Jesus exhorts us not to value possessions enough to seek them (6:19-24), quite in contrast to today's prosperity preachers and most of Western society. Yet he also exhorts us not to value possessions enough to worry about them (vv. 25-34), a fault shared by most believers who rightly reject the prosperity teaching. Jesus' words strike at the core of human selfishness, challenging both the well-to-do who have possessions to guard and the poor who wish they could acquire them. His words are so uncomfortable that even those of us who say we love him and fight to defend Scripture's authority find ourselves looking for ways around what he says.