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MATTHEW 6:28 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 6:27Matt 6:29
“And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:”
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin. The clothing anxiety is addressed through the flowers: lilies that do no productive labor — they neither toil nor spin — are clothed by the Father with beauty that exceeds Solomon's. The consider is an invitation to sustained attention to nature as a teacher of trust: the same creation that demonstrates the Father's care for birds now demonstrates his care for flowers. Luke 12:27 adds how they grow — the growth is the Father's doing, not the lily's striving. The flowers are not passive in a deficient way but passive in a trusting way: they receive what the Father provides without anxiety about its arrival.

Church Fathers on Matthew 6:28

Hom., xxii: Having shewn that it is not right to be anxious about food, He passes to that which is less; (for raiment is not so necessary as food;) and asks, 'And why are ye careful wherewith ye shall be clothed?' He uses not here the instance of the birds, when He might have drawn some to the point, as the peacock, or the swan, but brings forward the lilies, saying, 'Consider the lilies of the field.' He would prove in two things the abundant goodness of God; to wit, the…

Chrysostom · 4th century

The things instanced are not to be allegorized so that we enquire what is denoted by the birds of the air, or the lilies of the field; they are only examples to prove God’s care for the greater from His care for the less.

Augustine · 4th century · Serm. in Mont., ii, 15

For lilies within a fixed time are formed into branches, clothed in whiteness, and endowed with sweet odour, God conveying by an unseen operation, what the earth had not given to the root. But in all the same perfectness is observed, that they may not be thought to have been formed by chance, but may be known to be ordered by God’s providence. When He says, 'They toil not,' He speaks for the comfort of men; 'Neither do they spin,' for the women.

Pseudo-Chrysostom · 5th century
Read all 16 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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Matthew 6:28 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy