Matthew 6:19-34
Treasures and Trust
Read the passage
Matthew 6:19-34 · 16 verses
Read the passage
Matthew 6:19-34 · 16 verses
Matthew 6:19-34
19Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31Therefore 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.
33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Jesus turns from prayer to the deeper question beneath every act of prayer: where is your heart fixed? Three short images dismantle the illusion that a disciple can serve both God and wealth. Treasure corrodes or is stolen, revealing that the heart follows what it hoards. The eye, when single, floods the whole person with light — when divided, plunges it into darkness darker than the dark. And no slave can honour two lords at once; one will always be despised. Then, having exposed the divided heart, Jesus offers the cure — not strategy or frugality, but a vision of the Father so generous that anxiety becomes a kind of practical atheism. The birds do not plan; the lilies do not labour; yet the Father who made them clothes them beyond Solomon's glory. How much more will He care for His children?