Read the passage several times through, slowly and prayerfully. It might help to use your imagination to picture the scene. At the end of the text you will find helpful background information in our ‘Setting the Scene’ section.

As you read, look out for shockers and blockers.

Shockers – a phrase, word, image or something from the text that resonates, stands out or connects with you.

Blockers – something from the text that raises questions for you.

Matthew 6.24–34

You cannot be the slave of two masters! You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

I tell you not to worry about your life. Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink, or wear. Isn’t life more than food or clothing? Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren’t you worth more than birds? Can worry make you live longer? Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work hard to make their clothes. But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn’t as well clothed as one of them. God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith?

Don’t worry and ask yourselves, “Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?” Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.

Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Setting the Scene

This selection of Scripture is part of the Sermon on the Mount – where Jesus taught on some of the most important aspects of daily life.
A ‘slave of two masters’ touches on the theme of ‘single-mindedness’. Whilst we can choose what to set our hearts on, material things or God – but we can’t prioritise both.
Money here can be taken to refer to all ‘material possessions’.
Jesus does not call us to be carefree, lazy or irresponsible. We are to provide for ourselves – even the birds have to search for food. But they do so without worry and anxiety.
In these verses, Jesus sets out seven arguments and defences against worry. Worry is essentially the inability to trust God to provide what we require – including food, clothing and other needs. Our priority is to put God first in all things – this is the key to the entire sermon and the antidote to anxiety and worry.

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