3rd Sunday of Matthew

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed. ¹²The night is far gone, and the day is near. Let’s therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and let’s put on the armor of light. ¹³Let’s walk properly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and lustful acts, and not in strife and jealousy. ¹⁴But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.

¹Now accept one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions. ²One man has faith to eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. ³Don’t let him who eats despise him who doesn’t eat. Don’t let him who doesn’t eat judge him who eats, for God has accepted him. ⁴Who are you who judge another’s servant? To his own lord he stands or falls. Yes, he will be made to stand, for God has power to make him stand.

“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.