Jesus Sits Beside a Man Overcome With Worryby MuzFamily
6:31Matthew 6:31
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Christ forbids anxious thought and talk about what to eat, what to drink, and what to wear, calling His disciples to trust God instead of worrying about tomorrow and to seek first His kingdom and righteousness. This does not release anyone from faithful work for temporal needs, but calls for doing what can be done and then leaving what cannot be accomplished to the heavenly Father who fed Israel in the desert and sustained Elijah in famine. The heavenly Father knows these needs and cares as a tender, watchful parent, feeding the birds that do not sow or reap and clothing the grass and lilies that do not toil or spin, and He will much more feed and clothe human beings made in His image. His promise is conditional, that those who make His principles their guide and seek first His kingdom shall have food, clothing, and all other needed things added, even with bread and water made sure in famine. Such anxious seeking is Gentile unbelief that puts earthly needs above eternity, divides the eye between God and mammon, and runs to sinful excess in appetite and dress that wastes strength, corrupts health, and crowds out love for God’s truth.
Sermon Setting and Audience
The saying belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, delivered especially to the disciples while the assembled multitude also heard. That sermon sets forth the principles governing the kingdom of divine grace rather than promising the earthly glory and political deliverance many expected. It corrects false ideas of worldly greatness and gives a right understanding of the kingdom of God and its conditions. It opposes the self-righteous teaching of the scribes and Pharisees by revealing God as compassionate, merciful, and loving, as a Father who cares for people. Its far-reaching principles show that the law must be held in the heart, since the state of the heart shapes the life and character.
Failure to walk in the light given there separates people from God. Yet its teaching is simple enough for a child to study without being misled, carries God's authority, and comes from God. It was spoken to people burdened by worry, disappointment, and sorrow, including children and youth, with a face aglow with the Father's light. It forbids anxious talk about food, drink, and clothing and rests on the heavenly Father's knowledge of human need and the promise that seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness brings all needed things. It is simple instruction to disciples calling for genuine trust in Jesus amid peril and real trials rather than being consumed by anxiety over daily needs.
The saying belongs to the teaching in Matthew 6:19-34 about laying up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves do not steal, because where treasure is the heart will be also. It therefore joins refusal to serve wealth with trust in the Father's care and seeking God's kingdom and righteousness first. It calls for a single eye and refusal to serve mammon instead of anxious striving for life's necessities. The last verses of the chapter teach about God in nature. That trust is joined to asking Him for daily bread, and freedom from anxiety is joined to seeking God's kingdom first and taking no thought for tomorrow.
Meaning of the Command
The command forbids anxious thought and talk and questioning that says what shall be eaten and what shall be drunk and with what shall the body be clothed. It means that life is more than meat and the body than raiment, that no one by worry can add a cubit to stature, and that care for tomorrow must give way to seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Lack of time, care of children, domestic duties, and need to make a living are no excuse for neglecting study of the Word and God-given responsibilities to others. Worry over food and drink and clothing comes from laying up treasure on earth and from a divided eye and trying to serve God and mammon, while believers are to keep a single eye full of light, lay up treasure in heaven where moth and rust and thieves and flood and fire cannot corrupt or destroy, and refuse to serve mammon. Those entrusted with means are to be God's almoners and put gifts and offerings into God's treasury to sustain His cause and save souls without constant fear of being expected to do something, for that is the only saving bank that never fails.
Christ gives the command to enlarge views of God's goodness by beholding His works, the fowls of the air that sow not nor reap nor gather yet are fed by the heavenly Father, and the lilies and grass of the field that toil not nor spin yet are clothed with beauty outvying Solomon in all his glory though they wither in a day. The argument is from the lesser to the greater in proportion to place in creation, so human beings who are much better than birds and are created in God's image will much more be fed and clothed, and no artificial display in dress is needed. Anxious seeking after these things is the seeking of the Gentiles and shows little faith, while the heavenly Father already knows His children need all these things, nourishes every root, upholds the world and upholds and strengthens His weakest child, never has any name absent from His mind for a moment, and does not forsake even those who have sinned grievously. The command is joined to seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness with the precious promise to those who make His principles their guide that clothing and food and all other needed things shall be added, which means seeking the heavenly adorning, the robe of Christ's righteousness that every human being must put on to enter the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem.
