Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. LukeMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. Luke
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Luke -- Commentaries
Verse 29 adds to the reference to clothing a repeated prohibition as
to the other half of our anxieties, and thus rounds off the whole
with the same double warning as in verse 22. But it gives a striking
metaphor in the new command against 'being of doubtful mind.' The
word so rendered means to be lifted on high, and thence to be tossed
from height to depth, as a ship in a storm. So it paints the
wretchedness of anxiety as ever shuttlecocked about between hopes
and fears, sometimes up on the crest of a vain dream of good,
sometimes down in the trough of an imaginary evil. We are sure to be
thus the sport of our own fancies, unless we have our minds fixed on
God in quiet trust, and therefore stable and restful.
Verse 30 gives yet another reason against not only anxiety, but
against that eager desire after outward things which is the parent
of anxiety. If we 'seek after' them, we shall not be able to avoid
being anxious and of doubtful mind. Such seeking, says Christ, is
pure heathenism. The nations of the world who know not God make
these their chief good, and securing them the aim of their lives. If
we do the like, we drop to their level. What is the difference
between a heathen and a Christian, if the Christian has the same
objects and treasures as the heathen? That is a question which a
good many so-called Christians at present would find it hard to
answer.
But the crowning reason of all is kept for the last. Much of what
precedes might be spoken by a man who had but the coldest belief in
Providence. But the great and blessed faith in our Father, God,
scatters all anxious care. How should we be anxious if we know that
we have a Father in heaven, and that He knows our needs? He
recognises our claims on Him. He made the needs, and will send the
supply. That is a wide truth, stretching far beyond the mere earthly
wants of food and raiment. My wants, so far as God has made me to
feel them, are prophecies of God's gifts. He has made them as doors
by which He will come in and bless me. How, then, can anxious care
fret the heart which feels the Father's presence, and knows that its
emptiness is the occasion for the gift of a divine fullness? Trust
is the only reasonable temper for a child of such a father. Anxious
care is a denial of His love or knowledge or power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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