“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat? Or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:28-33)
Why is Jesus talking about clothing?
Because Jesus is using clothing as a metaphor. The metaphor is that the physical body is like clothing that covers the person within - the soul or spirit. Each of us souls is wearing a temporary physical just as a person might wear clothing.This statement confirms Jesus’ meaning from his previous statement about worrying about our physical bodies. Jesus is teaching that our focus and energies should be directed towards the Supreme Being. He will take care of us from there.
What does Jesus mean by 'mammon'?
"Mammon" refers to materialism. The things of the physical world. Because our natural position is one of servant, if we decide not to serve the Supreme Being we will be forced to serve the physical realm. We will have to serve our bodies. And the things and people that keep our bodies alive.But if we choose to serve the Supreme Being, these physical bodies will not be our masters anymore. They will be our vehicles, and we can take them or leave them. We can use them as vehicles to serve the Supreme Being. This is why Jesus says here:
"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness...."We were created by the Supreme Being to be His loving servants. We were each created with a unique relationship with Him. Each of us has a unique personality and a unique spiritual identity. When we are living within this spiritual identity we are truly happy and fulfilled, because this identity is linked with loving and serving God.
At the same time, He gave us the freedom to love and serve Him - or not. Those of us living in this temporary physical environment are here because we chose not to love and serve Him. We chose to escape our true nature and attempt to be happy without the Supreme Being. So He sent us to the physical world to act out our self-centered desires.
Here in the physical world, we are tested with many difficulties and stresses. The challenges of this world are designed to teach us. As Jesus points out here, we can learn to rise above these difficulties and put our attention on the Supreme Being.
If we want to re-establish our relationship with the Supreme Being and resume our spiritual identity we can do that. We have the freedom to change direction at any time.
Jesus is pointing out that this will be more difficult if we are focusing our attention on the temporary physical matters that involve our bodies. Jesus stated this clearly elsewhere:
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon." (Matt. 6:24)At the end of the day, we each have the choice to put our love upon ourselves - which translates to loving our physical bodies - or putting our love on the Supreme Being. The latter was recommended by Jesus:
" 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matt. 22:37-38)
