Luke 12:13-36

¹³Then someone from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴But He said to him, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter over you?”

¹⁵Then He said to them, “Keep alert and guard against covetousness, because one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

¹⁶Then He told them a parable, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man produced well.

¹⁷And he reasoned within himself saying, ‘What shall I do, because I have no place to store my crops?’

¹⁸Then he said: ‘This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my produce and my goods.

¹⁹And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and enjoy yourself!’

²⁰But God said to him: ‘Stupid! This very night your life is being taken back from you; then who will get the things you have prepared?’

²¹Just like that is he who accumulates treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

²²Then He said to His disciples: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will wear.

²³Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.

²⁴Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storeroom nor barn, and God feeds them. You are far more valuable than the birds!

²⁵And who among you can add one cubit to his height by worrying?

²⁶So if you cannot do even such a little thing, why worry about the rest?

²⁷“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; I say to you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of these.

²⁸So if God so clothes the grass that today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into an oven, how much more you, O little-faiths!

²⁹Do not concentrate on what you may eat or what you may drink; do not be anxious.

³⁰All these things really occupy the nations of the world, and your Father knows that you need them.

³¹Rather, concentrate on the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be provided for you.

³²“Do not fear, little flock, because it pleased the Father to give you the Kingdom.

³³Sell your possessions and give to charity. Make for yourselves ‘purses’ that will not wear out, an unfailing treasure in the heavens, where a thief cannot approach, nor a moth destroy.

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

³⁵“Let your waists be belted and your lamps burning,

³⁶and you yourselves like men waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding celebration, so that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately.