Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore

Our Lord, throughout the Sermon on the Mount, touches every aspect of our hearts. Our greatest problem is that our hearts are not right, and unless we correct this, nothing in our lives—wherever we go, however much we have, or whatever our condition—will be right. If our hearts are right, then whatever we have, or don’t have, everything will be right. It’s as if our hearts are diseased and full of cancer, hypocrisy, deception, and wickedness. As Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” It is the cause of all our troubles; it will torture and spoil our peace and joy and never give us rest. The greatest cure for this is the Sermon on the Mount. Everything in this sermon is focused on the heart. Our gracious Lord is operating on our hearts, first by removing the cancer, which is painful, and then by applying the medicines.

The Sermon on the Mount is like that; it’s piercing and poking every area of our hearts, but as we allow the truths to enter, it also heals and gives us a healthy and beautiful heart—a straight, true, and simple heart. Only then will we have a beautiful life. He spoke about our attitudes and traits (the eight beatitudes), our commitment to the Word of God, the meaning of the law, religious works, giving, praying, and fasting. Then here, He comes to how we handle money. He sweeps through all these dimensions of life in this great sermon. We have seen in verses 19–24 what we shouldn’t do and what we should do: Do not lay up treasures on Earth; lay them up in Heaven.

He gives two reasons: a general observation that nothing is stable or secure in this world. All our efforts and investments are meaningless; all who trust the world have found that the world will cheat us in a second. Moths and rust corrupt, and thieves rob. Sickness can spoil everything, and death can take everything from us. Even unbelievers realize this with common sense.

The second and more important reason is that it will affect your heart, mind, and will. While living, we cannot be spiritual people or experience a heavenly life and be heavenly-minded if we lay up treasure on Earth. Where your treasure is, your heart will be. If your home, car, family, or job is your treasure, that is what will have your heart. It will be all you think about.

Since your heart always follows your money, it only makes sense to put your money where you want your heart to be. We spend all we have on the things of this world and then wonder why we have trouble concentrating on the things of God. You will never be able to get your heart focused on Heaven as long as all your money is focused on the Earth.

Next, what captures the heart will capture the mind and judgment. Your ability to discern what is of value will be incorrect. You will live a dark and confused life. If you want to make proper judgments about life and live in the light, your heart must be set on a single heavenly treasure. If your treasures are on Earth, your mind will become depraved and darkened, as in Romans 1, and you’ll be in total confusion. It’s a terrible darkness. Your faith will not work; you’ll have no eye of faith and no value for unseen things. The eye that looks forward to the end of the race and sees the glorious reward for running the heavenly race will not see anything special. A sharp vision of faith can see the glory of eternity and the eternal reward that will be given to those who invest in His kingdom. You won’t see any of that, experience Heaven’s joy, or have a spiritual life. You won’t see the value of Heaven and the world to come. You’ll make terrible judgments, live, and not even know you are in darkness. How great is that darkness.

Then, He addresses the will: “No one can serve two masters.” Remember, only when you decide with your mind to serve God does spiritual light suddenly dawn on you, and you realize how foolish you have been. You can never hate one master and love another; you cannot serve both the world and God. You cannot serve money and God. You cannot spend all your time on movies and then love God. You will not enjoy anything. You must decide with a single mind to serve only God. The entire teaching of Matthew 6:19–21 can be summarized in six simple words: Invest in that which lasts forever!

Now, somebody might answer this way. They might say, “Well, you know, I read verses 19 to 24, and it said, ‘Don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,’ and ‘Don’t serve money, serve God.’ But what about the future? In this kind of changing and expensive world, if I don’t stash a lot of it away, how do I know I’m going to have food and drink in the future? Who will give me anything when I have trouble and need? I’ll be stranded in the middle of the road. How do I know I’m going to have clothes and shelter for myself and my family?”

The Lord is saying, “If you obey My command and lay up treasures in Heaven, it is My promise that you shouldn’t worry about that. I will take care of you; trust Me. It is My job and promise to preserve you.” We have already seen that it is fine to save and plan for the future. It is wrong to worry about those plans because God will take care of them. We will be delivered from the slavery of worry only when we are able to lay up treasures in Heaven, and that happens when we don’t worry about the necessities of life and trust in God.

If you see the passage, Jesus repeats Himself five times:

• “Do not worry” (v. 25).
• “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (v. 27).
• “Why do you worry?” (v. 28).
• “So do not worry” (v. 31).
• “Therefore do not worry” (v. 34).

Worry is the main topic of the passage. The Lord is calling for us to cease from worrying. I guess we all have to admit that worry is a part of life. It’s a pastime for most people; it occupies their thinking for a great portion of their daily waking hours. This is a worry about life and its preservation—food, drink, and the body and its comforts, clothes, and protection.

It is worry about this life—food, things, work, bills, loans, and the future—that distracts, disturbs, and nags us constantly. This is the kind of concern that fills us so much that when we wake up in the morning, our first thought is not God but the day ahead. “How will I work today, finish this and that, and earn money?” This is the kind of concern that hounds us through the day and doesn’t leave us when we lay our heads on the pillow. So instead of looking at God at night and thanking Him for preserving us that day, we are already looking at the next day with a fretful heart, worrying about the next day’s work and how we will meet this need and that need.

Our Lord is touching an area that we all face. Even the best of us have worries and concerns. For most of us, the worries are more regular. There is sickness; our bodies feel ten times worse because of mental pressure and stress. There are family problems, job problems, and difficulties with other people. For most people, it’s not just one thing; it’s many things wrapped up together. It’s a job, school, money, loans to pay, debt, your husband, your wife, the in-laws, the kids, and on and on it goes. We could handle any one thing, or even two, but when you get three or four together, you stagger in life.

We all worry, and we don’t see anything wrong with it. We justify it by talking to others. Some people tell us not to worry, and we justify it by saying, “It’s easy for you; you have a good job and are settled. You don’t have to worry. But I don’t know where my next meal will come from.” So we try to legitimize our worry. “I’m not worrying about extravagant things. I’m just worrying about my next meal, a glass of water (we only get water once a week), and something to wear; I have no proper clothes.”

But for the Christian, God’s child, that is forbidden. For the Christian, it is sinful and foolish. There’s no place for us to worry, even about the basic necessities of life.

Why? Worry is not only useless, but it is also very dangerous to our physical and spiritual lives. The effect it has on the body is unspeakable. People who worry a lot look aged quickly and die soon. But far beyond its psychological effect is the fact that the Bible tells us that for a Christian, for a child of God, worry is a sin. When we live in this sin, we cannot experience God’s deliverance and blessing unless we repent and change. Worry is an expression of an unbelieving heart. It says, “God is a liar,” and insults His character instead of hallowing His name. It’s the equivalent of saying, “God, I know you have promised to take care of me and do everything for me, but I doubt your character and power and whether you will be able to fulfill and meet my needs, so I worry.” Worry is the sin of distrusting the promise and providence of God, and yet we do it all the time.

“Worry is a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind. If encouraged, it’ll cut a river or channel so wide that all other thoughts will be drowned in it.” Scripture warns us that if we don’t deal with this, we may not enter the kingdom of God. In Matthew 13:22, in the parable of the sower, you know what the thorns are: “The cares of this life.” As it says, “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.” Do you know what can make the powerful, soul-saving Word of God completely useless, whether I or even the apostle Paul preaches here? It never takes root and grips our hearts because we have not learned to deal with the cares of this world. It completely hinders the Word. The problem is not with the Word but with the heart that is filled with worldly worry.

Scripture also warns that some people will not be prepared for the Second Coming because of this sin. Luke 21:34 is a very important passage: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” May the Holy Spirit help us be delivered from this. Some of you need to plead with God to deliver you from this sin. It is a horrible, horrible thing for physical and spiritual growth.

Now, the Lord is not forbidding diligent labor. We should not go to an extreme. We must find a balance. Some people will take this and use it as an excuse for laziness. “Okay, I won’t worry, so I’ll just lie on the sofa, read my Bible, and pray. The Lord will send crows to feed me.” No, He will not. “If any man does not work, let him not eat.” God ordained work for fulfilling our needs, but we must do it while trusting God and avoiding worry. This is not an excuse for laziness. Proper planning and diligent labor to save for the future are commanded. He is dealing with a sinful, anxious concern.

