Chapter 15
ALL THESE THINGS Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 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 (Matt. 6:31-34).
The theocentric focus of this passage is the kingdom of God and his righteousness. How do we seek God's kingdom? How do we seek God's righteousness? This passage does not say. Jesus had already outlined the answer to these two questions in the Sermon on the Mount.
Faith as a Method of Risk-Reduction In the context of this passage, covenant-keepers are said to be able legitimately to expect to receive something that they would not have received, had they not had faith. The context is food, drink, and clothing. The person who trusts in God is supposed to trust that he will not fall into any form of adversity that cannot be overcome through God's intervention.
The language of this text makes it plain: do not resist when all these things are added unto you. The desire to gain all these things -- the basics of life -- is legitimate. But the means are not widely understood: seeking first the kingdom of God. The ethical imperative is to seek the kingdom. The result of this quest is the ownership of those assets that preserve peace of mind. To begin with the search for the things that provide safety is to miss the nature of economic cause and effect.
Men save money or make personal contacts so that they can call upon them in times of adversity. This is a form of thrift. Men rely on these things to overcome the unforeseen events of life that upset their plans unpleasantly. They do not mind having their plans upset by good news. It is bad news that scares them. They cannot see the future, so they accumulate savings to protect them.
This passage indicates that a program of capital accumulation to deal with unforeseen adversity is not nearly so important as extending the kingdom of God in history. Capital that might otherwise have been invested in an insurance program or retirement program can be used to fund missionaries or some other kingdom-building venture. The kingdom grows at the expense of the forfeited investment.
The text does not say that either capital or insurance is not worthwhile. It says that all these things shall be added unto the investment in kingdom expansion. What things? Food, drink, and clothing -- things we really need. But what about things we want? That depends. Why do we want them? Because they make our lives more pleasant? Because they make us more productive? Because they will enable us to do more for God's kingdom? Our wants must be as kingdom-driven as our needs -- in fact, even more so. Our needs do not readily identify us uniquely as covenant-keepers or covenant-breakers. Our wants do.
By reducing worry about the future, this promise enables kingdom-builders to bear more risk with whatever capital they possess. They can afford to pass up the investment opportunity because there is always another that will come along. Men have access to supernaturally supplied reserves. They can therefore afford to commit more resources to their efforts in kingdom-building than they otherwise would have committed. This faith in God is supposed to release assets for kingdom-building that would otherwise have been reserved for risk-reduction or capital accumulation.
This raises an important issue. There is no doubt that huge amounts of capital are invested in pension funds today. Pension funds in modern America are huge pools of capital. This capital is used to fund economic growth. Capital provides present employment for the sake of future income for the investors. What if men reduced their commitment to thrift for the sake of charitable, kingdom giving? Would this reduce economic growth?
If other things were equal, it would. But other things are not equal. God is ready to defend covenant-keeping individuals and societies. Individuals and societies will make fewer errors if men adhere to faith in God and the discipline of the tithe. I can think of no statistical way to prove this, but the presumption of the text is that worry regarding the economic future is forbidden to the covenant-keeper who prays, tithes, and does his work well. If he seeks protection from unforeseen adversity, he must begin with faith in God's providential decree, not capital accumulation. In this decree, "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28b).
There is an old secret of gaining wealth: don't make mistakes. The investments need not produce a high rate of return if the investor makes no mistakes. Any rate of growth, if unbroken, eventually produces a base that approaches infinity as a limit. This is the exponential curve in action. The secret of wealth, generation after generation, is the strategy outlined by the Christian real estate investor, John Schaub: making it big on little deals. The hard part is avoiding bad investments.
Kingdom projects are not always profit-seeking enterprises. Their success cannot be judged by a profit-and-loss statement. Yet, considered as a unit, they do produce a positive rate of return. They make society better. Money invested in them produces a positive eternal return for the investor, whether they succeed or fail in history. They constitute a kind of insurance policy for society. They reduce risk. The differences between a kingdom project and an insurance policy are these: there is no legally binding contract with kingdom giving; there is no verifiable law of large numbers operating that will insure a fixed rate of return or reduction of risk; there is no identifiable pool of capital reserves to draw on in case of project failures. But there is promise made by God, the Creator. There is a pool of capital assured by the Owner of the universe. There is no legally fixed rate of return, but there is a positive rate of return. The text guarantees this.
