PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Laboring Without Having Any Anxiety

In this issue of Parenthood, we consider the Lord's exhortation to the disciples in Matthew chapter 6:19-34. Commenting on this section of the Bible, Brother Witness Lee states, "Your duty is to earn your degree and then to make riches. But do not seek to become a millionaire. Instead, be a good giver according to the life and nature of your heavenly Father. This is the meaning of this portion of the Word."

In their schoolwork, our children must learn to be industrious and diligent to achieve the highest grades and the top degrees. Education should be a major focus of every young person. At the same time we must guide them in such a way that they are not anxious concerning their labors. We must instruct them to rely fully on the supply that comes from their God, taking Him as both their source and their motivation. From the earliest days of their lives our children should know that they are fully dependent on the living God to realize their potential in everything and that they owe the fruits of their labor to Him. They have a duty to live to God, and they have a responsibility to take care of every human obligation as one who is a child of God. As Timothy who from a babe had "known the sacred writings,"—2 Timothy 3:15, our children should know that they belong to the Lord.

The apostle Paul was one who discovered early in his Christian experience that he did not belong to himself. He told the Corinthian believers: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. So then glorify God in your body"—2 Corinthians 6:19-20. When our children learn to labor with diligence, they will become achievers. With every achievement, they will have rewards. For example they may become successful in business endeavors and in other fields of labor. Then they will be begin to have a surplus of money. How will they use their surplus? Will they consume it on their own wants or will they learn to use it to serve the Lord and His purpose? The answer to this question depends on how we train our children and what example we set for them.

In [Matthew 6:25] the Lord tells us not to be anxious about our life. The Greek word translated "life" here is soul, in which is the desire, the appetite, for food and clothing (Isaiah 29:8). Our life is more than food, and our body is more than clothing. Both our life and our body came into existence by God, not by our anxiety. Since God has created us with a life and a body, surely He will care for their needs. The kingdom people do not need to be anxious about these things.

Not Being Anxious About Eating, Drinking, and Clothing

Verse 31 says, "Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed?" Here we come to the crucial matter in verses 19 through 34. Apparently, in this section of the constitution, the Lord is speaking about the dealing of the kingdom people with material riches. Actually, He is dealing with the matter of anxiety. The Lord is wise. After touching our temper, lust, natural being, self, and flesh, He goes on to touch our anxiety. In these verses the word "anxious" is used six times (vv. 25, 27, 28, 31, 34). It may also seem that the Lord is touching our heart, for where our treasure is, there our heart is also. However, our heart is related not only to riches, but to many other things.

The constitution of the kingdom of the heavens is composed with the Father's life and nature. Although these chapters do not actually use the words "life" and "nature," from the context we can see that apart from the Father's divine life and nature, these chapters are in vain….

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