{"id":461,"date":"2014-11-05T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=461"},"modified":"2014-10-27T19:22:33","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T19:22:33","slug":"matthew-625-34-do-not-worry-cultural-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-625-34-do-not-worry-cultural-commentary.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 6:25-34; Do Not Worry (Cultural Commentary)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few random thoughts about Matthew 6:25-34&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In Jesus\u2019 time, poverty was the norm, not the exception. Add to that vagaries of crops and crime and war and more, and you can see why people would worry about what they would eat or drink or wear from day to day.<\/li>\n<li>Most laborers worked on a day-to-day basis, earning wages one day at a time and starting each new morning freshly unemployed. There was no such thing as vacation pay or sick days. In that cultural context, provision of basic necessities (food, water, clothing) for tomorrow was always uncertain.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus\u2019 statement, \u201cadd a single hour to his life,\u201d (verse 27) is actually an idiomatic expression in Greek that\u2019s hard to understand with exactness. The literal translation is \u201cadd one forearm length [cubit] to his age.\u201d In other words, Jesus basically said, \u201cWorrying can\u2019t add 18 inches to your lifespan.\u201d What?<\/li>\n<li>During his Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus said \u201cSee how the lilies of the field grow\u2026\u201d (verse 28), it\u2019s likely that lilies were actually growing all around him and his audience at that exact moment. Kind of cool, if you ask me.<\/li>\n<li>When Jesus spoke about grass being \u201cthrown into the fire,\u201d that was reference to a common frugality among ancient Israelites. Unlike today, cut grass was a useful source of fuel for many homes. People would cut the green grass of spring, let it dry, then wrap it into bundles (kind of like little logs). They\u2019d burn those bundles in fire ovens for cooking and heating. Pretty smart!<\/li>\n<li>Jesus\u2019 observation that \u201cEach day has enough trouble of its own\u201d was apparently a maxim he invented, as there is no exact parallel to this statement recorded before he said it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/workscited.html\">Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>[ZP1, 49-50; JHT, 75]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few random thoughts about Matthew 6:25-34&#8230; In Jesus\u2019 time, poverty was the norm, not the exception. Add to that vagaries of crops and crime and war and more, and you can see why people would worry about what they would eat or drink or wear from day to day. Most laborers worked on a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[127,111,189],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culturalcommentary","category-matthew","tag-faith","tag-sermon-on-the-mount","tag-worry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Matthew 6:25-34; Do Not Worry (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-625-34-do-not-worry-cultural-commentary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 6:25-34; Do Not Worry (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A few random thoughts about Matthew 6:25-34&#8230; In Jesus\u2019 time, poverty was the norm, not the exception. Add to that vagaries of crops and crime and war and more, and you can see why people would worry about what they would eat or drink or wear from day to day. 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Add to that vagaries of crops and crime and war and more, and you can see why people would worry about what they would eat or drink or wear from day to day. Most laborers worked on a&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-625-34-do-not-worry-cultural-commentary.html","og_site_name":"For Bible Study Nerds","article_published_time":"2014-11-05T12:00:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-10-27T19:22:33+00:00","author":"Mike Nappa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-625-34-do-not-worry-cultural-commentary.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-625-34-do-not-worry-cultural-commentary.html","name":"Matthew 6:25-34; Do Not Worry (Cultural Commentary) - For Bible Study Nerds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-11-05T12:00:14+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-27T19:22:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-625-34-do-not-worry-cultural-commentary.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-625-34-do-not-worry-cultural-commentary.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/11\/matthew-625-34-do-not-worry-cultural-commentary.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew 6:25-34; Do Not Worry (Cultural Commentary)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/","name":"For Bible Study Nerds","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Mike Nappa","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/#\/schema\/person\/a0ce37903172885871b0c504c6694575","name":"Mike Nappa","description":"Mike Nappa is an entertainment journalist at FamilyFans.com, a bestselling author\u2014and a notorious Bible Study Nerd. He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. 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