A Fearful Flock

In Daily Devotional by Sinclair Ferguson

Theme of the Week: Meeting the Confused

Bible Verse: “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing.” Matthew 6:25 CSB

Scripture Reading: Luke 12: 22-34

We sometimes say it, even although we all know it is very bad psychology. We tell people who are anxious, “Don’t worry!” and people who are frightened, “Don’t be afraid!” Telling them not to be what they know they are is usually a counsel of despair.

So why did Jesus say both of these things to his disciples (v 22, v 32)? Was he a poor psychologist?
Hardly!

If we are going to be Jesus’ disciples and follow him, we need to understand how his gospel “works.”

He illustrates that principle here. In the grammar of faith, all the imperatives in God’s word (commands: “This is what you are to do.”) are rooted in indicatives (statements of fact: “This is what God has done, or will do, for you and in you.”). Gospel grammar works like this: it is because of what God has done that, therefore, you are to be this or do that. The grammar of the gospel always has this logic.

Our Lord’s teaching session here is an illustration of this gospel grammar.

Notice the emphasized words: “And he said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life … For life is more than food” (v 22-23).

The imperative (command) is, “Do not be anxious.” But that would be a counsel of despair to the anxious unless we are given reasons, motives and help that will deliver us from that anxiety.

Jesus does that. Notice the logic of what he is saying:

  • Your life is about much more than what you put into or onto your body.
  • When you understand what that “much more” is, these other things will no longer dominate your thinking, desiring, or feeling.
  • The result will be that you will become less and less anxious about other things. What once seemed enormously important will now be seen as of secondary significance.

Far from being a poor psychologist, the Lord Jesus puts his finger on the very things that advertising executives know make people, young and old, anxious: what we put into our bodies or onto them, and how we look.

What relieves Jesus’ disciples of this anxiety? Knowing this: if God cares for the birds and for the flowers, how much more do you think he cares for you?

Do you see the gospel grammar at work here? He cares for you so much more; therefore you can worry so much less!

Taken from To Seek and to Save, by Sinclair Ferguson, ©2020 by The Good Book Company, used by kind permission.
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About
Sinclair Ferguson
Sinclair B. Ferguson is the Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is a native of Scotland and was the minister of two churches in Scotland and also served at First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, S.C. In addition, he was for many years Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia and at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas. He is currently the honorary evening preacher in St Peter’s Free Church of Scotland, Dundee. He has authored around fifty books and contributed to many others.
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Sinclair Ferguson
Sinclair B. Ferguson is the Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. He is a native of Scotland and was the minister of two churches in Scotland and also served at First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, S.C. In addition, he was for many years Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia and at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas. He is currently the honorary evening preacher in St Peter’s Free Church of Scotland, Dundee. He has authored around fifty books and contributed to many others.