“Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you do merciful deeds, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Parallel Translations
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“Be careful that you don’t do your charitable giving before men, to be seen by them, or else you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
Therefore when you do merciful deeds, don’t sound a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may get glory from men. Most certainly I tell you, they have received their reward.
But when you do merciful deeds, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does,
so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
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Take hede to youre almes. That ye geve it not in the syght of men to the intent that the wolde be sene of them. Or els ye get no rewarde of youre father which is in heven.
When soever therfore thou gevest thine almes thou shalt not make a tropet to be blowe before the as the ypocrites do in the synagogis and in the stretis for to be preysed of men. Verely I say vnto you they have their rewarde.
But when thou doest thine almes let not thy lyfte had knowe what thy righte had doth
that thine almes may be secret: and thy father which seith in secret shall rewarde ye openly.
Show all 3 translations
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Take heede that ye giue not your almes before men, to be seene of them, or els ye shall haue no reward of your Father which is in heaue.
Therefore when thou giuest thine almes, thou shalt not make a trumpet to be blowen before thee, as the hypocrites doe in the Synagogues and in the streetes, to be praysed of men. Verely I say vnto you, they haue their rewarde.
But when thou doest thine almes, let not thy left hand knowe what thy right hand doeth,
That thine almes may be in secret, and thy Father that seeth in secret, hee will rewarde thee openly.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (107)
- Matthew 23:5 (v1) But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
- John 12:43 (v1) for they loved men’s praise more than God’s praise.
- Hebrews 6:10 (v1) For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labor of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the…
- Matthew 23:28-30 (v1) Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. “Woe to you, scribes and…
- Luke 16:15 (v1) He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men…
Show all 100 cross-references
- Matthew 6:18 (v4) so that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.
- Matthew 6:6 (v4) But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who…
- Matthew 6:4-6 (v1) so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. “When you pray, you shall not be…
- Galatians 6:12 (v1) As many as desire to make a good impression in the flesh compel you to be circumcised; just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of…
- Jeremiah 17:10 (v4) “I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
- Matthew 6:5 (v2) “When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets,…
- John 5:44 (vv1–2) How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
- Ezekiel 33:31 (v1) They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but don’t do them; for with their…
- John 7:4 (v3) For no one does anything in secret while he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.”
- Luke 14:14 (v4) and you will be blessed, because they don’t have the resources to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous.”
- 2 John 1:8 (v1) Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward.
- Matthew 9:30 (v3) Their eyes were opened. Jesus strictly commanded them, saying, “See that no one knows about this.”
- Psalms 44:21 (v4) won’t God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
- Matthew 6:16 (vv1–2) “Moreover when you fast, don’t be like the hypocrites, with sad faces. For they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen by men to be…
- Matthew 16:6 (v1) Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
- Matthew 25:34-40 (v4) Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of…
- Mark 8:15 (v1) He warned them, saying, “Take heed: beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”
- 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (v2) Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Let each man give…
- John 5:41 (v2) I don’t receive glory from men.
- James 2:15-16 (v2) And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, “Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;” yet you…
- Luke 12:15 (v1) He said to them, “Beware! Keep yourselves from covetousness, for a man’s life doesn’t consist of the abundance of the things which he…
- 2 Corinthians 9:9-10 (v1) As it is written, “He has scattered abroad. He has given to the poor. His righteousness remains forever.” Now may he who supplies seed to…
- Psalms 112:9 (vv1–2) He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor.
- Jeremiah 23:24 (v4) Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.
- Matthew 5:16 (v1) Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
- Matthew 5:48 (v1) Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
- Luke 8:17 (v4) For nothing is hidden that will not be revealed; nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.
- Luke 20:46 (v2) “Beware of those scribes who like to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the…
- John 7:18 (v2) He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.
- Hebrews 13:16 (v2) But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
- 1 John 3:17-19 (v2) But whoever has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain…
- 1 Samuel 2:30 (v4) “Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever.’ But…
- Luke 11:35 (v1) Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness.
- 1 Peter 4:11 (v2) If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in…
- Psalms 37:21 (v2) The wicked borrow, and don’t pay back, but the righteous give generously.
- Hosea 8:1 (v2) “Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh’s house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against…
- Matthew 5:46 (v1) For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?
- Matthew 10:41-42 (v1) He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. He who receives a righteous man in the name of a…
- Mark 1:44 (v3) and said to him, “See you say nothing to anybody, but go show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing the things which Moses…
- Luke 12:1 (v1) Meanwhile, when a multitude of many thousands had gathered together, so much so that they trampled on each other, he began to tell his…
- 1 Corinthians 9:17-18 (v1) For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. What then is my reward?…
- Psalms 139:1-3 (v4) Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You search…
- Daniel 4:27 (v1) Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to…
- Zechariah 7:5 (v1) “Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for…
- Matthew 10:42 (v4) Whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, most certainly I tell you he will in no…
- Matthew 23:13 (v1) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will…
- Matthew 25:40 (v1) “The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
- Acts 10:4 (v2) He, fastening his eyes on him, and being frightened, said, “What is it, Lord?” He said to him, “Your prayers and your gifts to the needy…
- Acts 10:31 (v2) and said, ‘Cornelius, your prayer is heard, and your gifts to the needy are remembered in the sight of God.
- Romans 12:8 (v2) or he who exhorts, to his exhorting; he who gives, let him do it with generosity; he who rules, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with…
- Galatians 2:10 (v2) They only asked us to remember the poor—which very thing I was also zealous to do.
- Ephesians 4:28 (v2) Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, producing with his hands something that is good, that he may have something to…
- Deuteronomy 24:13 (v1) You shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. It shall be…
- Psalms 139:12 (v4) even the darkness doesn’t hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you.
- Proverbs 19:17 (v2) He who has pity on the poor lends to Yahweh; he will reward him.
- Proverbs 20:6 (v2) Many men claim to be men of unfailing love, but who can find a faithful man?
- Matthew 6:9 (v1) Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
- Matthew 23:13-29 (v2) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will…
- Mark 12:39 (v2) and the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts:
- Luke 6:42 (v2) Or how can you tell your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck of chaff that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the beam…
- John 13:29 (v2) For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus said to him, “Buy what things we need for the feast,” or that he should give…
- Acts 9:36 (v2) Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which when translated, means Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and acts of…
- Acts 10:2 (v2) a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God.
- Acts 24:17 (v2) Now after some years, I came to bring gifts for the needy to my nation, and offerings;
- 1 Corinthians 4:5 (v4) Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the…
- Hebrews 2:1 (v1) Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away.
- Hebrews 4:13 (v4) There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an…
- Jude 1:24 (v4) Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,
- 1 Samuel 15:30 (v2) Then he said, “I have sinned; yet please honor me now before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may…
- Job 31:16-20 (v2) “If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the…
- Psalms 17:3 (v4) You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not…
- Ecclesiastes 11:2 (v2) Give a portion to seven, yes, even to eight; for you don’t know what evil will be on the earth.
- Isaiah 9:17 (v2) Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is…
- Isaiah 58:7 (v2) Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that…
- Isaiah 58:10-12 (v2) and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will…
- Matthew 12:19 (v3) He will not strive, nor shout; neither will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
- Matthew 15:7 (v2) You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
- Matthew 16:3 (v2) In the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the appearance of…
- Matthew 16:27 (v1) For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his deeds.
- Matthew 22:18 (v2) But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test me, you hypocrites?
- Matthew 23:6 (v2) and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
- Matthew 24:51 (v2) and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites. That is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be.
- Mark 7:6 (v2) He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is…
- Luke 6:24 (v2) “But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation.
- Luke 11:41 (v2) But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.
- Luke 11:43 (v2) Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces.
- Luke 12:33 (v2) Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that…
- Luke 12:56 (v2) You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you don’t interpret this time?
- Luke 13:15 (v2) Therefore the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you free his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath, and lead…
- Acts 11:29 (v2) As any of the disciples had plenty, each determined to send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea;
- 1 Thessalonians 2:6 (v2) nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ.
- 1 Timothy 6:18 (v2) that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to share;
- Philemon 1:7 (v2) For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.
- Hebrews 11:26 (v1) considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
- Revelation 2:23 (v4) I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (107 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (31 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Ambition maketh alms vain.
Ambition maketh alms vain.
This word, Reward, is always taken in the Scriptures for a free recompense, and therefore the schoolmen do fondly set it to be answerable to a deserving, which they call merit.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–4 1 Take heed that ye do not your alms…
1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Ver. 1. Take heed that ye do not your alms] Your justice, saith the Syriac. For first, we do the poor but right when we relieve them; for they have an interest in our goods, by virtue of the communion of saints, whereupon Solomon, "Withhold not," saith he, "good from the owners thereof," i.e. thy poor brethren. God, the great author and owner of all, hath intrusted the rich (as his stewards, as his almoners) with the wealth of this world. He hath intrusted them, I say, not lent it them (to speak properly, for that which is lent is our own, at least for a time), but put it into their hands only, for this end, that their abundance may be a supply for others’ wants, 2Co 8:9, that their full cups may overflow into others’ lesser vessels, &c., which if it be not done, they can bring in no good bills of account. {a} It is but justice then that we do the poor, and it is but rapine or robbery (saith St Chrysostom) not to relieve them. {b} Secondly, alms is called justice, to teach that alms should be given of things well gotten. In the reign of King Henry VIII there was one accused (but very unjustly) of heresy for saying that alms should not be given until it did sweat in a man’s hand. The Jews called their alms box, Kupha shel tsedacha, the chest of justice (Buxtorf, Syn.); and upon it they wrote this abbreviate, מכיא "A gift in secret pacifieth wrath," Pro 21:14. Selymus the Great Turk, as he lay languishing (his incurable disease still increasing), leaning his head in the lap of Pyrrhus the Bassa, whom of all others he most loved, "I see," said he, "O Pyrrhus, I must shortly die without remedy." Whereupon the great Bassa took occasion to discourse with him of many matters; and among others, that it would please him to give order for the well bestowing of the great wealth taken from the Persian merchants in various places of his empire, persuading him to bestow the same upon some notable hospital for relief of the poor. To whom Selymus replied: "Wouldst thou, Pyrrhus, that I should bestow other men’s goods, wrongfully taken from them, upon works of charity and devotion, for mine own vainglory and praise? Assuredly I will never do it. Nay, rather, see they be again restored to the right owners;" which was forthwith done accordingly; to the great shame of many Christians, who minding nothing less than restitution, but making ex rapina holocaustum, do out of a world of evil gotten goods cull out some small fragments, to build some poor hospitals or mend some blind way: a slender testimony of their hot charity.
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Before men, to be seen of them] As those are that act their part on a stage, and would please the spectators, that they may be applauded. "He that giveth," saith St Paul, "let him do it with simplicity," with ingenuity, accounting it enough that he hath God the witness of his heart, Rom 12:8; not but that men may see our good works, and their praise be sought, modo tibi non quaeras, sed Christo, saith Aretius, so that you seek not yourselves therein, but set up Christ. Let your end be, that the light may be seen, not yourselves seen, Mat 5:16. A fool hath no delight in understanding, saith Solomon, but that his heart may discover itself, i.e. that he may have the credit of it: but he takes a wrong course. {c} For honour (as a shadow) followeth them that seek it not, {d} as the Hittites told Abraham, he was "a prince of God among them;" when himself had said a little before, "I am a stranger and a sojourner with you," &c. Gen 23:4-5.
Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father, &c.] Ye take up your wages all beforehand. Fruit by the wayside seldom resteth till it be ripe. The cackling hen loseth her eggs, so doth the vainglorious hypocrite his reward. He layeth up his treasure, his wages, in the eyes and ears of men; which is a chest that hath neither lock nor key to keep it.
{a} Pro 3:27. Adeo si quid agimus, nostrum est: si quid habemus, alienum. Beddingf.
{b} Rapina est pauperibus non impertire. Chrysostom.
{c} Tantum ut vanam famam captet. Mercer. Duntaxat ad ostentationem. Bain.
{d} Caesar scripta sua Commentarios inscripsit, non historias. Et hoc ipso laudem veram meruit, quod falsam contempsit. Lipsius.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Alms are any acts of kindness freely done by…
Alms are any acts of kindness freely done by us for the relief of any that are in distress and misery, which, when they are done from a principle of love to God, his precepts commanding them, obedience in faith to his promises made to the giving of them, and that he may be glorified, are truly good works, acts of religion, and acceptable to God, Act 10:31, though meritorious of nothing from him; otherwise they are merely acts of humanity and morality, to the reward of which God is by no promise obliged. Therefore Christ’s disciples are obliged to take heed, that in the doing of their alms, though they may do them before men, God may he glorified, Phi 2:15; 1Pe 2:12; yet they do them not before men on purpose that they should take notice of them, and applaud them for them, for God rewardeth no action of which he is not the end.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v1 Observe here, 1. The duty directed to, almsgiving after…
Observe here, 1. The duty directed to, almsgiving after a right manner; Do not your alms before man: some copies read it, Do not your rigteousness before men: because almsgiving is a considerable part of that righteousness and justice which we owe unto our neighbour: he that is uncharitable is unjust: acts of charity are acts of justice and equity. It also intimates to us, that the matter of our alms should be goods righteously gotten: to give alms of what is gotten unjustly, is robbery, and not righteousness.
Observe, 2. Our Savoiur’s cautionary direction in giving alms, Take heed that you do them not be seen of men. It is one thing to do our alms that men may see them, and another thing to do them that we may be seen of men. We ought to do alms before men, that God may be glorified: but not to be seen of men, that ourselves may be applauded.
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Observe, 3. The particular sin which our Saviour warns his disciples against in giving their alms, namely, ostentation and vain-glory, which the Pharisees wre notoriously guilty of: Sounding a trumpet, to call people about them when they gave their alms.
Thence learn, That the doing any good work, especially any work of charity and mercy, vain-gloriously, and not with an eye to God’s glory, will certainly miss of the reward of well-doing in another world.
Observe, 4. The advice given by our Saviour for the prevention of this sin and danger; and that is, to do our alms as secretly as we can; Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that is, conceal it from thy nearest relations, and, if possible, from thyself.
Note thence, That the secrecy of our charity is one good evidence of its sincerity. Hence the Egyptians made the emblem of charity to be a blind boy reaching out honey to a bee that had lost her wings.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 As we must do better than the scribes and…
As we must do better than the scribes and Pharisees in avoiding heart-sins, heart-adultery, and heart-murder, so likewise in maintaining and keeping up heart-religion, doing what we do from an inward, vital principle, that we may be approved of God, not that we may be applauded of men; that is, we must watch against hypocrisy, which was the leaven of the Pharisees, as well as against their doctrine, Luk 12:1. Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, are three great Christian duties - the three foundations of the law, say the Arabians: by them we do homage and service to God with our three principal interests; by prayer with our souls, by fasting with our bodies, by alms-giving with our estates. Thus we must not only depart from evil, but do good, and do it well, and so dwell for evermore.
Now in these verses we area cautioned against hypocrisy in giving alms. Take heed of it. Our being bid to take heed of it intimates that it is sin. 1. We are in great danger of; it is a subtle sin; vain-glory insinuates itself into what we do ere we are aware. The disciples would be tempted to it by the power they had to do many wondrous works, and their living with some that admired them and others that despised them, both which are temptations to covet to make a fair show in the flesh. 2. It is a sin we are in great danger by. Take heed of hypocrisy, for if it reign in you, it will ruin you. It is the dead fly that spoils the whole box of precious ointment.
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Two things are here supposed,
I. The giving of alms is a great duty, and a duty which all the disciples of Christ, according to their ability, must abound in. It is prescribed by the law of nature and of Moses, and great stress is laid upon it by the prophets. Divers ancient copies here for tēn eleēmosunēn - your alms, read tēn dikaiosunēn - your righteousness, for alms are righteousness, Psa 112:9; Pro 10:2. The Jews called the poor's box the box of righteousness. That which is given to the poor is said to be their due, Pro 3:27. The duty is not the less necessary and excellent for its being abused by hypocrites to serve their pride. If superstitious papists have placed a merit in works of charity, that will not be an excuse for covetous protestants that are barren in such good works. It is true, our alms-deeds do not deserve heaven; but it is as true that we cannot go to heaven without them. It is pure religion (Jam 1:27), and will be the test at the great day; Christ here takes it for granted that his disciples give alms, nor will he own those that do not.
II. That it is such a duty as has a great reward attending it, which is lost if it be done in hypocrisy. It is sometimes rewarded in temporal things with plenty (Pro 11:24, Pro 11:25; Pro 19:17); security from want (Pro 28:27; Psa 37:21, Psa 37:25); succour in distress (Psa 41:1, Psa 41:2); honour and a good name, which follow those most that least covet them, Psa 112:9. However, it shall be recompensed in the resurrection of the just (Luk 14:14), in eternal riches.
Quas dederis, solas semper habebis, opes.
The riches you impart form the only wealth you will always retain.
- Martial.
This being supposed, observe now,
1. What was the practice of the hypocrites about this duty. They did it indeed, but not from any principle of obedience to God, or love to man, but in pride and vain-glory; not in compassion to the poor, but purely for ostentation, that they might be extolled as good men, and so might gain an interest in the esteem of the people, with which they knew how to serve their own turn, and to get a great deal more than they gave. Pursuant to this intention, they chose to give their alms in the synagogues, and in the streets, where there was the greatest concourse of people to observe them, who applauded their liberality because they shared in it, but were so ignorant as not to discern their abominable pride. Probably they had collections for the poor in the synagogues, and the common beggars haunted the streets and highways, and upon these public occasions they chose to give their alms. Not that it is unlawful to give alms when men see us; we may do it; but not that men may see us; we should rather choose those objects of charity that are less observed. The hypocrites, if they gave alms to their own houses, sounded a trumpet, under pretence of calling the poor together to be served, but really to proclaim their charity, and to have that taken notice of and made the subject of discourse.
Now the doom that Christ passes upon this is very observable; Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. At first view this seems a promise - If they have their reward they have enough, but two words in it make it a threatening.
(1.) It is a reward, but it is their reward; not the reward which God promises to them that do good, but the reward which they promise themselves, and a poor reward it is; they did it to be seen of men, and they are seen of men; they chose their own delusions with which they cheated themselves, and they shall have what they chose. Carnal professors stipulate with God for preferment, honour, wealth, and they shall have their bellies filled with those things (Psa 17:14); but let them expect no more; these are their consolation (Luk 6:24), their good things (Luk 16:25), and they shall be put off with these. "Didst thou not agree with me for a penny? It is the bargain that thou art likely to abide by."
(2.) It is a reward, but it is a present reward, they have it; and there is none reserved for them in the future state. They now have all that they are likely to have from God; they have their reward here, and have none to hope for hereafter. Apechousi ton misthon. It signifies a receipt in full. What rewards the godly have in this life are but in part of payment; there is more behind, much more; but hypocrites have their all in this world, so shall their doom be; themselves have decided it. The world is but for provision to the saints, it is their spending-money; but it is pay to hypocrites, it is their portion.
2. What is the precept of our Lord Jesus about it, Mat 6:3, Mat 6:4. He that was himself such an example of humility, pressed it upon his disciples, as absolutely necessary to the acceptance of their performances. "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth when thou givest alms." Perhaps this alludes to the placing of the Corban, the poor man's box, or the chest into which they cast their free-will offerings, on the right hand of the passage into the temple; so that they put their gifts into it with the right-hand. Or the giving of alms with the right hand, intimates readiness to it and resolution in it; do it dexterously, not awkwardly nor with a sinister intention. The right hand may be used in helping the poor, lifting them up, writing for them, dressing their sores, and other ways besides giving to them; but, "whatever kindness thy right hand doeth to the poor, let not thy left hand know it: conceal it as much as possible; industriously keep it private. Do it because it is a good work, not because it will give thee a good name." In omnibus factis, re, non teste, moveamur - In all our actions, we should be influenced by a regard to the object, not to the observer. Cic. de Fin. It is intimated, (1.) That we must not let others know what we do; no, not those that stand at our left hand, that are very near us. Instead of acquainting them with it, keep it from them if possible; however, appear so desirous to keep it from them, as that in civility they may seem not to take notice of it, and keep it to themselves, and let it go no further. (2.) That we must not observe it too much ourselves: the left hand is a part of ourselves; we must not within ourselves take notice too much of the good we do, must not applaud and admire ourselves. Self-conceit and self-complacency, and an adoring of our own shadow, are branches of pride, as dangerous as vain-glory and ostentation before men. We find those had their good works remembered to their honour, who had themselves forgotten them: When saw we thee an hungered, or athirst?
3. What is the promise to those who are thus sincere and humble in their alms-giving. Let thine alms be in secret, and then thy Father who seeth in secret will observe them. Note, When we take least notice of our good deeds ourselves, God takes most notice of them. As God hears the wrongs done to us when we do not hear them (Psa 38:14, Psa 38:15), so he sees the good done by us, when we do not see it. As it is a terror to hypocrites, so it is a comfort to sincere Christians, that God sees in secret. But this is not all; not only the observation and praise, but the recompence is of God, himself shall reward thee openly. Note, They who in their alms-giving study to approve themselves to God, only turn themselves over to him as their Paymaster. The hypocrite catches at the shadow, but the upright man makes sure of the substance. Observe how emphatically it is expressed; himself shall reward, he will himself be the Rewarder, Heb 11:6. Let him alone to make it up in kind or kindness; nay, he will himself be the Reward (Gen 15:1), thine exceeding great reward. He will reward thee as thy Father, not as a master who gives his servant just what he earns and no more, but as a father who gives abundantly more, and without stint, to his son that serves him. Nay, he shall reward thee openly, if not in the present day, yet in the great day; then shall every man have praise of God, open praise, thou shall be confessed before men. If the work be not open, the reward shall, and that is better.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Wherefore, when thou dost thine alms,.... Christ proceeds to…
Wherefore, when thou dost thine alms,.... Christ proceeds to give some directions and cautions about giving of alms, that they might be done aright, and answer some valuable purposes for the glory of God, the good of others, and their own:
do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do, in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. The persons Christ has reference to were the Scribes and Pharisees, who did all they did to be seen of men; whom he calls "hypocrites"; as he often does, because they put on an appearance of religion and holiness, but inwardly, and otherwise, were very wicked men. It does not appear that any such practice was literally performed, as blowing a trumpet before them, when they gave their alms; though the collectors of alms did, by some means, publicly notify to the people when they were about that service: for one of their rules is (m),
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"the collectors of alms do not proclaim on a feast, as they proclaim on a common day; but they collected "privately", and put it into their bosom, and distributed it to everyone by himself.''
Wherefore this must be understood proverbially; and the sense is, that when they did their alms, they chose public places for it, such as the "synagogues", where was a large concourse of people met together for religious worship; or the open "streets" of the city, where people were continually walking to and fro, so that nothing could be done in this way, but what must be seen and observed: and moreover, they took care, either by themselves, or others, to proclaim their good actions, that they might "have glory of men"; not only of the poor, or the collectors for them, but of the spectators. R. Aben Ezra (n) says, that
"a man that gives alms to the poor, must not give it because of the glory of the collector, i.e. that he may have glory of him; nor that the children of men may praise him.''
But his ancestors were of another mind: but what did they get by it?
verily I say unto you, they have their reward; and a poor one it is, the applause of men: however, it is what they seek after, and is all their empty performances deserve, and all they will have.
"He that glories in anything done by himself, , "he takes", or receives "his reward" (o); for as for any reward from God, they will have none;''
in this sense, as the Ethiopic version reads it, "they have lost their reward": and, as a learned critic has thought, is the sense of the Greek word, "they forbid", or "hinder their reward". By seeking the glory of men, they lay impediments in the way of receiving honour from God.
(m) T. Hieros. Demai, fol. 23. 2. (n) In Exod. xx. 3. (o) R. Jona apud Capell. Spicileg. in loc.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–3 In the foregoing chapter our Lord particularly described the…
In the foregoing chapter our Lord particularly described the nature of inward holiness. In this he describes that purity of intention without which none of our outward actions are holy. This chapter contains four parts,
1. The right intention and manner of giving alms, ver. 1-4.
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2. The right intention, manner, form, and prerequisites of prayer, ver. 5-15.
3. The right intention, and manner of fasting, ver. 16-18.
4. The necessity of a pure intention in all things, unmixed either with the desire of riches, or worldly care, and fear of want, ver. 19-34. This verse is a general caution against vain glory, in any of our good works: All these are here summed up together, in the comprehensive word righteousness. This general caution our Lord applies in the sequel to the three principal branches of it, relating to our neighbour, ver. 2-iv, to God, ver. 5, vi, and to ourselves, ver. 16-18. To be seen - Barely the being seen, while we are doing any of these things, is a circumstance purely indifferent. But the doing them with this view, to be seen and admired, this is what our Lord condemns.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Of alms-giving, 1-5.
CHAPTER VI.
Of alms-giving, 1-5.
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Of prayer, 6-8.
The Lord's prayer, or model according to which Christians
should pray, 9-13.
Of forgiveness, 14, 15.
Of fasting, 16, 17.
Of laying up treasures, 18-21.
Of the single eye, 22, 23.
The impossibility of serving two masters, 24.
Of contentment and confidence in the Divine providence, 25-32.
Directions about seeking the kingdom of God, 33, 34.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI.
Verse 1. That ye do not your alms] δικαιοσυνην υμων μη ποιειν, perform not your acts of righteousness-such as alms-giving, fasting, and prayer, mentioned immediately after. Instead of δικαιοσυνην, righteousness, or acts of righteousness, the reading in the text, that which has been commonly received is ελεημοσυνην, 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, צדקה tsidekeh, righteousness, was a common word for alms among the Jews. Works, 4to. p. 58, 1671. R. D. Kimchi says that צדקה tsidekeh, Isa 59:14, means alms-giving; and the phrase נתן צדקה 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 writ ελεημοσυνην, alms, or δικαιοσυνην, righteousness. I answer: -
"I. That, our Saviour certainly said צדקה tsidekah, righteousness, (or, in Syriac זדקתא 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 צדקה tsidekah, according to the idiom of the Old Testament, signifies nothing else than righteousness; yet now, when our Saviour spoke these words, it signified nothing so much as alms.
"II. Christ used also the same word זדקתא zidkatha, righteousness, in time three verses next following, and Matthew used the word ελεημοσυνην, alms; but by what right, I beseech you, should he call it δικαιοσυνην, righteousness, in the first verse, and ελεημοσυνην, alms, in the following; when Christ every where used one and the same word? Matthew might not change in Greek, where our Saviour had not changed in Syriac: therefore we must say that the Lord Jesus used the word צדקה tsidekeh or זדקתא 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 -
For one farthing given to a poor man in alms, a man is made partaker of the beatific vision: where it renders these words, Ps 17:15, I shall behold thy face in righteousness, after this manner, I shall behold thy face, BECAUSE of ALMS. Bava. Bathra.
"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 -
'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 -
'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.
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.
"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.
"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 צדקה tsidekah, righteousness. Perhaps those words of our Saviour 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, Lu 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, &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Mat 6:1. Take heed that ye do not your…
Mat 6:1. Take heed that ye do not your alms, &c. — As some copies and very ancient versions read δικαιοσυνην, righteousness, instead of ελεημοσυνην, alms-deeds, and several of the fathers quote the passage so, “I choose, with Beza,” says Dr. Doddridge, “to follow that reading; because it prevents the appearance of a tautology in the following words, and makes this verse a general and very proper introduction to the remaining part of the section, in which the caution is branched out into the particular heads of alms, prayer, and fasting.” The doctor therefore reads, Take heed that ye practise not your righteousness, in which interpretation of the clause, and for similar reasons, he is followed by Dr. Campbell. The verse is a general caution against vain glory in any of our good works, all which are here summed up together in the comprehensive word, righteousness. This general caution our Lord applies, in the sequel, to the three principal branches of it, relating to our neighbour, Mat 6:2-4; to God, Mat 6:5-6; and to ourselves, Mat 6:16-18. Before men to be seen of them — Barely the being seen, while we are doing any of the things hereafter mentioned, is a circumstance purely indifferent; but the doing them with a view to be seen and admired, this is what our Lord condemns.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Take heed that ye do not your alms -…
Take heed that ye do not your alms - The word “alms” here denotes liberality to the poor and needy. In the margin, as in the best editions of the Greek it is “righteousness;” either referring to almsgiving as eminently a righteous act, or more probably including all that is specified in this and the following verses - almsgiving, prayer, fasting, Mat. 6:2-18. Our Saviour here does not positively command his disciples to aid the poor, but supposes that they would do it of course, and gives them directions how to do it. It is the nature of religion to help those who are really needy; and a real Christian does not wait to be “commanded” to do it, but only asks for the opportunity. See Gal 2:10; Jam 1:27; Luk 19:8.
Before men ... - Our Lord does not require us never to give alms before people, but only forbids our doing it “to be seen of them,” for the purposes of ostentation and to seek their praise. To a person who is disposed to do good from a right motive, it matters little whether it be in public or in private. The only thing that renders it even desirable that our good deeds should be seen is that God may be glorified. See Mat 5:16.
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Otherwise - If your only motive for doing it is to be seen by people, God will not reward you. Take heed, therefore, that you do not do it to be seen, “otherwise” God will not reward you.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Your justice;[1] in the common Greek copies, your alms,…
Your justice;[1] in the common Greek copies, your alms, which seems to be the sense in this place. (Witham) --- Hereby it is plain that good works are justice, and that man doing them doth justice, and is thereby just and justified, and not by faith only. All which justice of a christian man, our Saviour here compriseth in the three eminent good works, alms deeds, prayer, and fasting. (St. Augustine lib. perf. just. chap. viii.) So that to give alms is to do justice, and the works of mercy are justice. (St. Augustine, in Psalm xlix, ver. 5.) (Bristow) --- St. Gregory says, that the man who by his virtuous actions would gain the applause of men, quits at an easy rate a treasure of immense value; for, with what he might purchase the kingdom of heaven, he only seeks to acquire the transitory applause of mortals. This precept of Christ, says St. John Chrysostom, beautifully evinces the solicitude and unspeakable goodness of God, lest we should have the labour of performing good works, and on account of evil motives be deprived of our reward. (Hom. xix.) "Shut up alms in the heart of the poor." (Ecclesiasticus xxix. 15.)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Justitiam. In almost all Greek copies, Greek: eleemosunen.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 Matthew Chapter 6
Matthew Chapter 6
This discourse gives the principles of the kingdom, but supposes the rejection of the King, and the position into which this would bring those that were His; who consequently must look for a heavenly reward. They were to be a divine savour where God was known and was dealing, and would be a spectacle to the whole world. Moreover this was God’s object. Their confession was to be so open that the world should refer their works to the Father. They were to act, on the one hand, according to a judgment of evil which reached the heart and motives, but also, on the other, according to the Father’s character in grace-to approve themselves to the Father who saw in secret, where the eye of man could not penetrate. They were to have full confidence in Him for all their need. His will was the rule according to which there was entrance into the kingdom.
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We may observe that this discourse is connected with the proclamation of the kingdom as being near at hand, and that all these principles of conduct are given as characterising the kingdom, and as the conditions of entrance into it. No doubt it follows that they are suitable to those who have entered in. But the discourse is pronounced in the midst of Israel, [19] before the kingdom is set up, and as the previous state called for in order to enter, and to set forth the fundamental principles of the kingdom in connection with that people, and in moral contrast with the ideas they had formed respecting it.
In examining the beatitudes, we shall find that this portion in general gives the character of Christ Himself. They suppose two things; the coming possession of the land of Israel by the meek; and the persecution of the faithful remnant, really righteous in their ways, and who asserted the rights of the true King (heaven being set before them as their hope to sustain their hearts). [20]
This will be the position of the remnant in the last days before the introduction of the kingdom, the last being exceptional. It was so, morally, in the days of the Lord’s disciples, in reference to Israel, the earthly part being delayed. In reference to heaven, the disciples are looked at as witnesses in Israel; but-while the only preservative of the earth-they were a testimony to the world. So that the disciples are seen as in connection with Israel, but, at the same time, as witnesses on God’s part to the world (the kingdom being in view, but not yet established). The connection with the last days is evident; nevertheless their testimony then had, morally, this character. Only the establishment of the earthly kingdom has been delayed, and the church, which is heavenly, brought in. Mat 5:25 evidently alludes to the position of Israel in the days of Christ. And in fact they remain captive, in prison, until they have received their full chastisement, and then they shall come forth.
The Lord ever speaks and acts as the obedient man, moved and guided by the Holy Ghost; but we see in the most striking manner, in this Gospel, who it is that acts thus. And it is this which gives its true moral character to the kingdom of heaven. John the Baptist might announce it as a change of dispensation, but his ministry was earthly. Christ might equally announce this same change (and the change was all-important); but in Him there was more than this. He was from heaven, the Lord who came from heaven. In speaking of the kingdom of heaven, He spoke out of the deep and divine abundance of His heart. No man had been in heaven, excepting Him who had come down from thence, the Son of man who was in heaven. Therefore, when speaking of heaven, He spoke of that which He knew, and testified of that which He had seen This was the case in two ways, as shewn forth in Matthew’s Gospel. It was no longer an earthly government according to the law; Jehovah, the Saviour, Emmanuel, was present Could He be otherwise than heavenly in His character, in the tone, in the essence, of His whole life?
Moreover, when He began His public ministry and was sealed by the Holy Ghost, heaven was opened to Him. He was identified with heaven as a man sealed with the Holy Ghost on earth. He was thus the continual expression of the spirit, of the reality, of heaven. There was not yet the exercise of the judicial power which would uphold this character in the face of all that opposed it. It was its manifestation in patience, notwithstanding the opposition of all around Him and the inability of His disciples to understand Him. Thus in the sermon on the Mount we find the description of that which was suitable to the kingdom of heaven, and even the assurance of reward in heaven for those who should suffer on earth for His sake. This description, as we have seen, is essentially the character of Christ Himself. It is thus that a heavenly spirit expresses itself on earth. If the Lord taught these things, it is because He loved them, because He was them and delighted in them. Being the God of heaven, filled as man with the Spirit without measure, His heart was perfectly in unison with a heaven that He perfectly knew. Consequently therefore He concludes the character which His disciples were to assume by these words: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." All their conduct was to be in reference to their Father in heaven. The more we understand the divine glory of Jesus, the more we understand the way in which He was as man in connection with heaven, the better shall we apprehend what the kingdom of heaven was to Him with regard to that which was suitable to it. When it shall be established hereafter in power, the world will be governed according to these principles, although they are not, properly speaking, its own.
The remnant in the last days, I doubt not, finding all around them contrary to faithfulness, and seeing all Jewish hope fail before their eyes, will be forced to look upward, and will more and more acquire this character, which, if not heavenly, is at least very much conformed to Christ. [21]
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 B. Christianity and Pharisaism in their relation to the…
B. Christianity and Pharisaism in their relation to the great virtues of the law; or, three examples from life, showing the perversions of the Pharisees and Scribes, and the spiritual elevation of true Christianity.
Mat_6:1-18
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False Spirituality of Traditionalism
1Take heed that ye do not your alms [righteousness]1 before men, to be seen of [by] them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which [who] is in heaven.
2 Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have [all]2 their reward. 3But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly.3
5And when thou prayest,4 thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of [by] men. Verily I say unto you, They have [all] their reward. 6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which [who] is in secret; and thy Father which [who] seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.5 7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 9After this manner therefore pray ye:
Our Father which [who] art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven [lit.: as in heaven, so also on earth]. Give us this day our daily6 bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive7 our debtors. 13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.8 14For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
16Moreover 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. Verily I say unto you, They have [all] their reward. 17But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which [who] is in secret: and thy Father which [who] seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.9
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Having exposed the corruptions of doctrine, our Lord exhibits those of religious life under three examples, which present the three great forms in which the self-righteousness and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes manifested itself. They were, alms-giving, prayer, and fasting. These were the three principal manifestations of practical piety among the Jews (Tobias Mat_12:8-9; Mat_14:10; Jdt_4:9; Sir_29:11), and were abused by the Pharisees to exhibit their superior piety.10 The Church of Rome still designates them as good works in a pre-eminent sense. The Pharisees imagined that they had reached the highest eminence in these three phases of spiritual life, which mark a right relationship toward our neighbor (alms giving), toward God (prayer), and toward ourselves (fasting); while their spirit of bondage and hypocrisy entirely destroyed the spiritual character of these works, and morally placed them on a level with the saddest and most sinful perversions of the heathen.
Mat_6:1. Your righteousness [not: your alms].—We read δικαιοσύνην, and not ἐλεημοσύνην, with Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and others, according to Codd. B. D., etc. Righteousness, צְדָקָה, is upright and pious conduct generally. Thus we have in the first verse a description of righteousness generally, which afterward is followed by a statement of the threefold manifestation of that righteousness. The reward with our Father who is in heaven (Mat_25:31, etc.) is mentioned in opposition to that which the Pharisees arrogated to themselves, or to the outward acknowledgment which they claimed from men.
Mat_6:2. When thou doest alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee.—A figurative expression, meaning, to attract attention. So Theophylact and many other commentators. Calovius, Wolf, Paulus, etc., understand it literally, that the Pharisees gathered the poor together by sounding a trumpet. Others connect it with the modern custom of beggars in the East, who blow the trumpet before him from whom they ask alms (Henneberg). Lastly, some refer it to the clinking of the money in the chest, which is supposed to have been shaped like a trumpet. Manifestly the metaphorical interpretation alone is correct.—In the synagogues the alms were collected; on the streets the benevolent were accosted by beggars. These additions, then, only indicate the occasion. The emphasis rests on the μὴ σαλπίσῃς.—They have their reward.—’Α πέχουσιν, they have it in full, or have wholly received their reward [and will get no more]. The only thing they wished was the praise of the multitude; and that they have got in all its vanity.—The expression ὑποκριτής occurs frequently in the Gospels, as in Mat_6:16; Mat_7:16, and in other places. The verb ὑποκρίνεσθαι (Luk_20:20) has much the same signification as ἀποκρίνεσθαι, to answer, but probably to answer under a mask, to play the actor, to feign. “In the New Testament it is applied to a form of religion, where the reality is awanting.”
Mat_6:3. Let not thy left hand know.—“Not a parsimonious counting of the money from the right hand into the left (Paulus, de Wette), nor a searching to take away again with the left hand (Luther); but complete modesty, secret and noiseless giving, metaphorically expressed (Chrysostom).” Gerlach: “If the left hand does not know what the right hand does, neither is the soul which animates both conscious of it.” We can find no sense in this explanation, and prefer his quotation of an Eastern proverb: “If thou doest any good, cast it into the sea: if the fish shall not know it, the Lord knows it.”11—He who sees in secret, or who is ever present. Αὐτός, He. You are not to take your own reward: He will give it you. A reward of grace this, in the kingdom of God.
Mat_6:5. And when ye pray.—On many grounds we prefer the plural instead of the singular (see Lachmann, etc.).—They love to pray. Their position in prayer is a matter of reflection and of choice, and they love it so.—Standing. “The Jews prayed standing with their face toward the temple, or toward the most holy place,—1Sa_1:26; 1Ki_8:22; Mar_11:25; Luk_18:11; Lightfoot, Horœ, 292 sq.—or else kneeling, or prostrate on the earth.”—Meyer. But the word ἑστῶτες indicates a conscious and ostentatious assumption of the posture; comp. Luk_18:11, ὁ Φαρισαῖος σταθείς.—In the corners, ἐν ταῖς γωνίαις. The Pharisees probably took care that the hour fixed for prayer should overtake them at a cross-road or the corner of a street, in order to afford them the desired opportunity of performing their devotions in the most public places.
Mat_6:6. Into thy closet, εἰς τὸ ταμεῖόν σου.—The room specially used for prayer was called ὑπερῷον, the Alijah, on the house-top. Vitringa, Syn. 151. Although this apartment is not exclusively here referred to, there is evidently an allusion to it, as being pre-eminently “the closet” of a Jew when engaged in devotional exercises. The antithesis between “the closet,” and “the synagogue and corners of streets,” is manifest. Of course, the passage is not aimed against public prayer. As Theophylact has it: ὁ τόπος οὐ βλάπτει, ἀλλ’ ὁ τρόπος, καὶ ὁ σκόπος [it is not the place which hurts, but the manner and the aim]. All display should be avoided in devotion: He who addresses God must be wholly engrossed with thoughts of his own wants, and of Him whose grace he entreats. Such abstraction will convert the most public place into a ταμεῖον. The metaphorical expression, κλείσας τὴν θύραν, also refers to the latent desire of gaining the applause of men.
Mat_6:7. Use not vain repetitions, μὴ βαττολογήσητε.—Another perversion of prayer closely connected with the former, and implying an attempt to gain merit before God by superstitious practices, just as the former abuse was intended to gain merit with men. Βαττολογεῖν occurs very rarely in classical writers (Simplic. ad Epict. p. 340). It has been variously derived from Battus, the name of a king who stammered, or from Battus, a poet whose compositions were full of tautologies, or from בַּדִּים, Job_11:3. Probably it is, as Hesychius suggests, an onomatopoëticon, after the analogy of βατταρίζειν,—an imitation of stammering, and then of garrulity. The explanation of its meaning is furnished by the expression, much speaking, πολυλογία, which follows. These vain repetitions of the heathen are alluded to in 1Ki_18:26; Terent. Heautont. v. 1.—On the vain repetitions of the Jews, see Mat_23:14; Sir_7:14; Wetstein, Schöttgen, and others;—on those of the Mohammedans, Hottinger, Hist. Eccles. vii. ad Lectorem.—The vain repetitions of the mediæval Church (Gieseler, Kirchengesch. ii. 1. p. 294), and of some modern sects, are well known.
It is worthy of notice, that Christ ranks beneficence and fasting along with prayer as religious actions, and as the evidence of practical piety. This implies, that almsgiving and fasting are the necessary accompaniment and manifestation of true prayer, which, so to speak, stands intermediate between them; the spirit of prayer being reflected in attention to the wants of our indigent brethren, and to those of our own inner life. The inferences from this are, 1. that almsgiving, in the spiritual sense, does not merely consist in care for the temporal wants of the poor, by the instrumentality of established boards and committees, but must take form after the example which the Lord Himself gave when He relieved the wants of the needy; 2. that religious fasting cannot be reduced merely to principles of temperance, sobriety, and order, but forms a distinct and special exercise, which, however, must be reserved for special eras in our lives, or for seasons of peculiar experience.
Mat_6:9-13. The Lord’s Prayer.—General Remarks.—In this prayer our Lord shows His disciples how an infinite variety of wants and requests can be compressed into a few humble petitions. It embodies every possible desire of a praying heart, a whole world of spiritual requirements, yet all in the most simple, condensed, and humble form, resembling in this respect a pearl on which the light of heaven plays. It expresses and combines, in the best order, every Divine promise, every human sorrow and want, and every Christian aspiration for the good of others. In the opening address we have Theism in its purest manifestation, which ever owns and recognises the God of heaven as our Father. From the three first petitions, in their relation to the succeeding ones, we learn that man must not be bent on entreating God merely for that which affects himself, but that his spiritual well-being will be promoted by self-surrender to God, and by primarily seeking that which pertains to His kingdom.
The Lord’s Prayer is commonly arranged into three parts—the preface, the petitions, and the conclusion (see Luther’s Smaller Catechism, the Heidelberg Cat., qu. 120 sqq., and the Westminster Cats.). Then follows the arrangement of the separate petitions. Bengel: Petita sunt septem, quœ universa dividuntur in duas partes. Prior continet tria priora, Patrem spectantia: tuum, tuum, tua; posterior quatuor reliqua, nos spectantia.—Olshausen: “Viewed as a whole, the prayer contains only one idea, even deep longing after the kingdom of God, which forms the substance of all the prayers of the children of God (for whose behoof Christ here gives us a model). But this one idea is set forth under a twofold aspect. In the first three petitions it is presented to us in the light of God’s relation to men, exhibiting the kingdom of God absolutely and in its perfectness,—the final aim of God being always the burden of the believer’s desire. The four succeeding petitions on the other hand, bear reference to the obstacles in the way of the kingdom of heaven, and present this spiritual longing of the children of God in the light of the existing relation between man and God. Hence it is that in the first part of the Lord’s Prayer the infinite riches of God are unfolded:—
Hallowed be Thy name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done;
While in the second part, the poverty of men is brought to view:
Give us this day our daily bread;
Forgive us our debts;
Lead us not into temptation;
Deliver us from evil.
