A Gospel View of WorrySýnishorn

The Reality of Worry

The people whom Christ was addressing in this passage were simple everyday people like you and I who were faced with all the financial hardships and challenges that you and I face today.

Just like these people, today, we worry about our rent or mortgages, we worry about the rising cost of living, we worry about our children’s school fees, and about the cost of health care. Additionally, in our world today, we worry about the devastating effects of climate change and war.

In Mathew 6:24-34, Christ presented this teaching as part of what has come to be known as the Sermon on the Mount on the north end of the Sea of Galilee, near the town of Capernaum, where Christ was based in those days.

Capernaum was in the northern region of Israel, which was called Galilee. In those days, in Galilee, as well as in the rest of Israel, although there were a few rich and powerful people, most of the people were ordinary people whose chief concern was basic survival because of their low wages that were coupled with high prices, debt, and high taxes. Their lives, like our own lives today, were therefore hobbled with much worry and anxiety about their livelihoods.

This explains why, in verse 25, Christ, recognising the reality of worry in the lives of these ordinary people, addressed them by saying: Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Again, in verse 31, He says to them: Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

So, we can summarise our first R from this passage by saying that what Christ says to these people, and to us, in this passage shows us that He recognised the reality of worry in their lives, and He knows all about and cares about, the reality of worry in our own lives today.