It is a question of trust. Should we trust bank statements or God's promise? Should we trust digital wealth or God's promises? We are back to the issue of God or mammon. Men place their faith in would-be autonomous institutions at their peril. Ultimately, the things of this world cannot completely insure us against the disasters that this world brings. We must begin with faith in God. Then all these things, including insurance and pensions funds, will be added.
John Wesley's Sermon 50, The Uses of Money (1743), on Luke 16:9(1), is divided into three imperatives: gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can. Men are to allocate their funds wisely. Wesley was a great believer in thrift, as were the English Methodists generally in the eighteenth century. But this imperative to save money through the reduction of frivolous expenses was to be tempered by the command to give. Men are not to pursue the god of More.
Outside, Looking In; Inside, Looking Out To whom was Jesus speaking? Were His words aimed at all of His listeners? Or were they aimed at a different group?
The Jews
Jesus' visible audience for this sermon was the Jews. They should have been vaguely familiar with the doctrine of the kingdom of God. But this doctrine is not prominent in the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant kingdom was Israel. It was not thought to extend beyond Israel's borders. David did speak of God as ruler of a kingdom. God's kingdom was what entitled David to his kingdom. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Ps. 45:6-7). But the only reference to the kingdom of God on earth was prophetic: "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" (Dan. 2:44). Jesus was announcing that the time had arrived. The fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy was at hand.
The Jews were about to become outsiders, looking in. "Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matt. 21:43). He was warning them here to seek first God's kingdom. But where was it to be found? In Jesus' ministry. "But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you" (Matt. 12:28). Paul later wrote: "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17).
Seeking the kingdom meant seeking God's righteousness. Men can become progressively righteous because God is perfectly righteous. "For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy" (Lev. 11:45). "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). This was Jesus' message about the kingdom to those outside the kingdom.
The Disciples
For those inside the kingdom -- His disciples -- He spoke in greater detail. Matthew 13 is the great chapter regarding the kingdom. The emphasis in this chapter is on the kingdom's expansion in history. "And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold" (Matt. 13:3-8). In good soil, the seed would flourish.
"Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened" (Matt. 13:33). The kingdom would expand like yeast, filling the loaf.
Jesus was speaking to insiders. This was why He spoke in parables. This was a fulfillment of prophecy.
And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them (Matt. 13:10-17).
The disciples were being prepared to direct a program of worldwide conquest. They were looking outward toward the world: the kingdom of mammon. This enormous task would require capital. This would not be a major problem: "all these things shall be added unto you."
There would first be a preliminary trial run inside Israel. "And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats. And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city. And they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them" (Mark 6:7-13). Then, just before His crucifixion, He gave them to a new assignment: the worldwide extension of the kingdom. It had different rules. "And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one" (Luke 22:35-36).
This time, they would require capital. They had capital in one form; he told them to convert it into a new form suitable for travelling.
The first stage required no physical capital. This was analogous Israel's dependence on the manna in the wilderness. The second stage would require capital. This was comparable to the conquest of Canaan. Manna had proved to Israel that God was with them. So did the first stage of evangelism. But, once proven, there was need of capital. They had some already; they would have more, as needed. All these things would be added unto them.
Tools of Dominion The ultimate tools of dominion are God's laws.(2) But we need food and clothing to do our work. Of course, this food and clothing may be minimal. "And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey" (Matt. 3:4). What about a roof over our heads? What about bricks and mortar? Nice, but not required, at least not in the early stages of a campaign. "And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head" (Matt. 8:20).
What the disciples had learned in three years of wandering is that they could do without their own homes. They ate. They did not freeze to death. They lived off the generosity of others. They got by. They had the tools they needed to do their work.
This is the context of the promise that all these things would be added unto them. Jesus told the crowd this, but He taught it first-hand to the disciples. The crowd did not wish to follow Him. They were interested in hearing a lecture. They were not ready to sell everything and follow Him. They were still outside, looking in.
