“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?”

Matthew 6:25 (ESV)

Matthew 6:25-34 can be a tough passage for (aspiring) followers of Jesus, even if they themselves do not regularly worry about having enough food, drink and clothing. Do we have here an impossible, foolish and irresponsible command not to worry under any circumstance? Was Jesus against farming, making clothes and even preparing in any way for the next day? Was he an advocate of sitting back, doing nothing and relying on God to magically provide food, drink and clothing out of thin air? Did he really know hunger and poverty? Had he perhaps rebuked the hungry on a full stomach?

One might try to soften the blow of Matthew 6:25-34 by saying that the words behind it were addressed to specific people who needn’t be so anxious, that the words were said to comfort and not to rebuke, that what is in view is not normal worrying but a deep and all-consuming kind of anxiety, and that Jesus was not so much making truth claims as redirecting attention to matters pertaining to the kingdom of God.

There may be some truth to all of that. But there is in any case reason to believe we are not dealing with an absolute command against all worrying. Jesus does not say: ‘Do not worry about anything!’ and what he does say is bound up with certain conditions (e.g. “Are you not of more value than they?”). Further, one need not make sense of the passage in terms of Jesus being against sowing, harvesting crops and making clothes. Indeed, it is more plausible that he is someone for whom these activities are just not absolutely necessary. What’s more, rather than teaching his disciples to simply wait on God to drop down bread from heaven, he taught them to ask their heavenly Father for it.

The reasons put forward by Jesus in the passage against his audience being anxious about food, drink and clothing are not as particular and contextual as some might wish. It is not improbable that Jesus would, in other times and places, urge other people, particularly if they were followers of his, not to be anxious about food, clothing and drink on the same or very similar grounds.

The Matthean Jesus’s case or arguments against anxiety about food, drink and clothing among his audience is / are roughly that (1) these are not the only important things in life / not the most important things in life, (2) the audience’s heavenly Father feeds / succeeds in feeding the birds of the air (even) though they do not sow or harvest crops and since they (the audience) are more valuable than the birds there is reason to believe that He will feed them also (even) if they do not sow or harvest crops, (3) being anxious about food or drink does not add to one’s span of life, (4) God clothes / succeeds in clothing the flowers of the field (even) though they do not last long and do not make clothes for themselves and so there is reason to believe that God will clothe / succeed in clothing them (even) if they likewise do not make clothes for themselves, (5) (obsessively) seeking after food, drink and clothing is a Gentile thing to do and unbefitting to the people of God, (6) their heavenly Father knows they need food, drink and clothing, (7) if they seek first the kingdom of God, food, drink and clothing will be provided for them and (8) there is enough trouble each day to go round, no need to add to that by being anxious about the next.[1]

Now, we may not find ourselves in full agreement with the Matthean Jesus or be persuaded by all of his arguments and still be able to take the following position: Our pursuit of food, drink and clothing should not (improperly) have a sole and ultimate character and our mind should not be completely preoccupied with food, drink and clothing and getting such things, even when we are hungry, thirsty and unclothed.[2] Furthermore, there are reasons to not be entirely fearfull and anxious about our having food, drink and clothing, even if we are not directly engaged in agriculture or the making of clothes or, for that matter, have a well-paid job or money-making business, and pursue the kingdom of God above food, drink and clothing. Among these reasons are (1) the existence and production of large quantities of ‘natural’ food and drink of the sort that is freely available in nature and (2) there being a widespread willingness and ability among humans in general, and Christians not least, to provide hungry, thirsty and unclothed people with sufficient food, drink and clothing.[3]

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[1] Jesus could have appealed to God’s provision of clothing for Adam and Eve and His feeding of the Israelites in the wilderness, but did not in this passage. Such stories might nevertheless have been in his mind.

[2] This seems possible even under conditions of hunger, thirst and nakedness and even without prior preparation and training through practices of fasting and deprivation, although such practices may help one live in accordance with the view under such conditions.

[3] We may connect a number of biblical passages to these points, among them, Genesis 1:29-30, Psalm 104:10-15, Mark 10:29-30 and Matthew 25:31-46.