Matthew 6:33 is the climax of Jesus’ teaching on anxiety in the Sermon on the Mount, and “all these things” means exactly what He has just been discussing: food, drink, and clothing (Matthew 6:25–32). The verse contrasts two kinds of seeking — the anxious pursuit of necessities that characterizes “the Gentiles” and the trusting pursuit of God’s reign by children who have a Father — and promises that those who put God’s kingdom first will find their daily needs supplied by the Father who feeds the birds. It is a promise of provision for the trusting, not a formula for prosperity.
What the verse says
The verse cannot be read apart from the paragraph it concludes. Jesus has just said, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on” (Matthew 6:25) — “take no thought” being the old English for “do not be anxious.” Then come the two famous pictures: the fowls of the air, who “sow not, neither do they reap… yet your heavenly Father feedeth them” (Matthew 6:26), and the lilies of the field, dressed beyond “Solomon in all his glory” (Matthew 6:28–29).
The turn comes in verses 31–32: “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?… (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:31–32). Verse 33 then answers the obvious question — if not that, then what should we seek? — and verse 34 closes the unit: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow… Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34). The whole passage, in turn, flows out of verse 24: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Anxiety about things, Jesus is saying, is what serving mammon feels like from the inside.
What it’s often taken to mean
Two misreadings pull in opposite directions. The first turns the verse into a transaction: put God first and He will top up your account — seek the kingdom, get the upgrade. But “all these things” has a fixed referent in the passage: the food, drink, and clothing of verses 25–32. Jesus is promising bread to the anxious, not abundance to the ambitious. The Father’s benchmark in the passage is the birds and the lilies — fed and clothed, gloriously, but daily.
The second misreading turns the verse into a rebuke of ordinary life: if you were really spiritual, you wouldn’t think about groceries at all. But Jesus’ hearers were subsistence farmers and laborers, and the birds He points to still go out and forage. The contrast in the text is not between working and not working; it is between two postures of seeking. The Gentiles seek these things anxiously, as ultimate things, because they know no Father. Disciples seek the kingdom first and receive these things as added — the word suggests something given on top, thrown in by a Father who “knoweth that ye have need” before you ask (Matthew 6:8). As commentators like France and Keener observe, the issue throughout is priority and trust, not employment.
The world behind the verse
The Sermon on the Mount was preached to people for whom food and clothing were genuinely uncertain. A Galilean day-laborer lived close to the margin: a failed harvest, a bad fishing season, or an illness could mean hunger. When Jesus told this crowd not to be anxious about what they would eat, He was not addressing consumers deciding between options; He was addressing people whose worry was rational.
That is what gives the passage its edge. Jesus does not say their needs are imaginary — He says their Father knows about them. And the prayer He had taught minutes earlier holds the same balance: “Thy kingdom come” stands before “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:10–11). Kingdom first, bread asked for daily — verse 33 is that prayer restated as a way of life. In a world where pagans multiplied petitions to many gods to secure their fortunes (Matthew 6:7), Jesus grounds His people’s security in one Father who already knows.
The original language
Four Greek terms carry the verse:
- Basileia (“kingdom”) — God’s reign, His active kingly rule, more than a territory or a destination. Jesus announced that this reign was breaking in with His own ministry (Matthew 4:17). To seek it first is to give God’s rule first claim on your loyalties, decisions, and desires.
- Dikaiosyne (“righteousness”) — in Matthew, the lived rightness the Sermon has been describing: a life aligned with God’s will, exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). Seeking God’s righteousness is pursuing that life, not earning a legal standing.
- Merimnao (“take no thought”) — to be anxious, to be pulled apart by care. The verb frames the whole passage, appearing six times between verses 25 and 34. The KJV’s “take no thought” forbids worry, not planning or foresight.
- Prostethesetai (“shall be added”) — from prostithemi, to add on top. The necessities are not the prize of the seeking; they are what the Father supplies alongside it. The passive voice quietly names God as the giver.
How to read it today
Matthew 6:33 is not a lever for prosperity, and it is not a demand that you stop caring about your bills. It is a reordering. Jesus assumes His people will need food, drink, and clothing — “your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” — and He relocates those needs from the center of life to the edge of it, where a trustworthy Father handles them. The honest application is to notice what you are actually seeking first, in the plain sense of what organizes your days and your dread, and to let the kingdom take that seat instead: God’s rule pursued, His righteousness practiced, and daily bread received with thanks rather than clutched with worry. The promise attached is exactly as big as the passage makes it — the Father who feeds birds will feed you — and for anyone who has been anxious, that is big enough.
Common questions about Matthew 6:33
What are "all these things" in Matthew 6:33?
The food, drink, and clothing Jesus has just been talking about (Matthew 6:25–32) — the daily necessities His hearers were anxious about. The promise is that the Father who feeds the birds knows His children need these things and will provide them. It is not a promise of open-ended prosperity.
What does "the kingdom of God" mean in Matthew 6:33?
The Greek word basileia means God's reign — His kingly rule breaking into the world in Jesus — more than a place you go. To seek the kingdom first is to make God's rule and agenda the organizing pursuit of your life, the thing the Sermon on the Mount has been describing all along.
Does Matthew 6:33 mean I should not work or plan for the future?
No. Jesus' hearers were farmers, fishermen, and laborers, and the Sermon assumes ordinary work — the birds God feeds still forage. What Jesus forbids is anxious pursuit: the worry that acts as if everything depends on us and there is no Father. The contrast in the passage is between the anxious seeking of the Gentiles and the trusting seeking of God's children.
If I seek God first, will I never lack anything?
The promise is the Father's reliable care for daily needs, spoken to disciples who would also face persecution and hardship (Matthew 5:10–12). It is a statement of where provision comes from and what to pursue first, not a guarantee that faithful people never experience want. Jesus Himself teaches His disciples to keep praying, "Give us this day our daily bread."
Sources
This article draws on the following scholarship. We cite our sources so you can check our work.
- R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew (New International Commentary on the New Testament) (Eerdmans, 2007).
- Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary (Eerdmans, 2009).