The verse does not teach that Christians must stop working or neglect their own and their families' temporal welfare, and to use it to call work sinful or to say no thought should be given to earthly needs is an extreme misuse. It calls for faithfully carrying out work in accordance with God's will and depending on God's promise rather than on the outcome of own efforts. After faithfully doing the work entrusted to them and doing what can be done, believers are to leave to their heavenly Father what they cannot accomplish, trusting that He knows their cares and needs and will provide through financial difficulties when He sees it is best. The same divine word that fed Israel in the desert and sustained Elijah during famine can provide today, and freedom from anxiety belongs with seeking God's kingdom and righteousness first and with genuine trust in Jesus amid peril and real trials.
As natural growth does not come by anxious thought, so spiritual growth does not come by leaning on any minister or man. Each person is to look to God for himself, lean upon God, trade with conscientious fidelity upon God-given ability and work, and grow up under God's supervision to individual measurement and full stature, because in the spiritual as in the natural all depends upon the Lord. Ordinary needs for food and clothing may be brought to God in prayer. The heavenly Father knows these needs and invites His children to ask alongside spiritual needs for bread and clothing, supplying necessities from His generosity through Jesus' name.
Father's Care and Promise
The heavenly Father knows the need for food and drink and clothing and is able and willing to provide it. Those who love God and keep His commandments need not be consumed by worry over these things, for His care is that of a tender, watchful parent, assured by His gift of His Son. Such anxious preoccupation leaves God out of account and shows little faith and distrust, whereas life is a holy trust from God to be spent in the work He sets before each one. The call is to living faith that seeks His kingdom and His righteousness first and trusts His leading without demanding to foresee every outcome.
God tenderly watches each person, rich or poor, sustains all creation from worlds to the smallest creatures, and notices every person in every circumstance of sorrow and joy. He upholds the world and strengthens His weakest child, no name is ever absent from His mind, and He does not forsake even grievous sinners. Believing this, people may place both great and small concerns in His hands and find rest of soul. They are to trust Him for temporal needs as for the redemption of the soul, directing concern toward knowing and doing His requirements, for His care for eternal interests is even greater than His care for temporal interests.
The Father feeds the fowls of the air that sow not, reap not, nor gather, nourishes every root, and clothes the grass of the field and the lilies that toil not nor spin. Though they wither in a day, He arrays them in beauty outvying Solomon in all his glory, and the flowers show His care and teach simple, quiet trust. The argument runs from the lesser to the greater in proportion to place in creation, so human beings made in God's image and much better than birds will much more be fed and clothed. Therefore no artificial display in dress is needed.
The promise is conditional: seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and clothing, food, and all other needed things shall be added. It belongs to those who make His principles their guide, and those who sacrifice for God can trust His care even in famine, when bread and water shall be sure. Those who have means must not hoard but give to supply need, so that provision is made that none go hungry or lack clothing.
The promise concerns more than outward needs, for the better life is the inward adorning of meekness and Christ's righteousness. This heavenly adorning is the robe that every human being must put on to enter the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem, making people precious to God and preparing them for immortality in contrast to earthly wealth and display. Trusted, it gives perfect peace to the mind stayed on God.
Rebuke of Unbelief and Worldliness
Anxious seeking after food and drink and clothing is the seeking of the Gentiles, and in those who claim discipleship it shows little faith and unbelief, which is the danger of the present time. It comes from laying up treasure on earth, from a divided eye, and from attempting to serve God and mammon, and it is corrected by walking by faith with a single eye, with treasure in heaven, and with first consideration given to God rather than to houses and lands and business interests. The heavenly Father knows these material needs, so they are not to be the first concern, but His kingdom and His righteousness are to be sought first and eternal things valued above worldly gain.
Such anxious care is a rebuke to a self-serving life in professed disciples, including greed and selfishness and sharp practices, giving first place to houses and lands and business interests. It extends to diverting means intended for mission to ambitious designs, holding gain to be godliness, practicing methods to please the lust for gain and power, mingling human wisdom with the divine, and unjustly acquiring means at another's expense in violation of the holy law as explained in the gospel given upon the Mount. Such conduct proves lack of wholehearted love to God and to neighbor, shows the holy law has not been learned, and calls for cleansing and purging of the soul temple. Unbelief leading to such evil works and wrong principles brings God's rebuke and stern judgment, openly shown when His displeasure fell in judgments upon the two largest institutions in Battle Creek for their unrighteousness. Those who continue in greed and worldliness will be punished as the Gentiles, only with greater severity because of greater light, unless there is thorough conversion and repentance.
Making what to eat and what to drink and wherewithal to be clothed the whole burden of life puts earthly needs above eternity and makes food and drink and clothing the chief concern, the highest aim, and the filler of the heart. Necessary concerns must not become the principal theme of thought, and being satisfied with these necessities alone falls short of the higher purpose of putting aside selfish desires and devoting abilities to God's work. Yet for thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions, these questions have become the whole burden of life by which they are now deciding for eternal death. It is lived out by the man wholly absorbed in his counting room, the man who finds pleasure at the gaming table, the man who loves to indulge perverted appetite, the lover of amusement, and the frequenters of the theater and the ballroom, who put eternity out of their reckoning. Those who so live are not moving heavenward and are not in the procession moving heavenward, but are led by the great apostate and will with him be destroyed, both root and branch.
Carrying eating and drinking and dressing to excess makes them sinful indulgences, marked sins and marked signs of the last days signaling Christ's soon coming, and life's work must aim higher than merely securing them. Such excess wastes the time and money and strength entrusted by God on needless finery and appetite-dulling luxuries. It weakens vitality, corrupts health, and brings suffering and decay and sickness and debility, for violation of the laws of health causes sickness. A body diseased by sinful indulgence cannot be presented to God as a living sacrifice while continuing in such indulgence. Care for the body through obedience to God's laws, including the health laws, is therefore duty to God and to self and to others.
Worldly cares over food and drink and clothing can fill the mind and draw it away from present truth and love for the Bible. They can leave no room in the mind for the law of God and for the seal of the living God, identified as the Sabbath. The command therefore calls for spiritual readiness and attention to God's truth rather than anxious preoccupation with daily needs.
The questions about what to eat and what to drink and what to wear describe the chief and principal anxiety of most people, and of the majority. In them appetite governs despite available light and widespread instruction about caring for the body, showing a strange absence of principle and disregard for the laws of life and health. Putting appetite first instead of making obedience to the laws of health a personal duty indulges appetite and passion at the expense of intellect and morals and weakens the moral powers. It corrupts the blood and undermines nervous force by slow poisons, bringing sickness and debility and premature death that are then wrongly accepted as the appointed lot of humanity, when people should instead learn the laws that govern their bodies and live for sound health and long life rather than merely focusing on what to eat and enjoying the present hour. Choices in eating and drinking and dress must not bind people to worldly customs.
Dress, Health, and Home
Abilities and attention are not meant to be consumed by worry over food, drink, and clothing, for there is a higher purpose in cultivating powers for the work of saving souls. Anxious concern over food and clothing must not set the standard, and clothing must not be made a chief concern, but worldly fashion is to be rejected for simple, modest dress. Time spent planning what to eat and wear should not consume a mother's strength, but be directed instead to her children's education, to cleanliness and neat clothing, while still providing wholesome food. Concern for clothing appears as pride and pursuit of fashion, which mothers may put ahead of health, self-denial, and Christian character. There is no time now for anxious thought about what to eat and drink and what to wear, so life and work are to be simple, dress modest and becoming in a way that gains acceptance wherever one goes, without seeking influence by jewelry and expensive dress. Contentment belongs with clothing that is modest and simple yet of good quality, becoming, durable, warm, protective, clean, healthful, and graceful with natural simplicity. The most beautiful dress and true power with God is the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit from devotion to Christ's service, with kindness and forethought for others precious in heaven, to be gained at once because there is no time to lose.
Anxious care over what to eat and drink and what to wear is a burden weighing on very many lives, leading to indulgence in pride and fashion and in things hurtful to bodily health. Mothers who live this way give their children deplorable lessons instead of educating them by precept and example to self-denial as a sacred duty. Children taught self-denial and self-control, and to sacrifice every pleasure and indulgence in dress and desire that interferes with health, are far happier than those allowed to indulge desire for pleasure and extravagance in dress. Parents must educate children for usefulness and duty, because development of sound minds in sound bodies is of greatest importance for success in Christian life, giving health, serene tempers, goodness and true beauty. To flee from every taint of sin children must separate from the hurtful fashions of the world.
The teaching belongs to the instruction to lay up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves do not steal, because where treasure is the heart will be also, and therefore to take no anxious thought about what to eat, drink, and wear. It is for the enlightenment of parents, who stand as teachers in the place of God to act His mind and will in every particular and detail. Parents are not to fret and worry about what to eat and drink and wear, and not to scold and fret at their children or be harsh and punish them in anger. They are to bring up children in habits of strict temperance, including the mother's bewareing of wine, strong drink, and unclean food before birth, as commanded to the wife of Manoah concerning Samson.
People should not be consumed by anxiety over food and clothing, because the heavenly Father knows their needs, and they are to trust Him and seek His kingdom first. Applied to the Sabbath, this supports a peaceful, joyful day rather than one filled with worry, with families enjoying God's gifts in nature and partaking of simple food. Thoughts are not to be filled with anxiety about food, drink, or clothing, and clothing and other needed tasks should be put in order beforehand rather than left until the Sabbath. Children should be taught that God means what He says.
Contentment and Faithful Service
The command calls for contentment and yielding of the will to the control of the Holy Spirit, especially for those determined to be rich and reaching for place, position, honor and recognition. It forbids strife for self and elbowing a fellow worker aside to make room for personal plans, directing ambition instead to honor Christ at every step in obedience to the word of truth. The greatest desire is to work faithfully in just the place God has assigned, where He can look with approval, rather than seeking wealth or position.
Anxiety over food, drink and clothing must not be allowed to occupy the mind at the expense of serving God with humility and prayer. The mind is to be centered on Christ and on eternal realities, trusting God's promises rather than centering on selfish satisfaction and worldly busyness and ambition. These temporal needs are inferior to standing under Christ's banner, valuing eternal things above worldly gain, benefits and pleasures, and sharing His tenderness in naturally caring for those in need. He desires His people to be purified from self-serving attachment to worldly desires so they may sit with Him on His throne.
Those entrusted with means are to act as God's almoners, putting gifts and offerings into God's treasury to sustain His cause and save souls, without constant fear of being expected to do something, for that is the only saving bank that never fails. Trust in Christ's promise frees the heart from dwelling on what to eat, drink or wear and enables a life that reflects His light to others. When the time to advance His work has fully come, believers are to advance in trust that God will provide, denying self, giving what they can, and moving forward rather than holding back through worry about money and resources.
The command holds lessons still unlearned, calling for recognition that every gift received comes from God. Gratitude for His goodness is to fill the heart until a heavenly atmosphere surrounds the soul. Life is to be ordered by the truth of God as found in His Word, through diligent study of the Scriptures not as a make-believe story but as the truth of the living God, the foundation of faith and the assurance on which hope of eternal life in the kingdom of heaven is built.
Constant study about what to eat, what to drink and what to wear is serving and honoring self, slavery to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life. Such anxious self-care keeps people from partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. It stands opposite to walking with God as Enoch did, through prayer, communion, devotion and separation from the world, which gives strength amid the perils of the last days and fits for translation. It stands opposite also to true sacrifice, self-denial, lifting the cross after Christ, and naturally going about aiding the needy and ministering to their temporal and spiritual wants with tenderness, love, pity and compassion.
