Daily Bible Reading 21st September 2026 // Luke 12:22-34
22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26 If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
There are two issues: one's attitude to treasure, to superabundance; and one's attitude to the necessities of life. As to the first, we are to be without covetousness; as to the second, we are to be without anxiety. And the reason in both cases is the reality and pressure of eternity upon life. The solemn light of eternity must be brought to bear on all we are and all we do in the Christian life. Christ, then, is indicating two alternative ways of living: with treasure on earth in view, or with treasure in heaven in view. There is an absolute distinction between them. But even within the context of the Christian life itself, there are these two levels of living: there are believers who mind heavenly things, and there are believers who mind earthly things, (cf Philippians 3:18-20). Now, Jesus presents these two possibilities as 'either/or'. They are mutually exclusive, and there can be no judicious blending of the two, as the man in the parable vainly tried to do. This is the force of the words in 34 about where your treasure is: whichever has our secret love will claim our hearts. Our treasure is our master. This is the same emphasis we saw earlier in Jesus' teaching about 'the single eye', which sees things in their proper proportion and in their relative value and importance. Happy is the man who sees that eternal things are the really important things and that in the light of eternity it matters little whether he is rich in this life or not!