Salem Media Group. We must reconcile ourselves to our worldly estate, as we do to our stature. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee--The expression is to be taken figuratively for blazoning it. as the hypocrites do--This word--of such frequent occurrence in Scripture, signifying primarily "one who acts a part"--denotes one who either pretends to be what he is not (as here), or dissembles what he really is (as in Luke 12:1 Luke 12:2 ). [3] But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth — A proverbial expression for doing a thing secretly. For it can hardly be supposed that grass or flowers should be thrown into the oven the day after they were cut down. Our charitable deeds are to be acts of sacrifice and service, not acts of show. Eternal life is the certain consequence, or rather completion of holiness. When ye pray, use not vain repetitions — A multiplicity of words without meaning, or uttered without seriousness, reverence for God, sincerity, or faith. It asks not if ever it shall be--or if ever it can be--in order to pray this prayer. Some meet this by regarding the petition as simply an humble expression of self-distrust and instinctive shrinking from danger; but this seems too weak. 23. It is happiness above and beyond the changes and chances of time, an inheritance incorruptible. Christ came into the world as the great Peace-maker, not only to reconcile us to God, but one to another. Consider--observe well. What follows is but a reduction of this great general direction into a practical and ready form for daily use.
The worldly man is wrong in his first principle; therefore all his reasonings and actions therefrom must be wrong. Their focus does not have to be on what to eat, drink or wear. The final petition, then, is only rightly grasped when regarded as a prayer for deliverance from all evil of whatever kind--not only from sin, but from all its consequences--fully and finally. So much for the general principle. The substance of which is only this, Do thyself no harm! This view, while it does not put into our mouths a prayer against being tempted--which is more than the divine procedure would seem to warrant--does not, on the other hand, change the sense of the petition into one for support under temptation, which the words will hardly bear; but it gives us a subject for prayer, in regard to temptation, most definite, and of all others most needful. $3.99 a month for 40+ study tools. Food and raiment God has promised, therefore we may expect them.
Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary (concise), Matthew Henry Bible Commentary (complete), California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. As a vitiated eye, or an eye that looks not straight and full at its object, sees nothing as it is, so a mind and heart divided between heaven and earth is all dark. (See Deuteronomy 32:6 , Psalms 103:13 , Isaiah 63:16 , Jeremiah 3:4 Jeremiah 3:19 , Malachi 1:6 , 2:10 ). Having concluded His supplementary directions on the subject of prayer with this Divine Pattern, our Lord now returns to the subject of Unostentatiousness in our deeds of righteousness, in order to give one more illustration of it, in the matter of fasting. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But the duty is not the less necessary and excellent for being abused by hypocrites to serve their pride. of It must have its holy yearnings breathed forth, and this is just the bold yet simple expression of them. As we must not boast of tomorrow, so we must not care for to-morrow, or the events of it.
The morrow shall take thought for itself — That is, he careful for the morrow when it comes. It is a subtle sin; and vain-glory creeps into what we do, before we are aware. Happy are those who take the Lord for their God, and make full proof of it by trusting themselves wholly to his wise disposal. Matthew 6:5-6 Commentary.
Fasting is to be in private but the reward for fasting will be given openly. You have enough to worry about today." Worldly-mindedness is a common and fatal symptom of hypocrisy, for by no sin can Satan have a surer and faster hold of the soul, under the cloak of a profession of religion. But if we take the word in its primary sense of "age" (for "stature" is but a secondary sense) the idea will be this, "Which of you, however anxiously you vex yourselves about it, can add so much as a step to the length of your life's journey?" Is not the life more than meat? But conscious that "when we would do good evil is present with us," we are taught to offer this sixth petition, which comes naturally close upon the preceding, and flows, indeed, instinctively from it in the hearts of all earnest Christians. (See Proverbs 4:25-27 ). First Petition: Hallowed be--that is, "Be held in reverence"; regarded and treated as holy. The same God that takes care of the birds of the heavens will surely provide care for His own children because they are worth much more than the birds. of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single--simple, clear. "What a man loves," says LUTHER, quoted by THOLUCK, "that is his God. God sees in secret, and will reward openly. [30] Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? The scribes and Pharisees were guilty of heart-sins.
But, if charitable deeds are done only to be seen of men that will be your reward in full. or, What shall we drink? They have their reward--All they wanted was human applause, and they have it--and with it, all they will ever get. Did it consist only of hints or directions for prayer, it could only be used as a directory; but seeing it is an actual prayer--designed, indeed, to show how much real prayer could be compressed into the fewest words, but still, as a prayer, only the more incomparable for that--it is strange that there should be a doubt whether we ought to pray that very prayer. 9. Matthew Henry Bible Commentary (complete), Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary (concise), California - Do Not Sell My Personal Information. The service of this god and the true God together is here, with a kind of indignant curtness, pronounced impossible. And if you serve God, you need be careful for nothing. Dress thyself as usual. Enter into thy closet — That is, do it with as much secrecy as thou canst. As the hypocrites do— Many of the scribes and Pharisees did this, under a pretence of calling the poor together. The conclusion of the whole matter is, that it is the will and command of the Lord Jesus, that by daily prayers we may get strength to bear us up under our daily troubles, and to arm us against the temptations that attend them, and then let none of these things move us. Thus therefore pray ye — He who best knew what we ought to pray for, and how we ought to pray, what matter of desire, what manner of address would most please himself, would best become us, has here dictated to us a most perfect and universal form of prayer, comprehending all our real wants, expressing all our lawful desires; a complete directory and full exercise of all our devotions. When we take least notice of our good deeds ourselves, God takes most notice of them. Faithful members of God"s spiritual kingdom will be blessed! He does not say, Shall they not be more beauteously arrayed? If he does not give his people what they ask, it is because he knows they do not need it, and that it is not for their good. The expression, "Little-faithed ones," which our Lord applies once and again to His disciples ( Matthew 8:26 , 14:31 , 16:8 ), can hardly be regarded as rebuking any actual manifestations of unbelief at that early period, and before such an audience. In every synagogue was a council of grave and wise persons, over whom was a president, called the ruler of the synagogue. "The kingdom of God" is the primary subject of the Sermon on the Mount--that kingdom which the God of heaven is erecting in this fallen world, within which are all the spiritually recovered and inwardly subject portion of the family of Adam, under Messiah as its Divine Head and King. [14] For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: [16] Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. 6. It was precisely this which Peter needed to ask, but did not ask, when--of his own accord, and in spite of difficulties--he pressed for entrance into the palace hall of the high priest, and where, once sucked into the scene and atmosphere of temptation, he fell so foully. (5-8) How to pray. Model Prayer ( Matthew 6:9-13 ).
30. Be not anxious for the future, how you shall live next year, or when you are old, or what you shall leave behind you.