Christ forbids anxious thought and talk about what to eat, what to drink, and what to wear, calling His disciples to trust God instead of worrying about tomorrow and to seek first His kingdom and righteousness. This does not release anyone from faithful work for temporal needs, but calls for doing what can be done and then leaving what cannot be accomplished to the heavenly Father who fed Israel in the desert and sustained Elijah in famine. The heavenly Father knows these needs and cares as a tender, watchful parent, feeding the birds that do not sow or reap and clothing the grass and lilies that do not toil or spin, and He will much more feed and clothe human beings made in His image. His promise is conditional, that those who make His principles their guide and seek first His kingdom shall have food, clothing, and all other needed things added, even with bread and water made sure in famine. Such anxious seeking is Gentile unbelief that puts earthly needs above eternity, divides the eye between God and mammon, and runs to sinful excess in appetite and dress that wastes strength, corrupts health, and crowds out love for God’s truth.
Sermon Setting and Audience
The saying belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, delivered especially to the disciples while the assembled multitude also heard. That sermon sets forth the principles governing the kingdom of divine grace rather than promising the earthly glory and political deliverance many expected. It corrects false ideas of worldly greatness and gives a right understanding of the kingdom of God and its conditions. It opposes the self-righteous teaching of the scribes and Pharisees by revealing God as compassionate, merciful, and loving, as a Father who cares for people. Its far-reaching principles show that the law must be held in the heart, since the state of the heart shapes the life and character.
Failure to walk in the light given there separates people from God. Yet its teaching is simple enough for a child to study without being misled, carries God's authority, and comes from God. It was spoken to people burdened by worry, disappointment, and sorrow, including children and youth, with a face aglow with the Father's light. It forbids anxious talk about food, drink, and clothing and rests on the heavenly Father's knowledge of human need and the promise that seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness brings all needed things. It is simple instruction to disciples calling for genuine trust in Jesus amid peril and real trials rather than being consumed by anxiety over daily needs.
The saying belongs to the teaching in Matthew 6:19-34 about laying up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves do not steal, because where treasure is the heart will be also. It therefore joins refusal to serve wealth with trust in the Father's care and seeking God's kingdom and righteousness first. It calls for a single eye and refusal to serve mammon instead of anxious striving for life's necessities. The last verses of the chapter teach about God in nature. That trust is joined to asking Him for daily bread, and freedom from anxiety is joined to seeking God's kingdom first and taking no thought for tomorrow.
Meaning of the Command
The command forbids anxious thought and talk and questioning that says what shall be eaten and what shall be drunk and with what shall the body be clothed. It means that life is more than meat and the body than raiment, that no one by worry can add a cubit to stature, and that care for tomorrow must give way to seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Lack of time, care of children, domestic duties, and need to make a living are no excuse for neglecting study of the Word and God-given responsibilities to others. Worry over food and drink and clothing comes from laying up treasure on earth and from a divided eye and trying to serve God and mammon, while believers are to keep a single eye full of light, lay up treasure in heaven where moth and rust and thieves and flood and fire cannot corrupt or destroy, and refuse to serve mammon. Those entrusted with means are to be God's almoners and put gifts and offerings into God's treasury to sustain His cause and save souls without constant fear of being expected to do something, for that is the only saving bank that never fails.
Christ gives the command to enlarge views of God's goodness by beholding His works, the fowls of the air that sow not nor reap nor gather yet are fed by the heavenly Father, and the lilies and grass of the field that toil not nor spin yet are clothed with beauty outvying Solomon in all his glory though they wither in a day. The argument is from the lesser to the greater in proportion to place in creation, so human beings who are much better than birds and are created in God's image will much more be fed and clothed, and no artificial display in dress is needed. Anxious seeking after these things is the seeking of the Gentiles and shows little faith, while the heavenly Father already knows His children need all these things, nourishes every root, upholds the world and upholds and strengthens His weakest child, never has any name absent from His mind for a moment, and does not forsake even those who have sinned grievously. The command is joined to seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness with the precious promise to those who make His principles their guide that clothing and food and all other needed things shall be added, which means seeking the heavenly adorning, the robe of Christ's righteousness that every human being must put on to enter the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem.
