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.
Take therefore no thought ('anxious care') for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself (or according to other authorities, 'for itself'-shall have its own causes of anxiety.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. An admirable practical maxim, and better rendered in our version than in almost any other, not excepting the preceding English ones. Every day brings its own cares; and to anticipate is only to double them,
Remarks:
(1) Worldly-mindedness is as insidious as it is destructive to spirituality in the Christian. The innocence of secular occupations is the plea on which inordinate attention to them is permitted to steal away the heart. And thus it is that the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the pleasures of this life-silently but surely-choke the word, and no fruit is brought to perfection (see the note at Mark 4:7).
(2) What vanity and folly might be written over the life of many persons in high repute for religion; made up as it is of a long struggle to solve an impossible problem-how to serve two masters! But this is not the worst of their case. For,
(3) This dividedness of heart vitiates and darkens their whole inner man; making them strangers to that glorious light which irradiates the path of the just, whose one aim in life is to serve and glorify their Father who is in heaven.
(4) Since the whole animal and vegetable creation-so liberally fed and so gorgeously clad-is silently, perpetually, and charmingly preaching to the children of God the duty of confidence in their Father who is in heaven, what a noble field of devout study do these kingdoms of nature open up to us; and what a monstrous misuse of this study is made by those who study themselves into an Atheistic Naturalism, which not only make the laws of nature their sole object of pursuit, but drearily rests in them as the ultimate account of all physical things!
(5) In this Discourse we find our Lord telling us what "the pagan" do, that He may teach us how differently He expected His own disciples to do. The pagan "babble" their prayers, and the pagan pursue this present world as their all. But if so, O how many pagan are there in the visible Christian Church; and what a paganish formality in devotion and secularity in the business of life do too many of the children of God suffer to invade and to mar the spirituality, and liberty, and joy, and strength of their Christian life!
(6) As honesty is the best policy, so spirituality of mind in the prosecution of the business of life is the true secret of all real temporal prosperity. "The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich; and he addeth no sorrow with it" (Proverbs 10:22) - not, He addeth no sorrow with the blessing; but none with the riches-whereas unblest riches are full of sorrow.
(7) Let it never be forgotten that what our Lord here condemns is not attention to business, nor any amount or (7) Let it never be forgotten that what our Lord here condemns is not attention to business, nor any amount or range of thought on the subject of it which may be necessary for its most successful prosecution; but only such attention to it is due exclusively to heavenly things, and cannot possibly be given to both; and such anxiety of mind about the means of life as springs from distrust from God, and corrodes the heart, while it does not in the least advance the object we have in view. Nor is riches spoken against here, but only the setting of the heart upon them, which the poor may do and the rich not. (See Psalms 62:10; 1 Timothy 6:17-19.)
That these verses are entirely supplementary is the simplest and most natural view of them. All attempts to make out any evident connection with the immediately preceding context are, in our judgment, forced. But, though supplementary, these counsels are far from being of subordinate importance. On the contrary, they involve some of the most delicate and vital duties of the Christian life. In the vivid form in which they are here presented, perhaps they could not have been introduced with the same effect under any of the foregoing heads; but they spring out of the same great principles, and are but other forms and manifestations of the same evangelical "righteousness."