Bible Synapse
Should Christians take no thought for food and clothing, or provide for their own?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 3 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Do not worry about food, drink or clothing, or about tomorrow; seek first God’s kingdom, and these things will be added.
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Whoever does not provide for his own household has denied the faith.
But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.
Sell what you have and give alms; store up a treasure in heaven that does not fail.
Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
The objection
Jesus says, “Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?” and “Take therefore no thought for the morrow,” and tells his disciples to sell what they have and give alms. Paul says that if anyone does “provide not for his own”, he “hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel”, and Proverbs praises the good man who “leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children”. Should Christians plan and provide, or not?
The answer
In 1611 to ‘take thought’ meant to worry, and the Greek merimnaō means ‘be anxious’; modern versions have “do not worry” (BSB) or “don’t be anxious” (WEB). The KJV uses the phrase in that sense elsewhere, when Saul fears his father will “take thought for us” (1 Samuel 9:5). Jesus forbids anxious fretting that doubts the Father’s care, not work or planning, and the passage ends, “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
Paul’s rule, like the proverb (Proverbs 13:22), fits that teaching, since working to support one’s family is one of the ordinary ways God supplies those things, and Paul condemns idleness (2 Thessalonians 3:10–12) as firmly as Jesus condemns worry. Luke 12:33 calls for generosity and for treasure in heaven rather than hoarding on earth; it does not require every believer to sell everything, as Peter’s words to Ananias show (Acts 5:4). The Christian is to work and provide, without anxiety and without making possessions his security.
From the classic commentators
The English word ‘thought,’ when our version was made, expressed this idea of ‘solicitude,’ ‘anxious concern’ … Thought or forethought, for temporal things—in the sense of reflection, consideration—is required alike by Scripture and common sense.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary on Matthew 6:25 (1871)
As to present sustenance, we may and must use lawful means to get it, else we tempt God; we must be diligent in our callings, and prudent in proportioning our expenses to what we have, and we must pray for daily breadMatthew Henry, Commentary on Matthew 6:25–34 (1706–1721)