The verse does not teach that Christians must stop working or neglect their own and their families' temporal welfare, and to use it to call work sinful or to say no thought should be given to earthly needs is an extreme misuse. It calls for faithfully carrying out work in accordance with God's will and depending on God's promise rather than on the outcome of own efforts. After faithfully doing the work entrusted to them and doing what can be done, believers are to leave to their heavenly Father what they cannot accomplish, trusting that He knows their cares and needs and will provide through financial difficulties when He sees it is best. The same divine word that fed Israel in the desert and sustained Elijah during famine can provide today, and freedom from anxiety belongs with seeking God's kingdom and righteousness first and with genuine trust in Jesus amid peril and real trials.
As natural growth does not come by anxious thought, so spiritual growth does not come by leaning on any minister or man. Each person is to look to God for himself, lean upon God, trade with conscientious fidelity upon God-given ability and work, and grow up under God's supervision to individual measurement and full stature, because in the spiritual as in the natural all depends upon the Lord. Ordinary needs for food and clothing may be brought to God in prayer. The heavenly Father knows these needs and invites His children to ask alongside spiritual needs for bread and clothing, supplying necessities from His generosity through Jesus' name.
Father's Care and Promise
The heavenly Father knows the need for food and drink and clothing and is able and willing to provide it. Those who love God and keep His commandments need not be consumed by worry over these things, for His care is that of a tender, watchful parent, assured by His gift of His Son. Such anxious preoccupation leaves God out of account and shows little faith and distrust, whereas life is a holy trust from God to be spent in the work He sets before each one. The call is to living faith that seeks His kingdom and His righteousness first and trusts His leading without demanding to foresee every outcome.
God tenderly watches each person, rich or poor, sustains all creation from worlds to the smallest creatures, and notices every person in every circumstance of sorrow and joy. He upholds the world and strengthens His weakest child, no name is ever absent from His mind, and He does not forsake even grievous sinners. Believing this, people may place both great and small concerns in His hands and find rest of soul. They are to trust Him for temporal needs as for the redemption of the soul, directing concern toward knowing and doing His requirements, for His care for eternal interests is even greater than His care for temporal interests.
The Father feeds the fowls of the air that sow not, reap not, nor gather, nourishes every root, and clothes the grass of the field and the lilies that toil not nor spin. Though they wither in a day, He arrays them in beauty outvying Solomon in all his glory, and the flowers show His care and teach simple, quiet trust. The argument runs from the lesser to the greater in proportion to place in creation, so human beings made in God's image and much better than birds will much more be fed and clothed. Therefore no artificial display in dress is needed.
The promise is conditional: seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and clothing, food, and all other needed things shall be added. It belongs to those who make His principles their guide, and those who sacrifice for God can trust His care even in famine, when bread and water shall be sure. Those who have means must not hoard but give to supply need, so that provision is made that none go hungry or lack clothing.
The promise concerns more than outward needs, for the better life is the inward adorning of meekness and Christ's righteousness. This heavenly adorning is the robe that every human being must put on to enter the pearly gates of the New Jerusalem, making people precious to God and preparing them for immortality in contrast to earthly wealth and display. Trusted, it gives perfect peace to the mind stayed on God.
Rebuke of Unbelief and Worldliness
Anxious seeking after food and drink and clothing is the seeking of the Gentiles, and in those who claim discipleship it shows little faith and unbelief, which is the danger of the present time. It comes from laying up treasure on earth, from a divided eye, and from attempting to serve God and mammon, and it is corrected by walking by faith with a single eye, with treasure in heaven, and with first consideration given to God rather than to houses and lands and business interests. The heavenly Father knows these material needs, so they are not to be the first concern, but His kingdom and His righteousness are to be sought first and eternal things valued above worldly gain.
