WARNING PREACHY…
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?"
Chapter 6 is a
whole piece of our Lord’s teaching. The
passage above uses the word “therefore” which is a dead giveaway that there was
a precedent to what he is saying now.
Matthew 6:19
"19 “Do
not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy,
and where thieves break in and steal."
Matthew 6:19 is
the precedent to verse 25. But, even it
is not the beginning of the message. Too
often we act like it is a teaching all on its one. But even this has a precedent which began in
verse #1 which begins a teaching about true righteousness.
And again, the
whole of chapter 6 was preceded by chapter 5 which is the beginning of this
particular teaching of Jesus. However,
chapter 6 changes as chapter 5 was about the common person who desired righteousness,
and chapter 6 is specifically about practicing righteous acts.
Matthew 6:1-18 covers
three large acts of righteousness: giving, prayer, and fasting. The main teachings are to do these acts of
righteousness without drawing attention to ourselves like the Pharisees (those
considered righteous) do.
So verse 19 begins by telling us
to not do our righteous acts in order to be seen by people because this is a
physical earthly reward, and it’s as feeble and fleeting as the other physical treasures
earth has to offer. Instead, (vs. 25) Jesus
teaches “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?”
It would be easy
to make a sermon about Matt. 6:25, and following, political. In today’s political environment people are
concerned, and wringing their hands over it, but read chapter 6 all the way
through and we can see that Jesus is not teaching about Rome, he’s teaching about us
caring for our fellow man and our own acts of righteousness before God.
Jesus teaching in
chapter 6[1] is in the beginning of his journey to the cross where he showed us specifically
the cost of righteousness and the provision of God. Read through Chapter 6 and discover that this
passage is about you as Matthew takes us with Jesus to the death of the cross and
the life of the resurrected.
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