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Other Petty Deities

          “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

            “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34)

 

            It's been said that when you see the word therefore,  you should look at what came before it, to see what it is there for. What thought does it conclude? The first and last sentence of this passage begins with “Therefore,” so we have our work cut out for us. The passage before this one is the one about not being able to serve two masters. After telling us that if we have two masters, we’ll hate one and love the other, Jesus said, “Therefore…” Is saving our lives or having “a life” our purpose in life? Is that our master? What about food and drink? How do we know whether food and drink have become a master? And if neither of those dictates our life, there are the clothes that “make the man.” How important are they? I have to laugh because the major consideration about clothing for me is whether or not it is too stained (or has too much ground in dirt) to wear.

            Of course, these things are all necessary. Jesus tells us that God knows these things are necessary. He created us to need both Him and them. But, His command to us is to seek God’s kingdom first – meaning that we should seek to be in such a place in our lives in which God has effective control over our lives and let God take care of the food, drink, and clothes.

            Then, Jesus finishes with another petty deity: tomorrow. It’s bad enough when we worry about life, food, drink, and clothes for today, but when we add tomorrow into the mix, it becomes unbearable. Therefore, we are told to seek first the kingdom of God and let tomorrow take care of itself. 

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