Luke 12:22-40

Do Not Be Anxious

22 And he said to his disciples, ¹“Therefore I tell you, ²do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.

23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.

24 ³Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. ⁴Of how much more value are you than the birds!

25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his ⁵span of life? ^[a]

26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ^[b] yet I tell you, ⁶even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, ⁷O you of little faith!

29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor ⁸be worried.

30 For ⁹all the nations of the world seek after these things, and ¹⁰your Father knows that you need them.

31 Instead, ¹¹seek ¹²his^[c] kingdom, ¹³and these things will be added to you.

32 ¹⁴“Fear not, little ¹⁵flock, for ¹⁶it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you ¹⁷the kingdom.

33 ¹⁸Sell your possessions, and ¹⁹give to the needy. ²⁰Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with ²¹a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.

34 ²²For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

You Must Be Ready

35 ²³“Stay dressed for action^[d] and ²⁴keep your lamps burning,

36 and be like men who are ²⁵waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and ²⁶knocks.

37 ²⁷Blessed are those servants^[e] whom the master finds ²⁸awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, ²⁹he will dress himself for service and ³⁰have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.

38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!

39 ³¹But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour ³²the thief was coming, he^[f] would not have left his house to be broken into.

40 You also must be ³³ready, for ³⁴the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. ”