Luke 12:13-36

¹³One of the multitude said to him, “Rabbi, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you?”

¹⁵He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses.”

¹⁶He spoke a parable to them, saying, “The ground of a certain rich man produced abundantly.

¹⁷He reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What will I do, because I don’t have room to store my crops?’

¹⁸He said, ‘This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

¹⁹I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.”’

²⁰“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?’

²¹So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

²²He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life, what you will eat, nor yet for your body, what you will wear.

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

²⁴Consider the ravens: they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds!

²⁵Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his height?

²⁶If then you aren’t able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest?

²⁷Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

²⁸But if this is how God clothes the grass in the field, which today exists and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith?

²⁹“Don’t seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious.

³⁰For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things.

³¹But seek God’s Kingdom, and all these things will be added to you.

³²“Don’t be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.

³³Sell what you have and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.

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

³⁵“Let your waist be dressed and your lamps burning.

³⁶Be like men watching for their lord when he returns from the wedding feast, that when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him.