Let’s look at the verse and how it starts with the word “therefore.” The beauty of the sermon is its logical flow. Every topic is connected to the earlier one. See the connection between the earlier passage and this one. There is a vital connection between laying up treasures and anxious concern. People who don’t worry will lay up treasures in Heaven. People who are slaves to this anxiousness can never lay up treasures in Heaven. In the earlier verses, 19–24, having dealt with covetousness, He now deals with the root of covetousness.

This sermon always deals with the root of sin. Murder is the full fruit, anger is the seed, adultery is the flower, and lustful looks are the bud. The Bible tells us to deal with sin in the seed and bud form. The Lord is doing the same thing here. He has taken the full-bloom sin of overt covetousness—a man trying to amass treasure in this life and devoting all his energy to it—and says it is because of living in worldly worry. We may say, “I don’t lay up treasures like that, so I’m not a covetous or worldly man.” But the Lord says, “You are also covetous and have a root growing if you are anxious about the world.” Are you anxious with constant, nagging concerns about life when you wake up and when you sleep? Watch out; this is the seed of covetousness. Sinful anxiety about this life, just as the love of wealth and riches ensnares the rich, the fear of poverty and worrying about the future surely ensnares the souls of the poor in the same way. The connection is the full flower and the bud, the full fruit, and the seed.

There is another connection. Verse 25 begins with the word “Therefore,” and the word “therefore” is meant to take us back to the previous points. He said, first of all, earthly treasures corrupt. Then He said that yearning for earthly treasures will cause your heart to be where your treasure is. This will spoil you and not allow you to set your heart on Heaven, but on perishing Earth, and you will perish. It will blind your spiritual vision, you will not judge properly, and your will will be affected, so you cannot serve God. You will be a slave to your treasure. You will hate God and serve worldly things. Therefore, since earthly treasures corrupt you anyway, your heart will be where your treasure is, earthly treasures tend to blind your spiritual vision, and since earthly treasures tend to draw you away from serving God, you shouldn’t worry about those kinds of things. Do you see? That should not be your preoccupation, not even the basics of life. You don’t live for that.

The Lord knows that worry is embedded in us. The way He handles this truth is amazing. It is not a suggestion. He gives us a command. As the Lord and as King for His people, He commands, “Be not anxious.” He brings the truth in the form of a command, repeating “Do not worry” five times and a command not to worry three times. This is very serious. He that has My commandments and keeps them is the one who is My disciple and loves Me. Are you a disciple of Christ? A believer? This is a binding command from the Lord delivered to you. If you are His disciple, you will make every effort to change and make adjustments in your life.

The second reason it is given as a command is that we all need to have the shocking realization that disobeying this command and worrying about even basic things is a sin for a Christian. Anyone who is laying up treasures on Earth is in sin. Anyone worrying about this life is living in sin. When you are living in sin, there will be no deliverance or blessing from Him unless you repent. Do we really believe that worrying about food, clothes, and life is a sin? Do we see that worry from morning to night is sin? We will see that this is a grievous sin and that it leads to all kinds of sins in life. So, only when we see this as a command, with no option, and see worry as sin, will we take the first step to repentance and change.

Also, observe the passage. The good Lord doesn’t just give a command and leave. He doesn’t say it like a suggestion from a friend. He gives very reasonable reasons. Each command is given with simple but powerful observations. Amazingly, He gives eight reasons.

Now, let’s get the command first and then the reasons—not two or five, but eight. If seven don’t touch you, at least one will fit your case and touch you. So hear clearly and understand. Let us see the command clearly. Verse 25 says, “Therefore, I say unto you, ‘Be not anxious.'” And that’s repeated in verse 31, “Be not anxious,” and verse 34, “Be not anxious.” The Greek tense is unique, and it means, “Stop worrying.” If you’re already doing it, stop. And in verse 31, it’s different. It says, “Don’t start worrying.” If you’re worrying, stop. If not, never allow this worry in your life. It will spoil all your joy and peace and become a dirty habit, like drinking; if you do, stop; if you don’t, never start. Then He says in verse 25, “for your life.” It has to do with the fullness of earthly, physical life, all that this life in this world is. Don’t be anxious about this world, the temporal, external, physical, earthly world, and all that makes up this Earth. Don’t worry about that, and if you’ve already started, then stop worrying about it.

