Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
This has the same object with the former doctrine. Believers ought to rely on God’s fatherly care, to expect that he will bestow upon them whatever they feel to be necessary, and not to torment themselves by unnecessary anxiety. He forbids them to be anxious, or, as Luke has it, to seek, that is, to seek in the manner of those who look around them...
Our Lord hammers this warning three times over because worldly cares so easily snare us. The sin is not prudent thought but disquieting, tormenting care that splits the mind and lodges the heart on earth. He commands it as Sovereign and speaks it as Comforter to those who will hear.
AI summary
Commenting on Matthew 6:25-34
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek,.... Or "the nations of the world", as in Luk 12:30. The Syriac reads it so here: the phrase, "the nations of the world", is used of the Gentiles, in distinction from the Israelites, thousands of times in the Jewish writings; it would be endless to give instances.