The Sin of Anxiety

This section of the Sermon on the Mount deals with forbidden anxiety (6:25–34) and follows the prohibition of verse 19, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth.” A true follower of Jesus is never subject to but one Master, Jesus, whom he serves with one heart. “No one can serve two masters. ... You cannot serve God and money [mammon, personal wealth or possessions]” (v. 24). Anxiety (Greek, merimnao, “to care for something,” coming from the root word meaning to divide attention) has a wide variety of meaning. In the context, Jesus is warning about what divides our attention from wholly serving Him. We are not to let our focus be divided by the cares of life—what we eat or wear.

  Again, “If your eye is healthy [single, undivided], your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness” (v. 22). Anxiety is to divide one’s attention with the fear that one’s basic needs will not be met. What will become of me? The natural man works very diligently to overcome that fear by trusting his own means and abilities to provide. This desire is the root of covetousness which Paul calls idolatry (Colossians 3:5; Ephesians 5:5). Loving and striving after mammon is idolatry because it divides one’s devotion to something other than God. “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

In the verses before us, the Lord describes the attitude that must characterized kingdom citizens: “Do not be anxious about your life” (v. 25). Anxiety is a profoundly serious sin but often regarded by Christians as a mere constitutional weakness not to be taken sincerely. That it is indeed very serious is evidenced by the repetition of the prohibition: “Do not be anxious about your life” (v. 25), “Therefore do not be anxious” (v. 31), and “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow” (v. 34). It is a sin of wicked unbelief that doubts God’s promised provision for the needs of His own.

We must be cautious to distinguish between the care of diligence and that of trust. For example, Paul writes, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8). We are to work and labor to provide for our needs. Jesus is not telling His followers to do nothing but wait for God. Proverbs cautions, “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. ... She prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? …  poverty will come upon you” (Proverbs 6:6–11).

The focus of Jesus’ forbidding anxiety is to warn against one’s temporal life dividing and disrupting his single-eyed walk with God. How many Christians have failed to seek first the kingdom of God (v. 33) because they are divided over worldly affairs? This is particularly true today with pandemic fears and economic uncertainty. Satan is having a field day with those who ought to know better—those who, instead of trusting their Father’s wise care and providence, are distracted by unwarranted fears. “Do not be anxious about your life” (v. 25).