Such anxious care is a rebuke to a self-serving life in professed disciples, including greed and selfishness and sharp practices, giving first place to houses and lands and business interests. It extends to diverting means intended for mission to ambitious designs, holding gain to be godliness, practicing methods to please the lust for gain and power, mingling human wisdom with the divine, and unjustly acquiring means at another's expense in violation of the holy law as explained in the gospel given upon the Mount. Such conduct proves lack of wholehearted love to God and to neighbor, shows the holy law has not been learned, and calls for cleansing and purging of the soul temple. Unbelief leading to such evil works and wrong principles brings God's rebuke and stern judgment, openly shown when His displeasure fell in judgments upon the two largest institutions in Battle Creek for their unrighteousness. Those who continue in greed and worldliness will be punished as the Gentiles, only with greater severity because of greater light, unless there is thorough conversion and repentance.
Making what to eat and what to drink and wherewithal to be clothed the whole burden of life puts earthly needs above eternity and makes food and drink and clothing the chief concern, the highest aim, and the filler of the heart. Necessary concerns must not become the principal theme of thought, and being satisfied with these necessities alone falls short of the higher purpose of putting aside selfish desires and devoting abilities to God's work. Yet for thousands upon thousands, millions upon millions, these questions have become the whole burden of life by which they are now deciding for eternal death. It is lived out by the man wholly absorbed in his counting room, the man who finds pleasure at the gaming table, the man who loves to indulge perverted appetite, the lover of amusement, and the frequenters of the theater and the ballroom, who put eternity out of their reckoning. Those who so live are not moving heavenward and are not in the procession moving heavenward, but are led by the great apostate and will with him be destroyed, both root and branch.
Carrying eating and drinking and dressing to excess makes them sinful indulgences, marked sins and marked signs of the last days signaling Christ's soon coming, and life's work must aim higher than merely securing them. Such excess wastes the time and money and strength entrusted by God on needless finery and appetite-dulling luxuries. It weakens vitality, corrupts health, and brings suffering and decay and sickness and debility, for violation of the laws of health causes sickness. A body diseased by sinful indulgence cannot be presented to God as a living sacrifice while continuing in such indulgence. Care for the body through obedience to God's laws, including the health laws, is therefore duty to God and to self and to others.
Worldly cares over food and drink and clothing can fill the mind and draw it away from present truth and love for the Bible. They can leave no room in the mind for the law of God and for the seal of the living God, identified as the Sabbath. The command therefore calls for spiritual readiness and attention to God's truth rather than anxious preoccupation with daily needs.
The questions about what to eat and what to drink and what to wear describe the chief and principal anxiety of most people, and of the majority. In them appetite governs despite available light and widespread instruction about caring for the body, showing a strange absence of principle and disregard for the laws of life and health. Putting appetite first instead of making obedience to the laws of health a personal duty indulges appetite and passion at the expense of intellect and morals and weakens the moral powers. It corrupts the blood and undermines nervous force by slow poisons, bringing sickness and debility and premature death that are then wrongly accepted as the appointed lot of humanity, when people should instead learn the laws that govern their bodies and live for sound health and long life rather than merely focusing on what to eat and enjoying the present hour. Choices in eating and drinking and dress must not bind people to worldly customs.
Dress, Health, and Home
Abilities and attention are not meant to be consumed by worry over food, drink, and clothing, for there is a higher purpose in cultivating powers for the work of saving souls. Anxious concern over food and clothing must not set the standard, and clothing must not be made a chief concern, but worldly fashion is to be rejected for simple, modest dress. Time spent planning what to eat and wear should not consume a mother's strength, but be directed instead to her children's education, to cleanliness and neat clothing, while still providing wholesome food. Concern for clothing appears as pride and pursuit of fashion, which mothers may put ahead of health, self-denial, and Christian character. There is no time now for anxious thought about what to eat and drink and what to wear, so life and work are to be simple, dress modest and becoming in a way that gains acceptance wherever one goes, without seeking influence by jewelry and expensive dress. Contentment belongs with clothing that is modest and simple yet of good quality, becoming, durable, warm, protective, clean, healthful, and graceful with natural simplicity. The most beautiful dress and true power with God is the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit from devotion to Christ's service, with kindness and forethought for others precious in heaven, to be gained at once because there is no time to lose.
