Matthew
6 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Giving to the Poor and
Prayer
6
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them;
otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
2
“So when you [a]give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the
hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored
by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3 But when you
[b]give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is
doing, 4 so that your [c]giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees
what is done in secret will reward you.
5
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand
and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners [d]so that they may be
seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 But you,
when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father
who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward
you.
7
“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles
do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. 8 So do not
be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
9 “Pray, then, in this
way:
‘Our Father who is in
heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 ‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in
heaven.
11 ‘Give us this day
[e]our daily bread.
12 ‘And forgive us our
debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 ‘And do not lead us
into temptation, but deliver us from [f]evil. [g][For Yours is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]
14
For if you forgive [h]others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father
will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive [i]others, then your Father
will not forgive your transgressions.
Fasting; The True
Treasure; Wealth (Mammon)
16
“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they
[j]neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are
fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 But you, when
you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not
be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who
sees what is done in secret will reward you.
19
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do
not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.
22
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is [k]clear, your whole
body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is [l]bad, your whole body will
be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is
the darkness!
24
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and [m]wealth.
The Cure for Anxiety
25 “For this reason I
say to you, [n]do not be worried about your [o]life, as to what you will eat or
what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life
more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the
[p]air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 And who
of you by being worried can add a single [q]hour to his [r]life? 28 And why are
you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not
toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his
glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of
the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will
He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! 31 Do not worry then, saying,
‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for
clothing?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly
Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But [s]seek first [t]His
kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be [u]added to you.
34 “So do not worry
about tomorrow; for tomorrow will [v]care for itself. [w]Each day has enough
trouble of its own.
The Bible Panorama
Matthew 6
V
1–18: SECRECY Secrecy in giving (verses 1 to 4), praying (verses 5 to 8), and
fasting (verses 16 to 18) is taught by Jesus. It is in this context that the
pattern of the Lord’s Prayer (verses 9 to 15) is given. This contrasts with the
hypocrisy of men, which is encountered in this chapter.
V
19–23: SIMPLICITY Our attitude to wealth should be such that we are not seeking
to live to gain money. Our heart is where our treasure is, and that should be
in spiritual things. We also need simplicity to look honestly at the darkness
inside us and have it dealt with by the Light of the world.
V 24: SINGULARITY The Christian must be
single-minded in serving God and not ‘mammon’. Mammon stands for being
dominated by money and materialistic considerations.
V 25–34: SERENITY Nature tells us that God
cares even for birds and flowers. Those with a special relationship with God
should not worry, therefore, about provision of needs, now or in the future,
but seek to please God first by seeking as a priority His kingdom and His
righteousness. (This is not to encourage laziness but to underline the need for
faith and trust.)
NIV Application Commentary
The proper priority (6:33). Jesus’ reasoning culminates in the famous directive, “But seek
first his kingdom and his righteousness.” This climactic admonition draws the
listeners back to the key verse of the sermon, where Jesus declared, “Unless
your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law,
you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (5:20).
The use of the imperative “seek” does not mean to look for something not
present, for Jesus has already announced the arrival of the kingdom. In this
context it means that his disciples are to make the kingdom of heaven the
center of their continual, daily priorities. They have already entered the
kingdom of heaven and are to live with that reality, drawing on God’s ordering
of their daily lives. In doing so they will “seek … his righteousness.”
The conjunction of righteousness and
the kingdom maintains a special theme in the SM (5:6, 10, 20; 6:1).
It does not mean to pursue salvation, because the disciples’ entrance to the
kingdom secured them that kind of “imputed” righteousness (5:20).
It means that they are to pursue their experiential growth of “imparted”
righteousness, which is to pursue the increasing perfection of the Father (5:48)
through their practice of “acts of righteousness” (6:1).
The theological articulation of these themes becomes a major focus of the early
church, especially Paul. But their foundation is laid in Jesus’ teaching here.
When his disciples pursue God’s kingdom and his righteousness in their daily
priorities and activities, they will have all of their needs met by their
ever-caring, ever-watching heavenly Father—“and all these things will be given
to you as well.”
Eliminating
worry (6:34). Having given the
climactic imperative to guide every area of the disciples’ lives, Jesus returns
to the specific issue—worry about God’s daily care for their needs. If God’s
ordering of the disciples’ lives includes his provision for all of their daily
needs, “therefore” one certainly should not worry about tomorrow. Learned reliance
on God’s care for present needs will cause his disciples to develop trust in
him for their future needs. The two expressions in this verse, “for tomorrow
will worry about itself” and “each day has enough trouble of its own,”
reiterate the same basic truth. All the worry in the world today can do nothing
about the cares and problems of tomorrow. As disciples learn to let God care
for them today, 