Specifically, verse 25 says, “What you shall eat,” which is food, and “what you shall drink,” which is water or fluids. “Nor yet for your body, what you shall put on,” which is clothing. Food, water, and clothing—don’t worry about that. Don’t be anxious about that.

A Straight Heart, A Beautiful Life

Our Lord, throughout the Sermon on the Mount, touches every aspect of our heart. Our greatest problem is a heart that is not right, and unless we correct it, nothing—no matter where we go, what we have, or what our condition—will ever be right. If our heart is right, everything else falls into place, whether we have much or little. It’s as if we have a diseased heart, full of cancer, hypocrisy, and deception. The heart is deceitful above all else, and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). It is the cause of all our troubles, and it will torture and spoil our peace and joy, never giving us rest.

The greatest cure for this is the Sermon on the Mount. Everything in this sermon is about the heart. Our gracious Lord is like a surgeon operating on our heart, first removing the cancer—which is painful—and then applying medicine. The Sermon on the Mount is like that; it is piercing and poking at every area of our heart. But if we allow its truths, it also heals us and gives us a healthy, beautiful heart—a straight and true heart, a simple heart. Only then can we have a beautiful life.

He spoke about our attitudes and traits (the eight beatitudes), our commitment to the Word of God, the meaning of the Law, and our religious works, such as giving, praying, and fasting. Then He came to how we handle money. He sweeps through all these dimensions of life in this great sermon.

As we have seen in Matthew 6:19-24, He tells us what we should not do and what we should do: “Do not store up treasures on earth… but store up treasures in heaven.” He gives two reasons for this. The first is the simple observation that nothing is stable or secure in this world. All our efforts and investments are meaningless; the world will cheat us in a second. Moths and rust corrupt, and thieves rob. Sickness can spoil everything, and death can take it all away. This is common sense that even unbelievers can realize.

The second, more significant reason is that our treasure will affect our heart, mind, and will while we are still living. We cannot be spiritual people or experience a heavenly life if we are storing up treasure on earth. Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If your home, car, family, or job is your treasure, that is what will have your heart. That is all you will think about. Since your heart always follows your money, it only makes sense to put your money where you want your heart to be! We spend all we have on the things of this world and then wonder why we have trouble concentrating on the things of God. You will never be able to get your heart focused on heaven as long as all your money is focused on the earth.

Next, what captures the heart will capture the mind and judgment. Your discernment of what has value and what doesn’t will be incorrect, and you will live a dark and confused life. If you want to make proper judgments about life and live in the light, your heart must be set singularly on heavenly treasure. You cannot be divided. If your treasure is on earth, your mind will be depraved and darkened like those described in Romans 1, leading to complete confusion and terrible darkness. Your faith will not work because you will have no “faith eye,” no value for unseen things. You won’t be able to see the glorious reward at the end of the heavenly race. Your sharp vision of faith cannot perceive the glory of eternity and the eternal reward for those who invest in His kingdom. You won’t see any of that; you won’t experience heaven’s joy or a spiritual life. You will live with terrible judgment and not even know you are in darkness. How great is that darkness!

Then your will is affected, because “no one can serve two masters.” Remember, only when you decide with one mind to serve God will spiritual light suddenly dawn on you, and you will realize how foolish you have been. You can never serve both the world and God. You cannot serve money and God. You cannot spend all your time at the movies and then claim to love God; you will hate one and love the other. You can’t say, “I’ll come on Sunday, and on other days I will enjoy worldly things.” You will not enjoy anything. You must decide on single-mindedness. Only then can we serve God. The whole teaching of Matthew 6:19-21 can be summarized in six simple words: Invest in that which lasts forever!

Now, in the next verses, someone might respond, “I read verses 19-24, and it said, ‘Don’t store up treasures on earth. Just store it up in heaven. And don’t serve money; serve God.’ But what about the future? In this changing and expensive world, if I don’t stash a lot away, how do I know I’ll have food and drink in the future? Who will help me when I’m in trouble? I’ll be left with nothing. How do I know I’ll have clothes for myself and my family? How do I know I’ll have shelter?”

The Lord is saying, “If you obey My command and store up treasures in heaven, it is My promise. ‘Don’t worry about that. I will take care of you. Trust Me.’ It is My job and My promise to preserve you.” As we have already seen, it’s fine to save and plan for the future. What is wrong is to worry about those plans because God will take care of that. Only when we are delivered from the slavery of worry will we be able to store up treasures in heaven. This happens when we stop worrying about the necessities of life and trust in God.

