Matthew 6:17-27

17 But when you fast, ¹anoint your head and wash your face,

18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. ²And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

19 ³"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where ⁴moth and rust^[a] destroy and where thieves ⁵break in and steal,

20 ⁶but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

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

22 ⁷"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,

23 ⁸but if ⁹your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 ¹⁰"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and ¹¹money.^[b]

Do Not Be Anxious

25 ¹²"Therefore I tell you, ¹³do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

26 ¹⁴Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. ¹⁵Are you not of more value than they?

27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his ¹⁶span of life?^[c]

Cross References

• 1. Ruth 3:3; 2 Samuel 12:20
• 2. ver. 4, 6
• 3. Matthew 19:21; Luke 12:21, 33, 34; Luke 18:22; 1 Tim. 6:9, 10, 17-19; Hebrews 13:5
• 4. James 5:2, 3
• 5. Matthew 24:43
• 6. [See ver. 19 above]
• 7. Luke 11:34, 35
• 8. [See ver. 22 above]
• 9. Matthew 20:15; Deuteronomy 15:9; Proverbs 28:22
• 10. Luke 16:13; [Romans 6:16; James 4:4]
• 11. Luke 16:9, 11, 13
• 12. For ver. 25-33, see Luke 12:22-31
• 13. ver. 27, 28, 31, 34; Matthew 10:19; Matthew 13:22(Gk.); 1 Corinthians 7:32(Gk.); Philippians 4:6; 1 Peter 5:7
• 14. [Job 38:41; Psalms 147:9]
• 15. Matthew 10:31
• 16. Luke 2:52

Footnotes

• [a]. Or worm; also verse 20
• [b]. Greek mammon, a Semitic word for money or possessions
• [c]. Or a single cubit to his stature; a cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters