Matthew 6:22 - 7:6 Modern Life Is Safer Than Ever, But Anxiety Is Skyrocketing.

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Transcript:

The amount of anxiety felt by people in the developed world has skyrocketed in recent decades. People are spending massive amounts of money to get treatment for stress and worry.

If you think about it, the opposite should be happening. For thousands of years, humans lived without refrigeration, retirement accounts, insurance products, and modern medicine. Famine was a real risk. Losing everything you owned was a constant threat, and many health issues were untreatable.

However, people in the 21st century have the best health care in history, and refrigeration makes it easier than ever to have access to food, making famine very unlikely. Furthermore, today we can buy insurance against just about any kind of threat you can imagine, meaning there is much less chance people will lose everything they own.

It used to make sense for people to worry about life. Today, with all the protections we have as we go through life, worry should be declining, but it isn’t.

Something that is even more concerning is the number of Christians who are anxious about life and spend massive amounts of time worrying. That is problematic because Christians have promises from the Creator that He will take care of us, and He commanded us not to worry. Those promises and commands are mentioned in Matthew 6.

The sixth chapter of Matthew is part of the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus went up on the mountain and began teaching, He started with some blessings. Next, He corrected some false teachings regarding the Law of Moses. Then He taught His disciples how to store up treasure in heaven, not on earth. That brings us to today’s passage.

Matt. 6:22 ¶ “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light.

Matt. 6:23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

If your eyes are focused on earth and pleasing men, your body will be dark. If your eyes are focused on God and pleasing Him, your body will be light.

Matt. 6:24 ¶ “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

This is an important concept to think about today. Modern life is full of possessions. We can’t serve God if we are overwhelmed by our possessions or obsessed with acquiring more possessions. Perhaps Christians worry because they are too focused on material things instead of God.

Matt. 6:25 ¶ “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

This is a clear command that we should not worry. In the first century AD they did not have refrigeration. They could not open the refrigerator and get something to eat. They could not store a month’s worth of food in the freezer or pantry. If Jesus expected them not to worry about food, how much more should people in the 21st century not worry about food when it is possible to store enough food in our houses to last for days or even months.

Matt. 6:26 Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

Since we are worth more than birds, we should have confidence that God will supply the food we need.

Matt. 6:27 And which of you by worrying can add a single cubit to his life span?

This is an important point. Worrying does not help. Worrying does not create food or clothing. Worrying will not make us live longer.

Matt. 6:28 And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,

Matt. 6:29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

Matt. 6:30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

Matt. 6:31 Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’

This is a command not to worry.

Matt. 6:32 For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

Matt. 6:33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

This is a promise that if we seek God, then He will supply what we need. Instead of worrying, we should pursue righteousness.

Matt. 6:34 ¶ “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

If you are worrying about something, ask yourself what is the worst thing that might happen today. Chances are the worst thing that will happen today is actually not that bad. If the worst that will happen today is not that bad, the worst that will happen tomorrow will not be that bad either.

The lesson here is to take one day at a time.

This concluded Jesus’ teaching on worry, and He switched to another topic.

Matt. 7:1 ¶ “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged.

This verse is misused. Many times, when a person is confronted about a sin, they quote this verse and claim the person calling out their sin is in the wrong because the Bible says, “Do not judge.” The following verses make it clear that is not what Jesus was teaching.

Matt. 7:2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.

The emphasis here is that the standard you apply to other people will be applied to you.

Matt. 7:3 And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Matt. 7:4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye?

Matt. 7:5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Notice at the end of verse 5, Jesus told His disciples to take the speck out of their brother’s eye. In other words people are supposed to confront sin. However, that should only be done by people who are not guilty of the same sin.

This passage does not teach us that we should never confront people about their sin. This passage does not prohibit us from pointing out the mistakes and sins of other people. Instead, this passage condemns hypocrisy. We should not point out the sins of other people if we are also guilty of those sins.

Sometimes when a person knows they are guilty of something, they accuse other people of being guilty of the same thing so as to cover-up and deflect attention away from their own guilt. That is what Jesus condemned in these verses.

Matt. 7:6 ¶ “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

That concludes today’s reading.

Many people today are full of stress and anxiety. Unfortunately, this is also true of many Christians. However, this should not be the case.

Jesus promised that He will provide our needs, and He gave a command not to worry. Furthermore, in the 21st century we have technology that makes life easier and safer than it has ever been, and there are financial and insurance products that remove much of the risk of living life.

If you are worrying about something, ask yourself what is the worst thing that might happen today. Chances are the worst thing that will happen today is actually not that bad. If the worst that will happen today is not that bad, the worst that will happen tomorrow or the next day or the day after that will probably not be that bad either. Live life one day at a time.

“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”