If you look at the passage, Jesus repeats Himself five times: “Do not worry” (v. 25). “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (v. 27). “Why do you worry?” (v. 28). “So do not worry” (v. 31). “Therefore do not worry” (v. 34).

Worry is the main topic of this passage. The Lord is calling us to stop worrying. I guess we all have to admit that worry is a part of life. It’s a pastime for most people, occupying their thoughts for a great portion of their waking hours. This is the worry about life’s preservation: food, drink, and the body’s comforts, like clothing and protection.

It is worry about this life—food, things, work, bills, loans, and the future—that distracts, disturbs, and constantly nags us. This kind of concern fills us so much that when we wake up in the morning, our first thought is not God, but “How will I work today? How will I finish this and that? How will I earn money?” It’s a concern that hounds us through the day and doesn’t leave us when we lay our head on the pillow. Instead of thanking the Lord for preserving us, we are already looking at the next day with a fretful heart, thinking about how we will meet this need or that need.

Our Lord is touching on an area we all face. Even the best of us have worries and concerns, and for most of us, they are regular. There is sickness; the body’s condition, which might be only 10% physical, increases many times over because of mental pressure and stress. There are family problems, job problems, and difficulties with other people. For most, it’s not just one thing, but many things wrapped together: a job, school, money, loans, debt, your spouse, the in-laws, the kids, and on and on. We could handle one or two things, but when you get three or four together, you stagger through life.

We all worry and don’t see anything wrong with it. We justify it when talking to others. When someone tells us not to worry, we might justify ourselves by saying, “It’s easy for you; you have a good job and are settled. You don’t have to worry, but I don’t know where my next meal will come from.” So we try to legitimize it: “I’m only worrying about the basics. I’m not worrying about extravagant things. I’m just worrying about my next meal, a glass of water—we only get water once a week here—and something to wear. I don’t even have proper clothes.”

But for the Christian, God’s child, this is forbidden. For the Christian, it is sinful and foolish. There is no place for us to worry, even about the basic necessities of life.

Why? Worry is not only useless but also very dangerous to our physical and spiritual life. Its effect on the body is unspeakable. It simply makes people look older and can even lead to an early death. But far beyond its psychological effect is the fact that the Bible tells us that for a Christian, for a child of God, worry is a sin. When we live in this sin, we cannot experience God’s deliverance and blessing unless we repent and change. Worry is an expression of an unbelieving heart. It says that God is a liar and insults His character instead of hallowing His name. It is the equivalent of saying, “God, I know You have promised to take care of me and do everything for me, but I doubt Your character and power. I don’t believe You will be able to fulfill and meet my needs, so I worry.” Worry is the sin of distrusting the promise and providence of God, and yet we do it all the time.

A great quote says, “Worry is a thin stream of fear that trickles through the mind. If encouraged, it will cut a river so wide that all other thoughts will be drowned in it.” Scripture warns that if we don’t deal with this, we may not enter the kingdom of God. Matthew 13:22, in the parable of the sower, explains what the thorns are: “the cares of this life.” What can make the powerful, soul-saving Word of God completely useless, whether I or even the apostle Paul preaches it? The Word never takes root and grips our hearts because we have not learned to deal with the cares of this world. It completely hinders the Word. The problem is not with the Word, but with the heart that receives it, which is filled with worldly worry. Scripture also warns that some will not be prepared for the Second Coming because of this. Luke 21:34 is such an important passage: “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly.”

May the Holy Spirit help us to be delivered from this. Some of you need to plead with God to deliver you from this sin. It is a horrible thing for both physical and spiritual growth.

Now, the Lord is not forbidding diligent labor. Don’t go to the extreme. Maintain balance. Some people will take this and use it as an excuse for laziness: “Okay, I won’t worry, so I’ll just lie on the sofa and read my Bible and pray. The Lord will send crows to feed me.” No, He will not. “If any man does not work, let him not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). God ordained work for fulfilling our needs, but we must do it while trusting God and avoiding worry. This is not an excuse for laziness. Proper planning and diligent labor to save for the future are commanded. He is dealing with a sinful, anxious concern.

