Matthew 6:1

Do Good to Please God

1 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 Therefore, ^awhen you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret ^awill Himself reward you openly.

The Model Prayer

5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the¹ hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

6 But you, when you pray, ^ago into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you¹ openly.

7 And when you pray, ^ado not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. ^bFor they think that they will be heard for their many words.

8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father ^aknows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

9 In this ^amanner, therefore, pray:
^bOur Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your ^cname.

10 Your kingdom come.
^aYour will be done
On earth ^bas it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our ^adaily bread.

12 And ^aforgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.

13 ^aAnd do not lead us into temptation,
But ^bdeliver us from the evil one.
¹For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

14 ^a“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 But ^aif you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Fasting to Be Seen Only by God

16 “Moreover, ^awhen you fast, do not be like the¹ hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

17 But you, when you fast, ^aanoint your head and wash your face,

18 so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you¹ openly.

Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

19 ^a“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;

20 ^abut lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The Lamp of the Body

22 ^a“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is¹ good, your whole body will be full of light.

23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

You Cannot Serve God and Riches

24 ^a“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. ^bYou cannot serve God and mammon.

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I say to you, ^ado not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

26 ^aLook at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

27 Which of you by worrying can add one¹ cubit to his stature?

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

<< Matthew 5:48

Matthew 6:2 >>

Matthew 6:1

That ye do not your alms - , perform not your acts of righteousness - such as alms-giving, fasting, and prayer, mentioned immediately after. Instead of , righteousness, or acts of righteousness, the reading in the text, that which has been commonly received is , alms. But the first reading has been inserted in several editions, and is supported by the Codd. Vatican and Bezae, some others, and several versions, all the Itala except one, and the Vulgate. The Latin fathers have justitiam , a word of the same meaning. Mr. Gregory has amply proved, tsidekeh , righteousness, was a common word for alms among the Jews. Works, 4th. p. 58, 1671. R. D. Kimchi says that tsidekeh , Isaiah 59:14, means alms-giving; and the phrase natan tsidekah , is used by the Jews to signify the giving of alms. The following passages from Dr. Lightfoot show that it was thus commonly used among the Jewish writers: -

"It is questioned," says he, "whether Matthew wrote , alms, or , righteousness. I answer: -

"I. That, our Savior certainly said tsidekah , righteousness, (or, in Syriac zidkatha ), I make no doubt at all; but, that that word could not be otherwise understood by the common people than of alms, there is as little doubt to be made. For although the word tsidekah , according to the idiom of the Old Testament, signifies nothing else than righteousness; yet now, when our Savior spoke these words, it signified nothing so much as alms.

"II. Christ used also the same word zidkatha , righteousness, in time three verses next following, and Matthew used the word , alms; but by what right, I beseech you, should he call it , righteousness, in the first verse, and , alms, in the following; when Christ every where used one and the same word? Matthew might not change in Greek, where our Savior had not changed in Syriac: therefore we must say that the Lord Jesus used the word tsidekeh or zidkatha , in these four first verses; but that, speaking in the dialect of common people, he was understood by the common people to speak of alms. Now they called alms by the name of righteousness, for the fathers of the traditions taught, and the common people believed, that alms contributed very much to justification. Hear the Jewish chair in this matter -

\ri720 For one farthing given to a poor man in alms, a man is made partaker of the beatific vision: where it renders these words, Psalms 17:15, I shall behold thy face in righteousness, after this manner, I shall behold thy face, Because Of Alms. Bava. Bathra.

\ri720 \cf1 "This money goeth for alms, that my sons may live, and that I may obtain the world to come. Bab. Rosh. Hashshanah.

"A man' s table now expiates by alms, as heretofore the altar did by sacrifice. Beracoth.

"If you afford alms out of your purse, God will keep you from all damage and harm. Hieros. Peah.

"Monobazes the king bestowed his goods liberally upon the poor, and had these words spoken to him by his kinsmen and friends -

\ri720 ' Your ancestors increased both their own riches, and those that were left them by their fathers; but you waste both your own and those of your ancestors.'

To whom he answered -

\ri720 ' My fathers laid up their wealth on earth: I lay up mine in heaven. As it is written, Truth shall flourish out of the earth, but Righteousness shall look down from heaven. My fathers laid up treasures that bear no fruit; but I lay up such as bear fruit. As it is said, It shall be well with the just, for they shall eat the fruit of their own works. My fathers treasured up, when power was in their hands; but I where it is not.

\ri720 \cf1 As it is said, Justice and judgment is the habitation of his throne. My fathers heaped up for others; I for myself. As it is said, And this shall be to thee for righteousness. They scraped together for this world. I for the world to come. As it is said, Righteousness shall deliver from death.' Ibid.

These things are also recited in the Babylonian Talmud.

\ri720 "You see plainly in what sense he understands righteousness, namely, in the sense of alms: and that sense not so much framed in his own imagination, as in that of the whole nation, and which the royal catachumen had imbibed from the Pharisees his teachers.

\ri720 \cf1 "Behold the justifying and saving virtue of alms, from the very work done according to the doctrine of the Pharisaical chair! And hence, the opinion of this efficacy of alms so far prevailed with the deceived people, that they pointed out alms by no other name (confined within one single word) than tsidekah , righteousness. Perhaps those words of our Savior are spoken in derision of this doctrine. Yea, give those things which ye have in alms, and behold all things shall be clean to you, Luke 11:41. With good reason indeed exhorting them to give alms; but yet withal striking at the covetousness of the Pharisees, and confuting their vain opinion of being clean by the washing of their hands, from their own opinion of the efficacy of alms. As if he had said, "Ye assert that alms justifies and saves, and therefore ye call it by the name of righteousness; why therefore do ye affect cleanliness by the washing of hands; and not rather by the performance of charity?" Lightfoot' s Works, vol. ii. p. 153.

Before men - Our Lord does not forbid public alms-giving, fasting, and prayer, but simply censures those vain and hypocritical persons who do these things publicly that they may be seen of men, and receive from them the reputation of saints, etc.

Other Adam Clarke entries containing Matthew 6:1:

Isaiah 59:14
Romans 1:17
2 Corinthians 9:9
2 Corinthians 9:10

<< Matthew 5:48

Matthew 6:2 >>

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