Lastly, the rich doxology expresses the certain hope that our prayers shall be heard, in view of the character of God, who, being Himself the highest good, will also bring to pass the highest good, even His own kingdom. The Lord’s Prayer is, at the same time, the utterance of the desires of individual believers, although the plural number in the petitions indicates their feeling of fellowship with others, and that of the aspirations of mankind generally. Expressing as it does the inmost feelings and wants of humanity, and the relation between God and sinful man, it both meets the requirements of all, and satisfies the desires of the individual, provided his be a life of faith. Every special request not directly connected with things that pass away, but bearing on what is eternal, is included and implied in the Lord’s Prayer.”—De Wette: “The sacred number of these petitions—seven—indicates that they exhaust every religious want. In the first three petitions, the soul rises directly to God; in the three following, we have the hinderances to these aspirations—from a feeling of dependence upon what is earthly, and from a conflict with sin; while the last petition sets before us the solution of all these difficulties.”—Somewhat better Meyer: “Having risen to what forms the highest and holiest object of believers, the soul is engrossed with its character (first petition), its grand purpose (second petition), and its moral condition (third petition); in the fourth petition, the children of God humble themselves under the consciousness of their dependence upon Divine mercy even in temporal matters, but much more in spiritual things, since that which, according to the first portion of this prayer, constituted the burden of desire, can only be realized by forgiveness (fifth petition), by gracious guidance (sixth petition), and deliverance from the power of the devil (seventh petition).”—Stier (1:198) draws a parallel between the two tables of the Decalogue and the two sections of the Lord’s Prayer.—Weber (Lat. Programme quoted by Tholuck, p. 360) suggests the following outline:—
Πρόλογος.Λόγος.Επίλογος. 1.Πάτερ.1.ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομάσαυ.1.τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν, κ.τ.λ.1.ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία.2. ἡμῶν.2. ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου.2. καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν, κ.τ.λ.2. σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ δύναμις.3. δ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.3. γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, κ.τ.λ.3. καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς, κ.τ.λ.3. σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ δόξα.Tholuck: “The attentive reader, who has otherwise learned the doctrine of the Trinity, will find a distinct reference to it in the arrangement of this prayer. The first petition in each of the first and second portions of the prayer, refers to God as the Creator and Preserver; the second, to God the Redeemer; and the third, to God the Holy Spirit.”—Devotion to God, and acceptance of His gifts are contrasted in the Lord’s Prayer. 1. Devotion to His name, to His kingdom, and to His will; heaven, heaven and earth, earth: the place of His manifestation. 2. Acceptance of His gifts in reference to the present, the past, and the future.—We place in parallel columns the seven petitions and the seven beatitudes, to exhibit their internal agreement:—
1. Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.—Hallowed he Thy name (the name of God our riches, opening to us the kingdom of heaven).2. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.—Thy kingdom come (and with it comes heavenly comfort to our hearts).3. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.—Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (meekness, the characteristic of heaven, the outstanding feature of the new earth).4. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.—Give us this day our daily bread (which above all includes the Bread of life, John 6).5. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.—And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.6. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.—And lead us not into temptation (grant us victory in our hearts).7. Blessed are the peacemakers, etc.—But deliver us from evil (grant victory over the world).It has been remarked, that the Lord Jesus simply taught His disciples to pray, “Forgive us our debts,” but could not Himself have offered that petition (comp. Tholuck, p. 375). If we take it literally, this is, of course, true; though we must always bear in mind, that in the depth of His human sympathy, Christ felt more than any other the sins of humanity, and that He entreated their forgiveness as that of a debt due by the whole family of man.
Mat_6:9. After this manner therefore pray ye.—According to Schleiermacher, Olshausen, de Wette, and Neander, Christ taught His disciples the Lord’s Prayer, not on this, but on a later occasion (Luk_11:1). Tholuck and Stier hold that the Lord’s Prayer was, so to speak, twice taught: the first time as an example how to pray without vain repetitions; the second time, when His disciples expressly asked Him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” But this explanation is forced, and at variance with Christ’s ordinary mode of instruction, which was always in the first place directed to the disciples, and then to the people. But if we call up before our minds that inner circle to which the Sermon on the Mount was first addressed, we can readily understand how the disciples would on that occasion proffer such a request. After this manner, οὕτως.—In what respect οὕτως? Grotius: in hunc sensum. Calovius, Maldonatus, Fritzsche, Tholuck, Meyer: in this manner, i. e., thus briefly. De Wette: in these words, as a formula of prayer. We may call it a formula, provided we remember that its leading characteristic is to be free from πολυλογία and formality, and that in briefest form it bodies forth the deepest and the fullest thoughts and feelings. And as, in the present case, contents and form agree in this respect, the word οὕτως refers equally to the rich vein of thought, and to the concise brevity of form in this prayer.12
On the resemblance between this prayer and other Jewish prayers, comp. Heubner (p. 87), Tholuck, and de Wette. “It derogates in no way from the Lord’s Prayer, that to a certain extent it embodies ideas expressed in other Jewish prayers, since it was not a mere repetition of these forms. Nay, in the circumstances, it would have been surprising if every such allusion had been avoided. But Wetstein goes much too far in maintaining, ‘tota hœc oratio ex formulis Hebrœorum concinnata est.’ After Lightfoot, Schöttgen, Wetstein, Drusius, Vitringa, Witsius, and Surenhusius have laid under requisition every conceivable parallel passage, even from much later Jewish prayer books, the result of their learning and industry shows that only the first two petitions of the Lord’s prayer contain what, after all, amounts to no more than allusions to well-known Old Testament or Messianic ideas and expressions. Besides, it is quite possible that the Jews may have borrowed even these from the Lord’s Prayer.” De Wette.—Nor should it be forgotten that the characteristic features of this prayer consist in the brevity and distinctness of its petitions, in their order and succession, and lastly, in their fulness and comprehensiveness.
With reference to the criticism of the text, Olshausen remarks: “The doxology at the close is undoubtedly of later origin, and added for liturgical purposes. It first appears in the Constit. Apost., where it reads, ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία εἰς αἰῶνας Ἀμήν. But its meaning is so deep and so much in accordance with the spirit of the prayer, that it must have originated at a period when the genuine spirit of the apostolic Church still prevailed. It is wanting in Codd. B. D. L. (Z.), and in many others, as shown by Griesbach. But it occurs already in the Peshito, where, however, it may be an interpolation. Similarly the petitions, γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου ὡς ὲν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ (τῆς) γῆς, and ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ, are wanting in the text of Luke. They are not found in B. and L., nor do they occur in the oldest of the Fathers—such as Origen, who expressly mentions the omission. But it does not follow that they are spurious in the prayer as given by Matthew. In all likelihood, Luke simply abbreviated the account.” Similarly, some read only πάτερ in the opening address.—On the transposition of the second and third petitions in Tertullian, see Dr. Nitzsch in the “Studien und Kritiken” for 1830, iv. 846.
After Augustine and Luther, the number of the petitions has been fixed at seven. But Chrysostom, and after him the Reformed Churches, enumerate only six. It cannot be denied that the petition, “Deliver us from evil,” expresses more than that, “Lead us not into temptation;” and in this respect it may be regarded as a separate petition. On the other hand, however, it must not be overlooked, that the word ἀλλά connects the two parts of one and the same petition.13 Besides, symbolically, we should expect to find the number six rather than seven—the former being expressive of mental labor, the latter of holy rest. Viewed as a sacred number, six is always followed by a seven, which sums up the whole; just as in this case the six petitions are summed up in the doxology, or originally in the close of the sixth petition, or in the continuous inward prayer of believers,—concerning which Luther rightly says, “The Christian prays a never-ending Lord’s prayer.”
Mat_6:9. Our Father, πάτερἡμῶν.—Although the spiritual experience of adoption sprung from the atoning death of Christ on the cross, it was from the first implied in Christ’s message of reconciliation.—Who art in the heavens, ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. The words show the infinite difference between this and every other human relationship of a similar kind: Our Father in heaven; not a weak, helpless, earthly parent (comp. Mat_7:11; Eph_3:15; Eph_4:6). The expression also indicates the place where the glory of God dwelleth (Isa_66:1; Act_7:55-56, etc.), but without the limitations of the Old Testament—not in heaven, but in the heavens. Finally, it is both a symbol of the contrast between the glory, the purity, the infinitude, and the unchangeableness of heaven and this world, and of the riches of God, and the source whence the kingdom of heaven de scended upon earth.
Thy name.—The expression refers neither to His Divine being, nor to His perfections; as in that case the petition, “Hallowed be Thy name,” would be unintelligible. What is holy cannot be made holy. The “name of God” is the impress of His being upon the human mind, the manifestation of His being in the world; hence nearly equivalent to religion as based upon Divine revelation. Comp. 1Pe_3:15 : “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.”
Mat_6:10. Thy kingdom.—The kingdom of heaven. As Christ announces and introduces the kingdom of heaven, so His people are to pray for, and to anticipate it. The import of the expression, “kingdom of heaven,” appears, 1. from its contrast to the symbolical kingdom of heaven under the O. T. theocracy; 2. from its contrast to the kingdom of darkness. Other explanations: The spread of Christianity (Kuinoel); the victorious development of the Christian Church (Tholuck). But these are only individual phases; the grand fact is the kingdom of heaven in its spiritual reality, which includes both time and eternity.14
As in heaven,—i. e., in absolute purity and per fectness, as apparent in the obedience of the angels.
Mat_6:11. Our daily bread,—ἄρτος, like לֶחֶם, the requirements of daily life.—Τὸν ἐπιούσιον occurs again in Luk_11:3, but nowhere else. Explanations:—1. The nourishment necessary for subsistence, οὐσία. So Origen and many others. “This explanation [says Meyer] has led to the inaccurate rendering, ‘daily bread’ (the Vulgate, Chrysostom, Luther, etc.).” Meyer objects that οὐσία does not mean subsistence, but being or existence. But surely the subsistence of a man consists in the preservation of his human being. 2. Jerome and Zwingli: “Epiusion, hoc est supersubstantialem petamus, plus de animœ cibo, quam corporis solliciti.” Of course it were a mistake to apply the passage, with Olshausen and some of the Fathers, to spiritual nourishment exclusively, or even to the Eucharist. Manifestly, our Lord alludes to daily bread—only not to merely material bread, destined for the sensuous part of man alone. Man requires earthly bread; the Christian, Christian bread, yet not supersensuous, but adapted to all the parts of his being, which implies, above all, heavenly and spiritual nourishment. 3. By some the word is identified with ἐπιοῦσα, dies crastinus—to-morrow’s bread. So the Arabic and Ethiopian versions, Scaliger, Meyer, etc. (Jerome: in Evangelio, quod appellatur secundum Hebrœos, pro supersubstantiali pane reperi mahar, מחר, i. e., to-morrow’s bread.) But this explanation agrees not with σήμερον, nor with the statement in Mat_6:34.—Explaining it as referring to bread suitable to our being, we include in the term the idea of what is required for our daily subsistence, corresponding to לֶחֶס חֻקִּי (“food convenient for me”), in Pro_30:8.15
Mat_6:12. Debts, ὀφειλήματα,—equivalent to παραπτώματα, regarding them either in the light of imputation, or of one’s own conscience.
As we forgive.—Ὡς expresses neither the measure (Baumgarten-Crusius) nor the ground of forgiveness (nam, Fritsche, Meyer), but indicates the relation to our feelings of conciliation toward our neighbor; the assurance of our own forgiveness being connected with and regulated by our vow of readiness to forgive our neighbors. We feel assurance in Thy forgiveness, perceiving within ourselves a readiness to forgive others, which Thou hast implanted; and we pray for forgiveness while vowing, under a sense of this gracious experience.
Mat_6:13. And lead us not into temptation.—A difficult passage: 1. Because God does not tempt man, Jam_1:13; James 2. because man should not shrink from trial. Hence some have taken εἰσφέρειν, others εἰς, and others πειρασμός, in an emphatic sense. But the “temptation” here spoken of is only a trial increased by the guilt which had formerly been confessed as a debt; and the prayer, “Lead us not,” is simply a consequence of the petition for forgiveness. Let us not experience in intense temptations the consequences of our guilt, etc. (comp. L. Jesu, ii. 2, p. 615). The popular sense is, that God may preserve us from such temptations as might lead us into sin ( Mat_26:41; 1Co_7:5); or else that God would, with the temptation, give a way of escape, 1Co_10:13.
But deliver us from evil, ῥῦσαιἡμᾶς.—The full sense of both these petitions can only be understood if we bear in mind the literal meaning of εἰσφέρειν and ῥύομαι—to carry in, and to pull out. The expression, pulling out, or delivering, implies bondage and inability.—Ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ. Explanations: 1. ὁ πονηρός, the Evil One, the Devil. So the older commentators, Erasmus, Beza, Kuinoel, Fritzsche, Meyer. 2. τὸ πονηρόν. So Augustine and Tholuck, after Joh_17:15; Rom_12:9; 2Th_3:3. 3. From evil, or misery. Luther.—If by πονηρόν the power of darkness is meant, as manifested in the kingdom of darkness, it would include not only that kingdom itself, but also its author, and even its outward and temporal consequences. Such is undoubtedly the meaning of the text. “The whole sphere and bearing of the πειρασμοί,” Tholuck.
For thine is the kingdom.—This doxology is traced back to 1Ch_29:11.—2Ti_4:18 may be regarded as containing the germ of this liturgical addition to the text, although, according to Stier, it only serves as an evidence of the genuineness of the passage in Matthew. The words show that the fulness of God, or His majesty, forms the basis, the soul, and the aim of the whole prayer. On the foundation of the kingdom of power, which rests in God’s might and appears in His glory, the kingdom of grace is to be unfolded and perfected. [See Addenda.]
Amen, אָמֵך certainly, truly.—This certainty is derived from the truth and faithfulness of God (אֱמוּנָה). Christ introduces His most solemn statements with this word; and with it believers close their prayers, in sign and testimony that all human faithfulness and human certitude springs from the faithfulness of God. This word, Amen, has its great history in biblical theology, in the Divine services of the Church, and in the lives of believers. But at the close of the Lord’s Prayer, “the Amen of every prayer anticipates that of the world.” (Stier.)
Mat_6:14 For if ye forgive men. Comp. Mar_11:25.—An explanation of the fifth petition, specially important in this place, as showing that forgiveness and readiness to forgive were among the leading ideas in the Lord’s Prayer. This was all the more necessary, as the Lord could not yet speak of the work of redemption which He was about to accomplish. De Wette is right in observing, that the circumstance of His not adverting to it, is itself an evidence of the authenticity of the Lord’s Prayer.—Τὰ παραπτώματα αὐτῶν. After Cod. D. and other witnesses, Tischendorf has omitted these words, though without sufficient reason.
Mat_6:16. When ye fast.—This refers primarily to voluntary or private fasting, Luk_18:12. But it equally applies to the great annual public fast, Lev_16:29. “By the law of Moses, the Jews were enjoined to fast on the Day of Atonement from one evening to the following (Lev_16:29). Tradition prescribed similar fasts in autumn if the latter rains did not fall, or if the harvest was threatened (Taanith, p. 3. § 8). To these we have to add a number of extraordinary fasts. The Pharisees regarded the practice as meritorious, and fasted twice (Luk_18:12), or even four times, in the week,—making their appearance in the synagogue, negligently attired, pale and sad, in order to exhibit their superior ascetic sanctity before the people.” Von Ammon.—It was the practice to wear mourning-dresses when fasting. Σκυθρωποί, Luk_24:17; Gen_40:7.—Disfigure, ἀφανίζειν, with ashes and dust, Isa_61:3. Here a figurative expression for the mournful gestures and the neglected appearance of the head and beard.—“There is a play upon the words, ἀφανίζουσι and φανῶσι. They make their faces unappearable, that they may appear unto men.” So Meyer, who also suggests that the expression alludes to the covering of the face, as in 2Sa_15:30; Est_6:12.
Mat_6:17. Anoint thine head.—In the East, it was customary to anoint the head when going to a feast, in opposition to the deportment observed on fast days. Hence the advice must not be taken literally. Of course, the opposite dissimulation cannot have been enjoined. Our outward appearance when fasting is to betoken spiritual triumph and rest, which elevates above mere outward abstinence.
Mat_6:18. In secret.—Ἐν τῷ κπυφαίῳͅ [twice for the text rec. ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ.]—So Lachmann and Tischendorf after B. D. The word does not again occur in the New Testament, but is several times found in the Septuagint. [This note belongs properly to the critical notes below the text.—P. S.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The one radical perversion of religious life consists in the desire to appear before men. Spiritual religion has, indeed, its outward and becoming expression,—chiefly, however, in the meek and devout worship of the Church, where the piety of individual believers is lost to outward view. The worship of the Church is, so to speak, the shadow in which the humility and meekness of the individual worshipper finds shelter and protection.
Hence perversion of religious life first manifests itself in separatism of worship, which gradually intrudes upon the worship of the Church, and ultimately perverts it. The consequences of this speedily appear in the three departments of practical piety. Thus, instead of charity toward our neighbors, we have religious self-righteousness on the one hand, and religious idleness on the other—a show of kindness, and a corresponding spirit of mean dependence. Similarly, the worship of God assumes the form of lengthened prayers and tedious processions without devotion, while asceticism degenerates into hypocritical fasts and monastic extravagances. But if, in our religion, we consciously and purposely aim after mere externalism and show, we enter upon a course of hypocrisy, setting up in our outward forms a counterfeit of what is sacred. The commencement of this false religionism consists in painful service and outward works. Although a man may at that stage still set God before him, it is only in an external manner. In worshipping Him, he no longer has regard to the character and the love of God, because he realizes not that God has regard to his affections and state of heart. He is only anxious that God should have regard to his work, and his service, just as he has only regard to the work of God and the reward of God; and as he regards this reward as merely external, like his own work, he gradually comes to seek it among men. His externalism now leads him to merge his God in the opinion of men. Hence the outward show which marks the second stage of religious perversion. His great object now is to let his beneficence, his prayers, and his fasts appear as fully and as pompously as possible. From this spiritual oride and spiritual servility the transition is easy to the third stage, which is that of deception and imposition, when the hypocrite conceals his hardness of heart under the mask of beneficence, his coldness and deadness under that of singular devotion, and his love of the world and lustfulness, with the corresponding works of darkness, under that of asceticism.
2. A piety which primarily tends to externalism and show, is not only falsehood but folly. It may be compared to a root growing upward. The proper and genuine tendency of religion is inward, to secrecy—to that God who rules in the secret sanctuary of spiritual life. Hence also Christ urges in so strenuous terms the importance of this matter. Let beneficence remain a secret of our right hand—a shamefaced and holy affection—an act of genuine pity, from which we immediately pass without self-complacency. Let true prayer be concealed in our closet, and let us shut the door behind us. Let sincere fasting be concealed under the cheerful garb of holy festivity. This concealment is necessary, because true piety consists in full self-surrender to God, leading us to seek His, not ours; and because we cherish the firm confidence, that the Lord will own openly, by His leadings and by His blessings, in the domain of moral and of public life, in the kingdom of heaven here, and yet more hereafter, whatever is done in and for His name, and that He will in His own time and way attest both its reality and its value. Thus the root spreads deep in the earth where no human eye sees, in the assured hope that it shall spring all the higher, and spread all the more richly, in measure as its life is hid beneath the ground.
3. In this instance also the Lord sets before His disciples a picture which reflected His own life. In the gracious dispensation of His benefits, He alike removed the occasion of mendicancy and avoided the pomp of spurious kindness. By His intercession, He restored the life-tree of humanity, by restoring its root, and planting it in good soil, even in God. So also He fasted and renounced the world as the Bridegroom of the Church,—thereby and therein laying anew the foundation of true enjoyment and peace.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Outward manifestations of piety, genuine and spurious: 1. Genuine, if springing from within, and an evidence of what is within: or if in them man seeks God, lives in God, and desires to glorify God; 2. spurious, if in contrariety to the state of the heart, if carried on to the detriment of our inner man, or leading to his ruin; lastly, if man seek his own glory in divine things.—True and false outward manifestations: 1. True,—the destiny of Adam; false,—the fall. 2. True,—Christ’s advent; false,—the state of the world at the time. 3. Acknowledged by God as true,—the bride of Christ; condemned as false in the final judgment,—the Babylonish harlot.—How false appearances have rendered life hollow, and how they threaten to render hollow the life of the Church.—Spiritual vanity tending toward spiritual pride, and thus exposing men to greatest danger. But if we have sounded the depths of life, we will not become giddy on its heights.—Externalism in individual members of the Church may give rise to externalism in the Church, or to carnal chiliasm: 1. Proof from history,—the Pharisees were chiliasts, and yet they crucified the Lord of glory; 2. from the nature of the thing,—when many are seized with the spirit of externalism, they will be anxious to form a Church pretending to outward perfectness, but which in reality is only a Church of outward appearance; 3. from the diversity of this morbid externalism in the Church: with some it manifests itself in works; with others, in devotions; with others, in pretended asceticism.—Make sure that you give yourself wholly to God, and in due time He will own you.—Take care of the root; and the leaves, the blossoms, and the fruit will appear in due season.—In what way may art, with its fair appearance, be rendered subservient to Christian truth?—Hypocrisy is religious play-acting.—Whatever we may have or want, let us eschew anything like religious comedy in the Church.—Who can dispense with false appearances? 1. He who firmly trusts in the living God. 2. He who sincerely cleaves to the truth. 3. He who patiently waits for the day of the appearing of the Lord.—Let us exhibit before men, not our own righteousness, but the light which we have received from the Lord.—The three great virtues of hypocrites are only splendid vices.—The three great graces of saints are secrets with the Lord.—Piety seeking concealment in its principal outward manifestations: 1. The open hand; 2. the door of the closet shut; 3. the countenance open, yet veiled.—The right hand in its wonderworking, or our beneficence restoring the poor.—Pure beneficence: pure poverty.—The door of the closet shut, yet open: 1. Open to God, closed to the world; 2. open to any one who would join us in prayer, closed to mere idle onlookers; 3. open to the kingdom of heaven, closed to the kingdom of darkness.—True prayer will everywhere find a closet.—True fasting a joyous renunciation of the world.—The Father who sees in secret, and the open reward.—The reward which man takes to himself: 1. A theft; 2. a robbery; 3. a self-deception.—The reward which God bestows: 1. a reward of grace; 2. a reward of love; 3. a spiritual reward; 4. a reward of eternal life.—The progress of hypocrisy: 1. Service of works, when man loses sight of the character and the love of God whom he serves, and forgets or denies that the God whom he serves looks to the heart and affections of him who offers worship. 2. Mere outward service, where externalism takes the place of real service, and yet even professed externalism is rendered impossible by a show of service. 3. Service of sin, when devotion, becomes a lie, which is speedily overtaken by judgment.—Progress of piety from concealment to open manifestation: 1. It is a secret between the Lord and the hearts of believers, hid from the eyes of the world. 2. The light which proceedeth from Him who is invisible, shines through the hearts of believers into the world, and becomes manifest there. 3. The divine life fully manifested in the great day of revelation.
The Lord’s Prayer, as the prayer of Christian believers.—The Lord’s Prayer a precious jewel, which reflects the light of Christianity: 1. The teaching of the Gospel; 2. the life of the Lord; 3. His grace; 4. the discipline of the Spirit of Christ; 5. the power of the new life; 6. the history of the kingdom of God.—The Lord’s Prayer, as expressing our adoption and reconciliation: 1. There the promises of God and our requirements meet; 2. there the ways of God and our ways meet; 3. there the Amen of God responds to our Amen.—The sad state of Christendom, as appearing in connection with the Lord’s Prayer: 1. It was intended against vain repetitions, and has itself become a mere formula;16 2. it was intended to obviate all discord, and has become the shibboleth of many a separation.17—The three portions of the Lord’s Prayer: The address—the petitions—the conclusion.—“Our Father who art in heaven;” or, the true inward posture of him who addresses God.—The Lord’s Prayer viewed as an intercession.—The address, “Our Father,” so simple, and yet so novel: 1. infinitely easy, and yet infinitely difficult; 2. natural, yet supernatural; 3. humble, yet exalted; 4. the commencement and the conclusion of all prayer.—Surrender to God, as implying our acceptance of the kingdom of heaven: 1. The first three petitions express, that while surrendering ourselves to God, we own and seek His kingdom; 2. the last petitions, that while owning and seeking His kingdom, we surrender ourselves to Him.—The name of God constitutes the first object of our petitions; 1. From its glory; 2. from the dishonor which men cast upon it; 3. from its sanctification.—The name of God including and opening up the whole kingdom of heaven.—If you would have the name of God hallowed in the world, see that you first hallow it in your own hearts.—Learn to know the name of God; or, how readest thou? how seekest thou? how knowest thou? what believest thou? how stands it with thy learning and with thy teaching?—“Thy kingdom come:” 1. That the Old Testament, both in its law and in its types, may be fulfilled; 2. that the kingdom of darkness may be destroyed; 3. that the three-fold kingdom of grace, of power, and of glory may be manifested.—The petition, “Thy kingdom come,” a missionary prayer.—A prayer for the final reconciliation of State and Church in the perfect kingdom of heaven.—Is both your ruling and your obeying in conformity with this fundamental principle?—“Thy will be done,” etc.: 1. Filialness of this petition: Thy will; 2. humility of this petition: on earth; 3. boldness of this petition: as in heaven.—Are your will and conduct regulated by this principle?—The three first petitions viewed, 1. as the promise descending from heaven to earth—Thy name in heaven, Thy kingdom between heaven and earth, Thy will on earth: 2. as a sacrifice ascending from earth to heaven—the surrender of our own name, of our own power, and of our own will.—As exhibiting, with increasing clearness and power, the union of heaven and earth: the revelation of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.—“Give us this day our daily bread.” Apparently one of the smallest, yet one of the greatest petitions. I. Smallness of the petition: 1. We ask what most men already possess; 2. we ask it only for the small circle of those around our table; 3. we ask only daily bread; 4. we ask it only for to-day. II. Greatness of the petition: 1. We ask that earthly bread should be converted into heavenly bread, or manna; 2. we ask that He would feed all those who are in want; 3. we ask that He would meet the daily requirements of a waiting world; 4. we ask it to-day, and ever again, to-day.—The fourth petition as a vow, 1. of sonship; 2. of trustfulness; 3. of labor; 4. of gratitude; 5. of kindness.—Prayer before meals in its wider sense: 1. A prayer of the husbandman; 2. a prayer for our ordinary calling; 3. a prayer for our daily work; 4. a prayer in our distress; 5. a prayer in all our earthly wants.—This grace before meat in its more restricted sense.—Moderation and contentment a fruit of trustfulness.—The prayer of contentment.—True contentment proceeding from a view of the hidden riches of God.—Hungering and thirsting after spiritual supplies will render us contented with our earthly supplies.—The prayer of penitence: “Forgive us our debts:” 1. It realizes sin, and realizes it as a debt; 2. it realizes the burden of sin as a debt resting on mankind generally; 3. it realizes forgiveness as a free grace and a free gift.—How true penitence appears in the prayer of faith.—Assurance of forgiveness calling forth the prayer, “Forgive us.”—Forgiveness and readiness to forgive cannot be separated. Connection between the two: 1. Forgiveness makes us ready to forgive; 2. readiness to forgive inspires us with courage to seek forgiveness; 3. the spirit of forgiveness ever joins the two more closely together.—He who cannot forgive man, cannot find forgiveness with God: 1. Because he will not believe in forgiving love; 2. because he will not act upon its directions.—In what sense is it true that he who forgives shall be forgiven? 1. His forgiving is not the ground, but the evidence of his forgiveness; 2. his forgiving is an evidence that the forgiveness of God preserves him; 3. his forgiving shows the truth of his testimony, that there is forgiveness.—He who strictly reckons with his fellow-men in outward matters, cannot have experienced the gift of free grace in his inner life.—Forgiveness and readiness to surrender all are inseparably connected.—“Lead us not into temptation.”—How our trials by God may become temptations to sin: 1. By the supervention of our own evil inclinations; 2. of the world, with its allurements; 3. of the great tempter himself.—Every temptation is at the same time a judgment for the past and a danger for the future.—Even our necessary contact with a sinful world is a source of continual temptation.—God tempteth no man (Jam_1:13), yet may He lead us into temptation: 1. Because He leads us, and temptation is in the way; 2. because He tries us, and temptation supervenes; 3. because He deals with us according to our faith, and temptation exerts its power through our unbelief.—The dark cloud which rests upon our future: 1. Not want, but temptation; 2. not the enmity of the world, but its temptation; 3. not death, but again temptation.—Because we have, in our sinfulness, not trembled in anticipation of danger, we must, when pardoned, tremble after the danger is past.—A pardoned sinner has only one fear left, which leads to genuine fear of God, but delivers from all other dread: 1. The fear of defiling the white garment, of losing the ring, of being excluded from the marriage feast. 2. This leads to true fear of God: he recognizes God everywhere even in the midst of temptation; he hides in prayer under the shadow of the Almighty; his love casts out fear.—The courage and boldness of Christ’s soldiers springs from their fear of temptation, just as in battle the courage which defies death springs from a calm view of the danger incurred.—Perfect love casteth out fear.—“Deliver us from evil.”—Along with the anticipation of the last assault, the believer will also obtain anticipation of final deliverance.—Deliverance in its threefold form:—at the commencement, in the middle, and at the end of our journey to heaven.—Deliver us from evil: 1. From sin here and hereafter; 2. from evil here and hereafter.—The last petition the commencement of triumph.—The intercession of the three [or four] last petitions.—Our confidence in prayer derived from the assurance that God is able and willing to help us.—The climax of our prayer is praise: “Thine is the kingdom,” etc.—The kingdom of God in its threefold form: the kingdom of nature, of grace, and of glory.—The three fold manifestation of the power of God: creation, redemption (the resurrection of Christ), and final judgment and glory.—Threefold manifestation of the glory of God: 1. The image of God glorified; 2. the Church of God glorified; 3. the city of God glorified (God all in all).—“Amen,” or calmness and assurance the fruit of prayer.—The Holy Spirit alone grants the true Amen, in prophetic anticipation of the answer in peace.—The “Amen” as combining the promise of God and the vow of man.—Christ our Yea and Amen.—How in this prayer Christ, 1. Hallows the name of God; 2. brings the kingdom of heaven; 3. reveals and fulfils upon earth the will of heaven; 4. appears as the manna from heaven; 5. introduces pardon and peace; 6. manifests Himself as the Shepherd and Guardian of His people; 7. as perfect Saviour and Deliverer; and hence as the Burden of the new song of the redeemed.—Prayer an outgoing of faith, through Christ, to God.—Prayer, or personal converse with God, is holy love.—The right relationship of Christians toward their neighbors, toward God, and toward themselves.—To give—to give oneself, and to surrender18—is, in a spiritual sense, to lend, to receive, and to enjoy.
Starke:—Jesus the Patron, the Advocate, and the Provider of the poor, Joh_21:5.—God loveth a cheerful giver, and His righteousness endureth for ever, 2Co_9:7; 2Co_9:9; Pro_22:9.—It is proof of the folly of men, that they seek honor of each other, Joh_12:43; and not rather that they may fird acceptance with God, Psa_31:8.—Our best works become sin, if done only for the sake of appearance.—Our alms form part of our treasure; he who does not hide it, seems like one anxious to have it stolen, Mar_12:42-44.—Pray without ceasing, 1Th_5:17.—The prayer of the righteous availeth much, if it be earnest, Psa_145:18; Jam_5:16; but that of the hypocrite availeth nothing, Luk_18:10; Luk_18:14.—We may everywhere find a place for prayer, 1Ti_2:8; Jon_2:2-3; but the prayer of the hypocrite is a lie wherever it be offered, Psa_50:16-17.—Sinful intentions in the heart may destroy the most holy outward acts, Luk_18:10; Luk_18:14.—Prayer presupposes solitude, at least of the heart,—the most secret place in the house of God which is within, where we should close the door behind us, even though it be in public prayer, or in the largest assembly, 2Ki_4:4; Psa_77:3.—Quesnel: Prayer requires heart rather than tongue, sighing rather than words, faith rather than reason, Mar_11:23.—Würtemberg Bible: Those brief ejaculatory prayers19 sent up to heaven in few words, and which may be uttered even while engaged in our daily labor, are by far the richest and best, Mat_15:25.—Quesnel: Prayer is not intended to inform God, but to set before man his misery, to humble his heart, to awaken his desires, to kindle his faith, to encourage his hope, to raise his soul toward heaven, and to remind him that his Father, his home, and his eternal inheritance are above, Php_3:20.
The Lord’s Prayer.—Quesnel:—A king who himself draws up the petition which is to be presented, must surely take great pleasure in granting it, Isa_65:24; Joh_16:23.—It is not wrong for an unlettered Christian to make use of a form of prayer; but it is well to accustom ourselves to bring our wants before God in our own words.—Our heavenly Father alone is to be worshipped, and no creature, Mat_4:10.—Maj. Harm.: The kingdom of God comes from heaven to earth, in order that earth may become heaven. None of us can ascend from earth to heaven, unless the kingdom of God have first descended on us from heaven to earth, Luk_17:20-21.—Poor sinful man!—we are, so to speak, afflicted with spiritual impotence, so that we cannot come to the kingdom of God, but the kingdom of God must come to us, Joh_6:44.—The will of God cannot be done unless we are willing, so much as lieth in us, to deny the will of our flesh, of Satan, and of an evil world, Rom_12:21.—Our daily bread comes from God, and not by blind fortune, or by fate, Hos_2:8.—Let us be satisfied with what is absolutely necessary, and not ask God for more than that, 1Ti_6:8; Pro_30:8.—The ungodly receive their bread by the intercession of the saints, Gen_41:54.—The poor equally pray for the rich, and the rich for the poor.—If we are not ready to forgive, we only pray against ourselves, or invoke wrath and vengeance, which God will execute upon us, even as we reserve vengeance against our neighbor, Sir_28:14.—The life of the Christian a continual conflict.—Maj. Harm.: Our comfort under all temptations is this, that God is with us, that He sets bounds, and will make all things work together for our salvation, 1Co_10:13; 2Ti_4:17.—We endure under temptation, not in our own strength, but in that of God, 1Co_10:13; 2Pe_2:9; Isa_41:10-14.—Quesnel: Ah! how many snares are there, how many hindrances to what is good, how many occasions to sin, how many enemies of salvation, how much sorrow and misery! Psalms 106—Thou who temptest others to sin, who exposest thyself wantonly to temptation, or who in temptation lightest yet not with the armor of God, why wilt thou mock God by praying, “Lead us not into temptation?” 1Pe_5:6; Eph_6:11.—Canst thou be afraid of death, and yet pray, “Deliver us from evil?”—He has already delivered us from evil, He does deliver us, and He will perfectly deliver us, 2Ti_4:18; 2Co_1:10.—The honor of God should be the first and the last object of our prayers (Thy name, etc.; for Thine is, etc.), Psa_69:31; Psa_115:1.—Spiritual fasting consists in ceasing from evil, Isa_58:6-7; and in temperance in all things, Luk_21:34.—The popish fasts are a constraint of conscience, a mockery, a hypocrisy, and a superstition, 1Ti_4:3.—The more a sinner seeks to attract the attention of men, the further does God turn His compassion from him, Act_12:21; Act_12:23.—In order to be a sincere Christian, it is not necessary to hang our head like a bulrush. Isa_58:5.—The life of believers is hid with Christ in God; but when Christ, who is their life, shall appear, they also shall appear with Him in glory, Col_3:3-4; 2Co_6:9-10.—Our good works, though done in secret, are not lost.
Lisco:—True righteousness: It consists not in appearance, but in reality and truth; its objects are not earthly, but heavenly; it has respect to the judgment of God, not to that of man. “Reference” to God the sole motive of truly good works.
Gerlach:—A comparison of this passage with Mat_5:16 shows that in this instance also our Lord teaches by contrasts. He unmasks selfishness in all its forms, both when it conceals unbelief under the garb of humility and retirement, and when it exhibits its fancied treasures to the view of men. It may be equally wrong in the sight of God to hide our good works ( Mat_6:4) as to display them.—If you would have your most ardent desire accomplished, pray, “Thy will be done.”—The object of fasting is to set us free from the power of the flesh and of the world; but if we employ it to further our worldly views, it will only serve to increase the gulf between God and our souls.
Braune:—The address, Father, is also found Isa_63:16 : “Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer.” This was a temporary anticipation of the higher life of the Spirit of Christ in the prophet (1Pe_1:11). The name, Father, awakens in us the sense of our relationship to God, the feeling of filial love and trust. We have received the spirit of adoption, Rom_8:15; Gal_4:6.
Heubner:—Chrysostom: If you have not heard your own prayers, how can you expect that God shall hear them?—The will of God is in the first place His will with reference to us, which we are to do. The petition therefore means: Take away our own will, and let Thy will be my rule. But, further, the will of God also implies His purposes concerning us. Hence the petition means: Give us such a mind as to be satisfied with whatever Thou sendest, and never to murmur.—A Christian must learn also to have dominion over his body.
Literature.—Fr. Arndt [of Berlin]: Zehn Predigten über das Gebet des Herrn, 1836; Niemann: Zehn Predigten über das Vater Unser, 1844.—[Also Tertullian: De oratione (who calls the Lord’s Prayer: Breviarium evangelii); Cyprian: De oratione Dominica; Augustine: De serm. M. ii. 4–8; Serm. 56–58; Origen: Περὶ εὐχῆς; Gregory of Nyssa: De oration Dominica; Cyril of Jerusalem: Catech. xxiii.; Bp. Andrewes (Anglican, who calls the Lord’s Prayer “a compendium of faith”): Works, Oxf., 1841 sqq., vol. v., 350–476); the explanations of this Prayer in the leading Catechisms of Luther, Calvin, Heidelberg, Westminster, of Trent, etc.; Löhe (Germ. Luth.): Sermons on the Lord’s Prayer; Wm. R. Williams (Baptist): Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, New York, 1850.—P. S.]
ADDENDA
BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR
The Sinaitic Manuscript of the Bible, which Professor Tischendorf rescued from the obscurity of the Convent of St Catharine on Mount Sinai, and carefully edited in two editions in 1862 and 1863,* two years after the issue of the third edition of Dr. Lange’s Commentary on Matthew, has been carefully compared in preparing the American edition of this work from Chapter 8 to the close of the Gospel of Matthew. I thought I was the first to do so, but just before I finished the last pages of this volume, I found that Bäumlein, in his Commentary on the Gospel of St. John,** and Meyer, in the fifth edition of his Commentary on Matthew, both of which appeared in 1864, had preceded me, at least in print. No critical scholar can ignore this manuscript hereafter. For it is the only complete, and perhaps the oldest of all the uncial codices of the Bible, or at least of the same age and authority as the celebrated Vatican Codex (which is traced by some to the middle of the fourth century), and far better edited by the German Protestant Professor, Tischendorf, than the latter was by the Italian Cardinal, Angelo Mai. In the absence of a simpler mark agreed upon by critics (the proposed designation by the Hebrew א has not yet been adopted, and is justly objected to by Tregelles and others on the ground of typographical inconvenience), I introduce it always as Cod. Sin., and I find that Dr. Meyer in the fifth edition does the same. As I could not procure a copy of the printed edition of this Codex till I had finished the first seven chapters, I now complete the critical part of the work by adding its more important readings in the first seven chapters where they differ from the textus receptus, on which the authorized English, as well as all the older Protestant Versions of the Greek Testament are substantially based.
*Novum Testamentum Sinaiticum, sive Novum Testamentum cum Epistola Barnabœ et Fragmentis Pastoris (Hermæ). Ex Codice Sinaitico auspiciis Alexandri II., omnium Russiarum imperatoris, ex tenebris protracto orbique litterarum tradito accurate descripsit Ænotheus Friderious Constantinus Tischendorf, theol. et phil. Dr., etc. etc. Lipsiæ, 1863. The text is arranged in four columns and covers 148 folios; the learned Prolegomena of the editor 81 folios. There is besides a magnificent photo-lithographed fac-simile edition of the whole Sinaitic Bible, published at the expense of the Emperor of Russia, in 4 volumes (3 for the Old and 1 for the New Testament, the latter in 148 folios), under the title: Bibliorum Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus. Auspiciis augustissimis imperatoris Alexandri II. ed. Const. Tischendorf. Petropoli, 1862. A copy of this rare edition I have also consulted occasionally, in the Astor Library of New York. For fuller information on this important Codex (in the words of Tischendorf: “omnium codicum uncialium solus integer omniumque antiquissimus”), we must refer the reader to the ample Prolegomena of Tischendorf, also to an article of Hilgenfeld in his Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie, vol. vii. (1864), p. 74 ff. (who is disposed to assign it to a somewhat later age), and to Scrivener’s treatise, which I have not seen.
**Hengstenberg, in his Commentary on John, concluded in 1863, pays no attention whatever to this Codex, and is very defective in a critical point of view
Mat_6:1.—Cod. Sin. agrees here again with the Vatican MS. (also D., Syr., Hieros., Itala, Vulgata, several fathers, Lachm., Tischend., Treg., Alf.), in reading δικαιοσύνην, righteousness, instead of ἐλεημοσύνην (text, rec., Matthäi, Scholz), which is “a mistaken gloss, the general nature of this opening caution not being perceived.”
Footnotes:
[1] Mat_6:1.—[Textus rec.: ἐλεημοσύνην. But Dr. Lange translates: Eure Gerechtigkeit, your righteousness, adopting δικαιοσὐνην as the correct reading, which is much better authenticated, and preferred by the principal editors of the Greek text. See the critical apparatus in Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, and Tregelles, also Green: Developed Criticism, p. 8.—P. S.]
[2] Mat_6:2.—[The full force of ἀπέ χουσι is not given in the E. V., but in the German: sie haben dahin, i. e., they have their reward in full, they have received all of it, and need not expect any more. See the Greek dict, sub ἀπἐχω.—P. S.]
[3] Mat_6:4.—ἐν τῷ φανερῷ (openly) are omitted in Cod. B. D. Z., etc. [and in Lange’s version].
[4] Mat_6:5.—Text. rec.: ὅταν προσεύχῃ [But the plural προσεύχησθε, ye pray, and οὐκ ἔσεσθε, ye shall not be, is well sustained and adopted by Dr. Lange.—P. S.]
[5] Mat_6:6.—Openly is better sustained here (E. K. L., etc.) than in Mat_6:4.
[6] Mat_6:11.—[“Daily bread,” or “tägliches Brot,” is a free but substantially correct and generally intelligible translation of ἄρτος ἐπιούσιος, and very properly retained by Dr. Lange from Luther’s version, with which here the Author. English and all other English versions (Tyndale, Cranmer, and Geneva) correspond, except Wielif. who renders: breed ouir other substaunce, and the Romish V. of Rheims and Douay, which follows the Vulgate and renders: super substantial bread. Daily is also found in the Itala of the second century (panem nostrum quotidianum) in the Vulguta in Luk_11:8 (but not in Mat_6:11, where the Vulgate reads supersubstantialem). and in most of the modern European versions, the French (pain quotidien), the Dutch (dagelicks Broot). the Italian of Diodati (pane cotidiavo). The only other translation which is admissible and gives good sense, is that of the Peschito: “our needful bread” (comp. Murdock’s transl. of the Peschito, New York, 1852), or bread suited to our nature, or as others modify it: bread necessary for our subsistence, sufficient. This is the explanation of Origen, Chrysost., Theophyl., Beza, Tholuck, Ewald, Arnoldi, and amounts in meaning to the same as the more popular translation “daily bread.” The precarious etymology and explanation now in vogue and adopted by such eminent biblical philologists as Winer in his Grammar of the N. T., and Fritzsche and Meyer in their Com. on Matthew, derives ἐπιούσιος from ἐπιέναι, after the form of the fem. part. ἐπιοῦσα sc. ἡμέρα (dies crastinus), and would thus make us pray to-day for the bread which we may need to-morrow. But this, as Lange (in the Com), Alford and others observe, is evidently inconsistent with the Saviour’s warning in Mat_6:34. and as Conante remarks in a Judicious note ad loc., would make us pray for an absurdity, since we have no need to-day of to-morrow’s bread: “Taking the word bread in the literal sense (as sustenance for the body), the only thing we can ask, without a manifest absurdity, is bread sufficient for the day, or daily bread.” Salmasius made the same objection, and asked. “Quid est ineptius, quam panem crastini diei nobis quotidie postulare?” Schöttgen quotes passages from the Rabbis, which show that even among the most pious of the Jews it was not customary to pray for the things of the morrow. As ἐπιούσιος is found only here and in the parallel passage, Luk_11:3, but in no other Greek writings, its meaning cannot be ascertained from usage, nor from etymology alone. Meyer, however, admits that ἐπιούσιος may be derived from the noun οὐσία (or from the fem. participle of εἶναι, as παρουσἰα, μετουσία). The objection that then it would be ἐπούσιος instead of ἐπιούσιος, is not decisive, since we have ἔποπτος (visible), and the poetic form ἐπίοπτος; comp. also ἐπίορκος (from ὄρκος), ἐπίουρος (from οὖρος), ἐπιόγδοος, seven and a half, sesquioctavus (from ὄ γδοος). Nor does οὐσία only mean existence and essence, but also substance, property, subsistence; comp. Luk_15:12 : τὸ ἐπιβάλλον μέρος τῆς οὐσίας, the portion of goods that fulleth to me, der sufullende Theil des Vermögens. And even if we take οὐσία in the sense of existence, ἐπιοὐσιος might still be explained: needful or sufficient for our existence. Jos. Mede observes that the petition may be thus paraphrased: τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν, μὴ περιούσιον (not abundant or superfluous), ὰλλὰ τὸν ἐπιούσιον (but sufficient) δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον. He identifies the ἄρτος ἐπιούσιος with the lehem huki in Agur’s prayer, Pro_30:8, and derives this petition from it. So Lange in Com.—Bread, like the Hebrew לֶחֶם, is a synecdoche for everything necessary to sustain life, comp. Gen_43:25; Gen_43:31; Gen_43:34.—P. S.]
[7] Mat_6:12.—Text. rec.: ἀφίεμεν, which is sufficiently sustained. For ἀφήκαμεν are Cod. B. Z. and ancient fathers. Perhaps it arose from liturgical arrangements (the reconciliation of men before the holy communion).
[8] Mat_6:13.—The doxology [from: “For Thine—Amen”] is omitted in B D. Z., etc. [Alford ad loc. says: “The doxology must on every ground of sound criticism be omitted. … We find absolutely no trace of it in early times, in any family of MSS. or in any expositions” But on the other hand the Peschito already has it, and Stier eloquently defends it, though on subjective grounds. It was probably inserted in the beginning of the 4th century from the liturgies and the primitive habit of the Christians in praying the Lord’s Prayer. Comp. Com. below.—P. S.]
[9] Mat_6:18.—ἐν τῷ φανερῷ is omitted in many Codd., as in Mat_6:4.
[10]Even in Tobias Mat_4:11-12, alms are represented as righteousness before God, and as the means of obtaining forgiveness. In the ancient Church they were regarded as means of indulgence. Comp. the Sermons of Leo the Great. See Heubner, p. 78.
