SOUTH FLORIDA BIBLE COLLEGE AND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Exegetical Paper on Matthew 6:25-34

Submitted to Dr.Esa Autero, in partial fulfillment

NTS 507
Wealth and Poverty in the Bible

by

Samantha Silva
November 5, 2015

1
Introduction

Five Star dining, brand name clothing, and thousands of other choices are

available in today’s materialistic and capitalist world to those who have the means.

Meanwhile there are people who are struggling, living paycheck to paycheck, and others

who do not know where their next meal will come from. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus

calls on the disciples to practice righteousness in a way that they surpass the scribes and

the Pharisees.1 During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus touches on many important topics

that are still relevant today. Especially interesting is Matthew 6:25-34, where Jesus warns

the disciples against being anxious. This project aims to provide an exegetical analysis of

this passage in Matthew, beginning with how the passage fits in the context of the book

of Matthew and the Sermon on the Mount, moving on to the analyses of the passage, and

ending with an overview of how this passage can be applied today.

Context of wealth and poverty in Matthew

Throughout Matthew’s gospel the disciples and the people who encounter Jesus

are encouraged to commit to following Jesus completely and to seek God’s kingdom as a

priority in everything that they do. The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most

important discourses where Jesus addresses several ways that righteousness and justice

should be exemplified and lived out by his disciples. In the first half of Matthew chapter

6 (1-18) Jesus is describing the “private life” one should have in the “secret place”

1 Matthew 5:20

2
dealing with the three generally Jewish pious acts of giving, praying, and fasting. 2

Hypocrisy is admonished over those who give to the needy only to be seen as powerful in

the society.3 Giving to the poor is to be done in secret in order to receive a reward from

the Father, who sees everything in secret. Prayer should also be done in secret and the

disciples are taught to pray for their “daily bread” while also praying for God’s will to be

done.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches on righteousness and advocating for the

poor in many circumstances. Those who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, and

clothe the naked will all be rewarded in the final judgment4. Jesus equated caring for the

poor and helpless as if we are caring for him.

In Douglas R.A. Hare’s study of Matthew, he makes a distinction in the Sermon

on the Mount between two sections in chapter 6, verses 19-24 which consists of

individual sayings and verses 25-34 where Jesus talks about anxiety in relation to the

things of this world. Hare says that both of these sections are concerned with “a

believer’s relationship to the workaday world of gaining and spending money,” the main

point being that a believer’s attitude toward money is another illustration of the “better

righteousness” demanded by Jesus in Matthew 5:20.5 John R W. Stott makes the case that

in verses 19-34 of Matthew 6 Jesus is concerned with the “public business” such as

2
John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon On the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian
Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester Leicestershire: Inter-varsity Press,
1985), 153.
3
Matthew 6:1-4
4
Matthew 25:31-46
5
Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993), 71.

3
questions of money, possessions, food, drink, clothing and ambition.6 Although there is a

separation between the private and the public spheres, Christians are to be countercultural

in both circumstances in that they are not to practice hypocrisy and they are not to be as

materialistic as those who are irreligious, or the Gentiles.

Immediately preceding the passage on anxiety, Jesus says that treasures should

not be stored up in this material world but they should be gathered up in heaven where

moth and rust cannot destroy them.7 Seeking God’s Kingdom and righteousness on this

earth are more important than being ensnared by material pursuits. Jesus warns the

disciples that they should not choose to serve “mammon” or money over serving God.

One cannot have two masters, serving God and seeking the Kingdom of heaven should be

the first priority for all believers.8

Analyses of the text: Matthew 6:25

“ Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat
or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not
life more than food, and the body more than clothing?”

Jesus begins this section of the Sermon on the Mount, with the word “therefore”

clearly showing that this is a continuation of the point he was making in the previous

section of Matthew 6.9 John R W. Stott argues that Jesus is calling us to “thought before

he calls us to action” by inviting us to think and weigh the alternatives carefully before

6 John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon On the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian
Counter-Culture, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester Leicestershire: Inter-varsity Press,
1985), 153.
7
Matthew 6:19-21
8
Matthew 6:24
9
Samuel Tobias Lachs, A Rabbinic Commentary On the New Testament: the Gospels of
Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing, 1987), 131.

4
making a choice.10 The choice is between accumulating treasures here on earth instead of

heaven, light over darkness, and choosing who is worthy of devotion, God or money.

