Translation: Matthew 6:25-33

(Please feel free to use this translation.  Credit:  Rev. Murray Speer.)

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your own life, 

what you will eat or drink, 

or about your body, what you will wear. 

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 

26 Look at the birds of the air; 

they don’t plant food, harvest it, or store it up, 

and yet your divine protector feeds them. 

Are you not of more consequence than they are? 

27 But can worrying add even a single hour to your lifespan? 

28 And why do you worry about clothing? 

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; 

they don’t work hard and they don’t make cloth, 

29 yet I say to you, 

even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of them. 

30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, 

which is alive today and tomorrow is placed into the oven, 

will he not much more clothe you—who lack confidence? 

31 Therefore do not worry, saying, 

‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 

32 For it is the unfaithful outsiders who strive for all these things; 

and indeed your divine protector knows that you need all these things. 

33 But strive first for God’s kingdom and God’s way of justness, 

and all these things will be added to you.”