Thy Strong Word — Matthew 6:19-34: Don’t Worry, Be Holy

Where’s your treasure? Jesus exposes our divided hearts, warning that we cannot serve both God and money. Then He turns to our anxious minds, pointing to birds who don’t sow yet are fed and lilies that outshine Solomon without spinning a thread. Seek first His kingdom, Jesus promises, and everything else falls into place.

The Hon. Rev. Scot Kerns, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Easton, PA, joins guest-host Rev. Doug Griebenaw, Mission Advocate for KFUO Radio, to study Matthew 6:19-34.

To learn more about Faith Lutheran, visit faithlcms.com.

The Gospel of Matthew bridges Old and New Testaments, presenting Jesus as the promised Messiah who fulfills the Law we could never keep and establishes His kingdom of grace for all nations. Written by a tax collector transformed by pure grace, Matthew reveals Christ as the true Son of David and Emmanuel (God with us) who challenges us with the crushing demands of the Law in His Sermon on the Mount to the sweet comfort of the Gospel in His death and resurrection. From royal genealogy to glorious resurrection, this verse-by-verse study proclaims the One who conquered sin, death, and the devil for us, now delivering forgiveness, life, and salvation through Word and Sacrament as He remains with His church always, even to the end of the age.

Thy Strong Word, hosted by Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God’s Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations. Submit comments or questions to: thystrongword@kfuo.org.

Thy Strong Word is graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. Through the mission gifts of people like you, LHF translates, publishes, distributes and introduces books that are Bible-based, Christ-centered and Reformation-driven. Learn more at lhfmissions.org.

Matthew 6:19-34

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

¹⁹“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust^[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²²“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, ²³but if your 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“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 money.^[b]

Do Not Be Anxious

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do 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? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?^[c] ²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

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Footnotes

Matthew 6:19 Or worm; also verse 20
Matthew 6:24 Greek mammon, a Semitic word for money or possessions
Matthew 6:27 Or a single cubit to his stature; a cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters

Rev. Dr. Phil Booe

Native North Carolinian Rev. Dr. Phil Booe serves pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, and host of Thy Strong Word on KFUO Radio. His parishioners probably think he can’t teach Bible study without a mug of coffee in his hand, and he’ll always be happy to eat a plate of sushi. When he’s not shepherding his flock or teaching on the radio, you might find him watching bad movies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and especially binging RiffTrax and MST3K episodes. Some day he’d love to travel to the Lutheran homeland in Germany, but for now he spends time in Minnesota with his wife, son, daughter, and cat, and looks forward to Holy Week every year.