Once the correct choice is made, for heavenly treasure, for light, and for God—then we

are eligible for what comes next, “Therefore I tell you.” Jesus then gives us the

instructions on how we are to behave: “do not be anxious about your life…nor about

your body…But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (25, 33).11 By choosing to

serve the correct master, the consequent attitude towards both masters is affected. The

focus becomes on God’s kingdom and not on the sustenance of our earthly bodies.

Followers of Jesus are not to be anxious about their lives, what they will eat or drink, nor

about their body because they have chosen to “seek first” the concerns of God.12

In verse 25 Jesus also poses the question, “Is not life more than food, and the body

more than clothing?” According to Eduard Schweizer, the word translated “life” actually

means “soul” and it stands as a synonymous variant to “body.”13 This question along with

verse 26 lead to the obvious conclusion that yes, human beings are more than the food

required for survival and the clothing needed to protect their bodies. Jesus calls on the

disciples to contemplate on another of God’s creation, the birds, and how they are taken

care of even when they are less than humans. Our body and our lives are given to us by

God, the Father, and the creator. God as the creator is gracious and faithful to his

creation.14

10
John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon On the Mount, 153.
11
Ibid, 160.
12
Ibid.
13
Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew (Atlanta: Westminster John
Knox Press, 1975), 164.
14 Ibid, 164.

5
Matthew 6:26

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into
barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value
than they?”

Jesus tells his disciples to look and contemplate the birds of the air. He could,

perhaps, have meant to say ravens instead of birds, possibly reflecting Psalm 147:9, “He

gives to the beast its food, and to the young ravens which cry.”15 The birds “neither sow

nor reap, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” Sowing and reaping are two

characteristic works of males.16 This doesn’t mean that God cares more for humans than

for birds because they work, but because he is their Father. 17 The non-working birds

serve as a witness of God’s providence and not as a reason for humans to quit working.

Paul says later in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “If anyone will not work, let him not eat.” God

provides the food in nature for the birds to eat but they have to feed themselves, just as

God will provide humans with food but we need to work. The rhetorical question, “of

more value than they” is a form in Greek, which automatically requires the answer

“Yes.”18 We are supposed to learn from contemplating the birds just as it is written in Job

35:11, “Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the

birds of the heavens?” According to Schweizer, verse 26 shows that we are not supposed

to be self-sufficient but we are summoned to trust God “with a whole and undivided

heart.”19

15
Samuel Tobias Lachs, A Rabbinic Commentary On the New Testament, 132.
16
Augustine Stock, The Method and Message of Matthew (Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical
Press, 1994), 108.
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid.
19
Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew, 164-165.

6
Matthew 6:27

“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his
span of life?”

In verse 27, Jesus interrupts the context of proper attitude towards food and

clothing to allude to the senselessness of worrying.20 In his question, “a single hour” can

also be translated as a “single cubit.”21 The Greek work “helikia” can mean “stature” as

well as “span of life.”22 Scholars are divided in their preference but to add a cubit to one’s

stature is not something inconsequential and adding a cubit to one’s span of life mixes the

measure of space with measure of time. 23 Regardless of the choice of translation,

worrying still cannot affect a person’s height or length of life. Both of these situations are

in God’s control. Stott questions since adding more time to our lives or height to our

stature is beyond our human capacity, is it not sensible to leave these things to God and to

trust him with lesser things like food and clothes?24

Matthew 6:28-29

“And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Jesus again turns to nature as an example by telling his audience to consider the

lilies of the field and how they do not “toil nor spin” as women do to make clothing and

yet they are more beautifully clothed than Solomon in all his glory ever was. Scholars

suggest that lilies of the field may be any one of several types of flowers, including an

20
Ibid, 165.
21 Samuel Tobias Lachs, A Rabbinic Commentary On the New Testament, 132.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid.
24 John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon On the Mount, 164.

7
anemone, a poppy, a gladiolus, and “a rather inconspicuous type of daisy.”25 Without

laboring as the women do, the lilies of the field surpass even Solomon, whose luxury is

cited here for being legendary. 26 Man’s worry over clothing becomes inconsequential

when compared to how God clothes even the flowers in the field more splendidly than

the richest king of Israel.

Matthew 6:30

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and
tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O
you of little faith?”