Let us look at the verse and how it starts with the word “Therefore.” The beauty of the Sermon is its logical flow. Every topic is connected to the previous one. There is a vital connection between storing treasures and anxious concern. Only people who do not worry will be able to store up treasures in heaven. People who are slaves to anxiousness can never store up treasures in heaven. In the earlier verses (19-24), having dealt with covetousness, He now deals with its root.

This sermon always deals with the root of sin. Murder is the full fruit, while anger is the seed. Adultery is the flower, while a lustful look is the bud. The Bible tells us to deal with sin in its seed or bud form. The Lord is doing the same thing here. He has taken the full-blown sin of overt covetousness—a person trying to amass treasure in this life and devoting all their energy to it. Why? Because they live in worldly worry.

We might say, “I don’t store up treasures like that, so I am not a covetous or worldly person.” But the Lord says you are also covetous and have the root growing if you are anxious about the world. Are you anxious? Do nagging concerns fill your mind when you wake and when you sleep? Watch out—this is the seed of covetousness. Sinful anxiety about this life, just as the love of wealth ensnares the rich, the fear of poverty and worry about the future surely ensnares the souls of the poor. The connection is between the full flower and the bud, the full fruit and the seed.

There is another connection. Verse 25 begins with the word “Therefore,” which takes us backward. He said, “First of all, earthly treasures corrupt. Then He said that yearning for earthly treasures and having your heart where your treasure is will spoil you and not allow you to set your heart on heaven, but on the perishing earth, and you will perish. It will blind your spiritual vision, so you cannot judge properly, and your will is affected so you cannot serve God. You will be a slave to your treasure. You will hate God and serve worldly things.”

Therefore, since earthly treasures corrupt you anyway, since your heart will be where your treasure is, since earthly treasures tend to blind your spiritual vision, and since they tend to draw you away from serving God, you should not worry about those things. Do you see? That should not be your preoccupation, not even the basics of life. You should not live for that.

The Lord knows that worry is embedded in us. The way He handles this truth is amazing. It is not a suggestion. He gives us a command. As the Lord and as King for His people, He commands, “Be not anxious,” bringing the truth in the form of a command. He says “do not worry” five times, with the command repeated three times. Why? Because this is a command. All who profess to believe in Jesus and say they are His disciples should seriously think about this because it is not an option. One time is enough for a true disciple, but three times shows its seriousness. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who is My disciple and loves Me. Are you a disciple of Christ, a believer? This is a binding command from the Lord delivered to you. If we are His disciples, we will make every effort to change and make adjustments in our lives.

The second reason it is given as a command is that we all get the shocking realization that disobeying this command and worrying about even basic things is a sin for a Christian. Anyone who is storing up treasures on earth is sinning. Anyone worrying about this life is living in sin. When living in sin, we get no deliverance or blessing from Him unless we repent. Do we truly believe that worrying about food, clothes, and life is a sin? Do we see that worry, from morning to night, is a sin? We will see that this is a grievous sin and that it leads to all kinds of other sins in life. So, only when we see this as a command, with no option, and see worry as a sin, can we take the first step toward repentance and change.

Also, observe the passage: the good Lord doesn’t just command and leave us. He doesn’t just give a suggestion. He gives very reasonable reasons for each command. The reasons are simple, but every one of them is powerful. He gives eight reasons. If seven don’t touch you, at least one will fit your case and touch your heart. So, hear clearly and understand. Let us look at the command clearly in verse 25: “Therefore, I say unto you, Be not anxious.” This is repeated in verse 31, “Be not anxious,” and verse 34, “Be not anxious.” The Greek tense is unique and means, “Stop worrying.” If you are already doing it, stop. In verse 31, it’s different; it says, “Do not start worrying.” If you are worrying, stop. If you are not, never allow this worry into your life. It will spoil all your joy and peace and become a dirty habit.

Then He says in verse 25, “for your life.” It has to do with the fullness of earthly, physical life—all that this life in this world is. Don’t be anxious about this world, the temporal, external, physical, earthly world and all that makes it up. Don’t worry about that, and if you have already started, then stop worrying about it.

Specifically, verse 25 says, “What you shall eat,” which is food, and “what you shall drink,” which is water or other fluids, and “what you shall put on,” which is clothing. Don’t be anxious about food, water, and clothing.