hands, the birds fed without sowing or reaping and the lilies and grass clothed without toiling or spinning with a beauty outvying Solomon’s glory though they wither in a day. Since care is proportionate to place in the scale of creation, human beings who are much better than birds, made in God’s image, His purchased heritage with names and life histories ever before Him, will much more be fed and clothed by the hand that upholds the world.
Anxious thought about eating, drinking, and clothing marks the Gentiles and little faith, and the lesson is to cease such anxiety, grasp God’s love, and trust the heavenly Father who knows all needs. The obedience of birds of the air and flowers of the field to the orders of God’s will stands as admonition and reproof for human ingratitude, distrust, unbelief, and disobedience. Though gifted with higher and nobler powers than the lower orders of creation, men have departed from God’s plan, lowered themselves to acts that dishonor their Maker, and dishonored Him whom Christ came to reveal, while birds and flowers obey. That rebuke keenly exposes every phase of distrust and unbelief and calls for unquestioning faith, for revealing pure unselfish love, for becoming through grace partakers of the divine nature and one with Christ and thus one with God, and for casting all care upon Him, since without His help the heavy burdens of life cannot be carried aright. God makes His will clearly known, gives evidence after evidence of His unwillingness that any should perish, and desires that all through believing and obeying His Word shall have eternal life, with thanksgiving and praise as the fitting response to His greater care for people.
Instead of seeking after food, drink, and clothing like the Gentiles, people must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, with the promise that all these things shall be added by the Father who knows all these needs. They are to work for something higher than bodily provisions, to consider the realities of eternity, and to treat anxiety over food, drink, and clothing as an inferior concern compared with eternal interests such as purification and a place with Christ. They must guard against having more anxiety than faith, and when the time to advance has fully come they must advance rather than hold back from worry over means. God has sustained His workers thus far and will continue to work for and through them as they walk by faith, so lack of needed help is no cause for discouragement and overanxiety does not honor Him; they are to recognize the greatness of the trust committed, do their best, and then leave the rest with the heavenly Father, who does not ask for burdens too heavy to carry, is not ignorant of weighing cares, knows the barrenness of the fields and their great need, and can inspire others to work unselfishly and cheerfully so that barren places are filled with trees of righteousness.
The teaching does not mean Christians should ignore temporal welfare, refrain from work, live in idleness, or regard caring for self and family as sinful, and to use it to support that extreme view is a misuse of Scripture. People should be diligent and patient and do what is theirs to do as God’s coworkers, placed in the world and continually cared for by Him, without absorbing anxiety that they must secure everything by their own effort. Concern about worldly needs such as food and clothing should not occupy the mind to the exclusion of serving God with humility and prayer. The lessons of the Sermon on the Mount are to be exemplified in daily life, and living them can make a deeper and more lasting impression on others than spoken sermons.
The sixth chapter of Matthew still holds lessons unlearned, teaching recognition of every gift as coming from God, gratitude for His goodness filling the heart and bringing a heavenly atmosphere around the soul, ordering life by the truth of God found in His word, and diligent study of the Scriptures as the truth of the living God, the foundation of faith and the assurance of hope of eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. Lack of time, the care of children, and busy domestic duties are no excuse for neglecting the study of the Word and God-given responsibilities, for no man lives to himself.
Daily Life Applications
The verse teaches contentment and yielding of the will to the control of the Holy Spirit, for anxious thought and striving for riches, place, position, honor and recognition cannot add anything to a person. True honor is sought in the right way by obedience to the word of truth and by honoring Christ at every step. It forbids elbowing a fellow worker aside to make room for personal plans, and puts away strife for place and position with hasty temper, cruel speech and unkind thought. The greatest desire is to work in just the place God has assigned, where He can look with approval, revealing the fruits of righteousness in words that bless and encourage.
Giving much time, thought and large sums of money to dress and to satisfy the never-ending demands of fashion is reproved as wasted time, since human worry cannot supply the needs of the body. Even professed children of God are to dress only neatly, tastefully, modestly and becomingly, leaving off unnecessary trimmings, jewelry and expensive dress, which give no true influence. They are to learn self-denial and teach it to children, to value natural beauty above artificial display, and to give God the heart's best affections. The means thus saved are to be laid aside to feed and clothe those suffering hunger and cold and to advance the proclamation of present truth. True power with God comes from the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit that results from devotion to the service of Christ, with kindness and forethought for others as qualities precious in heaven to be gained at once.
The words in Matthew 6:19-34 are given for the enlightenment of parents, who are teachers in the place of God to act out His mind and will in every particular. They are not to scold and fret at their children, nor to be harsh and punish them in anger. They are to bring up their children in habits of strict temperance.
In its wider lesson there is no need to worry about food, drink or clothing, but to live simply and trust the heavenly Father's care, who cares more for human beings than for birds and flowers. Such worries should not fill the mind, and people of little faith should trust God through hardship, remembering that Christ experienced poverty and hardship and that God can provide for those in need through people who have means. Preparations for the Sabbath, including putting clothing and boots in order beforehand, should be made in good time, because God means what He says about the Sabbath.
Pointing children to birds, grass and flowers displays God's creative skill, love and tender fatherly care seeking their happiness, teaching them to trust His care and to value natural beauty above artificial display. His hand has made the lofty trees, the grass, the buds and the flowers, and every bud and flower is an expression of His love, while the lesson Christ points to in the lily of the field is simplicity and trust in God. Looking at these wonderful works diverts attention from self to God and uplifts minds from things seen to things unseen. The beauty of nature leads thought to the heavenly home, where nothing mars the loveliness, nothing taints or destroys, and nothing causes disease or death. When the sick are placed amid beautiful objects of nature to live out of doors in warm sunshine, pure air, beautiful scenery, flowers and trees, orchards and vineyards with outdoor exercise, nature acts as healer so they require less close care and nursing, become less inclined to discontent and repining, have their minds taken away from themselves to delight in God's handiwork, and are made ready to learn of the God of nature and acknowledge His care. This gives opportunity to uplift the God of nature before those seeking restoration of health, to reach their souls, and greatly aids recovery of health without drugs with reason to praise the Lord for providing such advantages.