[11] [“Thust du was Gutes, so wirf es in’s Meer,
Weiss es der Fisch nicht, so weiss es der Herr”]
[12][Among British and American commentators those belonging to the Presbyterian, Congregational, Methodist, Baptist, and other non-Episcopal denominations generally maintain that the Lord’s Prayer was intended not as a formula to be literally and invariably used, although it is undoubtedly very proper to use it within certain limits, but as a general pattern rather for all our prayers, private and public. See Henry, Barnes, Alexander, Owen, Jacobus, Whedon, Nast ad Mat_6:9. Episcopalian commentators differ like the Germans. Dr. Alford (a liberal Anglican) says: “It is very improbable that the prayer was regarded in the very earliest times as a set form delivered for liturgical use by our Lord. The variations of τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν καὶ γὰρ αὐτοὶ ἀφίομεν παντὶ ὀφείλοντι ἡμῖν, and τὸ καθ’ ἡμέραν in Luke, for the corresponding clauses in our text, however unimportant in themselves, have been regarded as fatal to the supposition of its being used liturgically at the time when these Gospels were written. It must be confessed that we find very few traces of such use in early times” Dr. Wordsworth (conservative Anglican) on the other hand remarks ad Mat_6:9 : “Our Lord here, by this prayer (comp. the Benediction, Num_6:23; Deu_26:13) authorizes forms of prayer (and adopts petitions already in use in Forms of Prayer among the Jews), and delivers a particular form of prayer to be used, and to serve as a pattern for the subject and order of our desires and prayers, and therefore as a guide for our practice.”—There is truth here on both sides. This matchless prayer was undoubtedly given both as a form to be rightly, i. e., devoutly and reverently used on all proper occasions (comp. the λέγετε in Luk_11:2), and as a model for all other prayers. The former abuse of the Lord’s Prayer as an empty formula oft repeated without devotion and profit in the Roman Church (hence Luther called it the greatest martyr), led some sections of Protestantism to the opposite extreme of neglect of this shortest and richest, simplest and deepest of all prayers ever uttered by man or angel, the perfect model prayer which could only proceed from the lips of the Son of God. Dr. Thomas Scott has hit the right medium in the following note: “It may often be [better: it undoubtedly is] proper to use the very words, but it is not always necessary; for we do not find that the apostles thus used it: but we ought always to pray after the manner of it, that is, with that reverence, humility, seriousness, confidence in God, zeal for His glory, love to mankind, submission, and moderation in temporal, and earnestness about spiritual things, which it insulates; avoiding vain repetitions, and using grave and comprehensive expressions.” Comp. also the remarks of Ad. Clarke, and Dr. D. Brown ad loc.—P. S.]
[13][Alford takes a similar view: “ἀλλά must not be taken as equivalent to εἰ δὲ μή, q. d. ‘but if thou dost, deliver,’ etc.; but is rather the opposition to the former clause, and forms in this sense but one petition with it,—‘bring us not into conflict with evil, but rather deliver (rid) us from it altogether.’ In another view, however, as expressing the deep desire of all Christian hearts to be delivered from all evil … these words form a seventh and most affecting petition, reaching far beyond the last.” So also D. Brown ad loc.—P. S.]
[14][Alford: “’Thy kingdom‘ here is the fulness of the accomplishment of the kingdom of God, so often spoken of in prophetic Scripture; and by implication all that process of events which lead to that accomplishment. Meyer in objecting to all ecclesiastical and spiritual meanings of ‘Thy kingdom,’ forgets that the one for which he contends exclusively, the Messianic kingdom, does in fact include or imply them all.”—P. S.]
[15][Alford takes ἐπιούσιος likewise in the sense: proper for our sustenance, after the analogy of ἐπίγαμος, fit for marriage, ἐπιδόρπιος, fit for the banquet, and considers it equivalent to τὰ ἐπιτήδεια τοῦ σώματος in Jam_2:16 (rendered in Syriac transl. by the same word). He also thinks we may safely understand the expression spiritually, of the bread of life, provided we keep in the foreground its primary physical meaning, and view the other as involved by implication in that. The Anglican Catech. understands the dally bread to mean “all things that be needful for our souls and bodies.” On the different explanations, see especially Tholuck, Meyer, and Conant.—P. S.]
[16][Hence Luther somewhere calls the Lord’s Prayer “the greatest martyr.”—P. S.]
[17][Dr. Lange alludes here more particularly to the difference between the German Lutherans, who pray: “Vater unser,” “Father our” (which is the ancient form and corresponds to the Latin Pater noster), and the German Reformed, who pray “Unser Vater,” “Our Father,” which is the modern German and was used by Luther himself in his German version of the Bible, Mat_6:9; Luk_11:2. This difference, insignificant as it is, has often been exaggerated and been a cause of alienation of feeling and disturbance in devotion. So, also, the Lord’s Supper, intended to be a sacred feast of love and union with Christ and His people, has innocently become the occasion of the most bitter theological strifes.—P. S.]
[18][In German: Geben. Hingeben, Aufgeben.—]
[19][Called by Luther: Kurze Stossgebetlein.—]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound…
Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee--The expression is to be taken figuratively for blazoning it. Hence our expression to "trumpet."
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 Luk 12:1-2).
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in the synagogues and in the streets--the places of religious and secular resort.
that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you--In such august expressions, it is the Lawgiver and Judge Himself that we hear speaking to us.
They have their reward--All they wanted was human applause, and they have it--and with it, all they will ever get.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–4 a. Sincerity in alms.
a. Sincerity in alms.
1. Take heed — Mark well this point of danger. Do alms — The Greek word for alms, according to the best manuscripts, is a different word from alms in Mat_6:2. The word literally signifies righteousness. According to the Jewish usage, the word included the three righteous external acts — alms, prayer, and fasting; alms to thy neighbour, prayer to God, fasting to thyself. The precept in this verse, including all these three, requires that they should be done with an eye to God alone, and not to man. To be seen of men — But are we not commanded to let our light shine? We are so; but the object and end, even then, are not to be seen of men; but the being seen of men is a mere means of inducing others to do likewise, and securing glory for God. The one terminates motive in man and his applause; the other terminates in God and his cause. And this answers the common cavils against the operations of public societies who publish their benefactions. No reward of your Father — You serve the eyes of men, and from men must be all your reward. Act for God’s eye, and God will reward you. Human approbation is a good; a desire for it has its proper place. But it is not its right to fill the place of God’s approbation.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Ch. Mat_6:1-4. Almsgiving
Ch. Mat_6:1-4. Almsgiving
(2) The Kingdom of Heaven exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees in regard to (a) Almsgiving, 1–4
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1. alms] The best MSS. have “righteousness;” the two words were nearly synonymous with the Jews, partly because the poor had a right to share in the produce of the land; partly because almsgiving is the most natural and obvious external work of righteousness. In the same way agapé (love), the leading Christian virtue, has lost its original breadth of meaning and has sunk to the modern and restricted sense of “charity.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–4 (1) From the protest against the casuistry which tampered…
VI.
(1) From the protest against the casuistry which tampered with and distorted the great primary commandments, the Sermon on the Mount passes to the defects of character and action which vitiated the religion of Pharisaism even where it was at its best. Its excellence had been that it laid stress, as the religion of Islam did afterwards, on the three great duties of the religious life, almsgiving, fasting, and prayer, rather than on sacrifices and offerings. Verbally, Pharisaism accepted on this point the widest and most spiritual teaching of the prophets, and so its home was in the Synagogue rather than the Temple, and it gained a hold on the minds of the people which the priests never gained. But a subtle evil found its way even here. Love of praise and power, rather than spontaneous love, and self-denial, and adoration, was the mainspring of their action, and so that which is the essence of all religion was absent even from the acts in which the purest and highest form of religion naturally shows itself.
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Your alms.—The better MSS. give righteousness, and obviously with a far truer meaning, as the wider word which branches off afterwards into the three heads of alms, fasting, prayer. In Rabbinic language the whole was often used for the part, and “righteousness” was identified with “mercifulness,” and that with giving money. The Greek version of the LXX. often renders the Hebrew word for righteousness by “alms.” In the New Testament, however, there is no such narrowing of its meaning, and here the full significance of the word is fixed by its use in Mat_5:20. The reading “alms” probably arose from a misconception of the real meaning of the passage, and the consequent assumption that it simply introduced the rule given in Mat_6:2-3.
To be seen of them.—It is the motive, and not the fact of publicity, that vitiates the action. The high ideal of the disciple of Christ is to let his light shine “before men” (the self-same words are used in Mat_5:16 as here), and yet to be indifferent to their praise or even their opinion. In most religious men there is probably a mingling of the two motives, and we dare not say at what precise stage the presence of the lower overpowers the higher. It is enough to remember that it is the little speck which may taint the whole character till it loses all its life.
Of your Father which is in heaven.—More accurately, with your Father, as meaning, “in His estimate.” The act is not done to and for Him, and therefore (speaking after the manner of men) He looks on it as having no claim to payment.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Vers. 1-18. The relation of our Lord and his…
Vers. 1-18. The relation of our Lord and his disciples to the religion of the day (continued); vide Mat_5:17, note. (b) Our Lord turns from cases which could be directly deduced from the Law to those which belonged only to recognized religious duty. Of these he instances three: alms (vers. 2-4), prayer (vers. 5-8, 9-15), fasting (vers. 16-18). It is, indeed, true that the performance of these duties on special occasions was implied in the Pentateuch; (Deu_26:12-15) but there are no regulations concerning their observance in ordinary and daily life. These were matters of custom and tradition; to this the Law, in its original aim and method, did not extend. There was therefore the more need for the Law to be supplemented by the instructions of the Jewish leaders. These our Lord does not reject, but only corrects.
Matthew only. Take heed; prosecete de (Westcott and Hort). If "but" is genuine, as is on the whole more probable, our Lord places this warning in close relation to the preceding charge. Aim at "perfection," but beware of mere show. Rather you must consider the estimate that will be formed of you by your Father which is in heaven. That ye do not your alms; Revised Version, your righteousness (so the manuscripts). Although one of the Hebrew words for "righteousness" (hqrx) was used especially for the righteousness of almsgiving, (cf. Deu_6:25, LXX; and "Psalms of Solomon," 9:6, where see Professor Ryle"s and Mr. James"s note) yet it is improbable that thnhn should here be rendered "alms," because
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(1) it has this meaning nowhere else in the New Testament;
(2) the word for "alms" (elehmosunh) comes in the next verse;
(3) the emphatic position of thnhn (mh poiein), in contrast to poihv elehmosunhn (ver. 2), points to it being a collective expression of which the various parts are mentioned in the following verses. The form also of the sentence, when," etc., at the head of each of the other subjects, (vers. 5, 16) shows that these are co-ordinated with ver. 2. Your; in contrast to that of the typical Jews. The limitation implied in umwn , gives a more partial and probably more external meaning to righteousness" (cf. Eze_18:22, Eze_18:24) than is to be seen in the corresponding phrase in 1Jn_2:29 1Jn_3:7. To be seen of them (pro yeayhnai autoiv . Having for your final purpose. (cf. Ellicott on 1Co_9:18) to be gazed at by them (cf. Mat_23:5 Act_1:11; and T.R. of Act_8:18; at. supra, Mat_5:28) Otherwise (Winer, c). Ye have no reward. (Mat_5:12, note) Of your Father; Authorized Version margin and Revised Version, with; the thought being not that it is given by him, but that it is laid up with him (para tw Patri umwn). Perhaps, however, the preposition rather means "in the judgment of". (cf. 1Pe_2:4) Your Father. (Mat_5:16. note) Notice the frequent repetition of the phrase in this context. (Mat_5:48 Mat_6:4, Mat_6:6, Mat_6:8, Mat_6:15, 18 bis)
Vers. 1-18. The third part of the sermon: the danger of unreality.
I THE FIRST EXAMPLE: ALMSGIVING.
1. The spiritual estimate of actions. The Christian"s righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. They did their righteousness, their good works, before men, to be seen of them. It must not be so with us. Indeed, we are bidden to let our light shine before men. A holy life hath a persuasive eloquence, more persuasive far than holy words; it must not be hidden; its influence is far too precious to be lost. Men must see the fair deeds which spring from holiness, and so be led to glorify the most holy God, from whose grace and presence all holiness comes. Good works must sometimes be done before men. This is not the thing condemned, but the unworthy motive, "to be seen of them." As Chrysostom says, "You may do good deeds before men, and yet seek not human praise; you may do them in secret, and yet in your heart wish that they may become known to gain that praise." This earthly motive poisons the life of the soul; it destroys all the beauty of good deeds. Nay, good deeds are not good when they are done for the sake of display; their goodness is only outside show; it has no depth, no reality. For every moral action has its two parts, the outward and the inward. We see the outward only. That may seem to be good; but it is a mere falsehood unless it springs from worthy motives. The real action is the inward part, the inner choice of the will. It is the motive that gives colour, character, spiritual meaning to the act, that determines the spiritual value of the action. If the motive is holy, the act is holy and beautiful in the sight of God, though it may be the gift of two mites, which make a farthing. If the motive is low and selfish, the outward action, though to men it may seem magnificent, heroic, is spiritually worthless; it hath no reward of our Father which is in heaven.
2. The false motive. Unreality is hypocrisy; it is acting. The hypocrite acts a part before men; he assumes a character which is not really his. He gives alms in the streets; he wishes to be seen. He does not in his heart pity the afflicted; he is not merciful; he does not really care to do good. His one desire is to win the praise of men; he forgets that God seeth the heart. In the synagogue, in the church, he gives for the poor, for the work of the Church; but even there, in the house of God, he forgets the presence of the all-seeing God; he thinks only of the many eyes that see his outward act, not of the One that sees its inward meaning and estimates its true value. Such men have their reward, the Saviour says; they have it to the full, they have it all in this world. What they looked for was the praise of men. They do not always get it; even men sometimes see through the hypocrite, and feel the hollowness of his life. But if they get it, it is all they get. God has no reward for them; they did not care for that praise which cometh only from him; they sought it not, and they have it not.
3. The true motive. The glory of God. The Christian gives out of love love to God and love to man; he seeks not glory of men. He gives in all simplicity, in the singleness of his heart. He does not dwell in self-complacency on his good deeds, his self-denials; he rather hides them, as far as may be, from the sight of men. For he lives in faith, and faith is the evidence of things not seen; he lives in the presence of the unseen God; he seeks above all things to be well pleasing to him. Our Father seeth in secret; it is an awful thought. He sees the real meaning of our life, of all our words and deeds. It is vain to act a part before him. The hypocrite"s mask will not conceal the littleness, the meanness of his soul. God seeth in secret; he will reward those who live in the faith of that unseen presence, and try in secret, in the secret thoughts and motives of the heart, to live as he would have them to live, in holy love, in deep humility, in quiet obedience. He will reward them openly. The word "openly" may be of doubtful authority here; but we know that the reward will be conferred in the sight of men and nations. All nations will be gathered before the King when he cometh in his glory, and all his holy angels with him. He will reward them. Eternal life is a gift the gift of God; it comes from his free and generous bounty, unearned and undeserved. It is wholly incommensurate in its exceeding blessedness with the poor unworthy services which the best of men can render to the Lord. But in his love and. condescension he accepts them as done unto himself, and calls his gracious gift that gift which is above price, passing all that heart can conceive a reward for our mean and humble offerings.
II THE SECOND EXAMPLE: PRAYER.
1. The false prayer. The prayer of the hypocrite is no true prayer; it is only acting; it goes no deeper than the lips. Men may hear it; it reaches not the ear of God. The sound of many voices goes up from the crowded church; they are alike in the perception of men. God can distinguish them; he knows which is meant for his ear only, and which, though the sacred Name is used, is addressed really to the congregation, and not to God. The hypocrites have their reward. They sought to be heard of men; they are heard. They sought not to be heard of God; God heareth them not.
2. The true prayer.
(1) "Enter into thy closet, shut the door." It is not the place, Chrysostom says, that God regards, but the heart and the motive. Enter into thy closet; it profits not unless God is with thee there. Shut the door; it profits not it" worldly thoughts can enter. You may find a closet in the densest crowd, if you hush your heart into the solemn consciousness of the presence of the God that heareth prayer.
(2) "Pray to thy Father." In true prayer the world is shut out of the heart; the Christian is alone with God, solus cum solo; he puts himself solemnly into the presence of God when he begins his devotions; his great effort throughout is to realize that Divine presence, and to keep distracting thoughts away. True prayer requires the exercise of all our highest faculties thought, feeling, desire, love. True prayer requires the continual help of the Holy Spirit of God. Pray to thy Father, not to the world; not to catch the ear of men, but only to God. Thou art speaking; he is listening; he heareth, if the prayer is really said to him. Other motives, the thought of men, the desire of human praise, destroy the value of the prayer, empty it of its meaning; it is lost, dissipated among earthly things; it reaches not the ear of God.
(3) "Use not vain repetitions." The Lord repeated the same words of prayer thrice in his great agony. The repetition is not condemned, but the multitude of words without thought; the idea that much speaking in itself, apart from spiritual earnestness, ensures a favourable answer. Much speaking is not always much praying. There may be more prayer in a torment of intense supplication than in hours of mere talk; more real prayer in the silent uplifting of the heart to God than in the loudest cries. The priests of Baal cried from morning until evening, "O Baal, hear us!" but there was neither voice nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. Hannah prayed in silence; her voice was not heard, but her prayer reached the mercy-seat. The penitent thief lifted up one earnest prayer in his mortal agony; the prayer was answered, and his soul was saved. There is no need of much speaking to give God information of our state and our necessities; he knows what is for our good better than we know ourselves. What is necessary is the hungering and thirsting after righteousness, the intense single-hearted desire of pardon and acceptance with God.
III THE LORD"S PRAYER. The Lord Jesus gives us a model for our prayers a prayer very different from the vain repetitions, the much speaking, against which he has been warning us; but, though short and simple, comprehensive and complete. It expresses every possible desire of the instructed Christian; all that we need to ask, whether for the greater glory of God, for ourselves, or for others. He has taught us what we should pray for; we know it, we learned it long ago; we have said it daily from our childhood. It is easy to learn the sacred words, but, alas! hard to.pray them. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities; he maketh intercession for us, with us, m us. He is the great Teacher; he, only he, can teach the great, holy, blessed, difficult art of true acceptable prayer. May he teach us, of his infinite mercy!
1. The address.
(1) "Our Father." We Christians are taught to approach God as our Father. That form of address is not common in the Old Testament Scriptures; it occurs here and there incidentally. But now we have received the adoption of sons; the Lord Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, gives unto those that are his power to become the sons of God. "I ascend," he said, "to my Father and your Father:" his Father, indeed, in a far deeper and more mysterious sense, but yet our Father too; for God hath knit together his elect in the mystical body of Christ, and, being made one with Christ, the Eternal Son, they too are sons of God. "Through him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father." He bids us say, "Father," our Father. God is our Father by creation; he made us; he sustains us: all that we are and have is his. He is our Father by adoption: "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." He is our Father, if we be Christians in heart and in truth, by a yet holier bond: "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." We come to him, we say, "Father." The word implies a great fulness of most blessed meaning. It tells of love, tender care, wisdom, power, on the one side; on the other, of confiding affection, reverence, trustfulness, obedience, undoubting faith. Our Fatherour; that little word is full of meaning; it tells us that we are all one in Christ Jesus, all equal in the sight of God. There must be no envy, strife, party spirit, in our hearts, least of all in the hour of prayer; for we are one in Christ. One is our Father, even God; and all we are brethren. Earthly distinctions do not reach into the sphere of religion. "The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all." We come to God not merely as individuals, but as members of a great community, a fellowship, a Church. In the hour of prayer we think not only of ourselves; we pray for others relations, friends, neighbours, all who are of the household of faith, all the children of the one great Father. The Lord"s Prayer teaches in its opening clause the duty of intercession.
(2) "Which art in heaven" "Be not rash with thy mouth," saith the Preacher, (Ecc_5:2) "and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few." The child gives reverence to its earthly father; our Father is in heaven, and we are here below. We must hush our hearts into solemn reverence when we come before him in prayer. tie is the great and awful God; the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. But yet he is our Father; he is very near to us, listening to the words of humble prayer, ready to help and save. We come before him with mingled feelings love, awe, humility, penitence, blending into one full utterance of adoration.
2. The first petition. "Hallowed be thy Name." As yet we ask nothing for ourselves; we think only of God. Prayer lifts us out of self, out of the narrow range of selfish thoughts, feelings, hopes, into that communion with God which is the very life of the soul. God will be "all in all" in the regeneration; the highest end of prayer is to raise us nearer and nearer to that blessed consummation, that he may become even now "all in all" to us. This petition, "Hallowed be thy Name," stands first in the Lord"s Prayer, as if to teach us that we must come before God with reverence and godly fear. There can be no true prayer without reverence, without a deep sense of God"s awful holiness and our utter unworthiness. Therefore we begin by asking God to give us grace to feel the holiness of his great Name, that we may never fall into the sin of taking his Name in vain, but may always regard it as most sacred, and pronounce it with solemn reverence. The Name of God in Scripture language means all that can be known of God God as he has revealed himself to us. (comp. Joh_17:6, "I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest me We see him not yet face to face, as he is. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son hath declared all that we can know of him, all that we need to know for our salvation. "Hallowed be thy Name." The seraphim cry, "Holy, holy, holy!" The four living creatures in heaven rest not day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy!" Christ bids his Church on earth to take up the angels" song. In the striking words of Stier, "The "Holy, holy, holy!" of "the highest heavens fills not yet all lands and all hearts." We pray that it may be so. We pray that his great Name may be hallowed in ourselves; that we may walk before him always in lowly obedience, that we may come before him in prayer with solemn, awful reverence, and yet with childlike love. We pray that it may be hallowed not in ourselves only, but in the hearts of others also. May all men feel the power of the holiness of the Lord God of hosts, and so be led to worship him in spirit and in truth! It is only by sanctifying the Lord God in our hearts (1Pe_3:15) that we can pray that prayer aright, that we can learn that "Holy, holy, holy!" which we hope one day to chant in heaven.
3. The second petition. "Thy kingdom come." The kingdom of God is:
(1) The Messianic kingdom, the Church of Christ, the net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind. The prayer is a missionary prayer. We pray that God may enlarge the borders of his Church; that the heathen may be gathered in; that the stone cut out without hands may, according to his Word, speedily become a mountain and fill the whole earth.
(2) The kingdom of grace in the heart. The kingdom of God is "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." We pray that our hearts may become the kingdom of God; that sell" may be dethroned; that the Lord may reign within us; that all our thoughts, wishes, motives, may, by the blessed influence of his Holy Spirit, be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
(3) The kingdom of glory. "Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom." The kingdoms of this world must become the kingdoms of God and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever, King of kings, and Lord of lords. We pray (with awe, it must be; but yet, if we are his, with hope and trustfulness) that it may please him, of his gracious goodness, shortly to accomplish the number of his elect, and to hasten his kingdom. That kingdom must come, we know; but oh! may it please him first to make our hearts wholly his, and to spread the knowledge of his blessed gospel through all the dark places of the earth.
4. The third petition.
(1) "Thy will be done" This is indeed the Lord"s prayer his prayer in a double sense; he taught it, and he prayed it. It is the deepest, holiest prayer of all prayers; the hardest prayer to learn, but full of blessed peace to those who by his grace have learned it.
(a) "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." We pray that God"s will may be done within us; that we may have grace and power to work out our own salvation, by his Spirit working in us both to will and to do. God"s will is that we should be holy. "Be ye holy, for! am holy." We pray that that gracious will of God may have its full range, its perfect work; that our wills, rebellious and wayward as they are, may be subdued and chastened into conformity with the holy will of God.
(b) May God"s will be done by us as we walk before him in the path of holy obedience. He has given us each a work to do; let us see that we do it. Faith without works is dead; the life of sanctification within the heart must bring forth the fruits of holy living.
(c) God"s will is better than our will; he knows better than we what is for our real good. We must pray the prayer of resignation, "Thy will be done." It is very hard sometimes to pray that prayer when troubles come thick upon us, when we are afflicted with pain and sickness, when those whom we have very dearly loved are taken from us. In those times of great sorrow we must think of the Lord as he knelt that awful night in the garden, when his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood failing down to the ground. We may ask, as he did, for relief: "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." But, if we have learned of him, we shall always add those holy words of his, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." There is no peace like the great peace of entire resignation.
(2) The standard. "In earth, as it is in heaven." There the holy angels ever do the blessed will of God; they do it perfectly, they do it cheerfully, without self-denial, without painful effort. There is no place in heaven for a will opposed to the Divine will. The presence of such a will would be a contradiction to the everlasting harmony, a note of discord in the angelic song. It is not so here. Our wills are distorted by inherited corruption, by our own consent to sin. Hence the need of daily self-denial. The sinless, instinctive obedience of the holy angels is above our reach; but it is the model proposed to us for our imitation. Our Father is in heaven; there they do his will. Our citizenship is there; our treasure, our heart, should be there; we must try to live the heavenly life on earth. How would a holy angel live if he were set in our position, among our surroundings? As he would live, so we should strive to live. It is our high calling; nothing short of this ought to satisfy us; it is what we pray for daily. We should ever be looking upwards, striving to live, as each day passes by, more nearly as we pray.
5. The fourth petition. Hitherto we have spoken only of God, now we speak of our own wants. The prayers already uttered are three, and yet one. The first lifts our thoughts to the heavenly Father; the second, to the kingdom which is given to the eternal Son; the third, to the Holy Spirit, by whose help alone we sinful men can do the holy will of God. The prayers are three, and yet one; all meet in the first clause of the angelic hymn, "Glory be to God on high." Now for the first time we speak of ourselves, of our own daily needs. "Give us this day our daily bread." It is a prayer of faith, of trustfulness, of contentment. He is the Lord of the harvest; the increase of the earth cometh from him; it rests with him to give or to withhold; we own it in our daily prayer. We trust him; he is our Father; he knows that we have need of these things; his blessed Son bids us ask. We ask for the supply of our earthly needs in trustfulness, but in submission, remembering the last petition, "Thy will be done." He encourages us to ask, but only for what is needful our daily bread. We ask for it each day as it passes; it is enough for us; we learn contentment from our prayers. Our daily bread, we say; we pray for others, not only for ourselves; our prayer binds us to feed the hungry. But man doth not live by bread alone. We ask not only for common food when we say the prayer which Christ himself hath taught us. We ask, if we are his indeed, for the living Bread himself, the Food of the soul, which if a man receive he shall never hunger. We need that Food every day, every hour; without it the spiritual life must pine away and die.
6. The fifth petition.
(1) "Forgive us our debts." We owe a debt to God, each one of us a great debt; it has been accumulating day after day, year after year; it is like the vast sum, the ten thousand talents, which the servant owed in the parable. Like him, we have nothing to pay. But if we have learned to say, "Our Father," if we have arisen from the life of sin and carelessness and gone to our Father, we know that he will forgive. "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." They are precious words. Our Father sees the first symptoms of repentance; he goes forth to meet the penitent; he embraces him with the arms of his mercy.
(2) "As we forgive our debtors," We cannot really believe in the forgiving love of God unless we find a shadow of it in our own hearts; if we forgive not, if we are hard, stern, unforgiving, we can have no sense of forgiveness. If we forgive others, it is an evidence of our own forgiveness. "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much." The much love proves that she is forgiven; but the soul that hath not love hath no forgiveness. The Lord shows the importance of this law of love by returning again to it. It is the one clause of the prayer which he enforces by an additional warning. God will not forgive the unforgiving; such men turn the prayer which the Lord himself has taught us into a curse upon themselves. We must learn of him who said, "Father, forgive them," the blessed lesson of forgiveness; we must learn it for our soul"s salvation, for "he that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
7. The sixth petition. "Lead us not into temptation." God, we believe, so putteth away the sins of those who truly repent that he remembereth them no more. He cleanseth from all unrighteousness those who confess their sins. We have made our confession now; we have asked for forgiveness; we have pledged ourselves to lead a life of Christian love, to forgive those who have offended us. But still the Lord bids us pray," Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil." The strife with sin will not be ended while we remain in the flesh. We need the grace of God every day, we shall need it to the end. God tempteth no man; he solicits no man to sinful compliance; that is the work of Satan. But God doth prove us; he cloth suffer his people to be disciplined with many trials for the more confirmation of their faith. His providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; we ask him so to order the circumstances of our lives as not to suffer us to be tempted above that we are able. It is a prayer of humility. We know our weakness; we mistrust ourselves; we fear the power of the tempter. This prayer should teach us never to expose ourselves to temptations unnecessarily. We must not run into that danger against which we pray. It should teach us not to judge our brethren hastily; God only knows the power of the temptations which beset them.
8. The seventh petition. It is deeper, more wide-reaching than the sixth. Temptations from without would not endanger us if there were not evil in our hearts. We ask to be delivered from it. "Draw us away from the evil," we say (as the words literally mean), quite away from it; away from evil of every kind, away from the power of the evil one, away from the defiling contact with evil in the world, away from the snares of those sins which do so easily beset us. Evil is all around us. The evil one is always alluring us with his accursed temptations. The world is very evil; it lieth in wickedness perhaps, rather, in the evil one, in the sphere of his activity, his influence. (1Jn_5:19) Our own heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; our will is weak and corrupted. There is need of a power greater than our own to draw us away from the dominion of the strong man armed; there is need of a mighty counteracting attraction to draw us away from the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. That power is the grace of God; his is the kingdom and the power. That attraction is the love of Christ, the constraining influence of the cross. "Draw me, we will run after thee." This prayer pledges us to follow the drawing of God, to enter into the Lord"s battle against the devil, the world, and the flesh. We pray daily to be delivered from evil; we must strive against it, fighting the good fight of faith; or the words of prayer, though they are the holy words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, will not avail to help us.
9. The doxology. We may be compelled by the stern laws of criticism to omit it from the text; but we shall never omit it from our prayers. If it is a liturgical addition, it was made by holy men, men full of the Holy Ghost. It is a precious ending to a precious prayer. The address and the doxology bind the seven petitions together into one perfect prayer. All flow out of the address. He is our Father; he will hear the cry of his children. All rise in faith to the doxology. His is the kingdom and the power and the glory. The kingdom is his. He is King of kings. His kingdom wilt come in his own good time; then shall his Name be hallowed, and his will be done in earth as it is now in heaven. His is the power. He can give us what is needful for our bodies; he can feed us with the bread of life; he can take away our sins and give us the victory over temptation, and save us from every form of evil. His is the glory. Here is our hope of glory, Christ in us; for he saith, "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them." In the last words of the Lord"s Prayer we echo the first words of the angelic anthem with which his birth was hailed. His is the kingdom and the power and the glory, and that for ever. Here is our hope of everlasting life. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. His saints shall reign with him. We say our "Amen;" it is *, he response of the believer. May God the Holy Ghost make that "amen" the true expression of the inner assent of our hearts, teaching us to pray this holy prayer in the full assurance of faith!
IV THE THIRD EXAMPLE: FASTING.
1. The fast which the Lord hath chosen. The Pharisee in the parable pleads his fasting twice in the week as a merit before God. The hypocrites made a show of their self-denials. What they really sought was the reputation of righteousness, the praise of men. They might possibly gain it; it was all that they could gain.
2. The true fast. The Lord classes fasting, as a religious exercise, with almsgiving and prayer. He gives similar rules for its due observance; he promises the like reward. What is necessary is reality; everything that savours of affectation must be banished. Our Father seeth in secret. The whole of our religious, life must be referred to him; our business is with him, with him only. What men think of us matters little; his judgment is of momentous importance. The Christian rule is, "Live unto the Lord, seeking only to please him, referring the whole life of thought and action only to him. He will reward those who give, who pray, who fast, as in his sight, thinking only of him who seeth in secret.
LESSONS.
1. Above all things be real. "All things are naked and opened to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
2. Learn of the Lord the sacred words of prayer. Meditate upon them; make them your own words to take with you.
3. Pray to God the Holy Ghost to teach you to pray them, making them the voice of your heart.
4. Deny yourselves. There is a blessing for those who fast in faith and in simplicity.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Ver. 1. Ostentatious religion.
Having spoken of the duties of everyday social life, our Lord now passes on to deal with specifically religious actions almsgiving, prayer, fasting. One thing he condemns in regard to all of these actions, viz. ostentation. His great requirement is sincerity, and, with this, simplicity and humility.
I THE CHARACTER OF OSTENTATIOUS RELIGION. It is a theatrical performance, carried through before the eyes of men and in order to secure their admiration. In so far as it is ostentatious it does not aim at the service of God at all Attention is not given to his will and approval. The lower sphere is all that is thought of.
1. Ostentatious charity. This was largely practised in the days of Christ, so that the very word "righteousness" came to be narrowed down to the meaning of almsgiving. But it is still prevalent. A person gives not to help the needy or to honour God, but to gain a reputation for generosity. His name must figure in the subscription list. If he were to have no public acknowledgment of his charity, he would withdraw his contributions. Why is it that some people will give more when they "subscribe" than when they put an offering in a "collection" for the very same object?
2. Ostentatious payer. We do not observe the Oriental practice of praying out in the streets. But great attention to public services with neglect of private devotion is of the same character. Or if when at church there is the utmost decorum of behaviour with bent knee and bowed head, while the mind is not in the worship but wandering after idle fancies, this is a show and a sham.
3. Ostentatious self-denial. There are numerous opportunities for self-denial in ways invisible to man. It, therefore, a person passes these by and studies his own comfort in private, while he makes a show of fasting in public, he proclaims himself an "actor;" he is but playing a part. His self-denial is self display, for his own glory, and therefore no real self-denial at all.
II THE FAILURE OF OSTENTATIOUS RELIGION.
1. Its inutility. It has its reward in the admiration of beholders. The hypocrite is praised till he is found out. Nevertheless, he really fails. For if religion means anything, it means the soul"s relations with God. But if in all this foolish display the thought of God is lost, the supposed worshipper is not worshipping. Praying so as to be seen of men, he forgets the one Being whom it is his supreme duty to please.
2. Its positive wickedness. The conduct of the ostentatious worshipper is odious in the sight of God.
(1) It is false. Pretending to be what it is not, claiming admiration for a charity, a piety, and a self-denial that do not really exist.
(2) It is selfish. Worship should be the surrender of self to God. But this show of worship is all for the sake of self.
(3) It is worldly. The admiration of men is cultivated, but there is no thought of a higher Witness. A purely temporal, earthly gain is all that such a religion can contemplate.
(4) It is an insult to God. What can be more awfully impious than to prostitute the soul"s great privilege of communion with God so as to make it a mere decoration of personal vanity? This is rank hypocrisy, of all things the most hateful in the sight of God. W.F.A.
HOMILIES BY P.C. BARKER Vers. 1-4. As to the duty of giving alms.
The matter of the discourse of our Lord proceeds from his illustration of the hitherto unpractised and unnoticed spiritual significance, depth, and far reachingness of the Law, to admonitions which must ever be so sure to be needed of simplicity of motive and purity of heart in our works of "righteousness," or, as perhaps we should more naturally describe them in modern phrase, of religion. It must be noted that the Received Version reads mistakenly, in ver. 1, "alms" instead of "righteousness." This last word, recalling our thought to ver. 20, easily keeps for us unbroken the thread of Christ"s discourse. The more specific of these admonitions as to our religious actions are three in number, and concern the duty of giving alms (vers. 1-4), of praying (vers. 5-15), and of lasting (vers. 16-18). Notice
I THAT THE PRINCIPLE CONTAINED IN THE INJUNCTION CHRIST HERE UTTERS IS NOT THAT HIS DISCIPLES SHOULD ARTIFICIALLY AND UNNATURALLY SMOTHER AND COVER UP IN DARKNESS EVERY ACT OF CHARITY.
1. This would be to the derogation of a previous and important injunction of this very discourse, that they should "so let their light shine before men that," as a consequence, "they might see their good works, and glorify their Father in heaven.
2. The present injunction is explicitly worded to the effect that such good works as almsgiving are not to be done for the purpose of being seen of men, and thereby winning a most superficial glory of them.
II THE INJUNCTION IS THAT THE WORKS OF CHARITY SHOULD TRAVEL SO DIRECT FROM THE HEART TO THE OBJECT OF THEM THAT THEY SHOULD IN NO WISE CONTEMPLATE ANY OUTER OBSERVATION, AND SHOULD, SO FAR FROM THIS, EVEN ELUDE THAT OF THE LEFT HAND WHEN DONE BY THE RIGHT HAND.
III THAT ANYTHING SHORT OF THIS, ANY ADMIXTURE OF SECRET, UNSAFE, UNHEALTHY, CRAVING FOR HUMAN NOTICE AND PRAISE, IS OF A DISENABLING SORT, AND PRECLUDES THE CONTINUAL DEW OF THE DIVINE APPROVAL AND REWARD.
IV THAT NEVERTHELESS OUR WORKS OF CHARITY ARE FREE AND OPEN NAY, RATHER, ARE EVEN TO BE ENCOURAGED TO SUBMIT THEMSELVES TO THE INSPECTION OF THE ONE CLEAR, CALM, UNERRING, AND UNHARMING GAZE OF THE DIVINE EYE, AND THERE HAVE THEIR REWARD. B.
HOMILIES BY MARCUS DODS Vers. 1-18. Sermon on the mount: 4. Ostentatious religion.
After indicating the righteousness which admits to the kingdom of heaven, our Lord proceeds to warn against a flaw that vitiates the goodness of many religious people, and to illustrate it in connection with three chief characteristics of the religious life of those days alms-giving, prayer, and fasting.
I ALMSGIVING has been recognized as one of the first duties by most religions. Under the Jewish Law the poor were well provided for. It was probably in connection with the receptacles for alms in the women"s court of the temple that ostentatious liberality was most frequently indulged in. "Sounding a trumpet" is not to be taken literally, but is only a figure implying that when you do a charity you are not to make a noise about it, but do it so quietly that your own left hand may not know what your right hand is doing, not even letting it dwell much before your own mind, much less craving for acknowledgment from others. We are not beyond the danger of giving, either that we may not be outdone by others, or because our love of applause is stronger than our love of money, and we think it a good use of it if by giving it away we can purchase the good will of our acquaintances.
II IN CONNECTION WITH PRAYER THERE WAS MUCH ROOM FOR OSTENTATION IN THE JEWISH RELIGION. AS the Mohammedan of the present day spreads his prayer-carpet wherever the hour of prayer overtakes him, so the Jew was called on three times a day to pray towards the temple. In every town the synagogues were open at the hour of prayer, and there were also places of prayer, chiefly on the banks of the rivers, that the necessary ablutions might be made on the spot. The Pharisee often allowed himself to be surprised by the hour of prayer in the public square. Ostentation implies insincerity, and insincerity begets vain repetition. Our Lord sets this down as a specially heathen trait, and it is one which abundantly characterizes their practice to this day. But his warning against long prayers and vain repetitions applies to all affectation of continuance in prayer merely because it is the custom and is expected; and to that which arises from indifference and from a want of some clear definite object of desire which we can ask for in plain, simple terms.
For the correction of these faults our Lord gives us an example of simple brief prayer, and also adds the assurance that no elaborate explanations are required, because before we pray our heavenly Father knoweth the things we have need of. He does not shape his answer with only our petition for his guidance, but, knowing before we do what we have need of, he gives us that good gift which we only vaguely conceive. This may suggest the thought Why pray at all? Does not even the earthly parent consider and seek his child"s good without waiting to be asked? Is it otherwise with God? But we are commanded to pray, and this of itself is sufficient justification. Also it is natural the great mass of men having prayed without command. This, if not a justification of the practice, shows we should see clearly before refusing to fall in with it. Moreover, it is by coming in practical contact with his father"s ideas that a child learns to know his father and himself; and the father often keeps back a gift till the uttered request of the child shows he is ripe for it. So by measuring our desires at each step of our life with the will of God, we learn to know him and ourselves, and through the things of this life are brought into true relation with things eternal. The form of prayer which our Lord here gives, he gives chiefly as a model To argue from it that he meant us to use forms of prayer is inconsequent. They have their uses in private to suggest and stimulate; in public to provide for uniformity and seemliness of worship. But when they are used to the extinction or discouragement of unwritten prayer they do harm in private and in public. The practice of private prayer here inculcated is one of the most difficult duties we have to attempt in life. It is often at this point the battle is lost or won. None of the deeper elements of character can grow without much prayer and converse with God. There are some virtues which can be produced by strength of will, but those which spring from the deeper root of reverence, penitence, tender and solemn feeling, can only grow in the retired and peaceful atmosphere of God"s presence. Prayer is the door opened for God into the whole life of man, and to shut him out here is to shut him out wholly. Our Lord himself could not sustain his life without prayer; it is vain, therefore, for us to expect to do so. But, though all this is recognized, private prayer decays. If we can use in the world only that power for good which we receive from God, and if prayer is the gauge of this power, it will register an almost infinitesimal strength. We grudge to our intercourse with God either the time or the consideration we give to any communication that concerns our business or our friendship. And this means that duties that are seen of men we do, but such as are only seen of our Father, who "seeth in secret," we neglect. It means that we are practically atheists, and do not believe there is a Father who sees in secret. The general scope of the passage is a warning against hypocrisy. The hypocrite who is so intentionally is rare. The hypocrisy which is common is that which is unconscious, and in which the hypocrite is himself deceived. He seeks the praise of men more than the praise of God; but he is not himself aware of it. This makes it a fault most difficult to eradicate. But to such men there can be no religion; human judgment is the highest they seek to be approved by. It is their supreme. Even in the religious world men are liable to put the expectations of their co-religionists above the judgment of God. They fear to rebel lest they be considered as falling away from religion. Such persons, as our Lord says, have their reward. They earn the reputation of sanctity by sacrificing the real possession of it. Is it another reward that awaits you? Are you conscious that God, who sees in secret, has laid up in his remembrance many true prayers, many holy desires, many earnest searchings of heart that he has seen in you? Nothing but learning to live in his presence will deliver us from falseness and self-deceit and from courting the favour of men. D.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD Vers. 1-4. Almsgiving.
Underlying this subject is that of social inequality. Without the latter there would be no necessity and therefore no opportunity for alms-giving. Poverty is not an unmitigated evil. Affluence is not an unmixed good.
I SOCIAL INEQUALITY IS A BENEFICENT ARRANGEMENT.
1. It aids the progress of civilization.
(1) Civilization lies in the development of the resources of nature. Such developments are embodied in arts and sciences.
(2) Stimulus is necessary to this progress. Man in his original purity and elevation might, for sheer love of science and art, develop the resources of nature; but in his fallen state his tendencies are savage-ward. When the spontaneity of the soil is overtaxed by the increase of population, then comes the alternative of labour or exterminating war.
(3) Under Christian influence labour is preferred to war. Here social inequality comes in. For industry will be rewarded with plenty, while idleness has to suffer privation, Civilization meanwhile is advanced by industry. The continued growth of population stimulates inventiveness. This reaps its rewards and gives employment to labour. New elements of social inequality now come in, and the arts and sciences are further advanced.
2. It educates the moral qualities.
(1) Social virtues are called forth. If no labouring class existed, no class could be exempt from toil. The rich, therefore, are indebted to the poor for their ease and honour. Were there no poor there could be no rich. Gratitude and equity alike require that the rich should treat the poor with consideration. Hence what is given to the poor is said to be their due. (see Pro_3:27)
(2) The poor, in like manner, are bound to treat their employers with respectful gratitude for finding for them remunerative employment.
(3) We are herein reminded of our duties to our Maker. We could have no conception of our dependence upon God but for our experience of dependence upon the things he has made. The mutual dependence of the social classes brings this lesson more forcibly home. The beast and devil in our fallen nature are restrained by the sense of our responsibility to God.
(4) Scope is afforded for the exercise of Christian graces. Patience is tested and educated. Opportunity is afforded for beneficence. Thought is raised to the contemplation of the suffering and love of Christ.
3. Poverty is not without advantages.
(1) The poor are comparatively free from artificial wants and cares. They can relish plain and wholesome food. They are relieved from the cares of fashion. They are free from the anxiety of keeping wealth, which is much greater than that of getting it. Of all poverty the artificial is the deepest.
(2) The poor are free from the temptations of affluence. To the indulgence of self. To the forgetfulness of God. Let no man murmur at his lot.
(3) The poor are not so mean as they seem. The possession of human nature is vastly grander than the possession of estates. To be a man is greater than to be a monarch. Christ did not refuse to become a man, though he refused to be made a king. The purest aristocracy is that in which manhood is honoured by virtue. This bluest of all blue blood may be acquired by the poorest.
II BENEFICENCE SHOULD BE WITHOUT OSTENTATION,
1. Otherwise it will encourage hypocrisy.
(1) Obviously it will encourage this in the almsgiver. His very object is to gain the applause of men. He seeks this by an affectation of piety towards God.
(2) It will encourage it likewise in the recipient. There is fearful hypocrisy in ostentatious poverty. Vagabonds moving compassion by feigning fits, wounds, mutilations, lameness, etc. These public hypocrites are the people who catch the charity of ostentation. They hear the sound of the Pharisee"s trumpet. They trumpet the Pharisee that he may have his reward.
(3) True beneficence will search out this hypocrisy and expose it, so that the worthy poor may not be cheated by it. It will seek out the worthy poor who suffer in seclusion. To do this may entail trouble, but the steward of wealth should make it his business to disburse faithfully his Lord"s money.
2. Unostentatious charity will encourage industry.
(1) God helps those who help themselves. We should imitate God in helping the industrious. Charity should find employment for the needy. It may be "business" to buy in the cheapest market, but this" is not the rule of charity.
(2) In helping a poor man in his trade, his self-respect is not wounded as it must be by an ostentatious charity. We should remember that every poor man is another one"s self.
3. Charity should seek its rewards from God.
(1) In condemning ostentation modesty is enjoined. Barely being "seen" while doing good is a circumstance purely indifferent. To be seen so as to glorify God is positively good. (cf. Mat_5:16 Mat_10:32, Mat_10:33) To be seen that we may be admired and honoured of men is the offence. For God, not man, is the Source of reward.
(2) "Let not thy left hand know," etc. So do good things as to be, as little as possible, conscious of it yourself. Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone. So the godly shine, though to themselves their shining is unseen.
(3) To the truly charitable God is a Rewarder. The pocket of poverty is a safe bank, for God is the Banker. He converts paper into gold returns spiritual value for material gifts. (cf. Pro_11:24 Pro_19:17 1Ti_6:17-19)
(4) The burden of hoarded property is heavy upon the pillow of death. God will confront the miser in the judgment. (cf. Luk_16:9 Jam_5:1-4)
LESSONS. Avoid monopoly. Spend not upon the rich. Be your own executor. J.A.M.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. The Christian law of giving.
In this second part of the sermon our Lord teaches his disciples how they should stand related to the recognized and usual expressions of religious life. In those days everybody who professed to be religious sought to show people their religion by giving alms, praying, and fasting. But Jesus taught that character, motive, spirit, were the things of supreme importance; and so here he virtually says, "Take care of the motives that inspire religions acts. They win the praise of men, and you may be doing them for the sake of that praise." Our Lord did but state the universal fact when he said, "Ye have the poor always with you." War, limited trade, inefficiently treated disease, and bad governments, have always tended to make a large proportion of Eastern people indigent and beggars. In every religious system the duty of caring for them has been commended.
I ALMSGIVING IN ITS SOCIETY FORM For, apart from all religious considerations, the sympathetic care of the poor is a society duty. And it should be seen that the poor among us have their mission to society, as truly as society has its mission to them. The poor bless us as well as receive a blessing from us.
1. They culture the hallowing sentiment of the "brotherhood of humanity," by calling for brotherly help.
2. They nurture the finer graces of human character; sympathy, gentleness, charity. It is the dark side of civilization that it has so changed our relation to the poor. Hospitality and personal service were the virtues of the simple East. Family isolation, and delegation of service, are the weaknesses of the guileful West. Modern society-relations seem to multiply the poor, so that they get beyond society-control. There are the poor
a. by bodily disability;
b. by unfortunate birth-associations;
c. by exigencies of trade;
d. by temporary distress;
e. by the wrong-doing of others. Almsgiving is still a great society claim and duty.
II ALMSGIVING IN ITS CHRISTIAN FORM. Then it is seen as service directly rendered to Christ. It is a part of the way in which we do his work in the world; and, in doing it, express our love to him. But the loyalty to Christ makes the Christian wholly indifferent to the opinion of men concerning his almsgiving. It leads him
(1) to estimate his means so that he may be able to give;
(2) to carefully consider the claims presented, so that he may give wisely;
(3) to strive to make his gifts a help to moral character, and a witness for his Lord; and
(4) to cherish a holy indifference to men"s praise or blame. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John A. Broadus 1886 · Public Domain On v1 Mat 6:1-4.
Mat 6:1-4.
Good Works Without Ostentation
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I. Alms-Giving
Since Mat 5:17 (see Analysis at beginning of Matthew 5), our Lord has been showing that he requires in the subjects of the Messianic reign, a higher and more spiritual morality than that which was taught and practised by the Scribes and Pharisees. This is continued in Mat 6:1-18; and as Mat 5:20 introduced the first main section, (Mat 5:20-48) so Mat 6:1 introduces the second. (Mat 6:1-18) In Mat 5:20 it is said that their righteousness must exceed the Scribes and Pharisees; accordingly (Weiss, Luketteroth) Mat 5:20-48 gives examples from the teachings of the Scribes, and Mat 6:1-18 from the practice of the Pharisees. The general principle of Mat 6:1 is illustrated by applying it to three exercises highly valued among the Jews (commended together in Tob 12:8), viz. almsgiving, (Mat 6:2-4) prayer, (Mat 6:5-15) and fasting. (Mat 6:16-18) Each of these, he says, should be performed, trot with a view to human approbation and reward, but to that of God. Calvin: "A very necessary admirer in all virtues the entrance of ambition is to be avoided, and there is no work so laudable as not to be in many instances corrupted and polluted by it."
Mat 6:1. Your righteousness[1] i. e., righteous actions or good deeds (as in Mat 5:6, Mat 5:10, Mat 5:20), including such as alms-giving, prayer, and fasting.[2] To do righteousness is a phrase of frequent occurrence, as in Psa 106:3 Isa 58:2, 1Jn 2:29, 1Jn 3:7, 1Jn 3:10. To be seen of them, More fully rendered, ’with a view to be looked at (or gazed at) by them’; the Greek construction is the same as in Mat 5:28, Mat 23:5, conveying distinctly the idea of purpose, design; and the Greek verb is a strong word (the root from which comes theatre), and suggests the being gazed at as a spectacle. So ’hypocrite’ is originally ’actor,’ one who plays a part. This meaning of ’to be seen,’ is very strongly brought out by Tyndale, Great Bible, and Geneva, ’to the intent that,’ etc.; and for ’seen’ Geneva says, ’looked at.’ What our Lord forbids is therefore not publicity in performing good deeds, which is often necessary and therefore proper, but ostentatious publicity, for the purpose of attracting attention and gaining applause. This obviously does not conflict with Mat 5:16, where the object to be had in view is that God may be glorified, not ourselves (See on that passage) No reward of—or, with (compare margin of Com. Ver.), as if laid up in God’s presence for you. Compare Mat 5:12, Mat 5:46; 1Pe 1:4.—The Greek and Roman philosophers and the Jewish writers have many maxims upon the importance of being unostentatious in virtue, especially in deeds of benevolence. A desire for the approbation of our fellowmen is not in itself wrong, and not incompatible with piety, but it should be completely subordinated to the desire that God may approve us, and that he may be glorified in us. This entire subordination is manifestly very difficult, and hence many think it easier to denounce ambition altogether, forgetting that ambition is an original principle of our nature, to destroy which would be as injurious as it is impossible. But while not inherently sinful, ambition, like anger (see on Mat 5:22), is exceedingly apt to become sinful, and hence the solemn warning here given.
[1] This (compare Com. Ver. margin) is the reading of the three oldest uncials that contain the passage (B. à D.), of the Latin versions (nearly all copies) and Latin Fathers, and is adopted by Lach., Tisch., Treg., W. H. It might easily be altered to the word meaning’alms,’ partly because that is the subject of Mat 6:2-4, and many did not see that Mat 6:1 presented a distinct general precept, and partly because the later Jews often used ’righteousness’ as meaning alms, that being in their view the foremost righteousness. (Compare our modern employment of ’charity’ to denote simply alms-giving.) This use is seen in the Talmud, and in the frequent translations of the Hebrew word for righteousness by ’alms’ in the Sept., but is not found in N. T., nor in the Hebrew O. T.; for Gesenius’ examples, Pro 10:2, Pro 11:4 Psa 24:5 Mic 6:5, do not at all require or justify such a sense. But this notion of righteousness as alms, spreading among Christians, might cause ’alms’ to be written in the margin of Mic 6:1 as explaining the supposed meaning of righteousness, and then its substitution by copyists. Notice that the Oriental versions generally read alms, as the usage just mentioned would be readily adopted in an Oriental language.
[2] Several early MSS. and versions insert de, ’But take heed,’ etc., which is adopted by Tischendorf, and given in brackets by Westcott Hort. The question of its genuineness is hard to decide. If adopted, it would seem to imply the expectation that Mat 5:20 and Mat 5:48 would stir in the persons addressed a desire to be righteous, and so they would need the caution,"But take care," etc.
Mat 6:2-4. The first of the three subjects to which our Lord applies the great principle of Mat 6:1 is Alms-giving. (Mat 6:2-4) Therefore presents what follows as an inference from what precedes, the specific precept inferred from the general. Thou, see on Mat 5:23; Mat 6:5. When thou doest, appears to take for granted that they will do so, as likewise in Mat 6:5 and Mat 6:16. The English word ’alms’ is an abridged form of the Greek word here used, eleemosune (compare our adjective eleemosynary), gradually reduced to German almosen, Wyclif’s almesse, Scotch awmous, our alms (ams). Sound a trumpet, is by the Greek commentators and nearly all recent writers understood as merely a figurative expression, common to many languages, for parade and effort to attract notice and applause. There is no authority for the conjecture of Calvin (mentioned as early as Euthymius) and some others (including Stier), that it was a practice among the Jews for an ostentatious alms-giver literally to sound a trumpet before him in public places to summon the needy (sounding it through another person, see margin of Com. Yet.). Lightf. sought long and earnestly for evidence of such a practice, but found none; and it is very improbable that such a thing would have been permitted ’in the synagogues.’ We see much benevolence at the present day so ostentatious that the giver might very naturally be figuratively described as sounding a trumpet before him. The notion of Edersheim,"The Temple," p. 26, that the expression refers to trumpet-shaped contribution-boxes, in the temple treasury, appears extremely far-fetched and fanciful. Hypocrites. The word is borrowed by us from the Greek, and in classic use signified an actor, who wore a mask and played a part. This well illustrates, as it naturally led to, the sense in which the word is so often used in Scripture. As to synagogues, see on "Mat 4:23". That they may have glory, or, be glorified of men, in contrast to seeking the glory which God gives. (Compare Joh 5:44) Verily I say unto you, see on "Mat 5:18". They have, or, have received. So Vulgate, Wyclif; and so Com. Ver. translates the same word in Luk 6:24. The Greek verb is a compound, signifying to have entirely, have the whole of, have in full. The idea is that in being gazed at and glorified by men they have all the reward they will ever obtain, for they must fail of the reward marooned in Luk 6:1. (Compare Psa 17:14) See the same word below in Mat 6:5, Mat 6:16. But when thou doest alms, the position of the words making ’thou’ emphatic, in contrast to the hypocrites. Let not thy left hand, etc. Here, as in Mat 6:2, we have a figurative expression. It suggests the pleasing and striking image of a man passing one who is in need, and with his right hand giving alma in so quiet a way that, so to speak, even his own left hand does not know what is going on. That, in Mat 6:4, is not ’so that’ but ’in order that,’ expressing not simply the result. but the purpose; just as in Mat 6:2, in Mat 5:15, etc. Of course this does not require that all benevolence shall be literally secret, but that no benevolence shall be ostentatious (see on "Mat 6:1"). So far from trumpeting your almsgiving before the public, do not even let it be known to yourself. Which seeth in secret, not exactly who sees what is done in secret, but who is present in secret and sees there. Compare Mat 6:6, Mat 6:18, ’which is in secret.’ Calvin : "He silently glances at a kind of folly which prevails everywhere among men, that they think they have lost their pains if there have not been many spectators of their virtues." Reward, recompense, or, repay, is the word explained on Mat 5:33,[1] and different from the noun rendered ’reward’ in Mat 5:1 f. We are not told when or how the recompense will be given, and may understand that it will be both in time and in eternity, both in character and in felicity.
[1] Himself and ’openly’ are omitted by the earliest manuscripts and most of the early versions. We can see how they may have been written on the margin to bring out the implied contrast, and then supposed to be part of the text because quite appropriate; while if present originally, we cannot imagine why any one should have wished to omit them. So they must be rejected without hesitation.
The Jews held alms-giving in the highest estimation. Thus Tobit, Mat 12:8, says, "It is good to do alms rather than to treasure up gold. For alms delivers from death a misinterpretation of Pro 10:2, Pro 11:4, and this will purge away every sin." Compare Sir 29:11 ff. The Talmud says that almsgiving is "more excellent than all offerings," is "equal to the whole law," will "deliver from the condemnation of hell," and makes a man "perfectly righteous." In the Talmud of Babylon, Psa 17:15, is explained to mean, "I shall behold thy face on account of alms" properly, ’in righteousness’, and the inference is drawn that "on account of one farthing given to the poor in alms, a man becomes partaker of the beatific vision." Maimonides particularizes eight degrees of alms-giving, the merit being graded according to the circumstances. (In like manner the Roman Catholics attach great value to gifts and other kindnesses to the poor, believing that they atone for sins.) Holding the books of Tobit and Sirach to be canonical, they find in them proof-texts for this doctrine. Add to the above Sir 3:30,"alms will atone for sins." In this, as in various other cases, there is reason to fear that Protestants by a natural reaction from Romish error, fail to value an important Christian duty as they should do. See Pro 19:17, also the cup of cold water, (Mat 10:42) the judgment scenes, (Mat 25:35 ff.) also 1Co 9:6 ff.; Php 4:18 f.; 1Ti 6:19; Jas 1:27. That is a good saying of a Roman poet, "It is only the riches you give that you will always have." And see Tob 4:7 ff.
Some of the Jewish writers also enjoin secrecy in alms-giving. Talmud: "He that does alms in secret is greater than Moses." A Mohammedan proverb says: "Hast thou done a good deed, cast it into the sea; if the fish find it not, yet will God see it." And among the traditional sayings of Mohammed, we find,"In alms-giving, the left hand should not know what the right has given"—one of the numerous instances in which Mohammed borrowed from the Scriptures, not only the Old but also the New Testament.
Homiletical And Practical
Mat 6:1. Vinet (in Luketteroth): "To be perfect, (Mat 5:48) it is absolutely necessary to seek the notice and aim at the approval of a perfect being."Chrys.: "It may be, both that one doing alms he had the wrong text before men may not do it to be seen of them, and again that one not doing it before men may do it to be seen of them..... He (Christ) defines both the penalty and reward not by the result of the action, but by the intention of the doer." —Mat 6:1 and Mat 5:16. Good Works in Public. (1) Wrong motive, that men may honour us.
(2) Right motive, that men may glorify God.—Boardman: "Distinguish between doing right in order to help others, as when one lights a beacon in order to guide the sailor, and doing right in order to be praised by others, as when one stands in full blaze of a chandelier in order to display his own jewelry." Dykes: "The actions of piety, like its tones or its gaits, are so imitable, and the imitation is so hard of detection, that they become the invariable livery of the hypocrite. For the same reason, they seduce those who are not yet hypocrites into becoming so. When a man would increase or preserve a reputation for piety which he has once honestly enough obtained, it is fatally easy to perform pious acts, with this end in view, a little oftener or a little more ostentatiously than he would do were he only careful about serving God."
Mat 5:2-4. Two ways of doing good, and two kinds of reward.—what is the hypocrite’s reward? Praise from some of his fellow-men, with the consciousness that he does not deserve it, a perpetual dread lest they find him out, and frequent fears of that coming time when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed.—It is not necessarily wrong to employ example and emulation in persuading men to give. (1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Corinthians 9)—Hypocrisy. (1) Its nature. (2) Its unwilling tribute to true piety—as counterfeit coin is abundant because genuine coin is so valuable. (3) Its reward. (a) the reward it may gain, (b) the reward it must miss. Rochefoucauld: "Hypocrisy is a sort of homage that vice pays to virtue." Henry: "The hypocrite catches at the shadow, but the upright man makes sure of the substance." Ecce Homo: "But there are subtler forms of hypocrisy, which Christ does not denounce, probably because they have sprung since out of the corruption of a subtler creed.... They would practice assiduously the rules by which Christ said heaven was to be won. They would patiently turn the left cheek, indefatigably walk the two miles, they would bless with effusion those who cursed them, and pray fluently for those who used them spitefully. To love their enemies, to love any one, they would certainly find impossible, but the outward signs of love might easily be learnt. And thus there would arise a new class of actors, not like those whom Christ denounced..... hoping to impose by their dramatic talent upon their Father in heaven." Luther: "If we cease our charitable deeds because men are ungrateful, that shows that we were not aiming to please and honour God."
John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (American Baptist Publication Society, 1886) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Alms before men.
Mat_6:1
Alms before men.
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Almsgiving
I. The duty to which our lord refers. The word in the first verse rendered alms is in some ancient copies rendered righteousness; in the second verse it means charitable gifts. Our duty to give of our goods. The gift of alms a deed of justice as well as of mercy; the poor have a just claim on the abundance of the rich.
II. The evils to be avoided in its discharge,
1. We are to avoid the desire of human applause.
2. We are to avoid giving an ostentatious notoriety to deeds of beneficence. It is the empty vessel that cannot be touched without telling it.
III. The manner in which deeds of righteousness and charity are to be performed.
1. Modesty.
2. With a cheerful respect to the Divine precepts.
3. We must aim at the advancement of the honour of God.
4. Act from Christian compassion and fellowship.
5. We must depend on Divine assistance, and ascribe the praise of all to Him who enables us to live to His glory.
IV. The argument stated by our Lord.
1. The futility of ostentatious displays of piety.
2. The promise annexed to their right performance.
3. How jealous should we be of the principle from which we act.
4. Never presume on eternal life from the works of the law. (J. E. Good.)
Purity of motive in religion
When Mrs. Judson read the Lords Sermon on the Mount to the first Burman convert, he was deeply affected. These words, said he, take hold on my very heart; they make me tremble. Here God commands us to do everything that is good in secret; not to be seen of men. How unlike our religion is this! When Burmans make offerings they make a great noise with drums and cymbals, that others may see how good they are. (Anecdotes of the Aborigines.)
Secret philanthropy
Loud, ostentatious, and unprofitable, it was like the brawling, noisy, foaming, frothy torrent, which, with a rock for its bed and barrenness on its banks, makes itself seen and heard. How different genuine, gracious piety! Affluent in blessings but retiring from observation, it has its symbol in the stream that pursues a silent course, and, flashing out in the light of day but here and there, but now and then, is not known but by the good it does-the flowers that bloom on its banks, and the evergreen verdure which it gives to the pastures through which it winds on its quiet path. (Dr. Guthrie.)
Silent philanthropy
Alms should be like oil, which, though it swim aloft when it is fallen, yet makes no noise in the falling; not like water, that sounds when it lights. (Hall.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. Take heed that ye do not your righteousness…
1. Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen. The Common Version is wrong, and the Revision right, in using “righteousness.” The Savior condemns ostentatious piety, and then he singles out three illustrations of his meaning. The Christian is not forbidden to practice righteousness before men, but to make it his object to be seen.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Mat_6:1. Alms.—Righteousness (R.V.) is probably correct and shows the…
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat_6:1. Alms.—Righteousness (R.V.) is probably correct and shows the connection between this chapter and the preceding, better than “alms.” In ch. Mat_5:20, the disciples are told that their “righteousness” is to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. This is explained at length in what follows; in the preceding chapter, as regards the actions themselves; in the present, as regards the motives and manner of performing them. Almsgiving, in the language of the later Rabbis, was especially called “righteousness” (see Lightfoot); but in the present passage it seems rather to mean good works in general, including almsgiving, prayer and fasting (Mansel). To be seen, i.e. as a spectacle. Theatre and hypocrite (see next verse), are words of cognate meaning (Bengel).
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Mat_6:2. Do not sound a trumpet.—The expression is to be taken figuratively for blazoning it (Brown). Hypocrites == actors. The word originally signifies, one who answers; thence, one who takes part in a dramatic dialogue; thence, one who assumes a feigned character (Bandinel). They have.—Greek “they have to the full.”
Mat_6:3. Let not thy left hand know, etc.—Secret and noiseless giving, metaphorically expressed (Chrysostom).
Mat_6:4. Openly.—Omitted in best MSS. and in R. V. It is not popular applause in the future world, any more than it is popular applause in the present, that is the motive or the aim of the true Christian’s charities and charity (Morison).
Mat_6:5. Standing.—The ancient practice, alike in the Jewish and in the early Christian church. That they may be seen of men.—This was the wind that set the windmill a-work (Trapp).
Mat_6:7. Use not vain repetitions = “do not babble.”
Mat_6:11. Our daily bread.—The Greek word translated “daily” occurs only in the Lord’s prayer here, and Luk_11:3; it is not found in any classical author. The rendering of the E. V. “daily” as nearly as possible represents the probable force of the word, which is strictly (bread) “for the coming day,” i.e. for the day now beginning. Others render “bread for the future,” taking bread in a spiritual sense; others, following a different etymology, translate “bread of subsistence.” Bread, primarily the bread on which we subsist (see Prof. Light-foot in appendix to his work. On a Fresh Revision of the N. T.); subsistence as distinct from luxury; but the spiritual meaning cannot be excluded, Christ the Bread of Life is the Christian’s daily food (Carr).
Mat_6:12. As we forgive.—Have forgiven (R.V.) as a completed act, before we begin to pray. The temper that does not forgive cannot be forgiven, because it is, ipso facto, a proof that we do not realise the amount of the debt we owe. (Plumptre). So much stress does our Lord put upon this, that immediately after the close of this prayer, it is the one point in it which He comes back upon (Mat_6:14-15), for the purpose of solemnly assuring us that the Divine procedure in this matter of forgiveness will be exactly what our own is (Brown).
Mat_6:13. Evil.—The evil one (R. V.). The Greek may grammatically be either neuter or masculine, “evil” in the abstract, or the “evil one” as equivalent to the “devil.” Dean Plumptre says, “the whole weight of the usage of New Testament language is in favour of the latter meaning.” Others, however, favour the neuter. Dean Mansel says, “the neuter is more comprehensive and includes deliverance from the evil thoughts of a man’s own heart and from evils from without, as well as from the temptations of Satan” (Speaker’s Commentary). For thine is the kingdom, etc.—Omitted in R.V. The whole clause is wanting in the best MSS. and in the earlier versions, and is left unnoticed by the early Fathers, who comment on the rest of the prayer (Plumptre). Scrivener pleads earnestly for its retention.
Mat_6:17. Anoint thine head and wash thy face, i.e. appear as usual.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_6:1-18
A group of warnings.—A note of warning begins this section of the Sermon on the Mount. Instead of following the example and seeking the approval of our Father in heaven as just before recommended, even sincere disciples are in danger of being content with the approbation of man. The greatness of this danger, therefore, on the one hand, and the best way of avoiding it, on the other, are the points taken up here.
I. The greatness of the danger.—This is due to its extreme insidiousness, to begin. Even in discharging our most direct duty towards God, as in helping His poor (Mat_6:2); or in saying our prayers (Mat_6:5); or in humbling our souls (Mat_6:16); all things in which the desire for man’s praise ought to be conspicuously absent, this danger besets us. And, if in these, therefore in everything else. Yet that this is so, the actions of men too often make plain. Why else that “sounding of trumpets,” that “standing” to pray where most eyes can behold us, that effort to make known by our very countenances the humility of our hearts (Mat_6:2; Mat_6:5; Mat_6:16)? All these are so many ways of appealing to the favourable notice of men whilst professing to be looking—and perhaps fancying we are looking—for the favourable notice of God. Its extreme injuriousness, in the next place. If we do thus think of man rather than God, what is the result? Is it not merely to gain that which is a bubble indeed? For what is the value, at its best, of the praise of mankind? Is it not often ill judged, never enduring, commonly poisonous, always disappointing? How emphatic the statement, “they have received their reward” (Mat_6:2; Mat_6:5; Mat_6:16). They have secured that which no one else would call by that name. They have secured that which, as a rule, they are better without. Is it not, on the other hand, to lose that which is worth everything else? How solemnly it is implied here that such is the case! Those who have sought that empty “reward” receive no other beside. Where God’s favour is not accorded the supreme place, it is altogether shut out. Better do anything, then, than seek thus, instead of it, the mere approval of man. All is lost, nothing is gained, where that is the case.
II. The best way of avoiding this danger.—Our Saviour’s advice on this point seems to be of a twofold description. First and generally, and where the case admits of this, cut off the occasion. Would you prevent yourself from being unduly influenced by the thought of men’s praise in what you are doing? Shut them out, if you can, from the very knowledge of what you are doing. Rather than invite their attention to your almsgiving, do not give it the whole of your own (Mat_6:3). Instead of “standing” where men can see you “praying,” “kneel” where they cannot (Mat_6:6). Instead of seeking to look miserable when you are “fasting,” aim at the very reverse (Mat_6:17). That is the path of absolute safety with regard to this peril. If men never know of, they can never praise you for, what you are doing. And if they can never praise you for it, you will be hardly likely to think too much of their praise. Next, and more particularly, and where this cannot be done, as in united prayer, for example (notice the transition from singular to plural in Mat_6:6-16), make it your great point to direct the attention aright. Think of God and not of men in the “manner” (Mat_6:9) of prayer you adopt. Think of God also, not as untaught men (Mat_6:7) think Him to be, viz. One unwilling to hear and only as it were to be compelled to do so by the multitude of our words; or else as One who is ignorant of our wants, and so only likely to attend to them when He has been made acquainted with them in full, but rather as being indeed “our” common “Father in heaven,” and so as full of mercy, and wisdom, and power as our sins, and our necessities, and our weaknesses demand (Mat_6:8-13). The more we think of Him thus, the more such thoughts will banish all else. Lastly, in so far as you think of men at all in your prayers, think of them too as they are, viz. as beings who are as full of needs and sins as ourselves, and to be dealt with by us, in consequence, in abounding mercy, if we would hope for mercy ourselves (Mat_6:14-15). What a crowning safeguard there is in this thought against over-estimating their praises? What does it signify to a condemned man whether those who are his fellow-culprits think highly of him or not? The only thing important to him in that quarter is that none should be able to say of him truly as in Gen_4:10, or Mat_18:31.
1. How wise are these words.—More than once our Saviour speaks here of His Father as “seeing in secret.” Is there not evidence here that the same description may well be applied to Himself? What knowledge is here of our most hidden infirmities! What exposure of our deepest deceptiveness! What complete acquaintance with our best means of protection! What easy reading, in a word, as in most familiar characters, of what is “in cypher” to us! He has indeed the key of our hearts! And, therefore, does it not follow, of everything else (Jer_17:9-10)?
2. How gracious are these words.—It is to our wilful natures, our perverted hearts, our self-blinded judgments, that all this counsel is given. Also, it is to us thus ill-deserving ones that His added promise is given! There is something exceedingly full, and therefore exceedingly touching, in that thrice-repeated assurance, “Thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.” But what is most touching of all, most touching by far, is that it is a promise given to us!
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat_6:1-18. Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting.—
I. The outgoing of practical philanthropy towards men.
II. The secrecy, brevity, and comprehensiveness of communion with God.
III. The moral education of our appetites.—J. Harries.
Mat_6:1-4. True and false goodness.—The following passage from Mark Aurelius’ Meditations may be pondered in connection with our Lord’s exposure of the ostentatious, hypocritical righteousness of the Pharisees: “One man when he has done a service to another is ready to set it down to his account as a favour conferred. Another, while he may not go so far as that, still thinks of the man as his debtor, and is conscious of what he has done. A third does not, if we may so speak, even know what he has done and betrays no consciousness of his kindness, but is like a vine which has produced grapes and seeks for nothing after it has produced the fruit proper to it. As a horse when he has run, a dog when he has caught the game, a bee when it has made its honey, so a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again grapes in the season. What more do you want when you have done a man a service? Are you not content that you have done something conformable to your nature and do you seek reward for it, as if the eye should demand a recompense for seeing, or the feet for walking?” Professor Marcus Dods remarks: “This passage from the great Stoic opens up the significance of our Lord’s comparison of a good man to a good tree (Mat_7:16, etc.). The good man will bring forth righteousness spontaneously, uniformly, as a good tree produces its proper fruit.”
Mat_6:1. Vainglory to be avoided in our good works.—
I. The precept. “Take heed,” etc. By “righteousness” I think is meant all manner of good actions. Vainglory is a moth which is apt to breed in our best actions, as worms breed in roses, and therefore ought carefully to be watched.
1. The description of it.—It is the doing of our good actions before men, with an express design to gain praise and honour to ourselves. We are not to imagine that we are obliged to do all our good works so much in secret that the world may know nothing of them; nor that it is unlawful for us to contrive to give good examples; all the sin lies in contriving our good works in such a manner or with such an intention that the praise and glory of them may terminate solely or principally in ourselves. A right aim and intention is absolutely necessary in all our good actions.
2. The caution against it.—
(1) The greatness of the sin. (a) The design and intention is the life and soul of the action. (b) Whenever we set up our own pride, or vanity, or self-interest as the end of our good actions, we rob God of His due honour and glory. (c) No man is entitled to any higher reward of his actions than he himself proposes and aims at. (d) All obedience which is levelled at a temporal design, is a temporary, not a lasting obedience. For as times and the humours of men change, so do these men’s actions. (e) Acting religiously not to please God, but for our own selfish ends in this world, is the proper character of hypocrisy.
(2) The insinuating nature of the sin. (a) Esteem, praise, the love and good will of men, in short, everything that flatters our self-love, is very pleasant, and so is apt to make us forget that nobler aim and reward which we should always have in our eye. (b) It borders so near upon virtue that it requires an accurate and nice observation to perceive the difference; for we are not prohibited to do good works before men, nor are we obliged to hide them so that they may not be seen of them, nor are we obliged totally to reject that praise, esteem, and interest, which a continuance in well-doing will procure us in the world.
II. The reason of the precept.—“Otherwise ye have no reward,” etc.
1. The justice and equity of it.—A great difference ought to be made between works sincerely meant and designed for God’s glory, though mixed with many imperfections of human infirmities, and works principally designed for our own vanity and self-interest.
2. The great purity and perfection of the Christian morals.—Taking so much care to regulate the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and valuing all actions according to the purity of the intention.—James Blair, M.A.
Mat_6:2-4. Ostentation in almsgiving.—I. A caution against ostentation and vainglory in the giving of alms.—
1. Negatively, a prohibition of ostentation. “Do not sound a trumpet before thee,” etc. This is a figurative expression.
2. Affirmatively, an injunction of secrecy and humility.
1. The things supposed.—
(1) That the duty of almsgiving was practised by the scribes and Pharisees, whose righteousness our Saviour is here correcting and improving.
(2) That in the exercise of this duty, they did not purely or chiefly regard the pleasing of God, but carried on their own selfish designs among men.
(3) That alms and other works of charity have an aptness in their own nature to gain the love and applause of men, and so may easily be perverted to serve the selfish designs of the persons who put them in practice.
2. The cautions interposed.—
(1) There is one, concerning the intention and design we ought to propose to ourselves in our works of charity, namely, the glory and honour of God.
(2) Another is that we do not set up vainglory or any other by-ends of our own covetousness or ambition, in our alms-deeds or other good works.
(3) A third caution relates to the way and manner of doing our good works, that it be with humility and all requisite secrecy.
(4) That if from our alms and other good works any accidental praise or credit comes to ourselves, we do not feed ourselves with the thoughts of it; but employ all that credit for God’s service.
II. The reasons of that caution.—
1.This wrong aim in our good works alters the nature of them, and makes them hypocritical.
2. The fruit of this practice in the other world.—
(1) There is no other but present temporal reward to be expected for such who do their good works to be seen of men.
(2) There is a certain glorious reward for them who do their good works with an eye to God.—Ibid.
Almsgiving and righteousness (R.V. Mat_6:1).—Almsgiving is no longer regarded as distinctively a religious duty. Nor can it be put under the head of morality according to the common idea attached to that word. It rather occupies a kind of borderland between them, coming under the head of philanthrophy. But whence came the spirit of philanthropy? Its foundation is in the holy mountains. Modern philanthropy is like a great fresh-water lake, on the shores of which one may wander with admiration and delight for great distances without discovering any connection with the heaven-piercing mountains. But such connection it has. The explorer is sure to find somewhere an inlet showing whence its waters come, a bright sparkling stream which has filled it and keeps it full; or springs below it, which, though they may flow far underground, bring the precious supplies from the higher regions, perhaps quite out of sight. If these connections with the upper springs were to be cut off the beautiful lake would speedily dry up and disappear. Almsgiving, therefore, is in its right place here; its source is in the higher regions of the righteousness of the kingdom. And in these early days the lakes had not been formed, for the springs were only beginning to flow from the great fountain-head.—J. M. Gibson, D.D.
Mat_6:5-6. Hypocrisy in praying.—
I. A caution against a hypocritical way of devotion (Mat_6:5).—Both Jews and Christians, both Christ and the scribes and Pharisees are agreed that prayer is a very commendable duty.
1. Praying to be seen of men is a practice taxed as hypocritical.
2. Our Saviour assures us with an asseveration that all this hypocritical devotion shall have no reward beyond this present time.
3. This sort of practice is totally inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity.
II. A direction to the opposite sincerity and secrecy (Mat_6:6).
1. We have secret prayer recommended, rather than those indiscreet public devotions.
(1) The practice recommended to private Christians.
(2) This precept was exceedingly proper to avoid hypocrisy.
(3) Also to avoid pride and nourish humility.
2. We have a description of the most proper preparation for this secret prayer, viz., entering into the closet. There are three things contained in this advice.
(1) Solitude, or a withdrawing from company. There is no greater enemy to devotion (excepting a wicked life) than a mind dissipated with much company.
(2) Leisure, or a withdrawing from business, or rather an inward tranquillity from worldly cares, lusts, and passions.
(3) A serious application of the mind to God; which implies a withdrawing it from all other objects.
III. The promise of an open reward to this secret prayer.—James Blair, M.A.
Mat_6:5. The inwardness of Christianity.—Mrs. Judson, in her account of the first Burman convert, says: “A few days ago I was reading with him Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. He was deeply impressed, and unusually solemn. ‘These words,’ said he, ‘take hold of my very heart. They make me tremble. Here God commands us to do everything that is good in secret, not to be seen of men. How unlike our religion this is! When Burmans make offerings at the pagodas, they make a great noise with drums and musical instruments, that others may see how good they are; but this religion makes the mind fear God; it makes it, of its own accord, fear sin.’ ”
Mat_6:6. Secret prayer.—This is a commandment in the form of an allurement. It has all the force of a law, but all the grace of an invitation. You are called to secret prayer:—
I. By an alluring revelation of God.—
1. “Father.”
2. “In secret;” “seeth in secret.”
II. By the language of direct invitation.—“Enter into thy closet.” In the great cathedral at Rome are ranged a number of confessionals, closets of carved wood, for penitents, in every language. You see inscribed with gilt letters, over one, Pro Italica Lingua; over another, Pro Flandrica Lingua; on a third, Pro Polonica Lingua; on a fourth, Pro Illyrica Lingua; on a fifth, Pro Hispanica Lingua; on a sixth, Pro Anglica Lingua. In each instance the father confessor is waiting in secret to hear the secrets of penitence. A modern writer, having thus described this arrangement, tells us that one who witnessed it “was impressed with the infinite convenience—if we may use so poor a phrase—of the Catholic religion to its devout believers.” But “infinite convenience, if we may use so poor a phrase,” belongs rather to the religion of that suppliant who, when his heart is breaking, has no need to wait until he can kneel on some consecrated pavement, no need to wait until he can prepare language, no need to wait until he can reach a distant priest, whose soul may be more ignorant, stained, and troubled than his own; but who, in every hour of every night and day, in every spot on sea or land, may find a closet in which the Infinite Father is listening for whatever the overburdened heart may murmur, speak in what native tongue it may—a Father who not only hears the spoken prayer, but sees the prayer that is too deep for speech. By the word “closet,” the Saviour is understood to convey an allusion to the room in the ancient Jewish dwelling which was set apart for the office of lonely prayer. Yes, as “stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cell” for the soul, neither are they, nor any material boundaries answering to them, essential to make the soul’s closet of devotion. A closet for the spirit is whatever helps to close the spirit in from all distraction, and thus make it feel alone with God. But the phrase “thy closet” conveys an additional meaning. It means more than mental seclusion in some unexpected place and time. “Thy closet” is the soul’s own fixed, familiar place of resort for communion with God. By foresight, by contrivance, by the power of resolute, severe punctuality, “enter into thy closet.” Enter it every day. When sad with indistinct premonitions of calamity—when struck down by some blow which benumbs your natural promptitude of thought—you instinctively turn to the Almighty for help, and the Allwise for guidance,—when, after the elements of true piety, which are the elements of true prayer, have been hardened in a worldly atmosphere, they are brought into fusion again by the fire of adversity, and all your glowing soul, “melted within you because of trouble,” flows forth to God—what is this but the voice of Christ, through affliction, saying, “Enter into thy closet!”
III. That you may cherish the life which marks the true disciple from the formalist.—“But thou, when thou prayest.” This word is a link which connects the sentence with that which precedes it. “When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are,” etc.
1. Secret prayer will secure this end, by helping you to feel and cultivate the sense of your own individual life before God.
2. Secret prayer deepens the secret life. The more we work the more we need to pray.
3. Pray in secret that your prayers may be the result of meditation.
4. Secret prayer is needful, in order to the fullest confidence in the intercourse between the soul and God. This you can never reach in the highest degree through the medium of social exercises.
IV. With the promise of certain success.—“He shall reward thee openly.”
1. “He shall reward thee.” Reward is a term that no disciple must misinterpret. “Prayer,” says Leighton, “like the heavens, hath a circular motion;” coming from God, it ascends to God again. He gives the praying disposition; He gives His Son to be the Priest whose intercessions make it mighty; He gives opportunity to pray, and then He crowns every other gift with the gift of success. It is, therefore, only in the language of delicate, infinite generosity that He calls such success reward.
2. “He shall reward thee openly,” When we read all the story of the human race in the light of the last day, we shall find that many of the events which have made it most sublime, were open rewards of secret prayer. Sanctified sorrows, heroic achievements of faith, marvellous deliverances from evil, the graces of grand and matchless men who shone as the lights of the world, innumerable conversions, which appeared to be only the result of faithful speech and arduous labour in Christ’s service, when traced to the true antecedents, will be found to have had their mystic beginnings in the closet.
3. “He shall reward thee openly.” “Ah! but when?” Be comforted by this assurance, that true prayer will be accepted at once, even if not rewarded at once.—C. Stanford, D.D.
Mat_6:7-8.Vain repetitions and length in prayer.—
I. Describe this blemish of devotion, the using of vain repetitions. It lay in turning devotion from the affectionate work of the heart to the work of the invention, memory, or tongue, or to an idle repetition of the same thing over and over again.
II. Wherein the faultiness of this practice consists.—The fault of these devotions did not lie only in the length of them. For if a true spirit of devotion is kept up all the time, we cannot well exceed either in the frequency or the continuance of our addresses to God, or even in a holy importunity at the throne of grace. Nor is it unlawful to make repetition of the same words and petitions in prayer, so it be done from a spirit of devotion. We have several examples in the Holy Scriptures of both these practices.
1.Ostentation, and other worldly aims and designs from long prayers are here condemned.
2.Unworthy conceptions of God (Mat_6:8) are here condemned.
3.Prescribing to God a great many worldly and indifferent things, which lengthens out prayers, is here censured.
4. Our wrong conceptions concerning the nature of prayer, turning it from the heart to a mere external, laborious service, are here rectified.
5. All things considered, few words in prayer are best, and fittest for the generality of mankind.
(1) God’s perfection is such that it requires treatment with all sort of respect (Ecc_5:2).
(2) Our own imperfection is such that we cannot fit our long addresses to God without a great deal of impertinence.
(3) If we consider the danger of a Pharisaical devotion few words are best.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Mat_6:7. Repetition in prayer.—The Hindoo fakir will stand all day long in repeating over and over again the name of his deity; the Buddhist thinks that there is salvation in the endless repetition of his magic formula; the Mussulman will interlard even his wickedest speech with endless parentheses of “God is patient, God is great”; the ignorant Romanist repeats his aves and his paters, dropping a bead with every paternoster. God bears compassionately with our fooleries, but when it is this, what our Lord calls mere stuttering on the one hand, and on the other the stumbling out of empty words, prayer at last becomes at this rate degraded into a mere mechanism. But even repeated prayers may, indeed, have their place. St. Augustine tells us that he once spent all night long in the single prayer, “Noverim te Domine, noverim me.” “Oh, Lord, may I know Thee, may I know myself.” Such a prayer does not break our Lord’s command, so long as it continues to be intense and fervent. Our Lord sometimes spent whole nights in prayer, and in Gethsemane He prayed thrice, ever using the same words; but the more and more a prayer becomes a mechanical weariness, the more and more it becomes a ceremonial form the more and more the lips repeat it; but the heart cannot follow it; it ceases to be prayer, and becomes but mockery.—Archdeacon Farrar.
Mat_6:9-13. The Lord’s Prayer.—
I. The lawfulness and usefulness of set forms of prayer.—
1. The generality of Christians want as much assistance in their devotions now, as our Saviour’s disciples did then.
2. If we consider the difficulty of framing our devotions aright, we shall be convinced that well-composed forms of devotion are very useful.
3. The Jewish church, in our Saviour’s days, used several set forms of devotion, which He was so far from reproving that He Himself imitated them.
II. We are called off from minding the eyes of men to mind only our Father in heaven.
III. Our prayers should be short.—
1. Few words in prayer suit better the conceptions we ought to have of Almighty God.
2. Such prayers suit better our own weakness and infirmities.
3. Brevity in words gives us a truer notion of the nature of devotion. For prayer is the language of the heart to God.
IV. Too great minuteness in prayer should be avoided as a thing not so proper for us, who should come to God like children to a father, exposing in general our nakedness and wants, but leaving it to Him to supply them in such a manner as He thinks most convenient for us. This seems to be very fairly deducible from the foregoing words, applied to this prayer, with a “Therefore.” And the prayer we find consists all of general petitions, leaving the particulars to God Himself to bestow, as He in His wisdom and goodness should think fit.
V. The right preparations and dispositions with which we ought to draw near to God Of these we may easily observe a great many noble ones pointed at in this very prayer. I shall instance the following graces:—Faith; the love of God; the love of our neighbour; humility and resignation; watchfulness against temptations, and a readiness to join obedience with prayer.
VI. This prayer is to be both a form and model.—This I gather both from the two accounts St. Matthew and St. Luke have given us of the prayer, and from the practice of the Church.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Mat_6:9-10. The model prayer fosters confidence.—The first three petitions express confidence, but there is an undertone expressing a different state of mind, giving to them both variety and comprehensiveness.
I. Confidence with filial love and reverence, as sons: “Our Father, which art in heaven.”
II. Confidence with submission, as subjects: “Thy kingdom come.”
III. Confidence with self-surrender, as servants: “Thy will be done.”—S. Macnaughton, M.A.
Mat_6:9. God our Father.—Is God our Father? This shows us:—
I. What we are to do.—
1. Honour, love, and obey Him (Mal_1:6).
2. En deavour to imitate and resemble Him (Eph_5:1; Mat_5:48).
3. Banish all carking cares, and diffident fears, and sordid shifts for gathering and keeping this world (Php_4:6; Mat_6:31-32).
4. Be patient in our afflictions (Deu_8:5; Heb_12:9).
5. Live up to the dignity of so noble a relation (Php_2:15).
6. Love as brethren.
7. Be heavenly-minded, and remember that there is no concealing of our faults from Him, as from our earthly parents.
II. What we are to expect.—
1. Though we have been ever so great prodigals, if we do but repent and amend and return to our Father, He will receive us with all the joy imaginable.
2. If under ever so great afflictions, God pities us as a Father.
3. If we have ever so great and many enemies, and we flee to Him, He will be our refuge.
4. We may expect blessings at the throne of grace (Mat_7:11).—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Our Father in heaven.—
I. Reverence is the keynote of this prayer.—How, save with reverence, can we possibly come with any sanity before Him who chargeth His very angels with folly, etc. (see Isa_6:2-3). No noble nature yet was ever irreverent.
II. But if the words “which art in heaven” are meant to strike the keynote of reverence, the words “Our Father” give us the dominant notes of trustfulness and love. It was said of the great Roman Emperor Augustus that they who dared to speak to him rashly failed to appreciate his greatness, but that they who out of fear dared not to speak to him at all knew not how good he was. So it is with God. He wishes us to be reverent, but not to be abject. We are but dust and ashes, yet He suffers, nay, urges us to come to Him as unworthy sons, as prodigals, yes, but still as sons.
1.This Fatherhood of God was the most central, the most essential, part of the revelation which Christ came to give.—The sense of “Father” here is far deeper than that in which the word was used by the heathen of God as our Creator, far deeper than that in which the Jews of the Old Testament used it of Jehovah as the covenant God of their race. Those privileges of natural and of covenant relation have been made fruitless by our apostasies. The word “Father” here is the witness and appeal to the incarnation and the redemption. It means the Fatherhood which we derive, as brethren of God’s only begotten Son. When Christ said, “I go to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God,” it was not exactly as we render it. We cannot render those words exactly right. They are in the Greek πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου καὶ πατέρα ὑμῶν: “To the Father of Me, and Father of you.” “First of Me,” says Bishop Pearson, “then of you. Not, therefore, His Father because ours, but rather ours only because His.” And it is remarkable that Christ taught us to say, “Our Father”; but He Himself never uses that form. He spoke of God always as “the Father,” as “My Father” and “your Father,” but He Himself never said “our Father,” because among all the sons of God there is none like to that Son of God.
2. Only remember that vast privileges involve immense duties.—“If I be a Father,” says God, “where is Mine honour?”
3. There remains but one word more—no less rich in meaning than the rest—it is the word “our.” It is a protest against that selfishness which is so ingrained in our nature that it tends even to intrude into our holiest things. Is it hard for you when you pray “our Father” to include in that prayer all who hate you without a cause, all who slander and undermine you, all who are the champions of causes which you believe to be steeped in falsity, all who in their arrogance treat you as the very dust beneath their feet, all whose vanity and opinionativeness come into rude collision with your own, all the wrongdoers who make the life of men more wicked and more miserable? Yes, in the very highest exercise of your lives you must associate yourselves with every one of them.—Archdeacon Farrar.
Our Father in heaven.—The first words of our text, “our Father,” throw away all selfishness at a breath. “Father,” the fountain-word of all love and all confidence. “Our Father, which art.” It is a beautiful phrase. I had a father on earth once, but now I cannot say, “my father, which art;” he is gone. But I can say of Him, “our Father, which art.” “Our Father, which art in heaven.” Wonderful word, that utters the proper name of a palace fit for Him whose name is Wonderful. If you wanted to raise some enormous fund you would not get hold of a twenty-years-old directory to go and beg by. You would be running after the dead, or the absent, or the bankrupt, or other people that were not to be found. Before you go anywhere you like to know that a man is, you like to know that he has got something, you like to know that he is inclined to help you. Those are very simple rules, but they are the rules which everybody ought always to apply to the object of worship. “He that cometh to God must believe that He is,” etc.
I. The designation, Father.—
1. Its tenderness.
2. Its majesty. He is a heavenly Father. What so near as father and child, but what so far as earth and heaven?
II. The relation, our Father.
1. The Author of our being.—There is a vast difference between a maker and a father. The outcome of paternity has a resemblance to it; and so when God made man it was not like making sparrows. The Lord Jesus says, “your Father feedeth them”; not “their Father.” When He made man, He said, “Let Us make man in Our image,” etc. “If I be a Father, where is Mine honour?” There is here an argument to convince man of the deep dreadfulness of his guilt.
