3rd Sunday of Matthew

But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, confined for the faith which should afterwards be revealed. ²⁴So that the law has become our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. ²⁶For you are all children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring and heirs according to promise.

¹But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a bondservant, though he is lord of all, ²but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father. ³So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world. ⁴But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, ⁵that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as children.

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. ²³But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is 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 else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon. ²⁵Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?

²⁷“Which of you by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan? ²⁸Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin, ²⁹yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t he much more clothe you, you of little faith?

³¹“Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’ ³²For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.