3rd Sunday of Matthew

Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; ²through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; ⁵and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

⁶For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die. ⁸But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.

“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.