What Does Luke 12:28 Mean?
If then God so clothes the grass, which is in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little trust?
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?THE KEY
What the English calls “little faith” is little trust: can your need rest in the care already clothing the field?
THE MEANING
The grass is dressed for a single day, even when tomorrow it becomes fuel. The same God sees and clothes you with greater care, so your need is not outside his attention. “Little faith” names trust made small by worry over what comes next.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that tomorrow’s uncertainty means you are forgotten is undone by the field itself: even grass destined for the oven is clothed.
THE ROOT
ὀλιγόπιστοι
oligopistoi
GROWS FROM
πιστ- (pist-), from πείθω (peithō)
To persuade or be persuaded; to trust or place confidence.
The phrase joins “little” with a word rooted in trust: the focus is reliance, not a score of correct beliefs. Here, trust feels small beside worry about clothing, while the field points toward the care it can rest in.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust, confidence.
πίστις
This is the noun behind “faith”: trust placed in the care the verse describes.
pisteuō: To trust, believe, entrust oneself.
πιστεύω
The related verb shows trust as reliance, not merely agreement with an idea.
pistos: Trustworthy, reliable.
πιστός
The word family links trust to reliability, the care of the one who clothes the field.
THE PATTERN
God’s care for human need is continuous with the care that clothes and sustains the created world.
He makes the grass sprout for the cattle, and the herb for the service of humankind, to bring bread out from the earth.And the LORD God made tunics of skin for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.throwing all your divided care upon him, for you matter to him.THE THREAD
And he said to them, Why are you fearful, you of little trust? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.The same Greek word for “little faith” appears when the disciples fear the storm. In Luke, the pressing threat is what you will wear; in Matthew, what the waves may do, the shared root links both fears to trust narrowed by what feels uncertain.
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