For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
- KJV (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
- BSB For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
- NKJV For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
- NLT These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.
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
The pagans chase after these things, but your Father already knows you need them. Believers are freed from worldly striving by trust in God's knowledge and care.
Overview
Jesus contrasts the anxious pursuit that marks those without God ('the Gentiles') with the confidence available to those who know God as Father. Because the Father already knows every need, his children need not be consumed by them. This sets the disciple's pursuit of life on a wholly different footing from that of the unbelieving world.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Matt 6:8Therefore don’t be like them, for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him.
- Luke 12:30For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things.
- Eph 4:17This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
- Luke 11:11–13“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?
- Ps 17:14from men by your hand, Yahweh, from men of the world, whose portion is in this life. You fill the belly of your cherished ones. Your sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children.
- Matt 20:25–26But Jesus summoned them, and said, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
- 1 Th 4:5not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who don’t know God;
- Ps 103:13Like a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him.
- Matt 5:46–47For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 6:32 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.