Jesus labels those who worry over clothing as men “of little faith.” His use of the

expression “of little faith” is similar to the lack of faith or little faith that the Jews

displayed when they left Egypt and God provided the daily manna for them to eat, and

yet they doubted that there would be the provision for the next day and kept the manna

overnight. 27 Moses told them that they were not supposed to “leave any of it until

morning” and the people did not listen to him, and it became foul the next morning.28

Jesus uses a fortiori or “how much more” arguments in order to make his point

that man should trust God for provision instead of being anxious.29 If God provides for

the grass of the field, surely he will take a lot more care of humans. In this verse Jesus

argues from the sub-human experience (flowers) or from the lesser, to the greater

(humans). According to Schweizer, the very weakness of the wild flowers or grass

25 AugustineStock, The Method and Message of Matthew, 108-109.
26 Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew, 165.
27 Samuel Tobias Lachs, A Rabbinic Commentary On the New Testament, 133.
28 Exodus 16:19-20
29 John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon On the Mount, 163.

8
emphasizes their faith in that they “grow to beauty unfailingly despite tempests, sickle,

and their inborn evanescence.”30 Yet man, “who grows stronger and lives longer” than

the grass, “rattles out his life worrying over survival.”31 The grass may one day be alive

and the next day burned in an oven, used to bake bread.32 Human faith should be placed

on God based on his faithfulness with nature.

Matthew 6:31-33

“Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What

In verse 31, Jesus uses the word “therefore” a second time in this section of

Matthew 6 in order to once more prohibit his audience from being anxious or worried

about food, drink, and clothing. This repetition serves to emphasize his point and to

introduce verse 32 where he says, “for the Gentiles seek after all these things.”

According to Stott, this shows that “in the vocabulary of Jesus ‘to seek’ and ‘to be

anxious’ are interchangeable.”33 The Gentiles worry over the material things of this world

because they have no other ambitions in this world, and Jesus is calling his disciples to

have ambition for the kingdom of God, not for earthly things. This response echoes

Matthew 6:7-8 where Jesus warns the disciples against not praying like the Gentiles, “Do

not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” In these

30 Eduard Schweizer, The Good News According to Matthew, 165.
31 Ibid.
32 Augustine Stock, The Method and Message of Matthew, 109.
33 John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon On the Mount, 169.

9
three verses, Jesus once again narrows down the choices for his audience between two

alternatives. He urges his followers to “not be preoccupied with their own security (food,

drink, and clothing), for that is the obsession of ‘the Gentiles’ who do not know him, but

rather with God’s rule and God’s righteousness.”34

Jesus continues by telling his disciples to pursue God’s kingdom and

righteousness above everything else. In using the expression, “seek first” Jesus is making

it clear to the disciples what their priority should be. The God who takes care of the birds

and the lilies is concerned specifically about his people, but they should seek to make it

their ambition to serve him and seek him above all other things, especially the material

things that he is able to provide for them. According to Augustine Stock, the “kingdom”

mentioned in verse 33 is, just like other places in Matthew, “the coming reign of God,

which the community hopes to enter through judgment.”35 “Righteousness” consists of

the activities that humans are supposed to perform, or the actions that agree with God and

his kingdom.36 These verses can be seen as an elaboration of the teachings already taught

through the Lord’s Prayer, since we are to “recognize the needs of the body (‘give us our

daily bread’), although our priority concerns are with God’s name, kingdom, and will.”37

John R W. Stott explains that to “seek first” this kingdom is to “desire as of first

importance the spread of the reign of Jesus Christ.”38This “reign” will infiltrate every

aspect of a believer’s life with the goal of reaching the global community until the

eventual coming of the consummation at the end of times, “when all King’s enemies have

34 Ibid. 161
35 Augustine Stock, The Method and Message of Matthew, 109.
36 Ibid.
37 John R. W. Stott, The Message of the Sermon On the Mount, 170.
38 Ibid.

10
become his footstool and his reign is undisputed.”39 God is a righteous ruler, and to seek

his righteousness means to pursue justice and to exhibit a righteousness greater than that

of the scribes and Pharisees as described in Matthew 5:20. Stott argues that God’s

Kingdom is for those who have acknowledged Jesus as their savior but God’s

righteousness is supposed to spread even to communities that have not been reached by

Christianity yet.40 The Hebrew prophets denounced injustice not exclusively in Israel and

Judah, but also in the surrounding communities. By pursuing the kingdom of God and his

righteousness, God will provide all other necessities for this earthly life.

Matthew 6:34

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be

Jesus concludes his sayings on worry and anxiety with another “therefore,” again

reiterating his argument all worry is in vain. This is very similar to a wisdom saying.