2. Some people make great mischief of this doctrine.—They say because God is a Father He will not punish. Is God a Father because He is a bit like you, or are you called a father because you are a bit like Him? What was the true fatherhood? Patriarchy. Would any man in the days of patriarchy have dared to say that the father would not punish? By-and-by it came about that the patriarchy was put under the king; but the true patriarchy was the patriarchal paternity, and the fountain of authority even among men was in the father.
3. This blessed truth lies at the bottom of providence.—I met a man the other day who had got some of these modern notions about providence. He said, “Of course everything is managed by law; there cannot be any particular providence; it is all under law.” I said to the man, “Have you any children?” “Oh, yes; half a dozen.” “Well, do you take care of them?” You cannot think how the man looked at me. He said, “Do you think I am a brute?” “No, but I ask you, do you take care of them?” “Of course I do; I should be a brute if I did not.” “Well, my difficulty is this. You told me a little while ago that there could not be any providing or taking care, because there were fixed laws. How do you manage it?” “Well,” he said, “how could I manage it if I had not fixed laws?” “You think it helps you to have fixed laws?” “I think it does on the whole.” “Yet you think it hinders God. You can take care of your children, though you have fixed laws; and really you speak as if you thought God was not as wise as you are.” He was silent; he said no more. Now I want you to see that God’s providence is providence; it is looking forward with a Father’s wisdom and a Father’s love, and so He takes care.
4. Those who have come to Christ know themselves spiritually, gloriously, to be the children of God.
III. The place—in heaven.—In heaven, yet not confined to heaven.—S. Coley.
“Father” and “King.”—It is a singular fact, and one well worthy of our notice, that when an earthly king has been unusually good, like Louis XIV. of France, thoughtful of his people, nourishing their best interests, cultivating peace at home and abroad, and making his subjects prosperous, contented, and happy, they have called him the father of his people; evidently showing that the universal conscience of men declares the idea of father to be altogether higher and nobler than the idea of king.—Weekly Pulpit.
“Hallowed be Thy name.”—Many, I think, if they spoke with perfect frankness, would say that of all the seven petitions in the Lord’s Prayer this was the least real to them. If it is so, should it not be a strong reason for examining more deeply what the petition means? For observe that our Lord not only made room for it in this brief prayer, but placed it in the very forefront, and that, though He has just been using the strongest possible protest against all vain and artificial petitions.
I. The nature of the petition, and the lessons which its place in the prayer may teach us.—We know that Christ insisted upon unselfishness when He taught us to say not “my Father,” but “our Father,” but in this petition with yet Diviner force He teaches us not unselfishness only, but self-forgetfulness. If in the preface He directs to goodness, reverence, and trustfulness, in this first clause He points to the absorption of all thoughts of self in the thought of God as the only true orientation of our prayers.
II. What the petition actually means.
1. God’s name is Himself as He is made known to us.—The name of God differences Him from all other beings, as men are by their names differenced from one another, and nothing is more essential than that we should understand God’s name. On the thoughts we think of God it depends whether our religion uplifts our life, or whether our life degrades our religion and smites, with the leprosy of selfishness or superstition, even our most holy things.
2. But how is God’s name to be hallowed?—It is hallowed by all ‘His works except by devils and by men. Is it hallowed by ourselves? We should hallow God’s name by utter humility in His presence; by noble thoughts of Him, and by giving thanks at the remembrance of His holiness; we should hallow it more than all by lives kind and pure, honest, truthful, and contented. And thus hallowing it for ourselves, we should strive that it should be hallowed by others also.—Archdeacon Farrar.
First petition in the Lord’s Prayer.—I. Whereas we know not the particular ways and means which God makes use of for promoting His own glory, we pray for success to all those means.
II. We pray that all men may come to the knowledge and acknowledgment of Him the true and living God.
III. We pray that in all things we set about, they may be directed to, and end in God’s glory and honour. This will comprehend these particulars:
1. That God may lay so strong restraints upon us by His grace and providence, that we never aim at any ill thing.
2. That if we do aim at it, we may be disappointed, and not permitted to bring it to effect.
3. That God would interpose to defeat all the evil works and designs of men.
4. That in all our good works, our intentions may be purely set on His honour and glory.
5. That in all our indifferent actions, we endeavour so to sanctify them that they may be directed to God’s honour and glory.
6. That God would be pleased so to overrule the wickedest actions of men that they may likewise turn to His honour.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Mat_6:10. “Thy kingdom come.”—I. If we can conceive of the prayer as being sincerely breathed by one who is not yet a subject of the kingdom, it is a prayer for conversion.—The theory of the relationship existing between each of the forty-two States of our Union and the United States, declares that each several State is an imperium in imperio, a government within a government. And when the great question of the preservation of the Union came up a generation ago, the first answer to it consisted of a declaration by each State of its own position. When the attitude was loyal the second form of the answer consisted in the furnishing of troops to bring back to their duty the States that were in rebellion. But in that time of trouble and heart-searching, the first concern of each State was with itself, and to settle its own position was, for some of the States, the most formidable question of the four years’ war. Every human life is a sovereign province of God’s moral empire. I am an imperium in imperio. You are a sovereign government within a government, and in praying for the coming of God’s kingdom our first concern must be with ourselves. And the sad fact is that as rebels we need to be reconciled to the King.
II. After conversion it is largely a kingdom that is to come.—In conversion the kingdom of God comes to the heart as leaven is placed by the housewife in her batch of meal, to leaven the whole lump. But from the deposit to the completed process there is a work to be done.
III. The kingdom of God is intended in the purpose of the King to spread and fill the earth.—Here also the kingdom has but partially come.
IV. The kingdom of God has relation also to political and social conditions.—It remoulds old institutions and brings new ones into existence. It reforms social habits and customs and readjusts the relations of man to man and of man to the universe. It contemplates, by creating ideal men and women, to produce ideal conditions of life. Here, also, “there remaineth very much land to be possessed.”—Thos. Sims.
“Thy kingdom come.”—
I. This prayer is all-embracing in its blessed amplitude.—“We fancy,” says one, “that the King of kings and Lord of lords will reign over our spirits, souls, and bodies which He has redeemed. We pray for the extinction of all tyranny, whether in the man or in the multitude; we pray for the exposure and destruction of corruption, outward and inward; we pray for truth and righteousness in all departments of government, art, and science; we pray for the dignity of professions, we pray for the banishment from trade of every form of fraud and chicanery, we pray for blessings which shall be the purification not only of the palace, but of every hovel; we pray for these things knowing that we pray according to God’s will, knowing that God will hear us.”
II. This prayer is a trumpet-call to awakenment and to action.—If we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” it is a monstrous hypocrisy if we are every day of our lives hindering and thwarting the advance of that kingdom. I read the other day of a young Indian officer who, shocked at the many evils that he saw around him, began to protest against them, and at once awakened all around him the hornet swarms of hatred and slander. He went in distress to the gallant Outram, the Bayard of India. “What am I to do?” he asked, in deep distress; “what am I to do amid this storm of opposition?” Other men might have bidden him temporise, to bend to the hurricane, to keep quiet, to hold his tongue, to acquiesce, to get on, to be happy as the flesh counts happiness, and successful as the world counts success. But Outram, happily, was a man who felt the infinite nature of duty, and he asked the youth this question: “Do you fear God or man? If you fear God, do as you are doing and bear the insults that are heaped upon you; if you fear man most, let everything go on just as it is, and make no protest at all.” Ah! if you mean the prayer “Thy kingdom come,” act up to it, do the little every-day duty now and daily, and strenuously and sincerely, so will you promote that kingdom most effectually.—Archdeacon Farrar.
The kingdom within.—A wounded soldier boy was dying in a hospital. The lady who watched by his bedside said to him, “My dear boy, if this should be death that is coming upon you, are you ready to meet your God?” He answered “I am ready, dear lady, for this has long been His kingdom”; and as he spoke he placed his hand upon his heart. “Do you mean,” questioned the lady gently, “that God rules and reigns in your heart?” “Yes,” he answered; but his voice sounded far off, sweet and low, as if it came from a soul already well on its way through the “dark valley and shadow of death.”—Nye’s Anecdotes.
“Thy will be done.”—In one sense the prayer is needless. In nature, in providence, in the great issues of life, God’s will is done, for who hath resisted His will? But there is another and a terribly real sense in which the will of God is not done. Do not think that it is a mere verbal variation of the two previous petitions. The prayer, “Hallowed be Thy name,” invites us to think less of self and more of God, to think but little or nothing of self. The prayer, “Thy kingdom come,” is the trumpet-call to action, pledging us, unless we are to pray the prayer of the hypocrite, to the furtherance of that kingdom which we profess to desire. This prayer is an appeal to give up our own wills altogether. And it sets us also an example as to how we are to do it.
I. What is God’s will?—Our sanctification; that we keep His commandments, etc.
II. Who do God’s will in heaven?
III. How do the angels serve?—Alas! as differently as possible from the unwilling way in which it is done on earth.
1. God’s angels, we know, do it contentedly and unquestioningly, whatever it is—if it be a mission of seeming wrath, as was theirs whose swords of waving flame drove men from paradise.
2. Cheerfully.—The archangel Gabriel, as he waited by the gates of gold, was sent by God to earth to do two things; one to prevent king Solomon from committing the sin of forgetting his evening prayer in the exultation of watching his matchless steeds, and the other to help a little yellow ant on the slope of Ariphat which had grown weary in getting food for her nest, and which would otherwise have perished in the falling rain. To Gabriel the one behest seemed just as kingly as the other, seeing that God had ordered it. Silently he left the presence and prevented the king’s sin and helped the little ant.
3. Zealously.—Swift is the hurricane, vivid is the lightning; He maketh the winds His angels, and flaming fires His ministers.
4. Harmoniously.—There are no jealousies among the angels.
Conclusion.—The prayer involves a pledge, and its utterance implies a duty. “Will God mend all?” said Lord Reay in 1630 to Sir Donald Fraser. “Nay,” impatiently answered Sir Donald, “nay, Reay, we must help Him to mend it.” God cannot make best men without best men to help Him.—Archdeacon Farrar.
The principle of Christian life.—When our Lord gave His disciples this form of prayer there can be little doubt but that He meant its precepts to be the rule and leading principle of the Christian life. His followers were to be such in their daily actions as they were in their prayers, and the supplications which He enjoined them to use constantly at the throne of grace were hourly to be the guide of their conduct and their great object of desire. This petition portrays the intensity of feeling to and for God which belongs to the whole of the Lord’s prayer.
1. Our will it submits to God, no easy task.
2. The full realisation of this prayer belongs to the perfect state of glory. But as the church on earth is the type of the church in heaven, and its privileges but shadows of the perfect blessings then to be vouchsafed, so also it is possible here for the will of God to reign more and more in our hearts, and something of that ready acquiescence in it which will finally exist in heaven to be formed even now.
I. We must bear with patience what God causes us to suffer.
II. We must act for God.—This the more important meaning of the petition. I. Because it is the true meaning, for it is not “Thy will be endured, and borne patiently,” but “Thy will be done.” And, further, it is to be done as in heaven, but there is no suffering, no patiently bearing affliction there, but the holy angels are represented to us as ever actively engaged in doing the work of God.
2. The doing God’s will includes the bearing of it, as the cause includes the effect.
III. This must be done in a heavenly manner.—“As in heaven.” The manner is not indifferent. Our Lord’s example (See Psa_40:7-8).
1. Readily.
2. With delight.
3. Because God’s law written in His heart.—R. Payne Smith, D.D.
The Father’s kingdom and the Father’s will.—The parallelism in these two sentences is very striking. A kingdom is the rule of a will. A living, active will creates a kingdom. If God’s will were fully done His kingdom would have come. What is the kingdom of God which we thus desire to be established? No form of political arrangement. It is universal and all comprehensive, as a kingdom of moral beings; the Father’s great family, explained in the very suggestive passage, “the kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
I. The theological attitude of the man who offers these prayers.—He must believe:—
1. In the reality of the spiritual world.—There is an unseen, as well as a seen; and the unseen is the true and the real. It is more important that the unseen, spiritual kingdom should be established, than that any material blessings should be gained. It is more important to be “good” than to be “great.”
2. In the actual present working of God in the world.—The kingdom of God and righteousness is established. God is actually perfecting it, in ways beyond all human vision and reckoning.
3. In the perfect righteousness of the Father’s will.—He who desires that will to be done must believe that the will is right. We cannot feel it right merely as a matter of sovereignty. It can only be right as the expression of the righteous Father’s character.
4. In the possibility of men’s obeying the Father’s will.—The expression “as in heaven,” involves the belief that come created beings can and do obey it. This alone loosens the grasp of sin on us, which so often seems hopelessly fixed.
5. In the truth that righteousness for a creature, can only be found in obedience to the Father’s will.—The perfect righteousness, for earth, is submission and obedience to the will.
II. The moral attitude of the man who offers these prayers.—There should be:—
1. Deep feeling of the blessedness of the kingdom of the Father’s will.—Beyond intellectual acceptance of the will there should be holy admiration of it; loving anxiety for the perfect acknowledgment of the Father’s authority.
2. A biding anxiety on account of the resistance offered to the coming of that kingdom.—For it is only too manifest that there is an opposing kingdom of evil.
3. Hearty willingness to make our own selves, and our own spheres, scenes of the triumph of the kingdom, and obedience of the will.—The law of the progress of the kingdom is first within, then without, first the individual, then the mass. He who opens his soul, and his sphere, to welcome the holy will, alone can sincerely pray, “Thy kingdom come.”—Weekly Pulpit.
Acquiescence, how far is it to be carried?—We are not to believe that it is a duty incumbent upon us actively to comply with everything that seems to be favoured by providence; for sometimes we are not to comply at all, but according to the duty of our place and station, are by all lawful ways to oppose prosperous iniquity. That which seems a countenance of providence is often no such thing, but only God’s making use of ill men to be scourges in His hand for chastising others, sometimes as bad, but often a great deal better than themselves. We shall never be safe in our duty of acquiescing in the Divine providence, except where we are sure that we have taken no sinful steps to bring it about ourselves; and where it is brought about to our hand, it is often not an active but a passive compliance which God requires at our hands. The thing will be clearer by an example. When the king of Assyria invaded Judæa it would have been great treachery in any of the Jews to have sided with him. Yet afterwards when he had conquered them, and they were actually carried away captives into Babylon, the providence of God deciding the matter so plainly, that they were his subjects, they were obliged to perform the duty of quiet and peaceable subjects under him, and to say, God’s will be done.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
God’s work perfect.—Many years ago a Christian merchant met unexpectedly with some great losses. He began to doubt the wisdom and goodness of that Providence which could allow such trials to overtake him. He returned to his home one evening in a despairing state of mind. He sat down before the open fire-place in his library, tossed with the tempest of doubt, and destitute of comfort. Presently his little boy, a thoughtful child of six or seven summers, came and sat on his knee. Over the mantelpiece was a large illuminated card containing the words, “His work is perfect.” The child spelled out the words, and pointing to them said, “Papa, what does perfect mean here?” And then, before the father, who was somewhat staggered, could make a reply, there came another question from the little prattler, “Does it mean that God never makes a mistake?” This was just the thought that the troubled father needed to have brought before his mind. If the angel Gabriel had come down from heaven, he could not have suggested anything more timely. The father clasping his little one in his arms, exclaimed, “Yes, my precious boy, that is just what it means.” That father’s confidence in God was revived, the cloud was gone, and the sunshine of an unfaltering trust again lighted up his soul.—Free Methodist.
Mat_6:11.The daily bread.—Prayer is not to be so sublime that it forgets that we are men and women having bodies as well as souls. Prayer is not only asking God for things. It is the process by which we are put into the right relation towards all about us. “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven”—these words set us in the right attitude and relation to God. Then comes the next petition, “Give us this day,” etc. Thus we are set in the right relation towards God’s gifts. In this matter of the daily bread there are four ways in which men may get wrong, and from each of these, this prayer, if rightly offered, will deliver us.
I. Negligence in getting it.—I do not know that this is an evil from which men greatly suffer in these times. Yet so long as human nature is what it is, laziness will never be quite done away with. The man who is so taken up with the things of heaven, that he forgets his duty down here on earth, is a hindrance to the coming of God’s kingdom. We are to get our daily bread so as to hallow His name.
II. Anxiety about it.—When ye pray say, “Our Father, give us this day,” etc. (see Mat_7:9-11).
III. Pride in the possession of it.—We say we are rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing. And yet we have to knock at the door of the Father’s house for a crust of bread. His sunshine and His rain must enrich us, or we starve. It is because for six thousand years some have gone forth every year to reap the corn and care for it that you to-day have got your crust. Every loaf of bread leaves us debtor to a host of toilers.
IV. Greed in relation to it.—Let it suffice to listen to the parable of the corn. It gave itself up to the sower, and went down in the dark earth, and braved the storms and winter’s frost, and rose up in new beauty, increased and blessed a hundred fold, and made glad the heart, and cheered the home, and blessed the people, and woke the hymns of praise. So is it. We can give ourselves to Him who soweth the good seed, and for us some heart shall be brighter, some life be gladdened, and some song be stirred that else had not been heard in earth or heaven—for he that loseth his life shall find it.—M. G. Pearse.
Our daily bread.—St. Matthew has δὸς, “give” in one act; St. Luke has δίδου, “be giving, give continually.” St. Matthew, it has been said, touches the readiness, St. Luke the steadiness; St. Matthew the promptitude, St. Luke the patience of God’s supply. Again, St. Matthew says: “Give us this day;” St. Luke says “Give us day by day.” St. Matthew implies “sufficient unto the day is the want thereof,” St. Luke says: “and if there be a morrow, for it may God also provide.” We descend from the spiritual heights of the former petitions. The prayer is broad and simple.
I. Give.—Carnal men, it has been said, are like swine which raven upon the acorns, but look not up to the oak from whence they drop.
II. Us.—Christ would not have us say “give me.” Prayers purely selfish are altogether base.
III. This day.—We are but creatures of a day, we will not be troubled or anxious for the morrow.
IV. Our.—When we ask for our daily bread, it is only the just, the diligent, and the moderate who can rightly use the prayer. “A noble heart,” says Barrow, “will disdain to subsist, like a drone, on the honey gained by others’ labour, or like vermin to filch its food from the public granary, or like a shark to prey on the lesser fry, but will one way or another earn his subsistence, for he that does not earn can hardly own his bread.”
V. Daily.—This strengthens the teaching that we are to live as children in our Father’s house, relying on God’s providence for all that lies beyond the immediate need.
VI. Bread.—It includes all that is necessary, and it comes to us day by day as the manna came to Israel in the wilderness from heaven. Christ here, as everywhere, lays the axe at the root of all our sensual desires for gluttonous luxuries and superfluities.—Archdeacon Farrar.
Mat_6:11-12. Give and forgive.—The Father has not His interest wholly absorbed in the higher spiritual interests of His children; or in abstract contemplations of His own glory and kingdom. As a Father, He is interested in our daily bread, and daily danger.
I. What is the theological attitude of the man who prays these clauses sincerely?—He must believe in:—
1. The absolute and entire dependence of man upon God.—Prayer involves belief in the dependence of man on God.
(1) For food, or in the matter of bodily necessities,
(2) For forgiveness, or in the matter of the necessities caused by sin. These cover all man’s wants as a dependent creature.
2. The law that God’s dealings with us depend on our moral condition.—Involved in the clause, “as we forgive our debtors” (see Mat_6:14-15). This law does not say, our forgiving others is either the cause or the measure of God’s forgiving us. It says that God is concerned in our moral states, because He wants all His dealings to be a moral blessing to us. If we are in an unforgiving state of mind, then His forgiveness cannot reach us. And if we keep in an unforgiving state of mind, we prove ourselves unworthy of His forgiveness. Parable of unmerciful servant.
3. The fact of sin as disturbing our relations with God.—If sin be a disease only, the man will not say, “forgive.” If sin be a weakness, a moral deterioration only, the man will not say, “forgive.” If sin be not a personal and individual thing, no force goes into the prayer, “forgive.” Sin must be realised as a fact, a wrong, a rebellion, a disobedience, involving penalty—then only can we pray “forgive.”
Observe the relation of these clauses to the former parts of the prayer. “The Father.” He is surely willing to forgive. “The Name.” Can it be more hallowed than in forgiveness? “The kingdom.” Must have its beginning in forgiveness. “The will.” Is set most of all upon forgiveness.
II. What should be the moral attitude of the man who prays these clauses?—There should be:—
1. A deep sense of the evil and hatefulness of sin.—Conceived as ingratitude, insult, and rebellion; estimated in the light of its consequences. Such impressions of sin are the work of the Holy Spirit.
2. Profound humility of spirit.—He who comes saying, “Forgive,” cannot fail to be humble when he prays, “Give.”
3. Ready willingness to forgive others.—Such forgiveness is not a number of isolated acts; it is properly the expression of a spirit of forgiveness, cherished in our hearts.
“Give” is the cry of the child, forgive is the cry of the sinful child. How tender and affecting to the earthly father are both attitudes. This may be illustrated from the two attitudes of the prodigal son.—Weekly Pulpit.
Mat_6:12. The fifth petition of the Lord’s prayer.—If any should wonder why the petition for temporals should go before the two petitions for pardon of sin, and grace to resist temptations, there are these two accounts I think may be given of it. First, that the natural life being prior in time, though not in dignity, to the spiritual life, is provided for, and wants to be provided for in the first place. Secondly, on the account of devotion it may be of use that the petition for temporals should first briefly be dispatched, that the mind being cleared from those worldly cares, may apply itself so much more intensely to the greater concerns of the soul.
I. The blessings we are here taught to pray for.—Viz., the pardon of sin for ourselves and for others.
II. The qualifications of the persons who are allowed to put up this petition.—
1. If we consider this petition with the context, we may easily discover faith in Christ; for everywhere in the New Testament we find that our privilege to call God our Father, or to expect forgiveness of sins from Him, is solely in and through Christ (Rom_8:15; Gal_4:6).
2. We are taught here to come unto God as humble supplicants confessing our sins, and begging pardon; so here is the qualification of repentance.
3. We are taught here that though God is now rendered propitious to mankind in Christ, yet it is requisite that we sue for pardon by incessant prayer.
4. We are put in mind here of the necessity of charit, particularly that highest kind of it, consisting in the forgiving our enemies. But are we obliged to forgive all injuries without the least satisfaction; nay, to remit our just debts without payment, and that upon no less peril than the not being admitted to that pardon of sin purchased by Christ? And if not these, what is to be understood by this part of the petition? To this objection and question I shall endeavour to give a short answer:—
1. Negatively.—
(1) By this expression our Saviour did not intend to encourage the doing of injuries to others, as it would certainly be a great encouragement to all manner of injuries, if they were all to escape unpunished.
(2) Our Saviour did not design to interfere with the magistrate’s office.
2. Positively.—
(1) All private revenge is certainly forbidden, and it is left entirely to the magistrate’s office to do right between man and man.
(2) All rancour and malice in the heart are forbidden; and the duty of love and charity enjoined, which is very consistent with the doing of right to all.
(3) The rigour of justice, where it borders upon cruelty, exaction, or severity, is condemned.
(4) Where there is probability of reclaiming an enemy by a seasonable kindness, such as neither encourages transgression in general, nor wrongs any third person in particular, it is commendable to pass by a personal injury and to be the first in breaking off contention.
(5) As to debts and injuries where the party offending has not capacity or ability to repair them, and shows no malice in the case, there the Christian part is rather to forgive than to use the offender rigidly by corporal punishments and severities.
Observations.—
(1) From the rank and order which this petition holds in the prayer we may conclude that it is a petition of extraordinary consequence. It is the first of the spiritual petitions for ourselves or our neighbours.
(2) From the rank and quality which we ourselves hold in this petition, which is that of poor supplicants, we may learn what modest and humble thoughts we ought to have of ourselves and all our performances.
(3) Here is comfort for those who are daily discovering new failings in themselves.
(4) I recommend to you a merciful, forgiving temper, and dissuade you from acting out of principles of malice or resentment.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
“Forgive us our debts.”—Nothing is idler than the assertion that it is only Christianity which has cast over the human race the awful gloom caused by the sense of sin. All history, all literature, refutes the allegation. Fear is the centre of all false religious systems. Men have shuddered in a sense of guilt.
I. Sin as debt.—If you have known the shame, the guilt, the burden, the misery of debt, the concealment to which it leads, the dishonesty which it implies, the impossibility it leaves of “looking the whole world in the face,” the tendency it has to accumulate into an avalanche of disgrace and ruin, you will understand the metaphor. It will help to show you also how the sin and the punishment are identical. The great Greek philosopher, Plato, says that sin and punishment are twins who walk through this world with their heads tied together. But it is something more than that. Penalty is the inevitable reaction of sin, the inseparable shadow which is cast by it and dogs it. Sin is a debt against which there are no assets, which man incurs,
1. To himself.
2. To his neighbours.
3. To his God.
II. The miracle of forgiveness.—It is a gospel, it is a miracle. It is true there is nothing like it in the world of nature or in the world of man. It is avowedly supernatural, it is exclusively the gift of God. If you pray this prayer aright, be sure it will be answered. Was not it the disgrace of one of the bad Stuart kings, James II., that he admitted his nephew, the Duke of Monmouth, into his presence, and saw him grovel at his feet, and yet refused him the life for which he had permitted him to plead? When the young Bourbon prince, the Duke D’Enghien, doomed to death, asked the first Napoleon to have an interview and see him, Napoleon refused; and when asked why he had refused, he said, “Had I admitted him I must have pardoned him. As I have determined not to pardon him, I would not see him.” Hear what the unjust judge saith! and can you do Christ the monstrous injustice to imagine that He would have the cruelty to bid you come to God with the burden of all these intolerable debts if He knew that pardon was impossible, or that great plea for it would be refused?—Archdeacon Farrar.
The forgiving spirit.—We cannot be reconciled to God until we are reconciled to our fellow-men. In the early Christian church it was customary for the members of a family to ask each other’s forgiveness before going to the Lord’s table. We should carry this spirit with us every day, and extend it to all men. No man can be at peace with himself or with God who cherishes any grudge or ill-will against his neighbour.—S. Macnaughton, M.A.
Mat_6:13. God and evil.—
I. We pray here for the staving off of such temptations as are disproportioned to our measure of strength and grace.
II. We pray for preventing grace to keep our minds in a good frame and temper, well fortified against all temptations we may be encountered with.
III. We pray that God would not desert us in the hour of temptation, but that His grace may be sufficient for us to bring us off victorious.
IV. We pray that if we are ensnared by any temptation, we may be quickly delivered from the power of it, and rendered more humble, penitent, and watchful.
Conclusion.—
1. Here we see the proper remedy for what is the most troublesome thing in a religious life; I mean the infinite number of temptations to which we are subject.
2. As we are thus to pray against temptations, we must take care that our actions and prayers be all of a piece; i.e. that in our actions we follow such courses as may be most effectual for overcoming temptations.
(1) Many men become their own tempters, by raising and cherishing in their minds such thoughts and imaginations as pollute the heart, and prove the seeds of much wickedness in the life.
(2) Whosoever they are that lay snares and temptations for others, these persons by their practice contradict this petition, lead us not into temptation.
(3) They who put themselves in the way of temptations, by frequenting lewd company, by reading lascivious or atheistical books, by committing to their memory profane songs and ballads, or by doing any other thing whereby they may probably be ensnared and led into temptation, act directly contrary to this part of the Lord’s prayer.
(4) They who kindly entertain and hug a temptation when presented, and do not flee from it, but flutter about it so long till at last they burn their wings with it, have themselves a hand in defeating this part of their prayer.
(5) If we would effectually answer the end of this part of the Lord’s prayer, we must take all the most effectual methods we can think of, both to prevent and to defeat temptations; such as the avoiding of idleness, and keeping ourselves employed in the business of our lawful calling; the keeping of the mind in a good temper, not ruffled with anger, nor debauched with lust, nor swelled with pride and vanity; the keeping a conscience void of offence, etc.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
The prayer against temptation.—For “lead us not” the R.V. has the more accurate rendering, “bring us not.” But we are at once faced with the question, Does God ever bring us into temptation? (see Jas_1:13). The explanation is very simple; it lies in the two sense of the word temptation. Temptation means trial, the conditions which are meant to test our faithfulness, and it also means actual incitement, seduction, inducement, allurement in the direction of wrong-doing. Now, in the first sense, God does tempt us. He tries us as gold is purged in the fire. In this sense He tempts us because He has placed us in a world wherein of necessity we are surrounded by evil influences, and because He has endowed us with a nature which, whatever it once may have been, is now, at any rate, weakened, and corrupt and prone to sin. But God only brings us into temptation because He can bring us out of it. God never tries to make us do wrong; on the contrary, He brings to bear every gracious influence, human and Divine, to keep us unseduced by wrong. If there were no temptation to sin there would be no glory of righteousness (see Jas_1:2-4; Jas_1:12). God, then, tries, but He does not tempt. Our prayer is that we may not turn His trials into Satan’s allurements, and His fear, which purges, into Satan’s, which consumes.
I. The sources of temptation.
1. The devil.—All temptations may come from him, but especially those universal ones of pride, selfishness, passion, hatred, lies, unbelief, irreverence, self-will, which constitute his horribly perverted nature.
2. The world.—Its nearness, its menacing noise, the fear which it inspires, the spell which it exercises, the splendid illusiveness of it, the lust of the eyes and the braggart vaunt of life.
3. The flesh (Jas_1:14). This is the force which temptation derives from our corrupt nature with the fatal bias of its long heredities of evil.
II. The methods of temptation.—Temptations come entirely in two ways:—
1. By stealthy witchery.—Adder-like. The adder comes noiselessly, gradually, insidiously, with the creeping glide, with the almost imperceptible motion of a venomous thing, undulating through life’s dry and fallen leaves till when it is quite close to us, and can catch us unawares, it darts out at us with its forked and flickering tongue. This represents the bewitchment, the glamour, the slow, depraving fascination of sin.
2. In sudden, furious assaults.—Like the wild beast. Sometimes when we fancy ourselves most secure, the temptation for some deadly sin rushes out suddenly upon us like a panther from its lair with flaming eyes, lashing spring, and thick carnivorous roar. In one unexpected moment we find ourselves engaged in fiercest conflict with this temptation which has leapt upon us, terrible and with a tiger’s leaps (see Psa_91:13).
III. The way to escape temptation.—Why do men fall so fearfully? Often because they purposely linger in the neighbourhood of temptation, and wilfully dally and tamper with it—e.g. Eve, Achan, David. Some, it is said, enter into temptation presumptuously, to show their power; some curiously, to taste of the allurement; some carelessly, because they give no heed; some imitatively, following where others go; some Pharisaically, pretending to glorify God by showing what His grace can do. But, alas! there is no necessary connection between entering into temptation and coming out of it. There is but one rule about temptation; think of it as a serpent’s egg—which hatched would, as his kind, grow mischievous—and kill it in the shell. It is fugiendo pugnare; like the Parthian warriors, we must overcome by flight.
1. How does this prayer brand the guilt, the insanity of those who seek temptation, who revel in it?
2. We pray “lead us not,” etc., because there is an escape for every one of us. Christ conquered for us the three sources of temptation in their subtlest and most virulent form to show that we can, and how we can, conquer.—Archdeacon Farrar.
Preserved and delivered.—The former clauses of this prayer can be uttered by all men; these, in their fuller applications, only by the spiritual man.
I. What must be the theological attitude of the man who prays these clauses sincerely?—He must believe:—
1. That man’s life on earth is a moral trial.—Has life any meaning? The superior powers and trusts of man suggest a moral end. Adam’s trial is renewed in each life. Could we wish to be incapable of temptation? That were to be incapable of virtue.
2. That evils have their true root in evil.—Observe the two meanings of the term. We do not believe in the evils of the world; we know and feel them. We should believe in the connection between evils and evil.
3. That temptation is common to all, but peculiar to each.—“Deliver us.” The peculiarity of temptation lies in its relation to differing dispositions. We cannot pray “deliver us,” until this idea is mastered.
4. That the force of temptation depends on circumstances.—Apprehending danger of places and of times, we learn to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.”
5. That God is Master of circumstances, temptations, and evil.—If the ordinary man were asked which was the mightier, God or evil, if he were honest he would say, “Evil.” If a Christian were asked, he would promptly and confidently say “God.” How different life, temptation, and evil appear with or without the conception of a good God, ever-living, ever working towards goodness!
II. What should be the moral attitude of the man who prays these clauses sincerely?—His state of feeling should include:—
1. Holy fear of the power of temptation.—The sense of sin that makes us seek forgiveness, brings a sense of fear lest we should fall again. Holy fear is in perfect harmony with holy courage.
2. Conscious weakness under the subtlety of evil.—Lacking this sense of self-weakness, Adam fell.
3. Simple out-looking of the soul to God.—The attitude that assures the perfecting of God’s strength in our weakness. The attitude suggested by every sentence of the prayer.—Weekly Pulpit.
Deliver us from evil.—
I. From evil in its lower sense.—From the evils of this life; from the evils of penalty and of consequence; from outward mischief; from the vulgarism, stupidity, and malevolence of man; from sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity. In the sense of:—
1. Protection from them.—Such protection can at the best be only partial and relative.
2. Deliverance out of them.—God delivers,
(1) when He quickly takes the evil from us and does not suffer it to continue;
(2) when He mingles some comfort with our affliction, that He may make us bear it the better;
(3) by giving us patience;
(4) by turning the evils into greater good.
II. From evil in its higher sense, sin, the evil one. Here the sad thing is that so many who offer this prayer do not really mean it, or believe it: either they do not wish that it should be granted, like that poor African youth who prayed to God against his passions, with the secret hope, he tells us, that God would not yet hear him, that he might indulge them a little longer; or they do not believe that it can be granted, like that unhappy poet who, choosing to assume he was reprobate, set himself to secure his own damnation, and to work all uncleanness with greediness. Hear the memorable confession of St. Cyprian. He had been a pagan, rich, worldly, eloquent, entangled in pagan sins. He grew disgusted and horrified with the misery and the wickedness of the world around him, and tossing and wandering alone from truth and light, he thought he must be born again, and while still bound to the body must be changed in heart and soul. “How,” he asked, “is still conversion conceivable? How can the impulses of natural temperament and the indurations of engrained habit be laid aside, how can avarice, luxury, ostentation, ambition, be changed for self-denial and humble simplicity? Will not the drunkenness, the pride, the passion, the lust in which I have been entangled still retain their seductiveness for me?” Not so; St. Cyprian sought God and found Him, or rather was found of Him. He received a moral resurrection, and the vice-corrupted heathen became, late in life, a godly Christian, and after many years of pure and holy living, he died a martyr to his Lord.—Archdeacon Farrar.
Deliver us from evil.—“Our Father, … deliver us from evil.” The revelation of sonship is also the revelation of evil. Until we know God is Father, and we His dear children, we do not know how evil a thing is sin. It is in the light of our higher relations and possibilities that we see how evil has belittled and degraded our natures.
I. The prayer of God’s child.
1. The evil God’s child prays to be delivered from.—Many things we call evil are not so in reality. They may be but the hiding of some good, deeper than our poor minds can grasp, or the painful shocks that are bringing health and freedom for some captive child of God. Let us in our prayer remember what the evil is. Poverty is not. Suffering is not. The only real evil is sin. When we pray to be delivered from evil, we do not pray to be delivered from suffering, but from repining in suffering. We do not pray to be delivered from poverty, or calamity, or death, but from the evil in us which would prevent us from turning every loss into gain, every trial into strength, and every vicissitude in our changing experience into a means of spiritual progress.
2. This prayer is in perfect harmony with God’s purpose in redemption.—“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.” Deliverance from evil is the great object of the Divine discipline and culture of our nature.
3. The desire shall be completely realised.
II. The reasons for using this prayer.
1. The evil is within us.—The Saviour said: “The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in Me.” But we cannot say that. A man cannot flee from the plague of his own heart by going into a desert or shutting himself up in a cell. Doré, in his picture of the Neophyte, by a touch of genius all his own, has shown how the ideal the young man has chosen is failing to realise his hopes. In that beautiful face of his, so marvellously expressive, we see hope trembling between fear and disappointment; we see the shadows gathering over the beauty of the young man’s ideal. The brutal countenances of some of the men that surround him, the stern scowl of others, the sensual look of most, these surely cannot express the purity and beauty of God’s ideal. No; the young man has made a mistake. The picture says: The cloister is no more sacred than the world. Escape from the world is not escape from sin.
2. The evil is subtle.
3. We must be delivered from evil before our salvation is complete.—W. Hetherington.
The conclusion of the Lord’s prayer.—I. Consider the words as a doxology or thanksgiving.—
1. It is very fit in our devotions to join thanksgiving with prayer.
2. The consideration of former mercies is a great encouragement in our addresses to Almighty God.
3. The many examples we have had of God’s asserting His sovereignty, and of His exercising His power, and of the close conjunction of His honour with the happiness of His creatures, do all furnish great matter for thanksgiving.
II. Consider the words as a motive or inducement to back our petitions.—The particle “for” gives them this aspect.
III. Consider the words as directing us to the ultimate aim and end of all our petitions, which is the honour and glory of God.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Amen.—
1. As it is in Thy purposes (Isa_14:27).
2. So it is in Thy promises (2Co_1:20).
3. So be it in our prayers (Rev_22:20).
4. So shall it be to Thy praise (Rev_19:4).—Hannam’s Pulpit Assistant.
Amen.—I. It is a general assent to all that went before, a fresh renewing of all the petitions.
II. It is a signification of our faith and hope to obtain what we have prayed for.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Mat_6:14-15. Mercy in forgiving injuries.—
I. The merciful temper and disposition required.
1. We are not to imagine that it is to be carried so far as if it left no room for a just reparation of injuries.—
(1) That it never was designed to encourage, but to prevent injuries appears both from the reasonableness of the thing, and from the approbation of the magistrate’s office in Holy Scripture.
(2) For the same reason this doctrine of forgiveness does not restrain private persons, when they are injured, from making use of the laws, judges, and magistrates, to do themselves right, after they have first in vain tried what other pacificatory methods are in their power. (a) There are many lesser injuries which the Christian doctrine of forgiveness will teach us to wink at. (b) It will teach us, if the injury is ever so great, before we have recourse to law and magistrates, to try all other amicable methods of agreement and accommodation (Mat_18:15-17). (c) It should teach us so to manage our law-suites as to retain no malice in our hearts against our brother with whom we have the difference.
2. What is expressly required of us.—
(1) That we actually forgive and pass by many trespasses, without expecting any reparation. These are chiefly: (a) All such trespasses as have not proceeded out of malice, but ignorance, mistake, or misinformation. (b) All such trespasses as are but small in their nature and consequences. (c) All such trespasses wherein men have not so much been the principals themselves, but have been led away with a violent torrent of authority, custom, or general prejudice. (d) All such trespasses as have not been particular to them who did the injury, but common to them with a great many, and in which, perhaps, they have been obliged to execute the orders of their superiors, upon peril of their own utter ruin; for everyone has not the courage to resist an ill thing to martyrdom, and not many to the loss of places and preferments. (e) All those trespasses, which are not capable of reparation any other way than by confession and repentance, and begging pardon, provided they were only injuries to ourselves, and that the example of the impunity of them is not prejudicial to others, it is much more generous to forgive. (f) All those trespasses which flow from errors of conscience and mistaken principles of religion, provided they have no further ill effects, by raising disturbance or sedition in the State, are much better tolerated and forgiven than punished, any other way than by prudent discouragements, without persecution.
(2) That we abstain from all avenging of ourselves.
(3) This duty of forgiving men their trespasses obliges us, in the righting of ourselves, to take care that we be still in charity with our adversary, and that we harbour no malice or hatred in our hearts against him.
II. The promise made to them who perform the duty.—It will be necessary to consider the excellency of this temper of forgiving enemies, and the wickedness of the contrary disposition; for then it will appear how reasonable it is that pardon of sins is promised to the one and denied to the other. As to the excellency of this temper of pardoning trespasses:—
1. This is a good quality wherein we do most resemble God.
2. Considering that we are great sinners, who have great need of mercy at the hands of Almighty God, there is no virtue more becoming men in our circumstances.
3. Considering the frequent changes and revolutions this world is subject to, the exercise of this virtue is our greatest prudence. Neither riches, nor honour, nor power, are for ever; and in all changes and revolutions of fortune, as there are no men more kindly treated than they who were moderate and merciful in the time of their power and prosperity, so none are more despised and fall less pitied than the cruel and hard-hearted.
4. This merciful temper includes in it a great many of the very chief of the Christian virtues, to which heaven is promised.
(1) Humility is the foundation of it.
(2) Self denial.
(3) It is a certain mark of the love both of God and our neighbour prevailing in our hearts.
(4) This love and charity in the heart prevents all the usual occasions of quarrel and discord; it is apt to interpret all our neighbour’s actions in the most candid and charitable sense; it restrains the tongue from provoking injurious words, which are commonly the first beginners of differences; and occasions peace and quiet both in our own consciences, and in families, neighbourhoods, and governments, by withdrawing fuel from the fire of contention, and so extinguishing it.
III. The threatening to the contrary temper and disposition.—Without it no pardon is to be obtained. The ingredients in the composition of this evil temper:
1. Pride.—We think it below us to take an affront, or not retaliate an injury.
2. Anger.
3. Cruelty.
4. The hatred of our neighbour.
5. A contempt of the laws of God and Christ, which are so plain against revenge.
6. A spirit of unruliness, and contempt of all good order, peace, and discipline. Now let any one judge if a complication of so many ill things, expressly contrary to the doctrine and example of Christ, does not deserve to be threatened with such a severe threatening as this of my text, that our heavenly Father will not forgive such persons.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
Mat_6:16-18. Fasting.—Properly speaking, fasting is not so much a duty enjoined by revelation as it is the natural expression of certain religious feelings and desires. There is but one special fast ordained in the Old Testament, and there is none at all ordained in the New. Yet one cannot fail to see that the exercise is, nevertheless, quite in accordance with the whole tenor of a true religious life in all ages; and that, if it is not expressly commanded, it is only because nature itself teaches us in certain circumstances thus to afflict the soul. These circumstances which would obviously suggest this exercise are twofold.
I. Fasting is the natural expression of grief, and therefore the natural accompaniment of godly sorrow.
II. Fasting is also a wise method of keeping down the law of the flesh which is in our members.
III. Our Lord counsels His people,
1. That their fasting must be real, sincere, genuine—a thing to be seen, not of men, but of God.
2. That fasting in the Christian church should be altogether private, and even secret, not only not in order to be seen of men, but absolutely hidden from them. Religion does not consist in a sour visage or morose habit; nay, more, religion is not properly a sorrowful thing. The gospel was not sad tidings, but glad tidings for all mankind, and we are not acting fairly by it unless we strive so to present it in all its winning and attractive beauty that men shall be led to seek after Jesus.—W. C. Smith.
The right manner of fasting.—
I. A commendable duty observed by the scribes and Pharisees; and which our Saviour supposes must be likewise observed by His disciples; namely, the duty of fasting.
1. The utility of fasting.—
(1) For the mortifying of lust. It is useful to mortify the sins of uncleanness by withdrawing fuel from a pampered body (1Co_9:27).
(2) It is proper as an exercise of repentance (Jon_3:5-10).
(3) It is a great help to prayer and contemplation of divine things; and so we generally find fasting and prayer joined together (Acts 10). In cases of importance and difficulty, it has been the practice of the church to join fasting to their prayers in their addresses to Almighty God.
2. The abuses of fasting.—
(1) The separating from it the internal devotion and repentance, and so making it really no more than a little bodily penance (see Joe_2:13; Isa_58:5, etc.).
(2) The employing it for sinful purposes, for we are not to believe that fasting sanctifies the cause, but that it is the cause which sanctifies fasting (Isa_58:4).
(3) That is not a right fast which is made use of out of parsimony and penuriousness (Isa_58:7).
(4) Only to change the diet, abstaining from flesh, but eating to the full of fish and rarities. To do justice to the scribes and Pharisees, there are several of these abuses of fasting which it seems they were not guilty of at that time.
II. The abuse of this duty in those doctors, to the ends of hypocrisy, pride, and vanity (Mat_6:16).—In these words we have both the description and condemnation of hypocrisy. The description of it—it is an ostentation of religion; and the condemnation of it is in Christ’s asseveration that they have their reward, i.e. that the popular applause and the other worldly advantages of hypocrisy is all the reward they shall have for their pains; there is no reward to be expected in the future state for such services as are performed not with an eye to God, but man. As to this description of hypocrisy, it will hold in all parts of religion. It will be no hard matter to see why our Lord does so earnestly dissuade us from it.
1. There is a great deal of disingenuity and insincerity in it, that a man should put on a mask, and never appear in his own true colours.
2. That in order to this mask, he should not be afraid to make use of such a sacred thing as religion.
3. Another ingredient in this vice is pride and vanity.
4. Covetousness and divers other vices may lurk under this cloak of hypocrisy (see Mat_23:14).
III. Our Saviour’s direction and encouragement to the contrary exercise of humility, secrecy and sincerity in the practice of this duty. If every one cannot bear the rigour of fasting, there is another duty of great affinity with it, which our Saviour enjoins strictly to all persons and at all times; namely, temperance in eating and drinking.—Jas. Blair, M.A.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Matthew 5-7, and Luk 6:20-49. A few days ago…
CHAPTER 16
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
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Matthew 5-7, and Luk 6:20-49. A few days ago it was my privilege to spend two beautiful bright days at the sea of Galilee, sailing over it, and visiting the places of historic note. Our dragoman escorted us up Mt. Hattin, which hangs over the city of Tiberias on the west coast, and said to us, “This is the Mount of Beatitudes.” I correct this mistake, lest you fall into it. While perhaps all the guides through that country would corroborate our dragoman, the Word of the Lord is the end of all controversy. Mt. Hattin, so celebrated as the battlefield on which the Christian Crusaders suffered their last and final defeat by Saladin, the Mohammedan general, A.D. 1189, after which the Cross retreated from the Holy Land, the Crescent superseding even till this day, is twenty miles from Capernaum overland, and ten by sea. Hence this can not be the Mount of Beatitudes, as we see (Matthew 8 and Luke 7) that when our Lord concluded this sermon, and they descended from the mount, they were at the city of Capernaum, which is on the north coast. From these Scriptures, we see very clearly that the great mountain, rising in his majesty, immediately back of Capernaum, is really and unmistakably the Mount of Beatitudes. This conclusion satisfies the Scripture at all points — i.e., the location of the mountain; the plateau, about midway from the summit down to the sea, where Jesus descended with his apostles; and the city of Capernaum, down on the plain, hard by the sea.
