And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?
Parallel translations
- WEB If then you aren’t able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest?
- KJV If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
- BSB So if you cannot do such a small thing, why do you worry about the rest?
- NKJV If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?
- NASB Therefore if you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about the other things?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If you cannot do even such a small thing, why be anxious about the rest? Worry over what we cannot control is unreasonable.
Overview
Jesus reasons that since we cannot even manage the small matter of extending our own life, anxiety over larger needs is misplaced. The cure for worry is not greater self-effort but greater trust in God. This calls believers to surrender their concerns to the Father who alone holds all things in His hands.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- 1 Pet 5:7casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.
- Ps 39:6“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.
- Eccl 7:13Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked?
- Luke 12:29Don’t seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 12:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.