PROVIDEXCE
PRUDENCE
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asters falling on the individual are not to be taken as Di\ine retributions upon special guiltiness (Lk 13'"^), and that our views of Divine providence must be extended so as to include a coming day of judgment for nations as well as individuals (Mt OjJirt.) Thus in His teaching He anticipated most of those questions -wluch have Ijeen so much dis- cussed ])y theologians in connexion with this whole subject — questions as to the relation of God's government to secondary causes, of providence to free will, and as to distinctions between a provid- ence that is special and one that is merely general.
(5) But besides the underlying implications of His teaching and its broad lines of treatment, our Lord brings forward in one well-known passage some -yicri'il views and arguments bearincj on faith in the providence of God as a means of deliverance from anxious care (Mt6-5-*» = Lk V2"-^% (a) The first thing that strikes us here is the emphasis He lays on the Divine Fatherhood (Mt G-s-^^). The revelation of God as our Father in heaven is the central fact of Christ's teaching, and it illuminates His doctrine of providence just as it illuminates His whole message. This is the point at which His doctrine of providence rises above the highest and best teaching of the OT upon the subject. God's providence is a more individual and a more loving care than tlie saints of old had ever dreamed of, and this it is jn'ecisely because He is our Father. Once we have realized the fundamental truth about our relation to Him, we find it not merely possible to believe in His loving guardianship of our lives, but impossible to conceive of anything else (cf. 7^' — Lk 11'^). [h) Taking for granted that His hearers believe in God as their Creator, Jesus argues from creation to providence as from the greater to the less. The life is more than meat, and the body than raiment. He, therefore, who breathed into the body the breath of life will assuredly sustain the life He has inspired, and clothe the body He has framed (Mt 6'-^). (c) Next He argues, we might say, from the less to the greater. If God feeds the birds of the air, shall He not much more feed His spiritual offspring? If He clothes the flowers of the field in their radiant beauty, how can He fail to clothe His own sons and daughters ? (vv.*''- -^■^^). (d) Again, He argues generally that the fact of our Father's knoAvledge of our needs carries with it the certainty that all our needs shall be supplied — an argument based directly on the thought of Fatherhood, and the love that Father- hood implies (vv.'''-^").
2. Human providence. — Christ's special teaching on the lu'ovidence of (Jod in the passage just con- sidered has sometimes been misinterpreted into a pronouncement against any providence on the part of man. The language of the AV no doubt lends itself to this ; for in modern English ' Take no thought ' is a very misleading rendering of /utj fxepifj.- vdre (vv.-^- 31- ^, cf. -'• 2*). It was not foi'ethought, however, but anxiety (see RV) that Jesus warned His disciples against, when He turned their minds to the great truth of the heavenly Father's pro- vidence (see art. Care). That He believed in the value and the need of prevision and forethought M-e may learn from His own example. The long years of silence at Nazareth Avere evidently spent in a deliberate preparation of Himself for the high tasks that lay before Him. And when His public ministry began, so far from being careless of the morrow. He shaped all His days according to a pre-conceived plan (cf. Mt S^^'^-, Mk 1'^'-, Lk 12''", ,]n 9^ 17^). In His teaching He lays frequent stress on the value of prudent forethought (see art. Prudence), both in worldly matters and in tlie affairs of the Kinijdom of heaven — witness the parables of the Unjust Steward (Lk 16'"'-), of the Pounds (19'3a--), and the Talents (Mt 25"^-), of the
VOL. II. — 29
Wise and the F'oolish Virgins (v.^*^-). His ajtpeal, therefore, to the birds of the air and the lilies of the field was not meant to encourage a belief that God would work for the idle and i)rovide for the im^irovident. Tlie argument ratiier is, If God pro- vides for His unconscious creatures who cannot exercise forethought, much more will He provide for His conscious children who can and do. If He feeds the birds that neither sow nor reap, much more will He prosper you in your sowing and reap- ing ; if He clothes the lilies that toil not neither do they spin, be sure He will see to it that men and women, on whom He has laid toiling and spinning as a necessity, do not lack the raiment they require. Work you must ; it is the law of your lives as God's rational creatures ; but learn from the birds and the lilies not to be anxious in the midst of your toil. Sow your seed, trusting in God to send the harvest. Fulfil your appointed tasks, l)ut leave the results with confidence in your Father's hands. Jesus, then, does not commend improvidence. On the other hand. He does con- demn a pi'ovidence tliat confines itself altogether to the provision of earthly things, or even gives these the chief place in the heart. He condemns the providence of the Rich Fool (Lk 12'"'-'), and urges His disciples to lay up their treasure in the heavens (vv.^^"^^). ' Seek ye frst the kingdom of God and His righteousness' (Mt 6^^) is the counsel with which He concludes His special teaching on the relation of His disciples to the providence of the heavenly Father.