Anxious care over what to eat and drink and what to wear is a burden weighing on very many lives, leading to indulgence in pride and fashion and in things hurtful to bodily health. Mothers who live this way give their children deplorable lessons instead of educating them by precept and example to self-denial as a sacred duty. Children taught self-denial and self-control, and to sacrifice every pleasure and indulgence in dress and desire that interferes with health, are far happier than those allowed to indulge desire for pleasure and extravagance in dress. Parents must educate children for usefulness and duty, because development of sound minds in sound bodies is of greatest importance for success in Christian life, giving health, serene tempers, goodness and true beauty. To flee from every taint of sin children must separate from the hurtful fashions of the world.
The teaching belongs to the instruction to lay up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves do not steal, because where treasure is the heart will be also, and therefore to take no anxious thought about what to eat, drink, and wear. It is for the enlightenment of parents, who stand as teachers in the place of God to act His mind and will in every particular and detail. Parents are not to fret and worry about what to eat and drink and wear, and not to scold and fret at their children or be harsh and punish them in anger. They are to bring up children in habits of strict temperance, including the mother's bewareing of wine, strong drink, and unclean food before birth, as commanded to the wife of Manoah concerning Samson.
People should not be consumed by anxiety over food and clothing, because the heavenly Father knows their needs, and they are to trust Him and seek His kingdom first. Applied to the Sabbath, this supports a peaceful, joyful day rather than one filled with worry, with families enjoying God's gifts in nature and partaking of simple food. Thoughts are not to be filled with anxiety about food, drink, or clothing, and clothing and other needed tasks should be put in order beforehand rather than left until the Sabbath. Children should be taught that God means what He says.
Contentment and Faithful Service
The command calls for contentment and yielding of the will to the control of the Holy Spirit, especially for those determined to be rich and reaching for place, position, honor and recognition. It forbids strife for self and elbowing a fellow worker aside to make room for personal plans, directing ambition instead to honor Christ at every step in obedience to the word of truth. The greatest desire is to work faithfully in just the place God has assigned, where He can look with approval, rather than seeking wealth or position.
Anxiety over food, drink and clothing must not be allowed to occupy the mind at the expense of serving God with humility and prayer. The mind is to be centered on Christ and on eternal realities, trusting God's promises rather than centering on selfish satisfaction and worldly busyness and ambition. These temporal needs are inferior to standing under Christ's banner, valuing eternal things above worldly gain, benefits and pleasures, and sharing His tenderness in naturally caring for those in need. He desires His people to be purified from self-serving attachment to worldly desires so they may sit with Him on His throne.
Those entrusted with means are to act as God's almoners, putting gifts and offerings into God's treasury to sustain His cause and save souls, without constant fear of being expected to do something, for that is the only saving bank that never fails. Trust in Christ's promise frees the heart from dwelling on what to eat, drink or wear and enables a life that reflects His light to others. When the time to advance His work has fully come, believers are to advance in trust that God will provide, denying self, giving what they can, and moving forward rather than holding back through worry about money and resources.
The command holds lessons still unlearned, calling for recognition that every gift received comes from God. Gratitude for His goodness is to fill the heart until a heavenly atmosphere surrounds the soul. Life is to be ordered by the truth of God as found in His Word, through diligent study of the Scriptures not as a make-believe story but as the truth of the living God, the foundation of faith and the assurance on which hope of eternal life in the kingdom of heaven is built.
Constant study about what to eat, what to drink and what to wear is serving and honoring self, slavery to the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life. Such anxious self-care keeps people from partaking of the divine nature and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. It stands opposite to walking with God as Enoch did, through prayer, communion, devotion and separation from the world, which gives strength amid the perils of the last days and fits for translation. It stands opposite also to true sacrifice, self-denial, lifting the cross after Christ, and naturally going about aiding the needy and ministering to their temporal and spiritual wants with tenderness, love, pity and compassion.