And why take you thought for clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
All Commentaries on Matthew 6:28 Go To Matthew 6
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Having spoken of our necessary food, and having signified that not even for this should we take thought, He passes on in what follows to that which is more easy. For raiment is not so necessary as food.
Why then did He not make use here also of the same example, that of the birds, neither mention to us the peacock, and the swan, and the sheep? For surely there were many such examples to take from thence. Because He would point out how very far the argument may be carried both ways: both from the vileness of the things that partake of such elegance, and from the munificence vouchsafed to the lilies, in respect of their adorning. For this cause, when He has decked them out, He does not so much as call them lilies any more, but grass of the field. Matthew 6:30 And He is not satisfied even with this name, but again adds another circumstance of vileness, saying, which today is. And He said not, and tomorrow is not, but what is much baser yet, is cast into the oven. And He said not, clothe, but so clothe.
Do you see everywhere how He abounds in amplifications and intensities? And this He does, that He may touch them home: and therefore He has also added, shall He not much more clothe you? For this too has much emphasis: the force of the word, you, being no other than to indicate covertly the great value set upon our race, and the concern shown for it; as though He had said, you, to whom He gave a soul, for whom He fashioned a body, for whose sake He made all the things that are seen, for whose sake He sent prophets, and gave the law, and wrought those innumerable good works; for whose sake He gave up His only begotten Son.
And not till He has made His proof clear, does He proceed also to rebuke them, say ing, O you of little faith. For this is the quality of an adviser: He does not admonish only, but reproves also, that He may awaken men the more to the persuasive power of His words.
Hereby He teaches us not only to take no thought, but not even to be dazzled at the costliness of men's apparel. Why, such comeliness is of grass, such beauty of the green herb: or rather, the grass is even more precious than such apparelling. Why then pride yourself on things, whereof the prize rests with the mere plant, with a great balance in its favor?
And see how from the beginning He signifies the injunction to be easy; by the contraries again, and by the things of which they were afraid, leading them away from these cares. Thus, when He had said, Consider the lilies of the field, He added, they toil not: so that in desire to set us free from toils, did He give these commands. In fact, the labor lies, not in taking no thought, but in taking thought for these things. And as in saying, they sow not, it was not the sowing that He did away with, but the anxious thought; so in saying, they toil not, neither do they spin, He put an end not to the work, but to the care.
