Matthew 6:25

Matthew 6:25, διὰ τοῦτο : because ye can be unfaithful to God through care as well as through covetousness. μὴ μεριμνᾶτε : μέριμνα from μερίς, μερίζω, because care divides and distracts the mind. The verb is used in N. T. in various constructions and senses; sometimes in a good sense, as in 1 Corinthians 7:32 : “The unmarried care for the things of the Lord,” and Matthew 12:25 in reference to the members of the body having the same care for each other. But the evil sense predominates. What is here deprecated is not work for bread and raiment, but worry, “Labor exercendus est, solicitudo tollenda,” Jerome. οὐχὶ ἡ ψυχὴ … ἐνδύματος : the life not the soul; the natural life is more than meat, and the body more than the clothing which protects it, yet these greater things are given to you already. Can you not trust Him who gave the greater to give the less? But a saying like this, life is more than meat, in the mouth of Jesus is very pregnant. It tends to lift our thoughts above materialism to a lofty conception of man's chief end. It is more than an argument against care, it is a far-reaching principle to be associated with that other logion a man is better than a sheep (Matthew 12:12).