Luke 12:27-31

(27-31) Consider the lilies how they grow. — See Notes on Matthew 6:28. There are, however, some noticeable variations, as (1) in Luke 12:27, in the better MSS., they spin not, they weave not; (2) the use in Luke 12:29 of a new verb, “Neither be ye of doubtful mind.” The word is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, and is so far characteristic of St. Luke’s special culture. But its etymology and its classical use make it equivalent to “Be not tossed to and fro like a ship out on the open sea;” and so taken, it presents a parallel to St. James’s description of the “man that wavereth,” as “like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed” (James 1:6).