“Seeing the multitudes, He went up into the mountain, and having sat down, His disciples came to Him.” Our Lord, having already this morning done a mighty work of bodily healing and soul saving, retires from the multitude, leaving them on that “level place” — i.e., plateau, on the southern slope of the Mount of Beatitudes, Capernaum and the sea of Galilee being down at the base — retires back into the mountain, where He had spent the preceding night in prayer, organizing the Apostolate about sunrise. Though at the beginning only His disciples came to Him, the multitudes doubtless follow on.
“Opening His mouth, He continued to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” Luke: “Lifting up His eyes toward His disciples, He said, Blessed are ye poor, because yours is the kingdom of God.” Here, as uniformly in the Scriptures, “heaven” (E.V.) is “heavens” in the Greek, corroborating the astronomical revelation of many worlds constituting the celestial universe. “Kingdom of heaven” and “kingdom of God” are everywhere precisely synonymous — here, Matthew giving the former, and Luke the latter; simply meaning the Divine government, including all the saints and angels in glory, and the holy people under the reign of grace on the earth. Spiritual poverty stands at the head of these seven wonderful, spiritual Beatitudes, corroborating the uniform teaching of God’s Word, setting forth humility as the fundamental and primary grace of the Holy Spirit, without which every other is defective and evanescent. Conviction, superinduced by the straight preaching of the awful Sinai gospel is prerequisite in every substantial work of grace. John Fletcher was once interrogated, “What is the most important Christian grace?” He answered, “Humility.” “What is the next?” His response was, “Humility.” To the third inquiry he gave the same answer. When John Wesley preached the funeral sermon of that good man, he said: “The most saintly man I ever saw lies in that coffin, and I never expect to see another such till I go to glory.” Perfect humility is the corner-stone of all Christian perfection.
“Blessed are they that mourn, because they shall be comforted.” When the Holy Spirit transmits His wonderful light into the deep interior of the sinner’s heart, revealing to him his absolute destitution and hopeless bankruptcy, he is inundated with a Bochim of weeping, refusing to eat or sleep; but crying to God out of a broken heart, mourning night and day, despite all efforts to comfort him, till Jesus sends into his troubled breast the infallible Comforter. Hence, you see the logical connection of these two Beatitudes — “poverty of the spirit” preparing the way for the comfort of the Holy Ghost.
“Blessed are the meek, because they shall inherit the earth.” Meekness is a strong, clear case of humility, bringing us down low at the feet of Jesus, there to abide in the bottom of the valley of humiliation, from which we can never fall, as we are already on the bottom, and no place into which to fall. The meek here signifies the genuine humble saints of God in all ages and nations, in whom the Holy Ghost has wrought the glorious work of pride’s extermination. Here our Savior flashes out a glorious anticipation of the Millennial Theocracy, when the humble saints of God, who have lived and died in poverty, many of them sealing their faith with their blood, shall be promoted to the thrones and principalities, and, as the subordinates of the glorified Christ, rule the world. We are very sure that the Lord’s meek and holy people have not yet inherited this earth. With very little exception, it is in the hands of Satan’s people. The Word of the Lord can not fail. I am living in constant anticipation of the trumpet call, responsive to which the saints, living and dead, will fly up to meet the Lord in the air. (1Th 4:13-18.)
“Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, because they shall be filled.” Here we have another beautiful couplet of these Beatitudes; meekness, which is perfect humility, puts us in position to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Are you hungry? Do you not hear the invitation ringing? Your chair is vacant at the table of the Lord, which is groaning beneath the very bounty of heaven, the blessed Master sitting at the head, and saying to all, “Help yourselves,” while the angels are all around you, with smiling solicitations to partake of this and that, and everything sweet, delicious, and nutritious; the fatted calf floating in his gravy, bread enough and to spare, milk and honey flowing, delicious grapes of Eshcol, strawberries, cream, and every edible desirable or conceivable, without money and without price. Are you thirsty? The crystal river of life is flowing at your feet, and Jesus is ready to turn the water into wine.
It is your privilege to eat to gluttony and drink to intoxication. I fear the trouble is, that you do not hunger and thirst. Thirty thousand promises in God’s Infallible Word assure you, that heaven is full of salvation, and you have nothing to do but tap the ocean by faith and you will get full. Even now is the auspicious moment for you to eat and drink and be filled.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” The merciful man is merciful to everything that has feeling. His heart leaps over the ocean, and breaks with sympathy for the heathen millions, “sitting in the valley and the shadow of death.” He cries to God to make him a blessing to all his neighbors and friends. O how gushingly and genuinely he loves his enemies! He is full of kindness to the horse, cow, hog, sheep, dog, cat, chicken, and every living creature. He longs to do good to everybody and everything. O how he loves the antiholiness people, who fight him so pugnaciously! He does not feel like leaving his Church, where God needs him to show mercy to the unsaved. If they turn him out, he is still the more flooded with loving sympathy and tender mercy, crying out, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” This blessing takes away all your horns, hoofs, claws, sharp teeth, and leaves you harmless as a wasp whose sting has been extracted. These Beatitudes run in couplets: Spiritual poverty puts you down where you can mourn and be comforted.
Meekness is still a deeper humiliation, preparatory for the filling of the Holy Ghost. From the bottom of a deep well, you can look up and see stars at noonday. If you want to see the deep things of God, close your eyes. The blessing of mercy is still progressive in the sphere of humiliation, and a glorious preparatory school for the happy graduation, which follows in the next Beatitude; i.e., a clean heart.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, because they shall see God.” Our Savior has decreed that none shall see the kingdom unless they are “born from above;” and now we hear the irrevocable decree ringing out, “None but the pure in heart shall see God.” The heart is never pure, so long as it contains any malevolent affection; — i.e., pride, vanity, folly, envy, jealousy, revenge, selfishness, bigotry, sectarianism, anger, malice, ambition, avarice, lust, or any other incentive out of harmony with pure love, the character of Jesus, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and the will of God. The precious blood of Jesus, applied by the Holy Spirit, through humble faith, preceded and accompanied by complete consecration and obedience to God, is the heavenly elixir for the purification of the heart.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, because they shall be called the children of God.” Things are very apt to be called what they are. The Bible was first written in Hebrew, which is a rigidly significant language, every name having a meaning. Consequently, when Adam, before the black darkness of sin fell on his intellect, looked on the animals which God had created and brought to him, he had no trouble to name them all, not haphazardously, but significantly of their character, by the wonderful intuition of his unfallen intellect looking into the very nature of every animal, diagnosing its constitution, recognizing its character, and calling it just what it was. That mutation is still in the world in a modified state, as a rule calling everything by its right name; i.e., what it is. When you receive a clean heart, you, ex-officio, become a peacemaker; i.e., like a ministering angel, you make peace among all the inmates of your house, not only with one another, but with God, thus rendering your home a little heaven. You become a peacemaker in your community, reconciling alienated friends; rising above partisan strife, whether political or ecclesiastical; shedding a benignant, heavenly influence all around. Is there any serious trouble between neighbors or Church members? You run, lest some one may anticipate you, and take the blessing which God has for the peacemaker, and you may miss it. Religious professions which do not illustrate and verify these Beatitudes are all counterfeit and spurious.
“Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, because theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” Such is the importance of the blessing of persecution that our Lord here repeats it in a more elaborate form: “Blessed are ye when they may revile you, and persecute you, and say every evil word against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, because great is your reward in the heavens; for thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Luke gives this blessing so grand and beautiful, we give you the full benefit of his testimony: “Blessed are ye when the people may hate you, and when they may turn you out of the Church, despise and cast out your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of man. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven, for according to these things their fathers were accustomed to do unto the prophets.” The old prophets, like the apostles, suffered a terrible persecution all their lives, many of them sealing their faith with their blood. You wonder why I give you this Scripture from Luke, “Turn you out of the Church.” The word which our Savior used is aphorisosin, and means separate — i.e., separate you from their fellowship; i.e., turn you out of the Church, which was currently customary during all the persecutionary ages, when they burned the heretics, invariably excommunicating them from the Church antecedently to their martyrdom. When they burned Bishops Latimer and Ridley at Smithfield, during the reign of Bloody Mary, the Roman Catholic bishop turned them out of the Church before they took their lives. Much of this excommunication is now going on — a matter of great encouragement to God’s true people, because it is a literal fulfillment of our Savior’s prophecy. What shall we do amid all these persecutions, excommunications, and everything they dare to undertake? as they certainly would expose God’s people to martyrdom now, as in bygone ages, if the civil arm would only enforce ecclesiastical law. Our Savior tells us what we are to do amid all these persecutions, (Luk 6:23), “Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward in heaven is great; for according to these things their fathers were accustomed to do unto the prophets.” Hence, you see, it is no time to put on a long face, turn blue, and complain, “O they have done me so much evil, and even turned me out of the Church.” Do you not know that all your murmuring and complaining grieves the Holy Spirit and pleases the devil, and at the same time shows to the world that your place is down low at the altar, where you are to stay until you get a clean heart? Do you not see here that persecution is a blessing, and actually climaxes the preceding six? If you were sanctified wholly, then persecution would be a blessing to you, and you would rejoice in it. The joy of perfect love can not be quenched out by the devil’s cold water. When you get this catalogue of blessings, as you see, culminating in a clean heart, then you will be in fix to obey the Savior, who commands you to rejoice in your persecutions, and leap for joy, even in case that they turn you out of the Church, ignoring you as a heathen or a publican. Rely upon it, this is all true.
These Beatitudes are a glorious and ineffable reality. If you are not sanctified wholly, having a genuine case, in harmony with the Scriptures, wrought by the Holy Ghost, persecution will not be a blessing to you; as it is very likely to upset you, provoke you to commit sin, and bring you under condemnation. While, if you really have a clean heart, filled with the Holy Ghost, you will stand on an eminence, not only above, but out of reach of persecution, so that you will actually get happy, rejoice and leap for joy, amid the persecutions; not that you rejoice over the persecution, but your eye is on that great reward in heaven, the persecution serving as an exceedingly valuable test, throwing wide open the door through which God pours a flood of blessed assurance, which lifts you above all the raging storms and black tornadoes which earth and hell combined can raise against you. Remember, the blackest clouds are white as snow on the upper side, where the sun is shining in his beauty. These seven Beatitudes are the sapphire steps of Jacob’s ladder, by which you climb above every storm, tread the bright plateaus of the Delectable Mountains, where the Sun of righteousness eternally shines in His undimmed glory, and the fadeless flowers of Paradise emit their heavenly fragrance on celestial airs, their fadeless tints and hues flashing in the gorgeous glory of the Sun that never sets.
“Moreover, woe unto you rich people, because you exhaust your consolation;” not, as E.V., “have your consolation,” as in that case it would read echete, whereas we have apechete, which means exhaust. How is this? Why the rich, worldly people have only the consolation of this world, which is fleeting and transitory. Therefore they exhaust their happiness in this life — i.e., use it all up and have none left for eternity.
“Woe unto you who have been filled, because you shall hunger.” Still speaking of these rich, worldly, unsaved people, who have been filled — i.e., satisfied with the bounty of this world, which they must quickly leave, and go away to hunger through all eternity. “Woe unto you who laugh now, because you shall weep and mourn.” It is impossible to live for this world and for heaven at the same time, as they are utterly out of harmony, either with other. Here is the turning-point in human destiny.
We are all brought face to face with the issue: Take this world or heaven.
“Woe unto you when all the people may speak well of you; according to these things their fathers were accustomed to do unto the false prophets.” During an Annual Conference, a petition was brought before the Cabinet, requesting them to send a preacher who would please, not only the Methodists, but other denominations and the outsiders, specifying, “We want a well-rounded man.” The presiding bishop observed, “There is but one round figure, and that is zero, all the rest having sharp corners; so go and tell them I haven’t got the man. But be of good comfort; for they can pick him up anywhere, as there are plenty of them.” It is a significant fact that the climacteric effort is made in pulpit and pew to please everybody, which is inevitably selfcondemnatory, at the same time illustrating their unhappy identity with the false prophets, and confirming the sad conclusion that we live in an age of fallen Churches and false prophets; also warranting the conclusion that the false prophets of the old dispensation were the popular preachers, beloved and applauded by the people, who believed them to be orthodox, genuine, and true, while they persecuted Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, and all the glorious prophetical procession from righteous Abel down to the present day.
CHAPTER 19
VAINGLORY
Matthew 6. “Take heed that you do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them; but if not, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven; and when you may do alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets; truly, I say unto you, They exhaust their reward;” i.e., as they will receive no reward in eternity, they get it all here; simply the praise of men, and so they exhaust it. It was customary for the benefactors of the poor to sound a trumpet, to call up the beggars to receive their contributions; but the Omniscient Searcher of the heart knew that notoriety and the praise of men were the incentives. “But thou, doing alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall give unto thee.” An advocate always stood on the right hand of the judge. The right hand symbolizes the spiritual and the left hand the temporal side of life, which are frequently antagonistical either to other. Giving alms with an eye single to the glory of God is quite an available test of true spirituality. “And when you may pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites; because they love to pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, in order that they may appear unto the people. Truly, I say unto you, They exhaust their reward;” i.e., they receive the praise and commendation of the people, which is all they will ever get, as they have no reward in heaven. Consequently they completely exhaust their reward in this world. “And when you may pray, enter into your closet, and having closed your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father, seeing in secret, will reward you.” Secret prayer is one of the surest indices of true piety. Our Savior used to go away alone, and pray all night. The reason why I always lodge alone in my peregrinations is, that I may have ample time for secret prayer. “But praying, use not vain repetitions, as the heathens do; for they think they shall he heard in their much speaking.” Mohammedan and heathen priests will spend whole days in their temples, repeating their prayers over and over. The same is largely true with the Greek and Latin priests and all of the Oriental Churches. These prolix and repetitious prayers and ceremonies, along with Church machinery of all sorts, are vain attempts to substitute for the Holy Ghost. When services are truly spiritual, they are never encumbered with these vain repetitions. In this way Sunday-schools, prayermeetings, and all sorts of social meetings, as well as the Sunday services, are literally killed out, till they become a dead routine, without edification or inspiration. If you will guard this one point, the interest will never flag. Thunder without lightning never does any execution. Whether you pray, testify, sing, exhort, or preach, it must be done with life and energy, and in the Spirit, or the effect will be negative rather than positive, becoming a dead weight on the machinery. If the prayer or testimony had occupied but two minutes instead of ten, using all the lightning and simply omitting the superfluous thunder, execution would follow every time. There is a volume of truth in this one short sentence, spoken by our Savior, “Use not vain repetitions,” neither literal nor substantial. “Therefore be not like unto them, for your Father knows of what things you have need before you ask Him.” Then why should we ask Him? He extends this peculiar courtesy to our free agency, which He has given us, that He has made the petition the antecedent of the blessing, our asking being a simple act of our free volition. Such is His respect for our free agency, that He will not save us against our will.
THE DISCIPLES’ PRAYER
Our Savior, in signal mercy, has left all of His disciples without excuse, giving us the very form and phraseology with which He would have us pray. If every Church member would lead in prayer, promptly, responsive to the opportunity, the whole Church would always be full of life and availability, and never backsliding; but always move forward, like an army with banners, conquering and to conquer. Not one can possibly frame an excuse for not praying orally when called on, as all can commit to memory this brief form left us by our Savior. In that case, you would soon find the Spirit leading you out, and putting in your mouth more words and phrases than you find in this form, which is simply given as a basis on which to build your superstructure. People starve their own souls, and dry the Church into a crackling, because they will not lead in prayer. They ought to be down at the altar seeking the grace of God, as the difficulty is not intellectual, but spiritual. Our Savior taught His disciples to pray. How dare a preacher in charge of a congregation, thus occupying the place of the Great Pastor, as His subordinate, neglect his inalienable duty to teach his people to pray? As this is the only panoply with which they can successfully fight the devil and come off conqueror in the end, terrible will be the responsibility of that delinquent pastor, when his members meet him at the judgment-bar, unprepared for the terrible ordeal. It is the inexcusable duty of every pastor to teach all of his members to pray orally as well as secretly. If they rebel against this privilege, he should then preach to them the thunder and lightning of Sinai till they see hell open and the devil after them, get convicted, so they can neither eat nor sleep, tumble down at the altar, and stay till they get truly converted. Then he will have no trouble to teach them how to pray. “Therefore after this manner pray ye: Our Father, who art in the heavens, hallowed by Thy name.” This would preclude all irreverent and frivolous mention of His adorable Name, which is only to be uttered in most profound veneration for His majesty and realization of His eternal and absolute sovereignty. “Thy kingdom come.” The kingdom of God is the magnitudinous conception of the universe, predicted by the old prophets, proclaimed by John the Baptist, preached by the Savior and His apostles as a present gracious reality, whose doors redeeming mercy has thrown wide open to the brokenhearted fugitive from Satan’s miserable slavery. Church and kingdom are counterparts of the same grand reality, the former meaning the called out and the latter the Divine government. When we hear the call of the Holy Ghost and come out of this wicked world, leaving it, with all its iniquities, debaucheries, sins, and crimes, then we are members of the gospel Church, and proper subjects for the Divine administration, which is the kingdom of God. While Church is subjective, kingdom is objective, each one constituting a hemisphere of that grand globe — i.e., the redemptive scheme — from beginning to end. As this prayer is given to the disciples, who are already citizens of the gracious kingdom, therefore this coming kingdom must in some way differ from the kingdom of grace, of which every real saint is a member. Our Savior said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” He did not say that it would never be of this world in the sense that it will take it in. Then what do we mean by the kingdom coming? We simply mean that the kingdom of God, of which we, through His redeeming grace, are members, and which embraces and rules over all the celestial worlds, is also coming to this world, to conquer k and add it to the Celestial Empire; so our glorious King will actually reign from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same; yea,
“He shall have dominion o’er river, sea, and shore, Far as the eagle’s pinion or dove’s light wing can soar.”
While very few preachers are preaching the “coming kingdom,” I am glad they are all praying for it, as they all use this prayer, delegated to us by Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. “Thy will be done as in heaven even upon the earth.” Here you have a beautiful revelation, setting forth the gospel standard of Christian experience and life; i.e., we are to do our Heavenly Father’s will like the angels and redeemed spirits do it in heaven. None but those who in this world are living the life of heaven will go to heaven when they die, as death has no power to change the character, but only the state. Our immortal spirits live right through physical death, and subsequently without undergoing any moral change, as death does not affect us spiritually in any way, but only physically. Hence, you see clearly and indubitably that entire sanctification is the New Testament standard of Christian discipleship. As in heaven no sin is committed in thought, word, or deed, but all delightfully do the will of the Father, so it must be on earth with all the candidates for heaven. “Give us this day our daily bread.” As the soul is infinitely superior and more important than the body in every respect, this is not to be construed as simply involving physical sustenance, but infinitely and pre-eminently spiritual pabulum. “Forgive us our debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors.” The true Greek has aphekamen, “have already forgiven,” the perfect tense, and not the present as E.V. Now it is certain, if you do not ask forgiveness, you will never get it. While that is strictly true, be sure you do not forget that asking God to forgive you will never amount to anything unless you have already forgiven everybody who has transgressed against you, or is in any way indebted to you. This is the great secret of the power everywhere lost by Churches and individuals. They have not forgiven everybody, consequently their prayers are solemn mockery in the sight of God. They are under condemnation and on their way to endless ruin. “But they have not asked me to forgive them.” That has nothing to do with your justification before God. If you do not forgive them, asked or unasked, you had better never have been born, as you are certain never to get a petition up to the Mercyseat. “Should holy people, who have been pardoned and sanctified, and are now so kept by the grace of God as to live holy lives, committing no sin in thought, word, or deed, offer this prayer to God?” Most assuredly.
Sins are of three kinds — actual, original, and unknown. In the old dispensation, sins of ignorance needed a sacrifice. The most holy people are liable to sins of ignorance — i.e., mistakes and blunders — all of which need the atonement. While sanctifying grace, with its extraordinary illuminations, is a wonderful fortification against these infirmities — i.e., unknown transgressions of the perfect law — yet we will never be free from sins of ignorance this mortal puts on immortality, and glorification sweeps away all of our infirmities, enabling us to enter heaven in the enjoyment of the angelic perfection, which precludes all infirmities, as the unfallen angels never had any. “Lead us not into temptation.” This is an Orientalism for “Suffer us not to go into temptation,” as Eliezer said to Bethuel and Laban, “Send me away,” when he simply meant, “Let me go.” In this petition we have a full recognition of the Divine leadership, which God administers, through His Word, Spirit, and providence; to which, if we are true, we will never encounter temptation greater than we can bear; the temptation itself, in that case, proving a blessing, as we gain strength by the conflict and courage by the victory. “But deliver us from the evil one,” i.e., the devil. The E.V. here, “Deliver us from evil,” is entirely too weak, using the abstract instead of the concrete, which we have in tou ponerou, the words of our Savior, which literally mean the “evil one “ i.e., Satan himself. So we have here the wonderful consolation assured by the infallible promise of our Omnipotent Savior to answer the prayer He has given us; i.e., deliver us, not only from all evil, but from Satan himself, thus enabling us actually to get rid of the devil. O what a glorious privilege, and how few realize it! The pulpits are so utterly befogged that they preach us a standard so low as to never let the people even think of getting rid of the devil, their glorious felicity in the triumphs of their Omnipotent Savior. This is the conclusion of the prayer, the doxology in E.V. not appearing in the original, hut evidently being an interpolation.
“For if you forgive the people their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you forgive not the people, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” The plan of salvation, fundamentally and ultimately, contemplates our assimilation to God. A true repentance, which is the foundation of all hopeful salvation, so smashes up the stony heart as to superinduce a gushing, spontaneous forgiveness, reaching out indiscriminately to everybody and everything. Without this genuine, radical repentance, the most eloquent prayers will never avail. Hence, before we approach a Throne of Grace, we must literally clear up everything. O, how adroitly Satan, at this point, locks the wheels of Zion, till the train gets stockstill, then strategically reversing the motion, starts them down the Black Valley Railroad, and they land in hell, looking out for heaven!
“But when you fast, be not like the hypocrites, of a sad countenance; for they disfigure their faces, in order that they may appear unto the people fasting. Truly, I say unto you, They exhaust their reward.” The poor hypocrites get no reward in the world to come, but the retribution of a lost soul. Hence the commendation of the people, the social privileges and favors in this world, are all they get. Fasting is a means of grace, helpful to spiritually, and here so recognized by the Savior. Away with the modern dogma which would depreciate or do away with fasting as a means of grace! All truly spiritual people have so tested and proved the blessing of fasting as to be ready witnesses when that Bible doctrine is assailed. The Orientals make great demonstration, fasting and mourning for the dead, with their apparel unchanged, hair uncombed, all ablutions for cleanliness and comfort being neglected. “But thou, fasting, anoint thy head, and wash thy face, in order that thou may not appear unto the people fasting, but to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.” Who is a hypocrite? The word simply means an actor on the theatrical stage, who performs a part in which he represents another person, entirely different from himself. Hence all the people who simply act out — i.e., play religion — are hypocrites. It is very deplorable to hear a man stand in the pulpit and unblushingly preach that religion is simply something to be done, instead of a Divine reality to be received into the heart, giving us a new nature, and so utterly transforming and revolutionizing us, as in every case, to superinduce a radical change of life and deportment, not assumed, but spontaneously, lovingly, and joyfully verified in the regenerated and sanctified life. No wonder Churches get filled up with hypocrites, when the preacher boldly proclaims to them salvation by their own good works, which he calls obedience, thus actually preaching to them downright hypocrisy. The Church was full of hypocrites in our Savior’s time, as we plainly see from His ministry; i.e., people who are depending on works to save them, and at the same time strangers to the experimental reality.
HEAVENLY TREASURE
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Nothing but immortal souls and glorified bodies can go to heaven. Therefore, all the time and money we expend on transitory things are lost in eternity. True wisdom would concentrate all the powers and resources of mind, spirit, body, and estate in the salvation of souls.
“Man wants but little here, Nor wants that little long.”
We will get through this world some way. Therefore our only opportunity to lay up a reward for the future is to invest it in human souls, and take them to heaven. “The light of the body is the eye. If thine eye may be pure, the whole body shall be lighted; but if thine eye may be evil, the whole body shall be dark. And if the light which is in thee is darkness, how great is the darkness!” The eye is the most important of the five physical senses, and when pure — i.e., free from disease — it illuminates the whole body; while the body of a blind man is enveloped in rayless night. The soul has the five senses like the body — i.e., sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch — of which sight is the most important. A dead man does not see, though he has eyes. All sinners are dead, and wrapped in the black night of perdition, though they have eyes. In regeneration, the light comes to the eye of the soul, hut not clear and cloudless till sanctified wholly.
GOD & MAMMON
“No one is able to serve two masters; for he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cleave to the one and despise the other. You are not able to serve God and mammon.” Here is the salient issue on which turns the weal or woe of every human being. Since Satan captured the world in the fall, it is antagonistical to God. Comparatively few succeed in so appropriating redeeming grace and sanctifying power as to rise superior to all the charms and emoluments of this fallen world and take God for their portion. With God, they not only have this world so far as it is possible for it to be a blessing to them, but multitudes of bright, heavenly worlds, infinitely more valuable and enjoyable than this. But Satan manages to keep before the eye a constant panorama of this world, shown up in an utterly false light, with greatest possible carnal allurements, while he maneuvers cunningly to keep a black veil before the eye, obstructing every attempt to look away and catch the light of the bright, celestial spheres, which shine with a glory so ineffable as to throw this poor, fallen world into total eclipse if we could only once apprehend even a glimpse of the unutterable splendor and beauty!
WARNING AGAINST SOLICITUDE
“Therefore, I say unto you, Be not solicitous for your soul, what you may eat, nor your body, as to what you may be clothed; is not the soul more than food, and the body more than raiment?” The Greek psyche, “soul,” here occurring, includes animal life — i.e., the life of the body-for whose perpetuation food is needed. “Look toward the fowls of the firmament, because they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your Heavenly Father feedeth them; are ye not much more valuable than they?” The conclusion from this statement of our Savior is, that we should trust God to feed us like He feeds the birds, who neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns. It does not follow that we shall not sow, reap, and store the fruits of the earth; but it does follow that we are to be perfectly free from solicitude, resigned to the good providence of God, who never forgets any of us. The E.V. here, “Take no thought,” is misleading, as we can not do our work without giving it reasonable attention. But the word of our Savior simply means that we should be perfectly free from all of that worrying solicitude which fills the mind with anxious cares, and distracting fears, and foreboding anticipations of coming calamities, especially poverty and starvation, developing a state of solicitude and anxiety, which is incompatible with that perfect spiritual repose we must all have in Jesus, in order to be sanctified wholly, and utilize our full resources of soul, mind, and body for the salvation of the world and the glorification of God, who wants us to be free and happy as the birds of paradise. “Which one of you, being solicitous, is able to add one moment to his existence?” The “cubit to the stature,” as in E.V., adding eighteen to twenty-two inches to your height, would make you monstrous, and be undesirable. Hence no one is solicitous for that, while all are prone to solicitude for life prolonged. “And why are you solicitous concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. But I say unto you, That Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed as one of these.” In that day, when they had no factories, clothing was scarce and costly as we can hardly now conceive. Hence it ranked along with gold and silver and other valuables, the poorer classes, and among them God’s prophets
— e.g., Elijah, Elisha, and John the Baptist, the greatest of prophets wearing the rough, shaggy mantle woven out of camels’ hair. Now, how beautiful the illustration of Jesus, calling attention to the lilies growing in the valleys, and challenging comparison with the royal robes of King Solomon, the greatest and most celebrated monarch of the world, at the same time giving His verdict in favor of these beautiful and lovely lilies! “And if God so clothes the verdure of the field, living today and tomorrow cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?” As we look round we see forests blooming, gardens smiling, and fields wrapped in the radiant splendors of nature’s ineffable beauty, now let us remember that no factory on earth can equal these beauties. Yet as we are infinitely more valuable than the flowers that bloom, and the green grass that wraps the fields with its carpet of verdure, beautified with floral splendor, let us remember that God wants to adorn us with robes of beauty which outshine all of these; i.e., with the blood-washed mantles of entire sanctification, shining with the beauty of holiness, the admiration of angels unfallen and saints redeemed. “Then be not solicitous, saying, What must we eat? or What shall we drink? or With what shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathen seek; for your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.” When we are solicitous about the necessaries of life, we are like the heathens who know not God. The children of the loving Heavenly Father ought to have such confidence in His parental affection and care as to live utterly free from all solicitude. O how the Church of the present age needs the appropriation and utilization of this wonderful truth! What a shame to be living like the heathens, who look directly to the necessaries of life instead of looking to God, resting in Him, receiving in Him all things needful for this life and that which is to come, and daily realizing that in Him we live, and move, and have our being!
“But seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Do you not see here you have a check on heaven’s bank for everything you need in this world, if you will only seek the kingdom and the righteousness of God, which is true holiness? You enter the kingdom in regeneration; in sanctification you receive the righteousness of God. O what a sun-burst of glory on the suffering and troubled millions of earth! Instead of seeking after all these temporal blessings — food, raiment, home, education, books, friends, social position, and earthly achievements — seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and He will add to you all these other things, so far as in His omniscient wisdom He sees that they will be a blessing to you. What an awful blunder is made by the multitude, running after transitory things and neglecting God! Here you see the first thing that we are to seek, when launched into mortal existence, is the kingdom and righteousness of God, with the positive assurance that these temporal blessings shall also be added. “Therefore be not solicitous in reference to tomorrow; for tomorrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil of the same.” Will we never cease from this awful, pernicious habit of borrowing trouble from the future? The most of trouble I ever had, I never had.
I borrowed it from the future, and it never came. O what a trick of the enemy, to wear us out with solicitude about coming troubles which never do come! Praise the Lord, I have long ago quit borrowing trouble from the future. Will you not quit too? Our Savior is a powerful preacher on entire sanctification, which is the only possible remedy for this worrying solicitude, thus giving us perfect rest in Jesus; so, like a tired infant reposing in its mother’s arms, we rest each fleeting moment, leaving time and eternity with Him who loves us so dearly that He is certain to manage everything for our good and His glory.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Running through this chapter are two lines of thought…
Mat 6:1
Running through this chapter are two lines of thought that become one in the deep underlying truth:—
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I. The Father’s claim. Born of God, we are bound to Him in the deepest, closest, most abiding relationship. This great love of our Father has its claim upon us. His love would have us come close to Him, not as suppliants who knock at the outer door, not as strangers who tarry in the hall and stately courts of the king, but as His children who come right into the inner chamber of the Father’s presence (Mat 6:6). By these claims let us test ourselves and all the conditions of our life. We are the sons of God, and we have no business anywhere or in anything that conflicts with the will of our heavenly Father. Because we are sons of God we are to find in this relationship a power strong enough to order all our life’s places for the service and pleasure of our Father. Surely it is not too much to demand that such a relationship, with all its glorious possibilities, should be able to inspire us with a purpose as steady and resolute as that which the student finds in learning, or the merchant in money-making.
II. The soul’s supply. Thus our Lord bids us beware of what we may call a natural religious life—a religious life that is born of self and sustained of self, that has no higher source and no other aim. It prays and gives alms and fasts; but all that is only the price it pays for the good opinion of others. It gives its gold to buy men’s admiration, and has it; that is its reward. Very different, in all its course, is the life of holiness. It is born of God; we can only receive this life from Him, and we can only retain it by continually receiving—of Him, for Him, to Him, is its ceaseless round. To all life as we know it, derived and dependent, there are the same wants, in plant and in animal, in body and soul—air, warmth, exercise, food, light, society, sleep. There may be a kind of existence without some one or two of these; but the abundant life is only for him who will secure each. And these are the conditions of that healthy spiritual life which is holiness.
M. G. Pearse, Thoughts on Holiness, p. 89.
Reference: Mat 6:1.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Laws of the Kingdom, p. 135.
Mat 6:1-4
The Law kept by Sincerity.
I. It was the custom for great personages—princes and governors and such like—when making high procession through some favoured province, to sound a trumpet before them, and scatter largess of gold and silver, whereby they gained the good will of the poor. Our Lord likens the almsgiving of the Pharisees to this kind of lordly display of munificence. Their alms were never distributed without their taking good care, one way or other, to let the good deed be known, so that they might get honour among men.
II. Note that the guilt of this conduct lay entirely in the spirit which actuated them. Jesus detected that spirit. It was not the publicity of their conduct in itself which He blamed, but the ungodly motive which led to that publicity; and I think it is necessary to bear that in mind, lest we may get in the way of judging others, and judging them unjustly, by the mere external appearance. The really compassionate and liberal man is often put into the front, and obtains a prominence from which he would otherwise gladly shrink; and he gets this position, not with the view of exalting him, but in order that his example may stimulate and encourage others. The difficulty is to reconcile these two things: to avoid all ostentation, and yet at the same time to get all the advantage of generous Christian example.
III. The phrase, "Let not the left hand know what the right hand doeth," is a proverbial expression, implying that our charity is not to be done ostentatiously so as to be seen of men, nor yet self-righteously so that we may pride ourselves upon it. That almsgiving is, and always will be, a duty is plainly involved here. The charity which does not let its left hand know what its right hand doeth is manifestly a spirit of meekness and simplicity, which neither courts the observation of others, nor cares to dwell on its own excellence, but drops its beneficence like dews, in the silence and darkness, so that its presence is known only by the blessing which it leaves behind. But the man who gives an alms, and then settles down in the pride and contentment of his own deed, hath therein his reward. He has taken all the beauty from his work. It has lost its Divine character as a deed of true pity, and become an act of merest vanity.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 162.
References: Mat 6:1-6, Mat 6:16-28.—E. Bersier, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 35. Mat 6:1-8.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 521.
Mat 6:2
Here we have—
I. A profound truth about human nature. Man, as man, works, as our Lord calls it, for a reward.
II. A tragic contrast—"their reward." There is another reward than theirs—another and a higher.
III. A judicial sentence which the Divine speaker passes upon some of the men of His time. It is the language of fine irony; it is the language, too, of deep compassion.
H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 968.
References: Mat 6:2-4.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Laws of the Kingdom, p. 153. Mat 6:4.—J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iv., p. 245. Mat 6:5, Mat 6:6.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Laws of the Kingdom, p. 175.
Mat 6:5-9
I. "When thou prayest," the Lord says, "thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men." Neither the synagogues nor the streets were the appointed places of prayer. But a custom had risen, since the days of Daniel the prophet, to pray seven times a day, at certain appointed hours; and when these hours came the Pharisee turned at once to his devotions. Very probably the iniquity of the Pharisee grew up in a very natural way, beginning with a scrupulous but honest observance of religious forms, and gradually sliding into a pretentious and hypocritical display as he found himself a growing object of respect and esteem among men. We also have need to be on our guard, and to watch and pray, and pray and watch, against this snare.
II. Our Lord enjoins that His people, when they pray, should enter into their closet, and shut to the door, and pray to the Father which seeth in secret. The true idea of prayer lies in the shutting of the door. You may make a closet for yourself out of the veriest crowd, provided you shut out the world from your thoughts and lift up your soul to God alone.
III. We are not to be like the heathen, who think they shall be heard for their much speaking. With them prayer was a kind of bodily and mechanical process, supposed to be efficacious just in proportion to the number of times they could repeat the same cry. Christ says that theirs is not true prayer such as becomes His children, and that we are not to do as they do, for our Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask Him.
IV. When we pray, we should come believing in the unseen Father, and trusting in His gracious disposition. True prayer is just the cry of children to their Father, and it is the childlike feeling of trust in Him which gives to their prayer all its efficacy.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 178.
Mat 6:6
I. By the word "closet" our Saviour is understood to convey an allusion to the room in the ancient Jewish dwelling which was set apart for the office of lonely prayer. Yet as
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage,"
for the soul, neither are they, nor any material boundaries answering to them, essential to make the soul’s closet of devotion. Even the Jew who lived in the dullest age of ceremony felt this. "The angel said unto me," writes Esdras, "Go into a field of flowers where no house is builded, and pray unto the Highest continually" (2Est 9:24). Abraham found a closet when, arched in the wavering twilight of the grove, "he called upon the name of the Lord." Jesus found a closet when, high up in the tranquil mountain air, the morning star found Him where the evening star left Him, "alone, yet not alone." A closet for the spirit is whatever helps to close the spirit in from all distraction, and thus makes it feel alone with God.
II. But the phrase "thy closet" conveys an additional meaning. It means more than mental seclusion in some unexpected place and time. "Thy closet" is the soul’s own fixed familiar place of resort for communion with God. It may be hill or hollow, chamber or secret wood-path, or the walk over the sheet of seaside sand—no matter, but it must be thine own. The Saviour assumes that each disciple has some such habitual retreat, the shrine of his most blessed recollections, the place where the soul feels most at home, enjoys its Sabbaths, its home of vision, and its walks with God. This is what He means by "thy closet."
C. Stanford, Family Treasury, July, 1861.
Our Lord a Pattern of Private Prayer.
I. Our Lord’s example teaches us the great necessity of prayer. The mind of Christ is the mind of heaven, and none ever prayed like Christ. Does not this show most clearly that he who would be ever fit for heaven must begin by learning to delight in his prayers? Ought it not with reason to alarm those to whom prayer is a burden and weariness? It is not only that they lose the blessing they ask—that God will not hear them for that time: their loss is far greater than that; they are living and are like to die, without any practice of that temper which must be practised if they would be happy in heaven.
II. Our Lord’s example teaches us the best way of praying, so that one’s prayers may be heard. If we knew it no other way, we might be sure from our blessed Lord’s pattern that God is never so well pleased with us as when we approach Him with the deepest reverence of heart. This, we may believe, was one reason of His withdrawing Himself—as we read that He did repeatedly—to places where He might be least interrupted, and where He might unreservedly pour out His Divine soul. This made Him fall down in so lowly postures, sometimes kneeling, sometimes lying prostrate. This breathed over all His prayers, of which there are several in the Gospels, that unspeakable mixture of majesty and humility, which no words can describe, but of which surely one effect ought to be to make every Christian man very fearful lest he be found drawing near the High and Holy One with any other than the most serious words and thoughts.
III. One part of this reverence will be, that men will pray to God regularly; not at random, and as it may happen, now performing and now omitting their devotions, just as they may chance to be minded for the time.
IV. Next to regularity in times of prayer, a wise choice of a place to pray in is of no small consequence. "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet"—that is, have a set place for prayer.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. i., p. 71.
Here is our Saviour’s own sanction and blessing vouchsafed to private prayer, in simple, clear, and most gracious words. It is necessary to insist upon the duty of observing private prayer at stated times, because amid the cares and hurry of life men are very apt to, neglect it; and it is a much more important duty than it is generally considered, even by those who perform it. It is important for the two reasons which follow:—
I. It brings religious subjects before the mind in regular course. Prayer through the day is indeed the characteristic of a Christian spirit, but we may be sure that in most cases those who do not pray at stated times in a more solemn and direct manner will never pray well at other times. Stated times of prayer put us in that posture in which we ought ever to be; they urge us forward in a heavenly direction, and then the stream carries us on.
II. Besides tending to produce in us lasting religious impressions, stated private prayer is also a more direct means of gaining from God an answer to our requests. We do not know how it is that prayer receives an answer from God at all. It is strange indeed that weak man should have strength to move God; but it is our privilege to know that we can do so. Now, at stated times, when we gather up our thoughts to pray, and draw out our petitions in an orderly and clear manner, the act of faith is likely to be stronger and more earnest; then we realize more perfectly the presence of that God whom we do not see, and Him on whom once all our sins were laid. Then this world is more out of sight, and we more simply appropriate those blessings which we have but to claim humbly, and they are really ours.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i., p. 244.
Moral Benefits of Private Prayer. Take our Lord’s words in the text, and consider how much, according to them, prayer really offered in secret must mean.
I. God "dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto." To hold any communication with Him is a work of very great faith. Before you can in earnest think a thought of God, or speak a sincere word to Him, your hearts must be lifted up to a height far above whatever you see and know. He who seriously and sincerely thinks of God when he prays must for the time at least lift up his soul far above all earthly things; and doing this, he must be deeply interested in the high thoughts which come over his soul. He must perceive and feel, for the time, that nothing is truly great but what is immortal, and no being worth living and dying for but Him of whom and by whom are all things.
II. To any considerate person the thought is indeed inexpressibly awful that, when he prays, he is speaking to the "Father which is in secret." It is made, however, still more awful by reflecting on what our Lord next adds: "Thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Although He dwells so high in heaven, yet He continually "humbleth Himself" to behold the things that are in this lower earth. Therefore no devout worshipper need fear that any one of his hearty prayers will be lost. Even if he cannot pray in words, God knows the meaning of his heart, and has ways of setting it all down. On the other hand, a person who, being alone, prays carelessly, cannot plead, with the patriarch Jacob, "The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not," for by the very act of praying at all he confesses that "God is in this place." Whoever, then, considers at all must behave well at his prayers, and so doing he gives the strongest pledge of behaving well afterwards when his prayers are over, and the grace then asked for is to be tried in active life. The fragrance of the holy offering will continue some little while with him, and dispose him to live in some measure according to his prayers.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times." vol. i., p. 79.
References: Mat 6:6.—A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 33; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 35; A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, p. 16; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 556; vol. vi., p. 15. Mat 6:7-15.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Laws of the Kingdom, p. 195.
Mat 6:9
(with Rom 8:15)
I. I observe, first, as suggested by the place where we find the words "Our Father," that when we can truly and intelligently call God by this name new life is given to our devotions. It is not without significance that the prayer, so simple in its terms and so wide in its comprehensiveness, which Jesus gave us, both as a model and a form, should begin with these homely words. They bid us pause a moment and definitely realize what God is to us, and in what relationship we stand to Him, before we go forward to present our petitions.
II. When we can truly and intelligently call God our Father new joy is given to the discharge of duty. Duty, considered simply as such, is a cold, stern thing, and needs love to inspire it before it can become joy. Duty thinks mainly of the work to be done; love thinks of the person for whom it is performed. Until, realizing that God is our Father in Jesus Christ, our hearts glow with affection toward Him, every attempt which we make to do His will must be simply and only an effort to do duty. But when, through faith in Jesus Christ, we get to know and love God as our Father all this is changed. Duty is transfigured into delight.
III. When we can truly and intelligently call God our Father a new significance is given to our earthly trials. Discipline is a privilege that the Father reserves for His own children. All our trials are tokens of our Father’s affection.
IV. When we can truly and intelligently call God our Father a new glory is given to our conception of the heavenly world. Jesus teaches us to say, "Our Father which art in heaven," and so leads us to look upon that land as our home. Home is the centre of the heart, and so, by enabling us to call God our Father and heaven our home, Jesus centres our hearts there, and gives us such an idea of its blessedness that we scarcely think of the outward accessories of its splendour, because of the delight and anticipation that we cherish of being there "at home with the Lord."
W. M. Taylor, The Limitations of Life, p. 95.
Mat 6:9
The Hallowed name of Father.
I. There is no greater secret of all truth and holiness and joy than to have correct and grand views of the fatherly relationship and character of God. Therefore, by all strange ways, the enemy of our peace tries to misrepresent it. One method which he uses is this: He will even set forth Christ as a most loving, gentle, attractive Being, that he may, through Him, disparage and distort the Father. "Christ," he says, "came in between the severity of God, the wrath of the Father, and the sinner," concealing that there is no such thing in the whole Bible as the Father’s being reconciled to us; but that it was the Father’s own pre-ordaining love which planned and executed the whole scheme, whereby we are reconciled to Him.
II. God has made the father His metaphor. It is the strictest and most beautiful of all the metaphors of that great One who can only be spoken of by metaphors. (1) A father’s love must of necessity precede the love of the child; long before the child can really know or love him, he has known and loved the child. The child’s love is the response and echo after long intervals. You cannot conceive the time when God began to love you; but you can easily date almost the hour when you began to love Him. (2) Just as a father, being a man, trains his child for manhood, so God, being eternal, trains His creatures for eternity. You can only read a father’s love in that light. It is always prospective love. Mysterious—just because God sees a future which His child does not see.
III. A father’s love is a very wide thing. It takes in with a large embrace all the little things and all the great things in his child’s life—all and everything.
IV. A father’s love never dies. Whatever the child may do, whatever the father may be constrained to do, upon whatever his child does, it does not alter a father’s love. He may punish, he may be angry, he may hide himself; but his love is unchanging. In this his relation approaches and assimilates to God’s relation to His creatures.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 8th series, p. 29.
The Spirit of this Invocation is the Spirit of Faith.
I. Consider the filial spirit of the believer. (1) The filial spirit is a childlike spirit. In receiving the spirit of adoption we are not only admitted into the family of God, but we are converted and become as little children. (a) A child is earnest; (b) a child is unsuspicious and frank; (c) a child submits to discipline in faith. (2) The filial spirit is a spirit of dignity and perfection. There is not merely a filial relation, there is also a filial resemblance. The filial spirit is the spirit of perfection. "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." To resemble God, to walk worthy of Him, to be conformed to the image of Christ the Elder Brother, to be filled with the Spirit,—this is the aim and the standard of the spiritual life.