Jesus is summoning his disciples to live with the freedom that comes from trusting in

God and living by faith even when the outcome is not visible yet. Jesus mentions both

“today” and “tomorrow,” even though all worrying being about “tomorrow” is

experienced “today.”41 He wisely tells his audience to not be anxious about tomorrow

since each day has enough trouble as it is. Worrying about something that hasn’t

happened yet is a complete waste of time, thought, and energy since many worries

actually never materialize. 42 Augustine Stock says that this verse can be understood

39 Ibid, 171.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid, 168.
42 Ibid, 169.

11
optimistically as opening up “the possibility to live for today” but the pessimistic

interpretation is more likely. 43 The pessimistic interpretation takes the view that “all

planning is in vain” and that “it is enough to bear the burden of today.”44Stock continues

by saying that the appearance of this verse shows how, in early Christianity, “the hope of

the Kingdom of God by no means determined life throughout, but eschatological hope

and pessimistic realism could stand immediately side by side.”45

Relevant Application

Matthew 6:25-34 is still as relevant today as it was when Jesus taught it. In our

modern society we often need the reminder to not be anxious over things we cannot

control, “tomorrow,” and to have faith in God’s provision since he cares for us more than

the flowers of the field or the birds in the sky. Douglas R.A. Hare sees this passage as

applicable for everyone when it is read as poetry instead of prose.46 The “birds of the

heaven” and the “lilies of the field” become larger than life as powerful symbols of God’s

providential care. It is “irrelevant” that some birds starve and some lilies fail to mature.

The rhetorical development of these symbols transfers our attention from the worries of

life and pursuit of material things to a “calmer vision of God’s bountiful care in the

natural world.”47

Hare highlights different readings of the passage, specifically an ecological

reading and a social justice reading. An ecological perspective of the passage allows us to

43 Augustine Stock, The Method and Message of Matthew, 110.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid.
46 Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew, 74.
47 Ibid.

12
contemplate the intricacies of nature and the grandness of God’s design and provision. In

the obsession humans have with material objects and our daily necessities, we can often

overlook the damage that our material pursuits have caused on nature. We interfere with

God’s care for the birds and lilies with our pesticides and acid rain.48By reflecting on the

greatness of nature in this passage and on God’s concern for both nature and humans we

can try to apply this passage in our everyday life by taking steps to respect nature while

also curbing our excessive worrying by relying on God.

A social justice reading of this text is the most probable in that it is interwoven

with the other teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. We are taught to practice a

righteousness greater than the scribes and Pharisees, to give alms to the poor in secret, to

pray for daily sustenance, and to trust God in all of these things because he knows what

we need even before we ask him. This text is relevant to the disciples who left everything

behind to follow Jesus and to the involuntarily poor. It is still relevant to the poor today.

Like the birds, the poor do not sow or gather into barns but “are dependent on their

uncertain wages as day laborers (Matthew 20:6-7) and on charity.” 49 The passage

reassures the poor that they are more valuable to God then the birds and the lilies and that

God will take care of them just as he cares for nature. This passage isn’t advocating that

humans should simply not work and think that God will take care of them. We still need

to do our part and work but with the certainty that even when things are difficult, God

sees us and he will take care of us because he knows our needs. We just need to seek his

Kingdom first and his righteousness.

48 Ibid, 75.
49 Ibid.

13
 It is in seeking God’s righteousness that this passage continues to be relevant

today. We are to seek God’s righteousness by taking care of the poor who are relying on

God for their provision. We are God’s instruments here on Earth and in seeking his

kingdom we need to advocate and act in favor of those who are in need. To become

preoccupied with material things in a way that they encompass our complete attention is

not compatible with our Christian faith. It shows a distrustful attitude towards God, our

heavenly Father, and it is what the unbelievers do. We cannot add as single hour to our

lives by worrying. God is in control. We need to trust him, have faith, and seek him first.

Just as God has called us to a greater righteousness, a broader love, and a deeper piety, he

calls us to trust in his provision by seeking him first in faith.50

50 Ibid.

14
 Bibliography

Hare, Douglas R.A. Matthew: Interpretation. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press,

1993.

Lachs, Samuel Tobias. A Rabbinic Commentary On the New Testament: the Gospels of

Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing, 1987.

Lloyd-Jones, David Martyn. Studies in the Sermon On the Mount. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids,

Mich.: Eerdmans, 1976.

Schweizer, Eduard. The Good News According to Matthew. Atlanta: Westminster John

Knox Press, 1975.

Stock, Augustine. The Method and Message of Matthew. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical

Press, 1994.

Stott, John R. W. The Message of the Sermon On the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian

Counter-Culture. The Bible Speaks Today. Leicester Leicestershire: Inter-Varsity

Press, 1985.

15