Matthew 6:25 (YLT)

Passage

`Because of this I say to you, be not anxious for your life, what ye may eat, and what ye may drink, nor for your body, what ye may put on. Is not the life more than the nourishment, and the body than the clothing?

Nearby Context

Matthew 6:23 but if thine eye may be evil, all thy body shall be dark; if, therefore, the light that <FI>is<Fi> in thee is darkness--the darkness, how great!

Matthew 6:24 `None is able to serve two lords, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one, and despise the other; ye are not able to serve God and Mammon.

Matthew 6:25 `Because of this I say to you, be not anxious for your life, what ye may eat, and what ye may drink, nor for your body, what ye may put on. Is not the life more than the nourishment, and the body than the clothing?

Matthew 6:26 look to the fowls of the heaven, for they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into storehouses, and your heavenly Father doth nourish them; are not ye much better than they?

Matthew 6:27 `And who of you, being anxious, is able to add to his age one cubit?

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "anxious", "life", "drink", "body", "than", and "nourishment". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "anxious" and "life", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 24's "None is able to serve two lords..." into verse 26's "look to the fowls of the heaven...", so "anxious" and "life" belong inside that flow. In Matthew context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "anxious" and "life" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.