II. The spirit of the invocation is the spirit of love. "Our" is a word of love; its character is Pentecostal, for Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. The new covenant is now established, and God has a people who dwell in Him and He in them. (1) "Our" we say, for, belonging unto Christ the Head, we belong unto all, we are debtors to all, and servants of the brethren for Christ’s sake. (2) Honouring and loving all men, let us cultivate especially fellowship with the saints. (3) We must be very near to God if we wish to get near our brother’s heart. (4) Love is the soul of communion; and love means self-sacrifice.
III. The spirit of the invocation is the spirit of hope. "Our Father which art in heaven." The child asks, "Where is heaven?" The thought of riper years asks, "What is heaven?" Yet the child’s question is true and deep; unless we view heaven as a reality, our thought of heaven as a state will become vague and unreal. Heaven is a place, and not merely a state. Philosophy may think it more rational and spiritual to suppose that, as God is in every place, He is in no place more than another. Scripture maintains most emphatically the omnipresence of God and the spiritual character of worship, and yet as distinctly teaches that there is a heavenly sanctuary, a throne of grace, the dwelling-place of the Most High. We regard heaven, (1) as the place where Christ now lives; (2) we remember that all spiritual blessings are treasured up for us in heaven.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p, 95.
Mat 6:9
God is the proper subject of our first desires in prayer,—God in all, and in ourselves as parts of all: if He is served by men, we, who take our stamp and our habits from the age in which He places us, shall serve Him better also; if His will is done here as it is in heaven, we, who are here, shall bear our part in doing that will. And so we pray first for these wider blessings, these which will bring others in their train, and the very desiring of which draws our thoughts to their right aim and object, and divests us of all mere selfish regards. And among them stands foremost this petition: "Hallowed be Thy name."
I. What is Thy name? The name of God in Scripture signifies that revelation of Himself which He has made to His creatures; that preached and written and recorded character of God which at the age in which men live He has been pleased to manifest to our race. Thus, when we say, "Hallowed be Thy name," we mean, "May that revelation of Thyself which Thou hast made in Thy Son Jesus Christ be hallowed."
II. And how hallowed? Not made holy; this it needs not. When we say, Let Thy name be "held holy," we mean, Let Thy revelation of Thyself, as a reconciled Father in Christ, be known and appreciated by men as belonging to and penetrating their character and hopes, in a way in which the ungodly world can never know nor appreciate it; let all men be put in possession of its secret, and make it to themselves the highest reality of their being. It is indeed a missionary prayer in the highest sense; for to this end all the labours of the Church and ministry tend, and when this is so, then will Christ’s kingdom have come, and God’s will be done, in the very highest and most blessed degree.
III. But he who prays for all includes also himself. God’s name should be hallowed in and by us, (1) in our thoughts, (2) in our conversation.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii., p. 149.
I. What is meant by the name of God? (1) God has revealed His name in creation; He has written it on our heart and conscience. "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." The things that are made declare His eternal power and Godhead. The conscience also beareth witness, and thoughts within us could not accuse, did they not know justice and purity, love and truth. (2) God revealed His name to Israel. He revealed it (a) by special revelations, (b) in the history of the nation, (c) in His law. (3) Christ, the Word of God, is the name. And having received Christ the name, the next commandment is to hallow the name.
II. "Hallowed be Thy name." What is meant by the name of God being hallowed? The petition implies: (1) The desire to know God’s name. The name of God is now simple—the highest, deepest, most comprehensive name, the name above every name, even Jesus. To hallow the name of God is to look unto Christ. (2) To hallow the name of God is to treat it as a reality—to remember God is what He calls Himself. (3) To hallow the name of God is to rejoice in it. The more we know of God, the more comprehensive is our view of Christ; the more many-sided our conception and experience of God’s attributes and works, the greater will be our joy in His name. (4) To hallow God’s name is to keep it separate, distinct from our own opinions, and the corrupt thoughts and desires of the heart. (5) To hallow God’s name means not to divide the name of God, but to regard it as one, sacred and inviolable in its unity. (6) To hallow God’s name is to live and walk in Christ, as the Apostle Paul speaks of his ways which are in Christ Jesus. (7) To hallow God’s name means that we ourselves should be manifestations of God, reflecting His image, showing forth His will, resembling His character. Christ was the name of the Father sent by Him into the world; even thus are we called by Christ’s name and sent by Him, that the world may see in us His love and spirit.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 125.
Mat 6:9
This petition evidently involves a request—
I. That the glory of God may be revealed. God’s name cannot be hallowed until it is known, and it must be told us before it can be known. Our want of reverence springs partly from our ignorance. To see God at once leads to service and love. We do not know God’s name. Bits of it we can make out. Something of His power we can read in nature; something of His wisdom; something of His general kindliness. And these we put in, rightly enough, as part of His great name. But the rest of His name is obscure. To know God is no light blessing, but is the great one which takes precedence of all others. (1) To see God is a converting and quickening experience; (2) and as all sanctity depends on it, so all consolation flows from it. Therefore, in the foreground of all your petitions put the prayer for God’s revelation of Himself, and present and urge it until in richest fulness the answer comes to your heart.
II. This petition prays for a reverent use of all the knowledge of God that comes to us. We can abuse all things, even the mercy and the truth of God. And it is possible for the name of God to be imparted to us in some degree, and yet for us to lose all the service it was meant to render. We have, therefore, to pray that the revelation of God may meet with reverence from us and others, that every result which God’s disclosure of Himself ought to have on us may be realized. If you analyze the general idea of hallowing God’s self-revelation, you will find it to contain various qualities of gracious character. (1) The prayer for power to hallow God’s name is a prayer for faith; (2) it is a prayer for obedience as well; (3) it is a prayer for zeal for God’s glory; (4) it asks for a worthy estimate of man. It is thus no formal petition and no mere doxology, no compliment merely, or word of homage. It is a great prayer—man’s darkness begging light, and man’s weakness begging strength.
R. Glover, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 7.
I. God is our Father (1) by creation; (2) by regeneration; (3) by adoption.
II. The petition "Hallowed be Thy name" relates to what is called "declarative glory"—a prayer that God’s name may be made known, and honoured by all His creatures. The desire that God’s name may be hallowed implies—(1) that we have a just sense of His majesty and holiness; (2) it is a prayer that all people may learn to love and obey that gracious Father in whose service we find such freedom and delight; (3) it should remind us of the various ways in which our heavenly Father is treated with disrespect and contempt.
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 59.
The Messianic Kingdom.
I. Who is the King? In one sense the King is God the Father. It is to "our Father in heaven" that the petition is addressed, "Thy kingdom come." His glory, His self-manifestation, is the one great purpose of God, and His is the kingdom, for of Him and to Him are all things. But the Father has appointed Jesus His Son to be the King, even as Christ is the Vine, while the Father is the Husbandman. Christ was appointed from eternity to be King, (1) as the Son of man; (2) as the Son of David; (3) as the Son of man and of David after His humiliation, suffering, and death. The Son of God became man, not merely to suffer and to die, but to reign. He took upon Him our nature, that through suffering He might enter into glory; as man, even as the Lord, whom they have pierced, He is to reign in righteousness and peace, the glory of Israel as well as the light to lighten the Gentiles.
II. When will the kingdom be established? It is to be brought about not gradually, but suddenly; not without observation, as is the kingdom of grace in the heart, but with great and mighty signs. The essential features of the kingdom are: Satan bound, the earth renewed, Israel converted and restored, the Church glorified, and Antichrist judged and vanquished; and the crisis, the turning-point, to bring about these changes, is one—it is the direct interference of God, the appearing of the great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.
III. The character of this kingdom. (1) In manifested power on earth. The kingdom is to be on earth. Christ and the glorified saints reign over Israel and the nations. Jerusalem is the centre of the world; the land of Israel is restored to wonderful fertility and blessedness. (2) It is spiritual. It is a kingdom of grace, in which spiritual obedience is offered, and in which men worship God with renewed and sanctified hearts. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah. The eternal principles of righteousness and love which were embodied in the Mosaic law will then reign upon earth in the spirit of liberty and power.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 173.
References: Mat 6:9.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 213; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 45; G. W. McCree, Ibid., vol. x., p. 216; J. A. Spurgeon, Ibid., vol. xi., p. 209; A. P. Peabody, Ibid., pp. 289, 309; P. J. Turquand, Ibid., vol. xii., p. 344; M. Dods, The Prayer that Teaches to Pray, p. 25; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 303; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 349; F. D. Maurice, The Lord’s Prayer, pp. 1, 13; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 34; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 409; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, pp. 396, 408; J. M. McCulloch, Sermons, p. 60; A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, p. 24.
Mat 6:9-10
I. Mark the force of this petition. (1) Simultaneously with our discernment of the Redeemer’s right to rule us, there is the regretful discovery made that we have withheld our hearts, and our fellowmen have withheld their hearts, from this gracious sovereignty. Recognizing this successively, we long that He would establish and extend His kingdom in our heart. (2) We pray also for the establishment and extension of Christ’s kingdom amongst men. His kingdom is not a secret sovereignty over individual hearts alone, but an empire over the united commonwealth of the Christian Church. A common allegiance to the Redeemer has created the great brotherhood of the Church of Christ. And that Church, united in faith, love, hope, duty, is the Saviour’s kingdom. And as the devout heart feels that for itself the establishment and extension of the Saviour’s secret kingdom within is the thing supremely to be desired, so it feels that for the world the establishment and extension of the Saviour’s kingdom in it is the thing most earnestly to be sought. Those who do not pray see not the glory of the Church, nor the essential service she has rendered and can render to mankind.
II. Consider the duty of offering this petition more earnestly. Who is there that offers it daily, as he is in the habit of asking for daily bread? Is it not the case that even the devoutest desire almost everything about Jesus Christ more than His sovereignty? We want His comfort, we want His teaching, we want His promises, we want His protection, we want His support. But His rule, His command, how many of us are there that put that first and foremost before daily bread? It is vain for us to ask for mercy, and joy, and assurance, and rapture, and heaven, and not give ourselves up to be moulded, inspired, enlarged, guided by God. And therefore this petition of surrender is the salt of the whole, that which makes all the others answerable. We wish to be useful, and feel that the only value in life is usefulness. We shall be useful only in the degree in which our obedience to the Saviour is a living and continuous thing.
R. Glover, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 30.
Mat 6:9-10
The comprehensive scope and intercessory character of the three petitions. The spirit of a Christian drawing near unto God is a royal spirit. He asks great things for himself and for others.
I. For himself. It is written, "Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss." And one of the errors of our prayer may be, that our aim is not high enough—that in coming to a King, whose delight is to be bountiful, we do not bring with us a royal spirit and large desires, but a contracted spirit and limited petitions. (1) High ought to be our thoughts of acceptance and favour in the sight of God. The very light of God’s countenance is our aim. And as every repentant and believing sinner is at liberty immediately to pass out of the cold—the Arctic regions of the law, with its condemnation—into the sunny paradise of this infinite love, those who have believed are still further assured of their perfect blessedness. (2) Peace is thus ours. Only those who know the God of Peace know the peace of God. Only those who know that Christ is our Peace understand fully what He means when He says, "My peace I give unto you." (3) And do we seek joy in God? It is written, "Thou wilt make them joyful in Thy house of prayer." Christ’s joy is to be in us. Perfect love of God, perfect peace of God, perfect joy of God,—such are royal thoughts and petitions.
II. For others. Prayer in the name of Christ must needs be prayer for the manifestation of God’s glory in the good of man. Intercession is the distinguishing mark of the Christian. The penitent, the inquirer, pray for their own personal safety. The accepted believer prays for others as well as himself; he prays for the Church and for the world. It is in intercession that the Christian most fully enters into his glorious liberty. He fulfils the measure of prayer, for Christ and the Church are one.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 235.
I. Consider the exact meaning of this petition. Resist God as we will, we and all our actions will yet be included in the sweep of some Divine plan, and everything we do, even our evil, be made contributive to some gracious results. But if instead of resisting Him we fall in with His desires—become workers together with Him—then the Fatherly plan, fullest of mercy and of love, is realized. If we be plastic to His touch, He moulds us into vessels of honour; if crude and unyielding, it is still He that is the Potter, and we are still moulded on His wheel, but He can only fashion us into some vessel of less honourable use. In this prayer we recognize that God’s will may, through our dulness or waywardness, fail of its accomplishment; and so, for ourselves, our friends, and for mankind at large, we pray, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."
II. Consider the consolation suggested by the petition. Perplexed with the entanglements and burdened with the responsibilities of life, this word comes to us with the sustaining thought that, while we are unable to plan it aright, God has planned it for us; that in the Divine mind there is an ideal plan which embraces every object at which we should aim—the perfecting of our being, our daily protection, the averting of all injury to our essential being, our present and our eternal joy. To the thoughtless this consolation may seem slight; to the thoughtful it will appear supreme.
III. Consider the wisdom of adopting this petition as our. own. All who can realize that God will take the trouble to plan our life for us will at once admit that the wisest course we can adopt is to pray and labour that His plan may be carried out. And the more we think of it, the more we see the wisdom of praying that it may be so. For (1) we have not in ourselves either the knowledge or experience which would permit us even to plan with wisdom* our outward and earthly lot. (2) Little as we can guess what would be best for us here, still less can we guess what course and what experiences of life would most secure our well-being in the life to come. When we wake to the sense of our immortality, and are moved by the gracious solicitude which it awakens, the first and last action of instinctive wisdom is to commit the whole ordering of our life to God, and to say, "Thy will be done."
R. Glover, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 45.
References: Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 515; R. Glover, Ibid., vol. xvii., p. 280; W. H. Dallinger, Ibid., vol. xxx., p. 125; C. Kingsley, All Saints’ Day and other Sermons, p. 357; Ibid., Sermons for the Times, p. 130.
Mat 6:9-11
(with Mat 7:7; 1Th 5:17-18; Jas 4:3; Jas 5:16)
A question about which there has been a good deal of discussion of late years is the question of prayer. Are our prayers answered? If so, if we admit in general the efficacy of prayer, what ought we to pray for? Should we confine our prayers to petitions for spiritual benefits? or may we also ask for temporal blessings?
I. I suppose no one will deny that there are no prayers more right and more natural than those offered by one who is himself sick, and by his friends on his behalf, that he may receive the blessings of patience, resignation, and cheerfulness; and yet we know that it is universally agreed that a state of mind marked by these virtues is conducive to the recovery of the patient. And even in other cases, where the effect on the material by answer to prayer for spiritual blessings is less obvious, it still seems to be equally real, even though our petition be directed to an object which appears to be far removed from the material world.
II. We hold that prayer can affect the physical world. We do not hold that to each prayer, regarded by itself, without respect to all its surroundings and to all its consequences, there is a certain answer. The answer is what God sees to be best, is in perfect accordance with His will. We believe that every prayer has some answer—an answer in the shape of a blessing or a curse, according as it is the prayer of faith or by lack of belief in the petitioner is little better than a mocking of God. We believe that some prayers are specially answered in the way desired; that if so, it is not that God’s will is altered, but because the prayer and its answer are completely in accord with that will.
III. This is our faith. To render it tenable, it is no way essential that we should be able to quote specific instances of the definite answer of prayer. We are here distinctly in the region of faith; it is sufficient if we show that there is nothing in God’s ordering of the universe inconsistent with our belief. If we once accept it, we are left to the guidance of revelation alone; and this speaks to us with no hesitating voice: "Ask, and it shall be given you;" "The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working."
A. J. C. Allen, Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates’ Journal, April 24th, 1884.
Mat 6:9-11
Note:—
I. The force of this petition. (1) This prayer constrains us to forego all bread but that which God gives. We can get bread from one or other of two deities: the god of this world will give it us, or our Father in heaven. When we say, "Our Father in heaven, give us daily bread," we turn our back on the other giver of bread, on all evil ways of making a living or augmenting our fortune, and ask only such comforts of God’s providence as can come to us in an honourable way. (2) This petition requires us, next, to put away all greed, ambition, and anxiety. For it asks only "bread"—nay, only today’s bread. Enough to sustain, not enough to pamper us. Enough for comfort, not enough for display. Enough to free us from needless care, not enough to free us from wholesome dependence upon God. (3) Let us remember in our prayers and in our actions the needs of others besides ourselves. In all this prayer the plural number is prescribed. We have to come always thinking of others, and naming their wants with our own. (4) The prayer requires us to recognize that God is a great Giver of all good. The great Father lays up for the children. He opens His hands, and all things are full of good. Just below the surface and behind the appearance of things God is at work, and all good that comes to us comes from Him.
II. Some reasons for offering this petition. (1) The adoption of this prayer will give us peace. Not, indeed, all peace; but peace from worldly anxiety and from innumerable disturbances of the heart. (2) The adoption of this petition will hallow all our life. For the largest part of the work of all men is directed to the getting of the means of living; and if in the pursuit of our trade this gracious prayer moderates all selfishness, destroys all greed, and brightens with the smile of God all our activities, it will be found that the whole of life is somehow graciously affected by the one petition. (3) The use of this prayer will vastly enlarge our knowledge of God.
R. Glover, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 60.
Mat 6:9, Mat 6:12
I. The request. (1) We are in debt to God. We have only to listen to the voice of conscience to admit this at once. For amongst the deepest of all our instincts is the sense of responsibility—a feeling that some things are due from us. (2) The Saviour’s word, assuming the guilt of sin, proclaims at the same time the possibility of its pardon. How sweet is the suggestion of this word that forgiveness is granted to those who seek it! For forgiveness is a great word. It means forth-giving—that is, the absolute dismissal and sending away of that which we acknowledge. This precept assumes the cross which is to follow, on which, owning the sin of men, sharing its curse and praying for its pardon, Christ makes propitiation for the sins of the world. It teaches us that "without money and without price" this most needed and richest of all gifts is to be obtained.
II. The clause which is added to the petition, "As we forgive our debtors." The Saviour does not take away with one hand what He gives with the other, and the addition of this clause does not proceed from any desire to limit the outflow of pardoning grace. He wants, on the contrary, to get the hearts of all who offer this petition into the mood which shall be most receptive of God’s infinite gift. Observe: (1) A certain fitness to use and profit by God’s blessings is uniformly a condition of their bestowment. Common mercies may be bestowed irrespective of spiritual character. But all His higher gifts are bestowed where they are welcomed, enjoyed, improved—where they will be productive of some Divine result. (2) Penitence is the condition of heart to which alone God can impart forgiveness. (3) Wherever there is repentance it is easy to forgive our debtors. When the spirit of all grace has touched us, and our soul has become tenderly sensitive to the greatness of its Saviour, regardful of the claims of man, and obedient to the promptings of its own higher life, then humility beholds no fault equal to its own; and the heart, purged of its selfishness by its contrition, pities those who have injured it, and so penitence easily pardons every fault by which it has been injured.
R. Glover, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 74.
Mat 6:10
The Kingdom of Grace within us.
I. If the kingdom has to come to us, we must be by nature outside of it. This petition reminds us, then, of the fall and its consequences. True, the kingdom of God is around us; the light shineth into the darkness; love seeks the banished ones, even the rebellious; but the place whence this petition now is offered is a province fallen from the King. It is the longing of the soul that God would visit and redeem us.
II. We cannot go to the kingdom; it must come to us.
"Come unto us the peace of Thy dominion,
For unto it we cannot of ourselves,
If it come not, with all our intellect."
When we feel the desire to be restored to God, it is natural that we should think of returning to God, and we hope that, after a long journey, we may reach the kingdom. Prayer, good works, piety, we imagine to be the road to God. But we cannot thus go to the kingdom; it must come to us. The door is before the narrow way, and the door is very nigh unto us—even Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners.
III. Father, Son, and Spirit bring with them righteousness, peace, and joy. Every kingdom is based on righteousness; the condition and manifestation of its prosperity is peace; the crown and fulness of peace is joy.
IV. In this kingdom there is greatness or dignity and liberty. Humility is the dignity of the kingdom; obedience is its liberty.
V. Think now of the extent and the comprehensiveness of the kingdom. The kingdom of grace in the individual is to be all comprehensive. Having its centre in the heart (out of which are the issues of life), it is to extend to all our desires, thoughts, words, and notions. All that we are and have belong to God, and that always.
VI. The character of this kingdom as long as we are on the earth is antagonistic. It is in opposition to sin within and around us. The more we seek to follow and serve God, the more clearly and painfully we become conscious of the evil of our heart, of our unbelief and worldliness. It is not yet the time for rest, for exclusive praise and thanksgiving, for unmingled joy; but the time of warfare, of prayer and fasting, of manifold temptations. The Solomonic reign has not yet commenced. It is the period of David, of exile and wandering, of humility and patience, of danger and of struggle.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 153.
In these words themselves it is revealed that the kingdom is an actual thing future, not a metaphorical thing present; a thing to be brought in, completed, as a new state, not any increase of Gospel blessings in the present state. What do we know from Scripture of such a kingdom?
I. It was prefigured by the constitution of God’s people Israel under Himself as their King. They were a chosen people, and He dwelt in the midst of them, ruling them and upholding them. We find allusions to it in the writings of David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Scripture testimonies show that we are to look for a kingdom of Christ, not as a spiritual figure, but as a matter of fact to be accomplished in the future; a kingdom closely associated with His coming again to us; a kingdom wherein His saints shall reign with Him; a kingdom to be established over and in this earth of ours, wherein it, being fully rescued from sin and the curse, will be completely subject to its rightful Lord and Redeemer. It is of that kingdom that our Lord Jesus taught us to say, "Thy kingdom come."
II. Let us now trace a few of its characteristics. (1) It is a kingdom of peace and love. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain;" "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (2) It is a kingdom of purity. Only the pure in heart shall see God. And if we search deeper for this purity of heart, we shall find that it can spring but from one source—the new birth by the Holy Spirit. (3) It is a kingdom whose very glory and chief attribute it is that Christ is present and ruling in it. (4) Again, it is a kingdom of joy; and those who pray for its coming hope and yearn for the blessedness of its approach. The joy of their hearts is not here, but hidden with Christ, and waiting its manifestation with Him. (5) This kingdom is a kingdom of hope, and we are prisoners of hope, and all who really pray for it hope for it. "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii., p. 230.
What do we mean when we say to God, "Thy kingdom come"? And is the wishing or praying enough? or if we wish and pray, is there aught besides which we ought to do?
I. To wish from the heart and pray with the whole soul are enough, if there is nothing else for us to do. But all prayer to God implies that we act as we pray. God wills to knit in one His own work and ours. He wills so to unite His creatures with Himself that He would bring about His own work through them. He willed to allow His kingdom to shine out or to be darkened, to widen or to be narrowed; to enfold the known world, or to be hemmed in and struggle, as it were, almost for life. All these changes and ebbs and flows of His grace He allowed to be as man was faithful or disobedient to His will. So is it as to His threefold kingdom, whereby God rules in the souls where He dwells. He wills so to employ us, His creatures, in His work of love, that through us His kingdom should come in the single soul, through us should His kingdom throughout the whole world be enlarged, through us should the kingdom of His everlasting glory be hastened.
II. God’s condescension involves our corresponding duty. He wills that through the power of His grace, and for the merits of our crucified Lord, which alone make us acceptable to Him, by aid of man accepted in Him, man should be brought to the knowledge of Him, and should be saved. He wills that through the merits of His all-holy thoughts, words, and deeds, our words and deeds, wrought and spoken through His grace, should reach, affect, win to Him our fellow-sinners. May none of us be slothful servants, saying listlessly, "Thy kingdom come," yet acting as if we cared for nothing less. But may God give us grace so to use faithfully what He has for this short time entrusted to us, that we may see in that day with joy those whom our prayers, our alms, our words, our deeds, our lives, have helped to love our God.
E. B. Pusey, Sermons for the Church’s Seasons, p. 43.
I. Christ’s kingdom on the earth may be divided into three parts—nature, providence, grace. And the kingdom of grace, again, is triple. There is the kingdom in our own hearts, there is the kingdom over the earth, and there is the kingdom of the glory of the Second Advent. We are praying for all three.
II. Our great work is evangelization. More we cannot do. We cannot convert, but we can evangelize. We can make Christ known to every inhabitant of this earth. The rest is with God. Missionary work is not like other work—mere natural cause and effect. It is on a much higher level. It is different from all ordinary undertakings. It is Christ’s own power, to do Christ’s own work, for Christ’s own glory. It is a King—the King of kings—asserting His right and taking His kingdom. He has purchased it; He has predestinated it; He has done it. We are working with promises; we are cooperating with faith; we are leaning on majesty; we are allied to omnipotence.
III. Our Lord’s own prayer and directions give us clear instructions for what we are chiefly to pray. (1) For union of the Church, as the highest testimony and the truest sermon in the whole world: "That they all may be one," etc. (2) For increase of missionaries. His prescient eyes foresaw the universal difficulty which there would be in every age—not of openings, not of money, but of men. (3) For grace to give power to truth: "Sanctify them through Thy truth." (4) The far end: "Glorify Thy name." (5) Nearness to that end: "Thy kingdom come."
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 14th series, p. 141.
I. The kingdom of God, though not a temporal one, is a real one. The language of the Bible cannot be explained away as simple metaphor.
II. The kingdom for whose advancement we so often pray is a peaceable kingdom, and one which is constituted in the very person of the King Himself.
III. The kingdom of our blessed Lord, for whose prosperity we are permitted to pray and labour and endure, admits of unlimited extension throughout the world.
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 67.
Mat 6:10
I. As it is in heaven. The nature and manner of heavenly employments are not precisely known to us. But of some of the qualities of that perfect doing of God’s will we can treat from what we know of ourselves, who, a little lower than the angels, are, like them, beings with reason and affections and spiritual life before God. And we may observe (1) that their doing of God’s will is without selfishness. No idol set up within interferes with the proper aim and end of action. (2) Again, their conformity to God’s will is all real and genuine—the act first of the heart and of affections and desires, then of the tongue and outward bearing. (3) Their work is done without intermission or weariness. They cease not day nor night.
II. Man’s glory is to suffer. In this sense let us consider the words, "Thy will be done." Let us regard them as expressing the intelligent resignation, on the part of an imperfect and erring being, of his ways and his prospects, into the hand of an almighty and merciful Father. And thus viewed they imply: (1) A knowledge of the relation between God and himself. God is to him a Father watching over him, careful and solicitous for his welfare. Hitherto He has done well for His people; He has not forsaken them that trust in Him. The most adverse circumstances have in the end proved for their good; God has led them by a way that they knew not. All this dwells on the Christian’s mind, and from such evidence as this, strengthened by his own spiritual experience that the Lord is gracious, he learns to trust Him, and to say respecting Himself, "Thy will be done." (2) "Thy will be done." And what if that will be not only afflictive, but dark and mysterious also? What if God be pleased to wound just when we believed we wanted cherishing? What He does we know not now, but we shall know hereafter. I remember, on a glorious day of all but cloudless sunshine, passing in view of a well-known line of bare and majestic downs, then basking in the full beams of noon. But on one face of the hill rested a mass of deep and gloomy shadow. On searching for its cause, I at length discovered one little speck of cloud, bright as light, floating in the clear blue above. This it was which cast on the hillside that ample track of gloom. And what I saw was an image of Christian sorrow. Dark and cheerless often as it is, and unaccountable as it passes over our earthly path, in heaven its token shall be found; and it shall be known to have been but as a shadow of His brightness whose name is Love.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii., p. 134.
Let us view this petition—
I. As a description of the kingdom of Christ. When Christ comes to reign earth will rejoice. Israel, renewed by the Spirit, and gifted in the richest measure with humility and fervent zeal, will be the first-born among the nations; and then the Saviour’s saying, "Salvation is of the Jews," will find its perfect fulfilment. When the Holy Ghost shall write the law of God in their hearts, then shall be seen the spectacle of a righteous nation; and, imitating them, all kingdoms shall conform themselves to the will of our Father in heaven.
II. As a description of the angelic obedience, the standard and pattern of ours. To do God’s will is the delight of angels, and His will is His self-manifestation on earth. Angels are interested in the earth that God may be glorified, even as Satan and his servants are interested in it to retard the progress of God’s kingdom and to obscure His glory. The obedience of angels is in humility and perfect submission. They obey because God commands. Thus ought we to accustom and train our hearts to reverential obedience.
III. As pointing to the Lord Jesus, the ladder between heaven and earth, in and by whom this petition is fulfilled. The Son of God has become the Author of eternal salvation to all believers. By His obedience we are constituted righteous. By His sacrifice we have gained the position of children. In Him we are reconciled and renewed; one with Him, we receive the Father’s love and the gift of the Holy Ghost; and thus—
IV. God’s will is done in us and by us. When we think of the will of God, our hearts are at peace. The secret will of God is a mystery, into which it is not for us to search; but we know that, while clouds and darkness are round about Him, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne. We see His revealed will in the gift of Christ and the Spirit. We know this is the will of God, that all who believe in Jesus should have eternal life, and that He should raise them at the last day. This also is His will, even our sanctification, that Christ by the Spirit should dwell and live in us, and that, in union with the true Vine, we should bring forth fruit.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 203.
The Obedience of Angels.
I. An angel, by his very nature, is a servant doing God’s behest. It is laid upon him; it is a necessity and law of his being. With us service is too much an occasional thing—put on at times; done and left. It must not be so if you are to be like an angel. It must be an essential part of every moment of life—reality; the sum and substance, the whole of your existence; continuous, obedient service.
II. The angels behold the face of the Father, and hence their power and their joy. They go wherever they go straight from the immediate presence of God. So they carry their sunshine; so they carry their might; so must you.
III. And no one can doubt that an angel’s obedience is the obedience of a happy being. You will not do much, you will not even obey well, till you are happy.
IV. It matters nothing to an angel what the work is which is given him to do. It may be for a babe, or it may be for a king; it may be for one, or it may be for multitudes; it may be for the holiest, or it may be for the vilest. It is just the same to him. It cannot be too menial or too lofty; it cannot be too little or too much. It is simple obedience. It is reasonable because it is not reasoning service.
V. An angel’s response to an order is always instant, and the course the quickest and the straightest. Witness the visit of the angel Gabriel to Daniel. The obedience to the command is always minute, always accurate, and always entire.
VI. If your obedience would be like the obedience of angels, it must always be primarily to Christ. It must touch Him. It must have a savour of Him. There, in that beautiful world where the angels live, Christ is the centre of everything. There is not an eye there that is not fastened on that Master. It would be no obedience at all which did not go up and down upon that altar.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 246.
I. We begin by inquiring into the meaning of the words. They are often uttered and not felt. They are sometimes spoken in a sense which is very different from, nay opposed to, the whole teaching of Christ. We shall gain a truer idea of the prayer if we begin by clearing away the thoughts respecting God’s will which are opposed to the idea of a Father. (1) There is a tendency in man to confuse God’s will with the thought of an irresistible force. This confusion may rise very naturally from the consciousness of human insignificance. Contemplating the grandeur of God, and overwhelmed before the majesty that rules the universe at His pleasure, man may submit to God’s will because it seems to be an awful power which cannot be resisted. This conception of God’s will as an irresistible force springs from forgetfulness of the great difference between God’s rule in the kingdom of matter and His will in the kingdom of souls. The essential feature of spirit is its capacity for resisting God. (2) Again, there is a tendency in man to confound the will of God with the thought of an unsearchable self-will. This thought may spring from a sense of ignorance. Enfeebled by conflict, a man’s own will may be calm, and yet not surrendered to God in the faith that He does all things well. In that spirit he may say in all quietness, "Thy will be done," but because he has submitted to a mere will, not to a righteous will. (3) It is Christ who teaches us to pray, "Thy will be done." And we may therefore feel that that will, though sovereign, is for our highest good, though working darkly, for our greatest blessedness. We may look out from our poor finite thought on life and the universe to the everlasting will of a gracious and loving Father.
II. There is no other rational law of life than this. In a life of obedience, every struggle, every sorrow, every tear, has a bearing on the future. They chasten the spirit, and help to purify it from its earthliness. Every victory over self-will strengthens the soul and makes it "more than conqueror."
E. L. Hull, Sermons, 1st series, p. 191.
How is God’s will done in heaven?.
I. It is certainly done zealously.
II. The angels in heaven do God’s will reverently.
III. God’s will is also done in heaven with cheerful alacrity.
IV. God’s will is done in heaven perseveringly.
V. Angels do God’s will in heaven harmoniously.
VI. God’s will is done in heaven perfectly.
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 74.
I. Human life is one great want.
II. This want should turn human life into one noble aspiration.
III. This aspiration can only be noble as it is lifted up towards a Father.
IV. This Father must be asked to come in all the power and splendour of a kingdom.
Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 271.
References: Mat 6:10.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1778; T. Lessey, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p., 234; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. vi., p. 316; vol. xi., p. 164; W. Hubbard, Ibid., vol. xxv., p. 193; R. A. Armstrong, Ibid., vol. xxxi., p. 314; H. Price Hughes, Ibid., vol. xxxii., p. 261; E. B. Pusey, Parochial and Cathedral Sermons, p. 319; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 117; M. Dods, The Prayer that Teaches to Pray, pp. 50, 76; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 152; F. D. Maurice, The Lord’s Prayer, p. 25; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, pp. 415, 421; Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 1st series, p. 211; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, pp. 418, 431; R. Heber, Sermons Preached in England, p. 193.
Mat 6:11
I. The Giver of bread is our Father in heaven. God is the only giver, and yet least recognized. Because He gives so constantly, so quietly, we forget to notice and to thank Him. (1) God gives, for there is none beside Him. (2) God gives good gifts, for He is God and He is our Father. (3) God delights in giving. (4) God gives simply. (5) God never takes back his gifts.
II. The gift—bread. (1) The daily necessity for food may well teach us humility. We have no life in ourselves. (2) Bread is the gift of the Creator through Christ. The earth would be a wilderness were it not for that tree on which Christ was made a curse for us. (3) Bread is the gift of God, and, as all God’s gifts, it has a deep and eternal meaning. The Saviour called Himself the Bread of life. Only God in Christ is life-sustaining food; all else, being dead in itself, can neither give nor sustain life.
III. The expansion of the gift—our bread. The spirit of the Lord’s prayer is filial towards God, brotherly towards man. The little word "our" excludes evidently every calling which is injurious to the interests of our fellowmen. None can offer this petition who are enriched by that which brings misery to others. The word "our" implies also labour. If we eat the bread of idleness and sloth, we enjoy what is not rightfully ours. Toil is the consequence of sin, but labour belonged to Paradise.
IV. The limitation of the gift. "Give us today our daily bread." Christ would have us free from anxious care. The spirit of the world is feverish and restless; men think of the future and of its possible wants and evils, and are burdened with its weight. We cannot be delivered from such anxiety until we understand that it is not merely foolish but sinful, that it is incompatible with the spirit of adoption, with the attitude of faith.
God wants us to be rich; nay, He wants us to possess all things. But the way to riches is, Give up all, even ourselves.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 250.
I. Notice how this prayer is placed. "Thy will be done." That takes the soul right away up into the very highest glory and perfection of heaven. "Forgive us our sins." That reaches right down into the dark deeps into which our trespasses have plunged us. From those great deeps, "our debts," to those heights, "as it is in heaven," we are to rise. Yet between these two comes my text, "Give us this day our daily bread;" a prayer for our business and our basket, lying kindly, tenderly between the depth of our fall and the height of our call. It is as much as to say, that our God can make our bread-winning to help our heaven-winning.
II. The prayer takes it for granted that we are always under the watchful care of our heavenly Father, and yet how much we give way to fretful doubts and anxious cares. The prayer points steadily and surely to the wisdom of being contented with little, and of avoiding all anxious concern about tomorrow.
III. The model prayer has no exclusiveness. It is a stranger to selfishness. It is not, Give me my daily bread. "Our Father" owns our brotherhood, and our brotherhood cares for the wants of others as well as our own; and we cannot use this prayer aright unless we are open-hearted and open-handed to our brother’s honest need.
IV. The prayer breathes absolute dependence. You and I are pensioners, and God must give strength to gain it, skill to earn it, power to eat it: all are from Him. What have we that we have not received?
J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 62.
Consider this petition as carrying the wants of the day to God’s throne of grace, and pleading for their supply. And in thus considering it, it will be plain that two senses of the words are admissible, and indeed necessary; a temporal and a spiritual sense, according as the daily bread is the sustenance of the body, or that of the immortal spirit.
I. And first for the lower and more obvious of these. "Give us today the daily bread of the body." Let us see what is here implied. The petition is one for our physical well-being in general; for food and raiment and shelter, and all that climate and circumstances render necessary to us; and it is admirably expounded in our Church Catechism: "I pray unto God that He will give us all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies." Thus simply, thus entirely, do we commend day by day our physical frames unto our Father’s hand. It was He who at first fearfully and wonderfully made them; it is He who every moment holds the balance on the nice adjustment of which depends the continuance of their animal vitality. All this goes on without our care. Can He not and will He not also keep them in His charge, in those further provisions from without for which our labour is by His appointment necessary?
II. Let us pass now to the second and higher import of the words of the text. Like the natural life, the spiritual life has its infancy, its youth, its maturity; but unlike natural life, it is not subject, unless violently extinguished by declension into ungodliness, to decay or death. And as it grows upwards its daily bread is necessary for its maintenance, its desires are boundless. Not faith nor love nor holiness, nor anything short of Christ Himself, can feed the spiritual being of man. It is He who must be taken into the soul; and all things that stop short of Him are not nourishment—are but the meat that perisheth, not that which endures unto everlasting life. To apprehend Christ as mine, to lay hold on Him by the hand of faith, and feed on Him by spiritual participation in Him, this is the nourishment of the life of the soul.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii., p. 163.
Routine Observance Indispensable.
We need to keep fixed times, or appointed rounds of observance, as truly as to be in holy impulse; to have prescribed periods in duty as truly as to have a spirit of duty; to be in the drill of observance, as well as in the liberty of faith.
I. Notice first the very obvious fact that the argument commonly stated, as against the obligation of fixed times and ways of observance in religion, contains a fatal oversight. It is very true that mere rounds of observance, however faithfully kept, have in themselves no value, nothing of the substance of piety; but they have an immense value, when kept and meant to be, as the means of piety. It is equally true that nothing is acceptable to God which is not an offering of the heart. But it does not follow, by any means, that we are therefore to wait doing nothing till the inclinations or impulses of the heart are ready.
II. Look next at the grand analogies of time and routine movement in the world we live in. Without routine it would be only a medley of confusion, a chaos of interminable disorder.
III. I refer you again to the analogy of your own courses in other things, and also to the general analogies of business. As we are by nature diurnal creatures in the matter of waking and sleep, so we are voluntarily creatures of routine and of fixed hours in the matter of food. How is it also in the matter of business, or the transactions of trade and industry? If there is nothing men do with effect in the world of business despising the law of times, how does it happen that they can expect, with any better reason, to succeed in the matter of their religion, their graces, charities, and prayers?
IV. Consider the reason of the Sabbath, where it is assumed that men are creatures, religiously speaking, of routine, wanting it as much as they do principles, fixed times as much as liberty. The design of the fourth commandment is to place order in the same rank with principle, and give it honour in all ages as a necessary element of religion, of the religious life and character.
V. The Scriptures recognize the value of prescribed times and a fixed routine of duty in other ways. The true way to come into liberty and keep ourselves in it is to have our prescribed rules, and in some respects, at least, a fixed routine of duties.
H. Bushnell, The New Life, p. 308.
The petition for daily bread seems small, because (1) we ask for what so many already possess; (2) we ask it only for the small circle around our table; (3) we ask it only for today. It is, nevertheless, a great petition, because (1) we ask that earthly bread may be changed into heavenly; (2) we ask God to feed all those who are in want; (3) we ask Him to supply the daily necessities of a waiting world; (4) we ask it today, and ever again today. The fact that we thus apply to our heavenly Father teaches us—
1. Our dependence upon Him.
2. A wholesome lesson of contentment.
3. A lesson of frugality and patient labour.
4. A lesson of moderation.
5. A lesson of benevolence.
6. A lesson of faith.
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 82.
References: Mat 6:11.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 257; M. Dods, The Prayer that Teaches to Pray, p. 99; F. D. Maurice, The Lord’s Prayer, p. 55; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 427; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, p. 422; J. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. ii., p. 50.
Mat 6:12
Knowledge and Confession of Sin.
I. Self-examination may become morbid, and produce nothing but torture and despondency. Let us not, however, overlook the necessity of systematic, or rather active self-examination, as the condition of thoughtful confession. It is evident that the commencement of Christian life is absolutely impossible without some knowledge of self. To seek pardon, we must know our sin; to pray for renewal, we must know the evil of our heart. Why is self-knowledge so difficult? The great difficulty in the work is, that we do not like our vanity to be wounded, our pride to be brought low; the more skill we obtain in examining our heart and life, the deeper will our humiliation be. Self-love blinds us, and sin brings with it the darkening atmosphere to hide it from our eyes.
II. True, candid, and full confession depends chiefly on our realizing the Divine presence—the presence of a forgiving and loving God. The very petition which we are now considering is the greatest help to self-examination. Our relation to our fellowmen and to those that trespass against us is the chief test of our actual condition before God. If our hearts are humble and loving towards God, our attitude to our neighbour will be kind and forgiving. He who feels his sin and unworthiness is able to bear the unjust opinion and the severe criticism of men; without bitterness he will endeavour to profit by every humiliating experience. He who rejoices in God and praises Him for His goodness and patience will be cheerful, long-suffering, and hopeful in his dealings with others. If we know God, and if the countenance of Christ is our study, we shall be able not merely to praise the dead and to build the graves of the prophets, as the Pharisees were wont to do, but to help and comfort the disciples as we have opportunity.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer; p. 314.
Sin and Salvation.
I. Even without the announcements of Scripture we notice the existence and we feel to some extent the evil of sin. (1) Sin is a great mystery. The origin and future of sin are alike hid in darkness impenetrable. It is a great enigma, it is irrational, and defies explanation; and yet most problems of human character and conduct are solved by it. (2) Sin prevails everywhere, yet few know it. They who are most familiar with it and most obedient to its sway are least acquainted with its true character and feel least its tyranny. (3) Sin has a wide dominion and many servants. (4) Sin is courageous and defies Heaven; it rebels against the will of Omnipotence; it attacks the immovable pillars of God’s throne: yet sin is a coward; when the voice of the Lord is heard at even-time it flees in horror. (5) Sin obscures God, hides Him from our view, like a dark cloud intercepting the light, like a huge mountain separating us from God.
II. How precious is now the Gospel. Forgiveness of sin is connected with the deepest sorrow and the greatest joy. Here are both Mara and Elim. Consider the joy which arises out of the forgiveness of sin. (1) The Triune God rejoices over the sinner saved. And with God all angels rejoice, while they behold the mystery of godliness and adore the Lamb that was slain. (2) The incarnation of the Son of God, His life on earth, His spotless and perfect obedience, filled the Father with joy. Christ fulfilled the commandment which He received of the Father. This obedience is our salvation; it was and ever is a source of joy unto God. (3) The expiation of the cross by His blood is a source of joy. He is the Mediator of the better covenant, and His death is ever precious in the sight of God. It has gained not merely the acquittal of the Judge, but the unspeakable favour and abundant love of the Father. (4) For God, by redeeming us, has betrothed Himself to us. Christ is our Saviour, but by His death on the cross He has also become our Bridegroom. He gave Himself for us, that He might sanctify and cleanse us to be His bride, beloved and glorified throughout eternity.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 295.
Mat 6:12
Is there not a depth of sadness in that little word "and" which connects the prayer for pardon with the preceding petition for daily bread? It reminds us that as our daily wants return, so do likewise our sins; that we need daily forgiveness as much as the daily supply of our earthly wants. The fourth petition is one of humility and dependence, the fifth one of repentance and contrition. The one reminds us that we are creatures, the other that we are sinners.
I. The daily bread of our souls is daily forgiveness. This is our daily bread—that we see Jesus, our crucified Redeemer, our Righteousness in heaven; that we behold the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Love cannot be silent. Love must acknowledge sin—not to itself merely, but to the loved one against whom sin is committed. Not in doubt, in the spirit of bondage, but in the trustful and loving spirit of adoption, we ask our heavenly Father to forgive us our debts.
II. Sin is debt. What do we owe God? We owe ourselves to Him; all that we are, body, soul, and spirit, is His, and we ought to be His and to give all to Him, and that always. And this debt is daily growing; for God is always giving, and we are always misappropriating His gifts. We cannot get rid of our debt except by becoming still more His debtors. He forgives us; and now we owe Him more than ever; for as the Apostle says, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another." So Christ expects from the sinner to whom much is forgiven that he will love much.
III. God forgives in heaven; we forgive on earth. God forgives to manifest His glory in the salvation of sinners, thus establishing His kingdom in the renewed hearts of believers, who are conformed to the image of Christ. The object of God’s showing mercy to us is that we may be not merely forgiven, but that the mind of Christ may be in us; we obtain mercy in order that we may be merciful. The Saviour Himself has clearly explained that he who has not received the spirit of forgiveness has not truly received the gift of pardon. He enforces this in the most impressive and solemn manner in the parable of the unmerciful servant. He shows us that the love of God cannot truly rest on us if it does not also dwell in us.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 276.
Christ teaches distinctly (1) that sin needs forgiveness; that is to say, that it is not merely a disease that needs a remedy, or an imperfection that is to be gradually got rid of, but that it is a guilt, an offence, or transgression that needs forgiveness. He teaches (2) that this sin may be forgiven, that the penalty attaching to it may be remitted. He teaches (3) that what He does for us—His life and death—in some way or other is necessary to this forgiveness. Now it is this part of His teaching that is excepted against. We are asked, Why should this be necessary? And why should it be necessary to add to the words, "Our Father, forgive us," for Jesus Christ’s sake? Is not this making God less merciful than a good man?
