August 8, 2016
Matthew 6:24-34
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
If we want to be like Titedios Amerimnos, we need to learn the secrets he apparently learned. He was a second century Christian whose burial ossuary archeologists found inscribed with his name, Titedios Amerimnos. It means Titedios – the man who didn’t worry! Jesus told us in our featured Scripture (verse 24) that the cause of worry is serving the wrong thing! Instead of serving the Creator, we focus on the things of this world!) Then the Lord gives us eight reasons not to worry in verses 25 through 32 and 34. We have gone through the first five reasons in the last two blogs. Let’s tackle the last three!
✞ Matthew 6:31 and 32 – The sixth argument – “Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek.” If you worry, you are acting like the heathen! That’s how heathen were described in first century Judaism – Gentiles (non-Jews). How do heathen act? They engage in idolatry against which God warned in the first of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3). This is what Saint Paul says about it in Romans 1:21 through 25:
…they…became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were
darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the
glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible
man — and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things…who
exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the
creature rather than the Creator….
This goes back to the chief cause of worry described in Matthew 6:24: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Mammon means money and the things money can buy, including position, power, prestige, a paramour, or possessions!) We will serve something! God designed us to serve someOne or something, either the things of God or just plain things! But things will pass away (see Matthew 6:19). And worry comes from trying to preserve such temporal things! So to act like a heathen Gentile is to set yourself up for worry!
…So why worry about it?
✞ Matthew 6:22 – The seventh argument – “…your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.” Our chief need has already been supplied by God! We are sinners under His condemnation and headed for hell! (See Romans 3:10, 23; 6:23; Revelation 21:8). “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinner, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). We have “…been justified by His blood…[and] saved from [God’s] wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:9). Paul then presents this logical argument in Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ” (See also Philippians 4:19). If God did the greatest thing for us, He will certainly do the lesser! And any other thing He can give us is a lesser gift that His own Son dying in our place!
Now God knows everything about us (see Psalm 139:1-16), even the number of hairs on our head! (See Matthew 10:30; Luke 12:7). He surely knows what we need and when we need it! Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:7 through 11:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will
be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds,
and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you
who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a
fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in
heaven give good things to those who ask Him?
…So why worry about it?
✞ Matthew 6:34 – The eighth argument – “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Tomorrow – with its struggles – is coming anyway! And God gives us this promise from Deuteronomy 33:25 that relates to every tomorrow that comes: “As your days, so shall your strength be.” In other words, He will give us whatever we need to get through whatever challenges a day may bring!
One more thing about tomorrow – it is said that 95% of what we worry about never comes to pass! God and I can surely handle the other 5%!
…So why worry about it?
There will be one more blog in this Titedios Amerimnos series – One sure cure for worry!