*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And be not lifted on high [1] This clause corresponds to the last sentence in the passage taken from Matthew, Be not anxious about tomorrow Our Lord now charges them with another fault. When men wish to make arrangements in their own favor, they would willingly embrace five centuries. [2] The verb meteorizesthai, which Luke employs, properly signifies to survey from a lofty situation, or, as we commonly say, to make long discourses: [3] for the intemperate desires of the flesh are never satisfied without making a hundred revolutions of heaven and earth. The consequence is, that they leave no room for the providence of God. This is a reproof of excessive curiosity; for it leads us to bring upon ourselves uneasiness to no purpose, and voluntarily to make ourselves miserable before the time, (Matthew 8:29.) The expression used by Matthew, its own affliction is sufficient for the day, directs believers to moderate their cares, and not to attempt to carry their foresight beyond the limits of their calling: For, as we have said, it does not condemn every kind of care, but only that which wanders, by indirect and endless circuits, beyond limits. 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 in every direction, without looking at God, on whom alone their eye ought to be fixed; who are never at ease, but when they have before their eyes an abundance of provisions; and who, not admitting that the protection of the world belongs to God, fret and tease themselves with perpetual uneasiness.
1 - "Ne soyez en suspens;" -- "be not in suspense."
2 - "Embrasseroyent volontiers beaucoup de cent annees;" -- "would willingly embrace many hundreds of years."
3 - "Regarder en haut, et estendre sa veue bien loin: ce qu'on dit communement, Faire de longs discours, ou estre en suspens, comme aussi nous l'avons traduit." -- "To look from on high, and to extend one's view very far: as we commonly say, To make long discourses, or to be in suspense, as we have also translated it."
Neither be ye of doubtful mind - Or, in anxious suspense, μη μετεωριζεσθε. Raphelius gives several examples to prove that the meaning of the word is, to have the mind agitated with useless thoughts, and vain imaginations concerning food, raiment, and riches, accompanied with perpetual uncertainty.
And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither (i) be ye of doubtful mind.
(i) A metaphor taken of things that hang in the air, for those that care too much for this worldly life, and rely upon the arm of man, always have wavering and doubtful minds, swaying sometimes this way, and sometimes that way.
And seek not what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink,.... That is, in an anxious and distressing manner, with a tormenting and vexatious care; otherwise food is to be both asked of God every day, and to be sought for and after in the use of proper means:
neither be ye of doubtful minds; questioning and distrusting that ye shall have any thing to eat or drink: be not fickle, unstable, and inconstant, and wandering in your thoughts about these things, like the meteors in the air, which are carried about here and there; let not your minds be disturbed and distracted about them; or be anxiously solicitous for them; See Gill on Matthew 6:31.
of doubtful, &c.--unsettled mind; put off your balance.
Neither be ye of a doubtful mind - The word in the original signifies, any speculations or musings in which the mind fluctuates, or is suspended (like meteors in the air) in an uneasy hesitation.
*More commentary available at chapter level.