The Sermon on the Mount · Matthew 6:25-34

Do Not Worry: Consider the Lilies and Seek First the Kingdom

Matthew 5 to 7 · Jesus’ greatest sermon, the manifesto of the kingdom

Flowing straight from His words about treasure, Jesus tells His followers not to be consumed with worry about food, drink, and clothing. He points to the birds their Father feeds and the lilies He clothes more gloriously than Solomon, and asks whether we are not worth much more to God than these. The cure for anxiety is not carelessness but trust: seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.Matthew 6:25-34 (KJV)

What Jesus said

Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or drink, nor for your body, what you shall wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Jesus points to the birds of the air, which do not sow or reap yet are fed by the heavenly Father, and to the lilies, which do not labor yet outshine Solomon in glory.

If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and burned tomorrow, will He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Do not be anxious like those who do not know God, He says, for your Father knows your needs. Instead, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Do not worry about tomorrow; sufficient unto the day is its own trouble.

What it meant then, and what it means now

Jesus spoke to people who lived close to the edge, for whom the next meal and a decent garment were real concerns, not abstractions. He does not dismiss those needs as unimportant; He insists that a Father who feeds sparrows and dresses wildflowers can be trusted to care for His own children.

Anxiety looks different for us, but it rules just as harshly, over money, health, the future, and a hundred imagined outcomes. Jesus' words are not a naive denial of hardship but a call to locate our security in the character of God rather than the size of our reserves. Worry, He gently notes, adds nothing; it cannot add one hour to our lives.

How it goes to the heart

Worry is, at root, a matter of trust. It grows where we believe that everything depends on us and that God either cannot or will not provide. Jesus therefore treats anxiety not merely as an unpleasant feeling but as little faith, a heart that has forgotten whose child it is.

The remedy He gives is not to try harder to stop worrying but to redirect our seeking. Seek first the kingdom, and the anxious grasping loses its grip, because our lives are now oriented around a Father we trust rather than needs we must secure alone. Faith does not remove the needs; it changes who we believe is responsible for them.

How it has been misapplied, and rightly applied

Some read take no thought as forbidding all planning or work, but Jesus points to birds that still gather food and assumes His hearers labor and sow. He also warned that seasons of anxiety and depression are not simply a failure of willpower, and this passage must never be used to shame those who suffer with them.

Rightly applied, the passage frees us from anxious, faithless striving without excusing laziness. It calls for diligent work held in open hands, wise provision without hoarding, and a daily choice to seek God's kingdom first. It invites us to take life one day at a time, trusting that the same Father who has carried us this far will not abandon us tomorrow.

A closer look at the words

The word translated take no thought does not mean be carefree or lazy; it means do not be pulled apart by anxiety. Jesus is not forbidding planning or work but the corrosive worry that divides the mind and eats away at trust. The birds He points to still gather food, and His hearers still sow and reap; the target is the anxious grasping, not the labor.

His argument moves from the lesser to the greater. If the Father feeds the birds, who do not store in barns, and clothes the wildflowers, which are here today and burned tomorrow, in a splendor beyond Solomon’s, how much more will He care for His own children? Are ye not much better than they? The logic is not that needs do not matter but that a good Father can be trusted with them.

He also notes, almost gently, that worry accomplishes nothing: which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his life? Anxiety cannot lengthen our days or solve tomorrow’s troubles; it only borrows them into today. Sufficient unto the day, He says, is the evil thereof.

Living this today

Jesus locates the cure for worry not in having more but in seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When God’s reign becomes the organizing center of a life, the frantic scramble to secure everything ourselves loses its grip, because our lives are now oriented around a Father we trust rather than needs we must guarantee alone.

This is not a naive denial of hardship or a promise that believers never face want; it is a summons to locate our security in God’s character rather than the size of our reserves. Faith does not remove the needs; it changes who we believe is responsible for meeting them, and that shift drains anxiety of its power.

It is worth adding, with care, that the anxiety and depression many wrestle with are not simply a failure of willpower, and this passage must never be used to shame those who suffer. The invitation is to take life one day at a time, to work diligently with open hands, and to keep entrusting the unknown future to the God who has never yet let go of us.

How it points to Christ

Jesus not only taught this trust; He lived it, entrusting Himself entirely to His Father, from the wilderness to the cross. He is the one who truly sought first the kingdom, and in Gethsemane He surrendered even His life into His Father's hands.

He is also the ground of our confidence, for the God who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all will surely, with Him, freely give us all things. If God has already given us the greatest gift in Christ, we can trust Him for the lesser gifts of daily bread. Seeking first His kingdom is possible because the King has first sought and secured us.

A note for every tradition: the Sermon on the Mount is honored across the whole church as the heart of Jesus’ teaching. This is faithful, mainstream exposition, holding the hard sayings with both honesty and grace. Above all it points to Christ, who alone lived this sermon perfectly and gives grace to all who follow Him.

Continue in the sermon: Treasure in heaven · Do not judge · The Beatitudes · The whole Sermon on the Mount