The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.... 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. The Gospel of the Lord... The NIV Study Bible I'm quoting from has a paragraph break between verses 24 and 25. I would imagine other translations that use the paragraph style also put a break there as well. Yet the Srcripture reading for the 8th Sunday after Epiphany includes verse 24 with verses 25-34. It would seem (to me) to make more sense to either read verses 19-24 OR verses 25-34. Why include verse 24? It seems out of place. Since that verse concludes a discussion on treasures in heaven and verse 25 starts a discussion on not worrying. But what does verse 25 start with? The word "therefore." Therefore connects what came before with what follows. You have no idea what therefore is there for unless you know what preceded it. So what precedes the "therefore" in verse 25? The warning not to serve two masters. It can't be done. You will love one and hate the other. So don't try. And if given the choice between God and money, my money is on people serving money rather than God. And then when people decide to serve money, what happens? They worry. They worry about their money. What will they spend their money on-food, drink, clothing, etc. They worry about getting and keeping their money. During the times they are not soley focused on money and try to serve God, they worry about your relationship with God. It's a hard thing, nay, impossible-notice Jesus uses the word "can't"-to serve both God and money. Serve God and don't worry about what shall we eat or drink or wear? The pagans run after those things. And we're certainly [i]not [/i]pagans. ;) The Lord be with you...