Giving to the Needy
6 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to
be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as
the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by
others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when
you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is
doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what
is done in secret, will reward you.
Prayer
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to
pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.
Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray,
go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then
your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you
pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard
because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what
you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our
debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,[The Greek for temptation can also mean testing.]
but deliver us from the evil
one.[Or from evil; some late manuscripts one, / for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others
their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Fasting
16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they
disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they
have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head
and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are
fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what
is done in secret, will reward you.
Treasures in Heaven
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and
vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and
where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there
your heart will be also.
22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,[The Greek for healthy here implies generous.] your
whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy,[The Greek for unhealthy here implies stingy.] your
whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness,
how great is that darkness!
24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love
the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot
serve both God and money.
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will
eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than
food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do
not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by
worrying add a single hour to your life [Or single cubit to your height]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field
grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all
his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the
grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,
will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry,
saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows
that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and
all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of
its own.
NOTES:
6:1–18 The sermon continues with a warning against doing
good in order to be seen and gives three examples, almsgiving (Mt 6:2–4),
prayer (Mt 6:5–15), and fasting (Mt 6:16–18). In each, the conduct of the
hypocrites (Mt 6:2) is contrasted with that demanded of the disciples. The
sayings about reward found here and elsewhere (Mt 5:12, 46; 10:41–42) show that
this is a genuine element of Christian moral exhortation. Possibly to underline
the difference between the Christian idea of reward and that of the hypocrites,
the evangelist uses two different Greek verbs to express the rewarding of the
disciples and that of the hypocrites; in the latter case it is the verb apechō,
a commercial term for giving a receipt for what has been paid in full (Mt 6:2,
5, 16).
6:2 The hypocrites: the scribes and Pharisees, see Mt 23:13,
15, 23, 25, 27, 29. The designation reflects an attitude resulting not only
from the controversies at the time of Jesus’ ministry but from the opposition
between Pharisaic Judaism and the church of Matthew. They have received their
reward: they desire praise and have received what they were looking for.
6:7–15 Matthew inserts into his basic traditional material
an expansion of the material on prayer that includes the model prayer, the “Our
Father.” That prayer is found in Lk 11:2–4 in a different context and in a
different form.
6:7 The example of what Christian prayer should be like
contrasts it now not with the prayer of the hypocrites but with that of the
pagans. Their babbling probably means their reciting a long list of divine
names, hoping that one of them will force a response from the deity.
6:9–13 Matthew’s form of the “Our Father” follows the
liturgical tradition of his church. Luke’s less developed form also represents
the liturgical tradition known to him, but it is probably closer than Matthew’s
to the original words of Jesus.
6:9 Our Father in heaven: this invocation is found in many
rabbinic prayers of the post-New Testament period. Hallowed be your name:
though the “hallowing” of the divine name could be understood as reverence done
to God by human praise and by obedience to his will, this is more probably a
petition that God hallow his own name, i.e., that he manifest his glory by an
act of power (cf. Ez 36:23), in this case, by the establishment of his kingdom
in its fullness.
6:10 Your kingdom come: this petition sets the tone of the
prayer, and inclines the balance toward divine rather than human action in the
petitions that immediately precede and follow it. Your will be done, on earth
as in heaven: a petition that the divine purpose to establish the kingdom, a
purpose present now in heaven, be executed on earth.
6:11 Give us today our daily bread: the rare Greek word
epiousios, here daily, occurs in the New Testament only here and in Lk 11:3. A
single occurrence of the word outside of these texts and of literature dependent
on them has been claimed, but the claim is highly doubtful. The word may mean
daily or “future” (other meanings have also been proposed). The latter would
conform better to the eschatological tone of the whole prayer. So understood,
the petition would be for a speedy coming of the kingdom (today), which is
often portrayed in both the Old Testament and the New under the image of a
feast (Is 25:6; Mt 8:11; 22:1–10; Lk 13:29; 14:15–24).
6:12 Forgive us our debts: the word debts is used
metaphorically of sins, “debts” owed to God (see Lk 11:4). The request is
probably for forgiveness at the final judgment.
6:13 Jewish apocalyptic writings speak of a period of severe
trial before the end of the age, sometimes called the “messianic woes.” This
petition asks that the disciples be spared that final test.
6:14–15 These verses reflect a set pattern called
“Principles of Holy Law.” Human action now will be met by a corresponding
action of God at the final judgment.
6:16 The only fast prescribed in the Mosaic law was that of
the Day of Atonement (Lv 16:31), but the practice of regular fasting was common
in later Judaism; cf. Didache 9:1.
6:19–34 The remaining material of this chapter is taken
almost entirely from Q. It deals principally with worldly possessions, and the
controlling thought is summed up in Mt 6:24: the disciple can serve only one
master and must choose between God and wealth (mammon). See further the note on
Lk 16:9.
6:22–23 In this context the parable probably points to the
need for the disciple to be enlightened by Jesus’ teaching on the transitory
nature of earthly riches.
6:24 Mammon: an Aramaic word meaning wealth or property.
6:25–34 Jesus does not deny the reality of human needs (Mt
6:32), but forbids making them the object of anxious care and, in effect,
becoming their slave.
6:27 Life-span: the Greek word can also mean “stature.” If
it is taken in that sense, the word here translated moment (literally, “cubit”)
must be translated literally as a unit not of time but of spatial measure. The
cubit is about eighteen inches.
6:30 Of little faith: except for the parallel in Lk 12:28,
the word translated of little faith is found in the New Testament only in
Matthew. It is used by him of those who are disciples of Jesus but whose faith
in him is not as deep as it should be (see Mt 8:26; 14:31; 16:8 and the cognate
noun in Mt 17:20).
6:33 Righteousness: see note on Mt 3:14–15.
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