Matthew 6:25-34

The Christian's freedom from care and anxiety (Luke 12:22). The worldly man is oppressed with care. He is always in fear that his deep-laid plans for the future will miscarry, that some object that he loves will be torn from his grasp, that his wealth will vanish, or that his health will fail so that he can enjoy life no longer. The actual failure of his earthly prospects makes him the most miserable of men, for those prospects were his all, and however little he may confess it to himself, he in truth loves nothing else. He seemed, perhaps, to be serving God much, and mammon a little, but he was in reality serving mammon with undivided devotion.

The Christian also pays attention to worldly things. He is diligent in his trade or profession. He makes all reasonable provision for the future. Often he prospers in business just because he is a Christian, and does honest work where a less scrupulous man would not. But his heart is not set on these things, nor is he anxious about them. He does his best, and leaves the issue to God: cp. Psalms 37:25. Observe that the promise of sufficient maintenance is made not to the idle, the improvident, and the vicious, but to the righteous, who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). Those who do this can never be idle or improvident: cp. 1 Timothy 5:8.