Matthew 6:19-28
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Treasure in Heaven. 19 [a]“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal.(A) 20 But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.(B)
The Light of the Body.[b] 22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.(C)
God and Money. 24 [c]“No one can serve two masters.(D) He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Dependence on God.[d] 25 (E)“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?(F) 27 Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?[e] 28 Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 6:19–34 The remaining material of this chapter is taken almost entirely from Q. It deals principally with worldly possessions, and the controlling thought is summed up in Mt 6:24: the disciple can serve only one master and must choose between God and wealth (mammon). See further the note on Lk 16:9.
- 6:22–23 In this context the parable probably points to the need for the disciple to be enlightened by Jesus’ teaching on the transitory nature of earthly riches.
- 6:24 Mammon: an Aramaic word meaning wealth or property.
- 6:25–34 Jesus does not deny the reality of human needs (Mt 6:32), but forbids making them the object of anxious care and, in effect, becoming their slave.
- 6:27 Life-span: the Greek word can also mean “stature.” If it is taken in that sense, the word here translated moment (literally, “cubit”) must be translated literally as a unit not of time but of spatial measure. The cubit is about eighteen inches.
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