Week 4: Wealth and Worry

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Episode 8: Wealth and Worry

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Matthew 6:19-34
¹⁹Don’t store up for yourselves stored-wealth on the land, where moth and nibbler can ruin, and where thieves break in and steal.
²⁰But store up for yourselves stored-wealth in the sky, where neither moth nor nibbler can ruin, and where thieves can’t break in or steal.
²¹For where your stored-wealth is, there your heart will be also.
²²The lamp of the body is the eye; so then if your eye is genuine-and-generous, your whole body will be radiant.
²³But if your eye is bad-and-greedy, your whole body will be dark. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
²⁴No one is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You are not able to serve God and wealth.
²⁵Because of this I say to you, do not worry about your life-being, what you will eat or what you will drink, not even about your body, what you will put on. Isn’t the living-self more than food and the body more than clothing?
²⁶Look at the birds of the air, how they don’t sow seed, and they don’t harvest, and they don’t gather into barns, and yet your Father in the skies feeds them. Aren’t you all much more valuable than they?
²⁷And who among you is able to add an hour to your life-span by worry?
²⁸And about clothing, why do you worry? Pay attention to the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t labor, and they don’t weave cloth.
²⁹But I say to you all that not even Solomon with all his honor clothed himself like one of these.
³⁰Now, if the grass of the field, which is there today and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, is clothed this way by God, won’t he much more clothe you all, who have so little trust?!
³¹So then, don’t worry, saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear for clothing?".
³²For the nations, they constantly seek for all these things, and your Father in the skies knows that you need all that.
³³Rather, first of all seek for his kingdom and doing-what-is-right by him, and all these things will be added to you.
³⁴So then, don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow can worry about itself! Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Scripture Orientation

Possessions and wealth may make us feel more secure, but Jesus says they won’t last. He redirects us to focus on storing up stuff in the skies. We can store up sky stuff by loving God and each other. The rewards are rich relationships and experiencing God’s own eternal life–both now and forever.

The phrase “good eye” is a figure of speech in the Hebrew Bible about being generous. On the other hand, a “bad eye” is a metaphor for being stingy. Wealth can demand our loyalty, like a tyrant. We might think we own our stuff, but before long, it can end up owning us. Jesus invites us to serve God by using our resources to bless others. He wants to free us from worry about our physical needs by redirecting our attention to God’s trustworthy character in nature.

Discussion Questions

• What are some of the false promises we’re prone to believe about possessions and wealth?

• In Matthew 6:19, what is Jesus trying to communicate about earthly possessions?

• According to Jesus, what are some examples of sky stuff (or heavenly treasure)?

• According to Matthew 6:22-23, how can our perception of wealth shape us?

• How can wealth or possessions be like tyrants?

• In Matthew 6:25-34, how does Jesus’ appeal to the birds of the sky and flowers of the field invite us to shift our perspective about worry and possessions?

Personal Reflection

After watching the video and reading this passage of Scripture, what is coming to mind about your own relationship with money and possessions? Do you find yourself driven toward hoarding resources, or are you more likely to get stuck in worry about food and clothing? Bring all these thoughts and feelings in prayer to your heavenly Father. Is there anything that you sense God wants you to know?

Related Guide for Further Study

Wealth and Worry