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Matthew 6:16
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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;  
Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
<< Matthew 6:15   Matthew 6:17 >>


Matthew 6:16

When ye fast - A fast is termed by the Greeks Ϛ , from not, and to eat; hence fast means, a total abstinence from food for a certain time. Abstaining from flesh, and living on fish, vegetables, etc., is no fast, or may be rather considered a burlesque on fasting. Many pretend to take the true definition of a fast from Isaiah 58:3, and say that it means a fast from sin. This is a mistake; there is no such term in the Bible as fasting from sin; the very idea is ridiculous and absurd, as if sin were a part of our daily food. In the fast mentioned by the prophet, the people were to divide their bread with the hungry, Isaiah 58:7; but could they eat their bread, and give it too? No man should save by a fast: he should give all the food he might have eaten to the poor. He who saves a day' s expense by a fast, commits an abomination before the Lord. See more on Matthew 9:15 (note).

As the hypocrites - of a sad countenance - , either from sour, crabbed, and the countenance; or from a Scythian, a morose, gloomy, austere phiz, like that of a Scythian or Tartar. A hypocrite has always a difficult part to act: when he wishes to appear as a penitent, not having any godly sorrow at heart, he is obliged to counterfeit it the best way he can, by a gloomy and austere look.




Other Adam Clarke entries containing Matthew 6:16:

Matthew 9:15
Mark 2:18
Luke 11:1-5
John 21:25

 

<< Matthew 6:15   Matthew 6:17 >>

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