The governing presumption of this passage is that men seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In this search, they will be given the capital they require to continue their search. But they probably have the capital already, just as the disciples had. Jesus had to tell them not to take a purse on stage one. This presumes that they had purses and money. They had to leave their tools behind. They had to learn how to live off the land, i.e., live off of the equivalent of manna. God would provide them with whatever they needed. The same was true of His listeners. They were burdened with too much capital. It was an impediment to their search. "The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions" (Matt. 19:20-22). What the young man lacked was poverty. Jesus was trying to teach the young man that all that he needed to follow Jesus would be added. First, he had to cease trusting in his own wealth. But the young man was not yet ready to go into the wilderness and become dependent on the charity of others. He chose to remain an outsider, looking in.(3)
Once men experience the inner workings of the kingdom, they become insiders, looking out. Then they are allowed to carry their purses, and a sword, too. They have already learned the lesson of dependence on God. Having learned this, they are to carry purses, which God fills as required. Required by what? The work of the kingdom.
The point is not that God promises to provide all the things we want. He promises to provide all the things we need to carry out our portion of His kingdom plan. We are to be content with whatever he provides that enables us to do His kingdom work. Anything more than this is ours to keep, but is not guaranteed. We are allowed to enjoy more than what we need to carry out His work. The tithe shows us just how much more than this we are allowed to keep.
The Tithe God initially funds His own kingdom. He provides the initial capital, just as He did for Adam. Under men's administration, the kingdom begins to grow. It throws off additional capital. Men are allowed to keep 90% of this. The tithe is man's reinvestment -- a minimal commitment. Special people, such as missionaries, invest more. They are kept in the field by the tithes of others. The missionaries invest time, the irreplaceable resource. This is the greatest commitment open to men, with martyrdom at the top: the forfeiture of time.
God does not under-fund His kingdom. His people may, however. They choose not to tithe. They refuse to give offerings above the tithe. They waste the assets entrusted to them. They lose their original vision. But the kingdom expands nevertheless. God finds new people with a better sense of purpose to continue His work. The others become outsiders, looking in.
The tools will be provided by God. What is in short supply is good men, not money. What holds back a ministry is not the lack of money but the lack of vision or common sense. It is extremely difficult to teach Christian volunteers this principle, even as it is difficult to teach them to tithe.
The tithe teaches people that they are not autonomous, that they cannot achieve their goals through money alone. They take a token 10 percent and give it to the local church.(4) This token payment symbolizes their complete dependence on God. The tithe also supports the institutional church. It provides the tools needed to extend the work.
Economic Growth and the Tithe
The principle of compound growth tells us that any base figure, no matter how low the rate of growth, eventually becomes exponential and approaches infinity as a limit. This is a fundamental principle of the kingdom. It eventually fills the earth. "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" (Dan. 2:44).
As the kingdom grows, the division of labor inside its boundaries increases. Its tasks increase in complexity. It throws off more wealth as output increases. As God's people faithfully work out their salvations with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), they experience the effect of compound growth. They have more capital to work with.
At this point, two things can happen. First, men can reinvest more, and the rate of economic growth increases. Second, they can consume more, and their lifestyle gets softer and more pleasant. Their tastes change. They find things to buy and dream about buying that their forebears would not have imagined possible, let alone impossible to live without. We would imagine that as residents in God's kingdom get richer, they would give more to God's work. Modern economics teaches that as we receive more income, we allocate the marginal income to less valuable items on our scale of values. But this insight applies perfectly only in a hypothetical world in which there is no time, and tastes do not change. But tastes do change as income changes. The problem is addiction. Men begin to worship at the shrine of the great god More. They become mammonites. The more they get, the more they want. The more their neighbors get, the more they want. The kingdom of God slips lower on their list of priorities. God no longer receives 10 percent "off the top." He receives whatever is left over after the more important expenditures are made.
Thus, men lose their vision or their forefathers' vision. The kingdom grows wealthier, and so do its residents. But this new wealth alters their tastes. It alters their priorities. The array of prices changes. Things that had never seemed possible to buy now become affordable, if tithe money can be allocated to buy them. It should be easier for men to tithe in an expanding economy, because the additional income is used to purchase goods and services that are ever-lower on men's scale of values. But their scale of values changes as their income rises. They find it harder to tithe. They also find it harder to save. Present-orientation increases. The rate of capital formation decreases. The rate of economic growth therefore decreases.
Breaking the Addiction What is promised here is that God's people will be supplied with all that they need to promote the work of God's kingdom. Jesus did not say that they will receive all they want. Mammon's kingdom makes that promise, and then reneges by raising men's wants ever higher: "The more you get, the more you want." This addiction threatens men's work in the kingdom. The tithe is God's primary counter-measure to mammon's addiction.
