This verse follows the substance of the argument. The basic structure of these verses is to contrast the provision of necessity to the accumulation of excess. In this case, we are who we are, and we cannot add excess height. Just as the birds do not warehouse food, we cannot accumulate excess of things that are natural, such as our height. That which God gives, is sufficient and we should not excessively worry about an excess that we do not have. Our excessive worry cannot add to our height. Our excessive worry cannot create a “treasure” of food in this earth.
Textual: There is no change from the Matthean text.
“He Looked Upon the Twelve Whom He Had Chosen”
Textual: The 3 Nephi redaction deletes a phrase from verse 32:
Matthew 6:31-32
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
There is no clear basis for this deletion, and it is perhaps an unfortunate one for it provides an important context to this teaching. The theme of these verses has not been that one should not work, or that one should not have any concern for food or clothing, but rather that anxious concern for excess or abundance is not the proper goal. The contrast is made between the children of Israel and the Gentiles, and of course the reference to the Gentiles is a negative one. The Gentiles are concerned for the accumulation of clothing and food in excess of their needs. Indeed, in the Old World, the people to whom Jesus spoke would have been well aware of the excess accumulation of the Gentiles, since their excess was created by the labor of those very people to Jesus addressed.