Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2973
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, What shall we wear? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seekyou first the Kingdom ofGod, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:31-33.
THESE are soothing words to read, but difficult words to put into practice. Had anyone except the Lord Jesus Christ uttered them, we might have quoted to him that ancient saying, “Physician, heal yourself,” for we shall never find any other teacher who is, himself, absolutely free from care. But Jesus Christ not only gives us the purest possible precepts, but His own life is the best exposition of them. If ever you want to know what Christ means by His teaching, look at His life. You may rest assured that He never gave us a command which He was not, Himself, prepared to obey. Those of us who have put our trust in Christ are His servants and He, Himself, condescended to be a Servant for our sakes. Indeed, He is the real model Servant and the service which He requires of us, He, Himself, shows us how to perform. I do not intend, therefore, so much to expound the text by any words of my own, as to illustrate it by the life of Jesus Christ Himself. I think that it may be more profitable and certainly it will be more unusual, if I take these words of Christ and say to you, “If you would know their meaning, look at the life of Him whom you call Master and Lord. You can best understand His words by His works.”
I see in the text, first, a precept forbidding thought Secondly, a precept commanding thought And then, in the two precepts, if they are rightly kept, I see a frame of mind admirably fitted for all Believers in coming to the Communion Table.
I. First, then, we have here A PRECEPT FORBIDDING THOUGHT—a precept which says, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, What shall we wear?” How are we to understand this precept?
Certainly, we are not to understand it in the sense of the idler, who says, “God will provide and, therefore, there is no need for me to labor. God’s Providence is my inheritance and, therefore, I may fold my arms and sit still.” The man who talks and acts in that fashion will have thistles on his land, emptiness in his cupboard, rags on his back and ruin to his character—and all that will serve him right! Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” And it would, perhaps, be the best way of treating some men if they were never allowed to eat anything except what they had themselves earned. Of course, this rule would not apply in the case of those who are disabled by old age, or laid aside by sickness, but, in every other case, work is the lot of us all and it is a benefit to us all—and we ought never, under the pretense of piety, to endeavor to shirk it! You have heard, perhaps, of the very pious man who entered a monastery in order that he might spend all his time in devotion. So, when the time came for the brethren to go into the fields to work, he did not leave his cell—he was too spiritual to handle a hoe or a spade, so he continued in communion with angels. He was very much surprised, however, when the time came for the brotherhood to assemble in the refectory, that he was not called! And after waiting till the demands of hunger overcame the claims of his spiritual being, he went to the prior and asked why he had not been called to the meal. And he was informed that as he was so spiritual that he could not work, it was thought that he was probably so spiritual that he could not eat and, at any rate, the laws of the monastery did not permit him to eat until he had earned what he needed. There was much
common sense in that reply and our Lord Jesus Christ was not one of your lackadaisical, goody-goody sort of people who have nothing at all to do! Point me to a single wasted hour in our Savior’s whole life. Show me one instance in which He was a sluggard, if you can. There is His life record before you, written by four truthful men—put your finger, if you can, upon a single spot where He might be rightly accused of being sluggish. If he had been so, we might have had a warrant for interpreting this text according to the lazy man’s version of it, but it is not so. His motto was always, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night comes when no man can work.”
Neither did our Lord Jesus Christ intend to inculcate prodigality when he said, “Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?” and so on. This is what the young spendthrift does when he comes into possession of his estate. He gathers all he has with both hands. Take thoughts? Not he! As long as the gold will last, he will spend it without reckoning! All the proverbs of prudence he despises—he is too free-hearted and generous to think of them—and so, by his sinful extravagance, he speedily brings himself to poverty. Our Lord Jesus Christ never meant that and He never acted like that. With what singular economy did the Savior always behave! Generous to the last degree, He fed five thousand men, besides women and children, but, equally economical, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” Jesus Christ would have us take care of what we have, for we are only stewards, and a steward must not waste his Lord’s goods. Extravagance, waste—the allowing of anything to perish which ought to be used—is a wrong thing which cannot be too sternly condemned. And the Savior never intended, for a single moment, to justify any such action as that!