What is primary is the kingdom of God: searching for it and, having found it, working to extend it. There is no guarantee implied in this passage that good men will receive all they want. In fact, they may lose much of what they have. If they are addicted to more, they must break the habit. If they refuse, then they will move into the kingdom of mammon. As God's kingdom expands and produces more wealth, covenant-keepers must be ever-more alert to this addiction. If they succumb to it, God will either take the kingdom away from them or else impose a setback that will break the addiction. This is the message of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
When hard times arrive, men's tastes change. When they are hungry, they do not worry about the latest fashions. When they face eviction from their homes, they do not worry about new carpeting. They hunker down. They do not buy new items just because they are new. They make do with what they own. They grow more appreciative about what they still have when they have lost much of what they had.(5) Or they may lose hope. If they had worshipped too long at mammon's shrine, they are more likely to lose hope. The worst of the addicts may even become cannibals:
And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates (Deut. 28:53-57).
Anti-Procrastination "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" (v. 34). This sounds as though Jesus was promoting a radical present-orientation. This was not the case. What he was warning against was worry. The evils of tomorrow are too many to worry about effectively. Concern yourself with today's immediate problems.
Does this mean that we are not to think about the possible negative effects tomorrow of what we do today? No, but it does mean that we must be aware of the reality of time. We are responsible today for what we do today. We are not omniscient. We cannot see equally clearly what will happen tomorrow. "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" (I Cor. 13:12). The further we peer into the future, the less we can forecast accurately. So, we are not to worry about all the bad things that might happen. We should deal with today's evils. These are the evils that we must do something about.
But this still does not answer the question: Are we not to think about the possible effects of today on tomorrow? Are we to focus only on today? How can we make plans? A military commander who does not think about tomorrow will not prepare today for tomorrow. What we do today depends heavily on what we think will happen tomorrow. This is especially true of upper-class people, who are future-oriented. Is the New Testament present-oriented? No.
What is here forbidden is worry and anxiety. The same Greek word translated as thought in this verse is translated elsewhere translated as careful. "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:6-7). It means full of care, not cautious.
Worrying about the future is counter-productive. It paralyzes people. Worrying about the near future is short-lived. Jesus said to deal with today's worries today, and stop worrying about tomorrow. He was warning against procrastination. Sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof. Concentrate your concern on today's problems. Tomorrow's may not arrive.
We have only limited resources, including emotional resources. We must allocate them carefully., i.e., cautiously. We must not waste them. Work on today's problems today. Identify tomorrow's problems only for the purpose of dealing with their preliminary aspects today. If they cannot be dealt with today, ignore them. Focus on what you can do something about. Then get a good night's sleep. You have done all you can. God does not you accountable for doing more than you can.
Conclusion The first things we are to seek are God's kingdom and His righteousness. The thing we need in order to find it is trust in God rather than in ourselves. Then, after we are in the kingdom, we will receive whatever we need to continue our work. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" (Matt. 6:25). "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" (Matt. 6:31).
The top priority here is exercising faith and seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This may even involve giving up the wealth that enables us to deal with lower priorities. That was the case with the rich young ruler. He had too many other, higher priorities. Had he already found the kingdom, he might have put his wealth to better uses than before, but Jesus knew that his wealth was what was keeping him from the search. Because covenant-keepers are supposed to know that their kingdom work is important to God and will be funded, they can stop worrying about the future. Because they are extremely future-oriented -- heaven and eternity -- they are not supposed to worry about the near-term future, i.e., tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Instead, they are to do all they can today in dealing with those problems that can be dealt with today.
Footnotes:
1. "And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations" (Luke 16:9).
2. Gary North, Tools of Dominion: The Case Laws of Exodus (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1990).
3. Chapter 38, below.
4. Gary North, Tithing and the Church (Tyler, Texas: Institute for Christian Economics, 1994).
5. `We Had Everything But Money' (Greendale, Wisconsin: Country Books, 1992). This is a book of reminiscences about the Great Depression of the 1930's in the United States.
If this book helps you gain a new understanding of the Bible, please consider sending a small donation to the Institute for Christian Economics, P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711. You may also want to buy a printed version of this book, if it is still in print. Contact ICE to find out. icetylertx@aol.com