I. The only one case in which we can imagine complete forgiveness as possible is a case as between two equal individuals, one of whom has wronged the other. Has it ever occurred to you to think that that is just the one position in which no man can stand respecting God? We cannot injure God; our goodness does not extend to Him, neither does our evil. Therefore the answer of the understanding, of the merely sceptical mind, of man to this question, "Can God, the Supreme, forgive?"—the only answer it can make is, "God is the only one Being who cannot possibly forgive." If you think of God as the Author of the inexorable system of law, as the Creator of the whole system of necessary penalty and suffering, I ask again, Where is the hope of the easy forgiveness of which men speak? Is it such a very easy thing to imagine that God can forgive?
II. Let us picture to ourselves some worshipper under the old Jewish polity. David is standing beside the altar and offering up his sacrifice to God. Imagine revealed to that man for a moment all these intellectual difficulties about forgiveness—imagine the glowing fire of love and hope in such a heart chilled as by a cataract with all these chilling thoughts on the impossibility of forgiveness. And then, when his heart was beaten down to the very earth, and in despair he was giving up the very thought of forgiveness, would it seem to him so very terrible a revelation to be told this?—"It is indeed impossible for you to be forgiven under any law, under any condition of things that you can imagine, but there is for you a revelation of a time that is to come when a miracle shall be wrought upon earth. You whose heart yearns for the blessing of human forgiveness, know you this, that one day shall walk upon earth a Son of man, whose heart shall quiver and throb at the suffering of the very least of His creatures. Understand you this, that God and man shall become one for your deliverance. Learn, then, of a life given for a life, and yet becoming the life of all other lives."
III. Forgiveness is in very deed a mystery of mysteries. It is a mystery as between man and man; it is a mystery as between man and God. The mysteries of the faith are to us just what the shadow on the face of the sun is in the hour of eclipse to the astronomer—a dark shadow, and yet a shadow round the margin of which science is ever making discoveries that teach us the immensity of the system in which we live, and tell us that the life that is here and the life that is there are the same.
Bishop Magee, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 503.
There are two things which this text cannot mean. (1) It cannot mean that sinful man is to set an example by which the Divine administration is to be conducted. (2) It cannot mean that God’s forgiveness of man is a mere equivalent for something that man himself has done.
I. In suggesting an interpretation of this prayer, let it be observed that this is not the first petition in the prayer. This fact sheds a morning glory around this mystery of the night. Who are the men who say, "Forgive as we forgive"? They are men who have said (1) Our Father; (2) Thy kingdom come; (3) Thy will be done on earth. God takes our prayers at the very highest point of their inspiration, and enlarges them into the fullest meaning they can bear, and He will answer the highest, and not merely the lowest of our aspirations.
II. Superficial men who listen to our prayers hesitate not to say that we are inconsistent, because we do not act up to the high level of our petitions. It is forgotten that we express in prayer, not what we are, but what we would be; prayer is not an attainment, but an aspiration; prayer is not history, but hope; prayer is not victory, it is fighting.
III. Confession and contrition are the necessary conditions of forgiveness. It is impossible to forgive a man in the full sense in which we wish God to forgive us apart from these conditions.
Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 266.
Mat 6:12
This petition presents our heavenly Father in the character of a great creditor, to whom we are deeply in debt, and at whose hands we humbly seek for release.
I. Do you ask, How are we indebted to God? (1) We owe Him a debt of obedience. (2) We owe Him a debt of gratitude.
II. The forgiveness of God, when granted to the returning penitent, is universal and complete. There is, however, a condition attached to this petition for pardon, in the text, which is the turning-point of the whole matter: "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."
J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 90.
References: Mat 6:12.—S. Coley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 1; F. D. Maurice, The Lord’s Prayer, p. 73; M. Dods, The Prayer that Teaches to Pray, p. 122; W. Milligan, Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 130; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 433; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, p. 456. Mat 6:12-15.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 325.
Mat 6:13
Temptation—from God and from Satan.
I. Speaking of Satan’s temptation is in itself a temptation, unless in humble dependence upon God our object is practical, to guard against the enemy, and to be prepared and strengthened for the conflict. The world does not know or remember Satan’s existence and his aims. This is one of his stratagems. The young Christian does not sufficiently think of his strength and subtlety. How ample is Scripture’s teaching on Satan—ample for guidance and instruction, though not to satisfy curiosity. The origin of evil we may not know, but our chief anxiety ought to be to know its destruction—the victory over evil—as far as we are concerned. (1) It is of the utmost importance in our conflict with Satan to know what is his real and ultimate aim. His object is to diminish, to obscure, if possible to take away, God’s glory, and this object he wishes to effect through the fall and ruin of man. (2) Satan’s method is to alter your attitude towards God. He suggests to Eve to examine God’s word as standing on a level with God, or rather for the time being surveying and criticizing God’s command. (3) Satan suggests that God’s threatenings will not come true, and that His love is not great. (4) Satan promises glory apart from God and in rebellion against God.
II. God tempts. His motive is love; His object is our good. Even during the temptation He weighs with fatherly pity the burden and our strength, and with the temptation He makes a way to escape. The trial of our faith will be formed unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Temptations sent by God bring to light hidden sins and infirmities; they are meant to deepen our humility, that, sinking deep in self-abasement, we may rise higher in simplicity and strength of faith. Such temptations prepare us for closer fellowship with God, they prepare us for greater usefulness in the world, and they manifest unto angels and devils the power of Divine grace in human hearts.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 327.
I. There is one little word in this petition which we have not yet noticed. It is the word "us." It seems to suggest three important thoughts. (1) It reminds us of the universality of temptation. All children of God are taught to offer this petition, because they are all in danger of temptation. (2) Whenever you notice the sins and failings of your fellow-Christians and of others, remember they were tempted. Think not so much of their guilt as of their actual condition, and come to their rescue. (3) If we say, "Lead us not into temptation," we profess to be concerned about the safety of others as well as our own.
II. Consider the special temptations of the believer. It is in the nature of things that the presence of God should rouse the opposition of evil. When Jesus draws near the soul temptation immediately arises, and we are kept from the Saviour either through the love of our sin or through the love of our righteousness. When Jesus enters the heart the conflict is decided, but only to begin in a new form.
III. Consider the safety of the believer. The believer may fall, but he cannot fall away. This doctrine, like all Scripture truths, is salutary and comforting to earnest, prayerful, God-loving souls; misleading and dangerous to the formalist and prayerless. Christians cannot fall away, but they may fall. And is this not a great evil? Our life may be embittered and our usefulness impaired. Let none of us, therefore, think of the safety of the believer in a manner which would be at once foolish and ungenerous, without true love to ourselves and to our most merciful God. We are safe in Him if "near the Cross abiding." Christ is our High Priest, and we are safe. As the names of the children of Israel were engraven on the shoulders and breastplates of Aaron, even thus are we represented in heaven by the Lord who died for us. We are protected by His power and blessed in His love. Golden chains secure the precious stones, so that none can ever be lost. Christ will present us unblamable unto the Father, and the Lord will perfect that which concerneth us, for we are the work of His hands.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 348.
Mat 6:13
I. Evil is around us and within us. (1) The evil that is around us may by God’s grace be converted into a channel of blessing, and thus belong to the all things which work in harmony for good; and yet let us not forget that from this external evil, also, we ask to be delivered. Let us not forget that all misery is the consequence of sin, and as such evil, which God regards with displeasure, and from which it is His purpose ultimately to deliver. (2) Sin dwells in us; it is not a visitor, but an inmate. "When I would do good, evil is present with me." It is not merely an inmate, but a bold, ever-watchful, persistently interfering enemy. "I see another law striving in my members." It is not merely an enemy, but it has established itself in adaptation to my organization, mental and physical, and through long habit become a law, working almost unconsciously, and with a regularity and force which are appalling. No wonder the believer exclaims, "Deliver us from evil."
II. But who delivers? The evil is so great, so deep, so widespread, that none can deliver but God. Our Father who loves us—our Father who is in heaven, whose power is infinite, whose glory is above all—He is willing, He is able. Here are the hills to which we lift up our eyes, imploring help. But how does God deliver us? He delivers us by Christ. "Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom." Who delivers the true Israel from all evil? Who else but the Angel, the Messenger of the Covenant.
III. Look, in conclusion, at the promise involved in the petition. At the appearing of Christ our life shall be made manifest, our salvation shall be revealed, our adoption, even the redemption of the body, shall be complete. Blessed and peaceful as is our condition immediately after death, only when Jesus comes again shall we receive the crown of righteousness and the perfect glory.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 362.
Mat 6:13
I. We take a sevenfold view of praise. (1) Prayer ends in praise; but God, who sees the end from the beginning, sees praise in every petition. (2) Praise is the language of the soul in communion with God. (3) Though praise is essentially contained in every supplication, and all meditation and the whole inner life of the Christian is in constant adoration, yet we may regard praise as the culminating point of prayer. (4) Let us learn, too, that the doxology is an argument. We say, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory." We expect to be heard, not on account of anything in ourselves, not because of what we are or promise to be; but our sure and only hope is in God, His character, His name, His promise. (5) Praise is faith, and it is more than faith. It stands on the borderland—very bright indeed; for faith itself is in light—between faith and vision, between earth and heaven. (6) The great bond of union is praise. (7) Praise is God’s gift, the flower of redemption, the breath of the Spirit, the voice of Jesus in the Church.
II. Consider the threefold ascription of praise. (1) "Thine is the kingdom." It is not ours; it is altogether His. He prepared it from all eternity. He founded it on a sure foundation. In nature, in providence, in grace, He is sovereign; and there is a kingdom of glory which He is preparing through these subordinate kingdoms. (2) As the kingdom is His, so power belongeth unto the Lord. He is able to do all things which please Him. Christ is the Word of His power. By Him all things were created, and by Him they are upheld. The power of God is manifested through His Son. (3) His is the kingdom, and by His power will it be established, for the end of all Divine works and ways is His glory.
III. The kingdom, power, and glory belong to the Triune God, and for ever.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 379.
I. The Church may reckon the doxology amongst the treasures which it inherited from the synagogue and the Temple. The Greeks did not invent it; they adopted it. In fact, we may find the doxology ready made, so to speak, in the Old Testament itself (1 Chron. 29). David was not peculiar in his utterance; his mode of speech became a common mode in the Jewish Church; the ascription of glory became an almost necessary adjunct of Jewish prayer. The addition of these words as a crowning sentence to the Lord’s prayer in the Liturgy of the Primitive Church may be regarded as an unconscious prophecy of the eventual triumph of the Cross.
II. The doxology, which the piety of early times or the inspiration of the Holy Ghost added to the original words of the Lord’s prayer, and which the instinct and conscience of Christendom have ever recognized as a worthy addition, has an interesting and valuable bearing upon primitive Church history and primitive Church feeling. But it is for ourselves still more interesting and still more valuable, as suggesting thoughts concerning the nature of prayer in general, and the manner and temper in which men ought to pray. Petition melts into praise; asking has its climax in ascription; thanksgiving from man to God is as essential an element of prayer as any giving of good things from God to man. It is when petitions turn into doxologies, and doxologies accompany and qualify petitions, transforming the mere demand of a beggar into the ethereal essence of communion with God, that prayer is most truly offered on earth and most acceptable in heaven.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, The Oxford Review, Feb. 4th, 1885.
I. If we ask in what way "the kingdom, and the power, and the glory" belong unto God, it is obvious to answer that they are His because He is the one self-existent supreme God, the I am that I am, He who owns no origin, who has no cause of being besides Himself. But there is another way in which we may think of a kingdom and power and glory belonging to God, and which other way has a nearer connection with us as Christians than that general way of looking upon such things as belonging to God in right of His being the supreme God and Creator of all things; I mean that our Father who is in heaven has established a right to the title of King of men, and has given men better cause to give in ascribing power and glory to Him, by what He has done for us in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord.
II. If the kingdom, and the power, and the glory do indeed belong to God, then doubtless it is our duty, yea our very highest duty, to recognize in our lives and practice that such is the case. (1) If God be really your King, take care that you really fear and obey Him; if in your prayers you ascribe the kingdom to God, then do not in your lives ascribe the kingdom to any person or anything else. There are many competitors for the crown: there is Satan in all his manifold forms; there is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life; there is that usurping king which governs so large a part of the world, that tyrant self; take care that none of these become your masters, and usurp that throne which belongs to God, which belongs to Him by every right which can give Him a title to you. (2) Let us further illustrate by our lives these other words, "Thine is the power;" let us endeavour to live practically in the faith that all power belongs to God. We are in a world of much confusion and difficulty, and we feel that we ourselves are weak and feeble; but surely our God is a God of power, powerful to preserve from evil, powerful to keep us from sin, powerful enough to give us peace in our death and a happy resurrection after it. (3) If you ascribe in your prayers glory to God, then see to it well that you do ascribe glory to God in your lives, glorifying God with your bodies and your spirits, which are His.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 1st series, p. 143.
Mat 6:13
1. The word "Amen" is a word of venerable history in Israel and in the Church.
2. The word Amen announces God’s truth and faithfulness. Prayer is a great reality. It is speaking to the living God. The object of prayer is not that we may speak, but that God may hear. Amen assures us we have spoken to Him who is, and who is truth. God lives; "faithful is He that calleth you."
3. Amen is the name of Christ. "All the promises of God are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus."
4. We view Amen as the seal of prayer.
5. Amen is the voice of faith.
6. Amen is the answer of a good conscience.
7. It is a renewal of our dedication to God.
A. Saphir, Lectures on the Lord’s Prayer, p. 404.
References: Mat 6:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1402; vol. ix., No. 509; J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 98; M. Dods, The Prayer that Teaches to Pray, p. 151; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 339; W. Hubbard, Ibid., vol. xxvi., p. 155; R. Payne-Smith, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 9; F. D. Maurice, The Lord’s Prayer, pp. 89, 117; J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 440; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, p. 471.
Mat 6:16-18
Let us ask what is the use of fasting, for so we shall best come to understand the true methods and degrees of fasting. All bodily discipline, all voluntary abstinence from pleasure of whatever sort, must be of value either as a symbol of something or a means of something. These two functions belong to it as being connected with the body, which is at once the utterer and the educator of the soul within. No man can be a better man save as his pride is crushed into repentance, and as the sweltering, enwrapping mass of passions and indulgences that is around him is broken through, so that God can find his soul and pour Himself into it. This, then, is the philosophy of fasting. It expresses repentance, and it uncovers the life to God. It is the voluntary disuse of anything innocent in itself, with a view to spiritual culture.
I. Consider first the value of fasting as a symbol. It expresses the abandonment of pride. But it is the characteristic of a symbolic action that it not merely expresses but increases and nourishes the feeling to which it corresponds. And if abstinence is the sign of humility, it is natural enough that as the life abstains from its ordinary indulgences the humiliation which is so expressed should be deepened by the expression. Thus the symbol becomes also a means.
II. Note the second value of fasting—its value directly as a means. The more we watch the lives of men, the more we see that one of the reasons why men are not occupied with great thoughts and interests is the way in which their lives are overfilled with little things. The real Lent is the putting forth of a man’s hand to quiet his own passions and to push them aside, that the higher voices may speak to him and the higher touches fall upon him. It is the making of an emptiness about the soul, that the higher fulness may fill it. Perhaps some day the lower needs may themselves become, and dignify themselves by becoming, the meek interpreters and ministers of those very powers which they once shut out from the soul. There will be no fasting days, no Lent, in heaven. Not because we shall have no bodies there, but because our bodies there will be open to God, the helps and not the hindrances of spiritual communication to our souls.
Phillips Brooks, The Candle of the Lord, p. 200.
Properly speaking, fasting is not so much a duty enjoined by revelation as it is the natural expression of certain religious feelings and desires. There is but one special fast ordained in the Old Testament, and there is none at all ordained in the New. Yet one cannot fail to see that the exercise is nevertheless quite in accordance with the whole tenour of a true religious life of all ages; and that, if it is not expressly commanded, it is only because nature itself teaches us in certain circumstances thus to afflict the soul. These circumstances which would obviously suggest this exercise are twofold.
I. Fasting is the natural expression of grief, and therefore the natural accompaniment of godly sorrow. It is a mistaken kindness to press dainties on the heart when it has no appetite for aught but its sorrow. Better let it have its fill of grief—better every way for body and mind. Spiritual sorrow in the same way suggests, and is the better for, this exercise of fasting.
II. Fasting is also a wise method of keeping down the law of the flesh which is in our members. Rich and poor will be the better for a fast now and then, to mortify the flesh, to weaken the incentives to evil, to subdue in some measure the carnal nature, and give freer play and power to the spiritual man within.
III. Our Lord counsels His people, (1) that their fasting must be real, sincere, genuine—a thing to be seen, not of men, but of God; (2) that fasting in the Christian Church should be altogether private, and even secret, not only not in order to be seen of men, but absolutely hidden from them. Religion does not consist in a sour visage or morose habit—nay, more, religion is not properly a sorrowful thing. The Gospel was not sad tidings, but glad tidings for all mankind, and we are not acting fairly by it unless we strive so to present it, in all its winning and attractive beauty, that men shall be led to seek after Jesus. Christianity has its godly sorrow, has its heart-grief for sin, has its fasting and mortifying of the flesh; yet we do it utter injustice unless we also make it appear that it is, taken as a whole, the only true blessedness and peace and joy, the only walk with God which is gladness everlasting.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 193.
Reference: Mat 6:16.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. i., p. 133. Mat 6:16-18.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Laws of the Kingdom, p. 219; C. Girdlestone, A Course of Sermons, vol. i., p. 263. Mat 6:16-21.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 57; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 94. Mat 6:17.—J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. i., p. 141. Mat 6:17, Mat 6:18.—E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. ii., p. 131.
Mat 6:19-21
When Christ said these words, were there young people standing by? If so, they must have sounded very strangely in their ears. For youth does not realize that life on earth grows pale, nor in the midst of its treasures dreams that the day will come when they shall fail. But on the ears of older men and women His words fell with a profound meaning. They struck home to that which is bitterest in human life; more sharply felt, because more constant, than even the special sorrows which, breaking in from time to time on life, still leave us intervals of peace. It is the sense of the passing away of all things, the knowledge that day by day and hour by hour the moth and rust are at work; that time, as it slips by, steals with it our treasures, and with them our heart out of our bosom.
I. What are those true treasures which can never be exhausted? It is time we should seek and find these things, if they may be found. Do they exist? Oh, yes! There are things immortal, ever young. No moth corrupts the garment of a pure spirit; no rust consumes the armour of God—the shield of faith, the sandals of the Gospel of peace, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, the breastplate of truth. No thief can rob us of the love of God, the knowledge of His will, the peace of Christ and His joy, which the world cannot give or take.
II. The first of these treasures is Truth, and its correlative, Constancy; for that which is true endures all shocks. Give half the intensity to it you give to money or fame or human love, and it is yours—nay, give to its pursuit one week of the same consuming thought you give to anything you set your heart on, and it is yours for ever.
III. And righteousness, treasure of treasures, lord of all other treasures, protector and securer of all we care for upon earth, win it at all costs. For it is sin that is the rust and the moth that devour the joys and welfare of our lives.
IV. "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." The desire of earth will be towards heaven, because there will be full enjoyment there of these perfect things. We want fulfilment; we must have perfection, fulness of love and truth and purity, to be filled with all the fulness of God. Nothing less than that will satisfy the boundless thirst of the human soul. It is like the gulf in the Forum—till the most precious treasure is cast into it, it will not close. Therefore we cannot rest; therefore all the whole earth cannot give peace to one of us. Where our treasure is, not only our heart’s desire, but our very selves shall be at last.
S. A. Brooke, The Fight of Faith, p. 307.
The Law kept by Faith.
I. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth." This word of Christ’s, and others of a similar character, which He spoke on other occasions, did not mean literally to forbid the natural accumulation of capital and property, which certainly would have placed the Gospel in opposition to some of the laws of social progress. And that it did not so mean is further proved by the fact that, in reality, the civilization of the modern world keeps pace with the advance of Christian faith; and those countries in which the Gospel is upheld in greatest purity, and manifests its greatest living power, are precisely those which are most signally known for their successful prosecution of all honest industry.
II. The special reason given here for inculcating this lesson is, that "moth and rust corrupt them, and thieves break through and steal." These treasures are precarious at the best, and perishable certainly in the long run. And it is altogether unworthy of a creature fitted to hold converse with God and truth and all that is most elevating and Divine, to degrade himself to mean pursuits whose highest fruits are a little meat and drink, and mouth-honour and vain display.
III. By the laying up of treasures in heaven, I understand the pursuit not of things carnal but spiritual. It is to set our hearts on obtaining the knowledge and wisdom, the virtues and graces, of God’s true sons. It is to seek moral worth and truth and love above all possessions and honours of this world. It is to labour to do good, rather than to get profit of any kind; for such good works are kept in God’s treasury carefully. Or, to sum up all in one word, it is to win Christ, and be found in Him, and He in us. These are the real treasures, and they are eternal—treasures of knowledge and wisdom, all hid in Christ; riches of grace and peace, all found in Christ. Understand that these are the true wealth and glory of man; and then "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 208.
References: Mat 6:19.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 188. Mat 6:19, Mat 6:20.—J. O. Davies, Ibid., vol. xxvi., p. 264; C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons, 3rd series, p. 49. Mat 6:19-21.—G. Macdonald, Unspoken Sermons, p. 118. Mat 6:19-34.—Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. i., p. 213.
Mat 6:20
I. This is one of those passages in which God takes hold of a strong master-passion of the human mind, and turns it to great spiritual account. The love of accumulation is such a principle in our nature that it will be doubted whether there is any man who is altogether free from the power of its fascination. Whatever it be there is being heaped up, two consequences always follow. (1) One is that, however indifferent the matter was at first, yet the very fact that you have a possession in it, and that that possession is increasing, makes you love it. Your own self becomes associated with the growing store; and, therefore, it becomes dear to you. And this seems to me the exact intention of our Saviour’s words, when He says, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (2) If we have desired to gather much, we always desire to gather more. The larger the property grows, the faster swells the ambition to augment that heap. And this again lies in our Lord’s deep sentence, when He meets this very feeling, and says, "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given."
II. Notice the manner in which a Christian may lay up treasure in heaven. (1) Is not each departed companion and friend an actual increase of the deep and holy treasure which is awaiting us in another state? To the man of Christian friendships death only sweeps the field to house the harvest. (2) The joy that surpasses all other joys which we carry with us from this world will be the meeting again with those to whom we have been useful in this life. They are our treasure laid up in heaven. (3) Every man has his time and his talents, and his influence and his money, as working materials. If in the use of these he is constantly considering their value for eternity, that man is putting by treasures gradually into God’s bank; and he looks, and has a right to look, for favour in eternity. (4) By holy contemplation on the joys and scenes of heaven, we do actually, through the power of faith, grow into such a holy familiarity with the joys and scenes of heaven, that, in part, they are all ours. Like the breathing substance of some oft-repeated fancy, eternity will be to us the great realization of the laid-up treasures of our heart.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 151.
References: Mat 6:20.—J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 431. Mat 6:21.—H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, 2nd series, p. 211; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 182.
Mat 6:22
The idea conveyed by a "single eye" appears to be, from its etymology, threefold. First, it means clear, with no film; secondly, it means in opposition to double, seeing one object at a time; and thirdly, it means concentration, centred upon a focus. These three thoughts mainly go to make up the word "single,"—distinctness, oneness, fixedness.
I. Many things may give a dulness to the moral sight. (1) If it be impaired by disuse—if you do not exercise the spiritual perception which God has given you, by meditation, by prayer, and religious thought—then the perception must grow weak. (2) Things coming in between veil and darken that higher vision. A worldly life is sure to do it. Much care will do it. Luxury will do it. But, still more, any wilful unbelief or any strong prejudice.
II. A clear eye must be often cleared. It is the great secret of a happy, holy life—to have made up your mind, once and for all, to live for one thing—to do what is right, and to live to the glory of God. And then upon that one object you must concentrate yourself. Your whole mind, affections, hopes, interests, must meet there. You converge your eternity upon God.
III. There are two worlds around us—a seen world and an unseen world; and we move equally in the midst of both. And the unseen system is far more beautiful, and far grander, and more important than the system that we see. The seen is mainly the type and the shadow of the unseen. It is the unseen which is the real, for that unseen is for ever and ever. But it is not all of us who see the unseen. Few of us are seeing the unseen very distinctly, and none of us are seeing it as we might; and the reason is the state of the eye of the soul, which is as really an eye to see the unseen as that natural eye by which you gaze upon a star or by which you admire a flower.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 11th series, p. 197.
Our responsibility for the light given us includes two things, distinct in themselves, though closely connected—viz., our responsibility for living and acting according to that light; and our responsibility for having and seeing the light itself—that is, our responsibility for acting consistently with our belief and opinions, and our responsibility for our belief and opinions, for their formation and hold upon our minds. The two run into each other. But I wish at present to keep in view mainly the latter.
I. On the whole, the government of our minds is in our own hands. That great instrument of reason given to us, we can play on it much as we will, well or ill, wisely or foolishly; and the result is the complex fabric of habitual thought, opinion, conviction, faith, on which we have to live. Who can reasonably say that for this we are not responsible? It is, then, a matter of supreme importance how we hear, how we reach our conclusions and build up our beliefs. We cannot remind ourselves too often or too seriously that the questions which are so freely discussed among us now are questions of life or death to human hope; not in one particular form and under one set of conditions only, but in any form intelligible to our minds. Our time is a time to be watchful over both life and intellect, watchful over the way we handle the grave questions we may be called upon to handle, and over the way in which we prepare ourselves to handle them.
II. A great conflict is going on between Christianity and ideas and beliefs which would destroy or supplant it. We remark on the improved character of the discussion; the times of Voltaire, we observe with satisfaction, are past. But with all the literary power, and all the real and often pathetic earnestness shown in it, there is wanting often an adequate sense of the full issues raised by it, a sense of what in fact depends on it. If we must lose Christianity, let us be alive to what we are doing, and face with open eyes the consequences. Let us have the seriousness which befits the surrender of such a hope, with which a vanquished state surrenders territory or independence to the necessities of defeat, with which, in the old strife of parties, a beaten statesman surrendered his life and fate to the law. Let us recognize the thinker’s duties, his temptations, and his safeguards. Remember what an element time is in all growth. By simply waiting our horizon widens—widens almost without our knowing it. Those who undertake to woo truth by their own courage must not stumble at her conditions. They must not think it strange if for that Divine Bride they have to serve the seven years, and then the seven years again.
Dean Church, Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates’ Journal, Nov. 15th, 1877.
I. Conscience is the organ that stands between the intelligence of man and the spiritual world, just as the eye stands between the intelligence of man and the world of physical nature, and brings the two together. It is the opened and unopened window through which flows the glorious knowledge of God and heaven; or outside of which that knowledge waits, as the sun with its glory or the flower with its beauty waits outside the closed eye of a blind or sleeping man.
II. When one declares this, that through the conscience man arrives at the knowledge of unseen things, and conceptions of God and spiritual force and immortality reveal themselves to his intelligence, at once the suggestion comes from some one who is listening, Can we be sure of the reality of what thus seems to be made known? How can we be sure that what the conscience sends in to the understanding are not mere creations of its own? These are the same questions which have always haunted man’s whole thought about his vision of the world of nature. The questions which haunt the conscience are the same as those which haunt the eye. And as the eye deals with its questions, so will the conscience always deal with its.
III. There is an openness of conscience, a desire and struggle to do right, which is distinctly turned away from God and the world of spiritual things, so that, even if they were there, it would not see them. On the other hand, there is an openness of conscience, a desire and struggle to do right, which is turned towards God and the supernatural, which is expectant of spiritual revelation; and to that conscience the spiritual revelation comes.
IV. We are led thus to that which Jesus teaches in the text—the critical importance of a pure, true conscience, of a steady, self-sacrificing struggle to do right Godward. So only can the channel be kept open through which the knowledge of God, and of the spiritual things which belong to Him, can enter into our souls. As long as man is able to do right Godward, to keep his conscience pure and true and reverent, set upon doing the best things on the highest grounds, he carries with him an eye through which the everlasting light may, and assuredly will, shine into his soul.
Phillips Brooks, The Candle of the Lord, p. 74.
Observe:—
I. What is here meant by singleness of eye. It is being wholly decided for Christ; that is, having an eye to Christ alone.
II. The consequences of having the eye single: (1) there will be light, first of all, in regard to God and His dealings; (2) there is light in regard to our own position and character; (3) there is light in regard to revelation; (4) there is light in regard to our own experience.
W. Park, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 596.
References: Mat 6:22.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 79. Mat 6:22, Mat 6:23.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 335; W. Hubbard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 392; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 186; C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons chiefly Practical, p. 15; S. Cox, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 259; J. Martineau, Endeavours after the Christian Life, p. 463.
Mat 6:22-24
The illustration of the text has a twofold reference. It bears on what went before, and also on what follows. If we lay up treasures on earth, that will produce an evil eye; if we try to serve God and mammon, that will destroy the single eye. Look at the passage in both these aspects.
I. If the light within you be true, if it be your real heart’s desire to see what is right, if your affections are set on those things which are just and pure and lovely, the things heavenly and eternal, then shall your eye be single, and as ye look forth on the world ye shall be able to estimate its treasures at their proper value, for they will have lost to you the glamour and the fascination which they exercise over others. Their inherent emptiness, their essential vanity, their utter precariousness, their certain brevity will be all naked and open to the clear vision of faith, which sees them in their true character and values them at their proper worth.
II. Consider next the evil eye, as it is produced by the effort to serve both God and mammon. The influence of utter and unmitigated worldliness, when a man gives himself to it heartily and without scruple or drawback; that is, as we have seen, to blind his mind altogether to the higher concerns of the spiritual world. Therefore he never troubles himself about them; can see no need of them, and no value in them. That is a sad state of darkness; but it is a sort of honest darkness, and is consistent with a certain genuineness of character. But the effort to serve both God and mammon produces a kind of self-deception, which is to my mind greatly more pernicious and worse to overcome than the former. The thorough worldling knows himself to be so, and his evil eye sees nothing else worth troubling himself about. The other, however, fondly persuades himself that he is not a worldling, that he is, indeed, far superior to the worldling; his evil eye sees, in a measure, what is right and good, but only regards it so far as may be necessary to keep his mind easy in its worldliness. Thus the light which is in him serves more effectually the purpose of darkness.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 224.
Reference: Mat 6:22, Mat 6:23.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 378.
Mat 6:24
I. It is very difficult to make men believe these words; so difficult, that our Lord Himself could not make the Jews believe them, especially the rich and comfortable religious people among them. They thought that they could have their treasure on earth and in heaven also; and they went their way, in spite of our Lord’s warnings, and made money,—honestly, no doubt, if they could; but if not, why, then dishonestly,—for money must be made at all risks.
II. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God; the government of God; the laws and rules by which Christ, King of kings—and king, too, of every nation and man on earth, whether they know it or not—governs mankind; that is what you have to seek, because it is there already. You are in Christ’s kingdom. If you wish to prosper in it, find out what its laws are. That will be true wisdom. For in keeping the commandment of God and obeying His laws, in that alone is life—life for body and soul, life for time and eternity.
III. And the righteousness of God, which is the righteousness of Christ—find out what that is, and pray to Christ to give it to you; for so alone will you be what a man should be—created after God in righteousness and true holiness, and renewed into the being and image of God. The merely assenting, merely respectable, even the so-called religious and orthodox life will not let you into the kingdom of heaven, either in this life or the life to come. No; that requires the noble life, the pure life, the just life, the Godlike life, which is perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. But how will this help you to rise in life? Our Lord Himself answers: "All these things shall be added unto you." Honour and power, wealth and prosperity, as much of them as is justly good for you, and as much of them as you deserve—that is, earn and merit by your own ability and self-control—shall come to you by the very laws of the universe and by the very providence of God. You shall find that godliness hath the promise of this life, as well as of that which is to come.
C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons, p. 290.
References: Mat 6:24.—T. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 30; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 141; W. Stubbs, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 177; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 182; J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year, vol. iii., p. 240; F. D. Maurice, Sermons in Country Churches, p. 157.
Mat 6:24-25
I. Anxious thought is contrary to the teaching of nature. (1) You are obliged to trust God for your body, for its structure, for its form, for its habitudes, and for the length of your being; you are obliged to trust Him for the foundation—trust Him for the superstructure. (2) God gives you the life of the body, and God’s greater gifts are always inclusive of God’s little gifts. When He bestows the thing, He bestows the consequences of the thing as well. (3) Look at God’s way of doing with all His creatures. The flowers of the field are so clothed that we may learn the lesson that it is a fair Spirit and a loving Spirit and a bountiful Spirit, and a royal heart, that presides over the bestowments of creation and allots gifts to men. (4) Much of the force of what Christ says here depends on the consideration of the inferiority of those creatures who are thus blessed. (a) These creatures labour not, and yet are they fed. Much more may we, whom God has blessed with the power of work and gifted with force to mould the future, be sure that He will bless the exercise of the prerogative by which He exalts us above inferior creatures and makes us capable of toil. (b) These creatures cannot say "Father," and yet they are fed. (c) Today it is, and tomorrow it is cast into the oven. Their little life is thus blessed and brightened. How much greater will be the mercies that belong to them who have a longer life upon earth, and who never die!
II. Anxious care is contrary to all the lessons of religion or revelation, which show it to be heathenism. "After these things do the Gentiles seek."
III. Finally, Christ tells us that thought for the morrow is contrary to all the scheme of Providence, which shows it to be vain. Tomorrow has anxieties enough of its own, after and in spite of all the anxieties about it today, by which you try to free it from care when it comes. Every day will have its evil, will have it to the end; and every day will have evil enough for all the strength that a man has to cope with it. So that it just comes to this—anxiety. It is all in vain. It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but it empties today of its strength. We have always strength to bear the evil when it comes; we have not strength to bear the foreboding of it. "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."
A. Maclaren, Sermons preached in Manchester, 1st series, p. 243.
References: Mat 6:24-34.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 349; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 91; Parker, Inner Life of Christ, vol. i., p. 224; A. Whyte, Expositor, 3rd series, vol. ii., p. 224. Mat 5:25.—A. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country, p. 137; J. W. Haffenden, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 109; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1,783; F. D. Maurice, Sermons in Country Churches, p. 313.
Mat 6:25-34
In Mat 6:25-26 we have an argument against giving place to the cares of this world, on the ground that they are unworthy of an immortal being like man; and also an illustration pointedly leading to the exercise of faith.
I. The question before the Lord was not whether we should be as idle as the birds, but only whether we should, like them, cast off care and trust our heavenly Father. Toil is man’s lot. He must sow and reap. We cannot expect the daily manna unless we go and gather it. The argument is not against labour, but against worldly care; and this is the purport of it: God cares for the little birds; He provides their food in due season; and they, instead of burdensome anxiety, in their unconscious gratitude are ever hymning His praise. Now this God is your Father; ye are the children of the Highest; and if He provides for the very birds, how much more will a Father’s love and watchfulness care for each of you. Only trust Him, therefore, and all shall be well.
II. The Lord exhorts us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. This is the pith and kernel of the whole matter. What He means is, that they are not to set their hearts on the kingdom, the possessions, of this world—its riches and honours, and pampering indulgences and vain displays; neither are they to vex their hearts with cares concerning these, as the Gentiles do, sinking thereby into a like degradation with them, but they are to make it their foremost object to obtain spiritual treasures—meekness, temperance, patience, faith, love, and all things just and true and honest and pure and lovely, which are the true riches and real honours of man, the only dignities acknowledged in the kingdom of God. Now the way to obtain these is through faith in God and His Christ. Their great effort, therefore, should be to believe that God reigns, and to trust Him with a most loyal and unswerving devotion. This is obviously what is here meant by seeking the kingdom of God. The righteousness of God here meant is the righteousness of His government—His all-holy and wise administration, which we are to cherish with a steadfast faith.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 239.
References: Mat 6:25-34.—J. C. Jones, Studies in St. Matthew, p. 146. Mat 6:26.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 26; A. J. Griffith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 140; J. M. Neale, Sermons to Children, p. 204. Mat 6:26-28.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons, vol. i., No. 16.
Mat 6:26, Mat 6:28-29
Consider the Lilies of the Field .
I. What has this text to do with Easter Day? Let us think a while. Life and death; the battle between life and death; life conquered by death; and death conquered again by life. Those were the mysteries over which the men of old time thought, often till their hearts were sad. And because our forefathers were a sad and earnest folk; because they lived in a sad and dreary climate, where winter was far longer and more bitter than it is, thank God, now: therefore all their thoughts about winter and spring were sad; and they grew to despair, at last, of life ever conquering death, or light conquering darkness. All living things would die. The very gods would die, fighting to the last against the powers of evil, till the sun should sink for ever, and the world be a heap of ashes. And then—so strangely does God’s gift of hope linger in the hearts of men—they saw, beyond all that, a dim dream of a new heaven and a new earth, in which should dwell righteousness; and of a new sun, more beautiful than ours; of a woman called "Life" hid safe, while all the world around her was destroyed, fed on the morning dew, preserved to be the mother of a new and happier race of men. And so to them, heathens as they were, God whispered that Christ should some day bring life and immortality to light.
II. "So it pleased the Father," says St. Paul, "to gather together in Christ all things, whether in heaven or in earth." In Him were fulfilled, and more than fulfilled, the dim longings, the childlike dreams, of heathen poets and sages, and of our own ancestors from whom we spring. He is the Desire of all nations, for whom all were longing, though they knew it not. And now we may see, it seems to me, what the text has to do with Easter Day. Be not anxious, says our Lord, for your life. Is not the life more than meat? There is an eternal life which depends not on earthly food, but on the will and word of God your Father; and that life in you will conquer death. Consider the lilies of the field. All the winter they are dead, unsightly roots, hidden in the earth. What can come of them? But no sooner does the sun of spring shine on their graves than they rise into sudden life and beauty as it pleases God, and every seed takes its own peculiar body. Even so is the resurrection of the dead.
C. Kingsley, Discipline and Other Sermons, p. 168.
Mat 6:27
It is well for men to think that there are some things which, with all their power, they cannot do. The inquiry of the text serves to rebuke our anxiety and humble our impious ambition, by asking us questions which conduct us still farther into the glory and the mystery of God’s kingdom.
I. Which of us by taking thought can find out God? "The world by wisdom knew not God." The world dreamed, guessed, groped—and the result was an acknowledgment of the Unknown. The world in the fulness of its wisdom found its way to an unexplained shadow, and there it stood, terrified by its own discovery, dumb through fear, skulking from a spectre which it could never brighten into a god.
II. Which of you by taking thought can direct his own life? This we have tried to do many a time, so we can speak with all the distinctness and emphasis of experience. There are some things which your heavenly Father takes into His own hands. There are some keys which He never takes off His own girdle and puts into the possession of cherub, seraph, or man, seeing that you are beaten at every point, and thrown back hopelessly in many of your endeavours. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness."
III. Which of you by taking thought can discover a plan for redeeming and saving the soul? This is a subject on which we have expended thought. Still there is unrest in our souls; there is bitterness in our chief joy. If you cannot add one cubit unto your stature, how can you save the world?
IV. This great fact of the Divine limitation of human power is to rule us in the deepest of our studies and in the profoundest of our worship. If we lay hold of this truth, and have a clear, deep, tender conviction of it, three great effects ought to be produced upon our life: (1) it should foster the most loving and confident trust in the goodness of God; (2) it should moderate our tone respecting opinions which are not decisively settled by revelation; (3) this truth should encourage us to cultivate with fuller patience and intenser zeal the powers which we know to be capable of expansion.
Parker, City Temple, 1871, p. 297.
Carefulness of a certain kind is not only allowed; it is required. But anxiety is forbidden. Due care is a moderate amount of thought. Anxiety is that immoderate degree of thought about anything which distracts the mind and disquiets the heart. Due care assists effort, making the eye single, the hand steady, the foot firm. Anxiety embarrasses exertion, making the eye evil, the hand tremulous, the foot feeble.
I. Anxiety is evidently useless about things not under our own control. The duration of life is one of these things. Anxiety may abbreviate, and certainly it does embitter life, but it never can prolong it. Health and disease are other things in connection with which anxiety is useless. Anxiety brings disease and cherishes it, instead of preventing and checking it. "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?"
II. Anxiety is useless in matters under our own management. Now, it is God’s ordinance that we should earn our bread by the sweat of our brow, and the most honourable men are those who have to do it and who do it. Now, anxiety will not furnish opportunity of earning bread or arm us with power. Anxiety never opened a port, or brought a foreign order, or improved the money market, or filled and ripened an ear of corn.
III. The utility of anxiety is nowhere apparent. It does not attract to us the notice of God. It does not induce God to care for us. He cares for us irrespective of our carefulness. Moreover, there is no promise made to anxiety. There are great promises made to diligence, to prudence, to faith, to hope, to trust—especially to trust; but there is not one to an anxious mind. Anxiety is dealt with as a moral disease.
IV. The strongest possible proof that there is no advantage in anxiety is found in the fact that Jesus bids you get rid of it. He never tells us to part with anything that is worth keeping. Cast it off, then, and get rid of it. "Casting all your care on Him, for He careth for you."
S. Martin, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 318.
References: Mat 6:27.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 168; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 164; J. Keble, Sermons’ for Sundays after Trinity, Part II., p. 74.
Mat 6:28
I. Consider the lilies—and identify little things with God’s care. Can you make a lily? You cannot make a sun; can you make one drop of dew? God writes minutely as well as largely. He writes the great letters of the stars; He writes also the small letters of the violets and daisies.
II. Consider the lilies—and see the superiority of the natural over the artificial. Let the glorious dress of the king represent the artificial. God makes the original; man makes the copy. For all originality—mental and moral, as well as physical—we must go to the Father.
III. Consider the lilies—and look on things beneath, as well as on things above. Look for God when thou lookest at the dust. The dust is alive with the life of God.
IV. Consider the lilies—and have faith in your Father. Think of God clothing the grass and forgetting the child! It is impossible. Let a lily detach itself from its root, and it must perish. So with man. Let him cut himself off from God, and he will become as a withered and driven leaf.
Parker, City Temple, vol. i., p. 366.
I. The first thought in the sermon of the lilies is a lesson of trust—confidence in God, repose, rest in Him. "O man!" they seem to say, "think of us; our life is very brief, but what beauty is bestowed upon us, for we are, every one of us, a thought of God! We die so speedily, and yet God cares for us: ye are much better than we. Consider how many things had to meet together to make a lily beautiful, and the thing of joy it is for ever! Consider how we grow: we are not careworn as you are; wrinkles do not fret our fair leaves; our heavenly Father feeds us with earth from beneath and moisture from above.
II. Consider how they grow. Consider, (1) how miraculously they grow. Surely if anywhere we have the handwriting of God, it is here! This growth is no new life; it is only that daily change which is development. If any one professed himself unable to see a God I would point him to a flower; I would say, Consider the lilies. (2) Consider with what beauty and loveliness they grow. They show the obviousness of inner beauty; it is all very calm and sweet and quiet—all from within; they attract to themselves essences and helps from the whole earth, but they must be in harmony with the proper spirit of the plant. (3) Consider by what improbable auxiliaries they grow; consider by what a hidden life they grow. Is it not strange that such purity should spring from the black earth—strange that such whiteness should shoot up from the soiled ground? It is a mighty miracle, and it is ever going on. (4) Consider how yieldingly and complyingly they grow. (5) Consider to what Divine uses they grow. They have no use to the sense—only to the heart.
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 33.
References: Mat 6:28.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 278; A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 357; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 137, vol. xx., p. 14; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 149; New Outlines of Sermons on the New Testament, p. 7; Todd, Lectures to Children, p. 183; A. J. Griffith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 182; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. ii., p. 129; J. C. Hare, Sermons in Hurstmonceux Church, vol. ii., p. 443; J. Martineau, Endeavours after the Christian Life, p. 76.
Mat 6:28-29
I. The lilies of the field, as God’s workmanship, reveal the Fountain of life and being. Flowers show nothing of boundless might and of high wisdom, but they do reveal the calm beauteousness of the Source whence all living things flow.
II. The lilies of the field embody and express Divine conceptions—thoughts of God. The image of every flower was in the mind of the Creator before creation. He designed the lilies of the field and the glorious company of their kindred.
III. The lilies of the field are God’s workmanship. In the fine arts the conceiver is the worker. In other departments one designs and plans, and others execute. Flowers are the work of God’s fingers.
IV. The lilies of the field are God’s care. This is not manifest to the eye of the body. No man, like Adam, has seen or heard the Lord God in any garden. In the providential sense there are no wild flowers. There are children without father and mother, or with evil fathers and mothers, but there are no flowers without Divine care.
V. The lilies of the field exhibit God’s bountifulness. All flowers, alike of the field and of the garden, render some ordinary service—are of some use. They furnish food, medicine, clothing, shelter, to innumerable living things. But are they not created, in part at least, to be pleasant to the eye? Surely they are made to be things of beauty and sources of joy.
VI. The lilies of the field are propagated and developed by the working of various natural laws. There is a tendency in some minds to look only on the hard and rigorous side of law. But law is good. The moral law of God obeyed will bring forth nothing but love.
VII. The lilies of the field are parts of a perfect whole.
VIII. The lilies of the field show us a sense of beauty in the nature of God, and a satisfaction in its expression.
IX. The lilies of the field are what they are through various affinities and relationships. They are the children of the sun, of the rain, of the dew, and of the air. In this condition of floral life we see one of the conditions of our own existence.
X. The lilies of the field are supposed to find in the nature of man that which will respond to their attractiveness.
XI. The lilies may teach us freedom from care, and from morbid self-consciousness.
S. Martin, Rain upon the Mown Grass, p. 28.
I. We know that at the creation of the world "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." Some of the works, then, of the visible creation were good because they were useful and necessary, and because the life of man could not be supported without them; others were good because they were full of beauty, and, as objects for the eye, imparted the greatest pleasure and delight to beings who were endowed with reason, and who were gifted with the perceptions whereby they could discern this beauty. It is of these latter objects of nature that our Lord speaks on the occasion mentioned in the text. We ought then to be able to rejoice in those parts of the creation which were designed especially to give us delight. The admiration of God’s natural creation is not an earthly, but an exalted and a pure delight. It is a joy fit for spiritual beings, who are admitted to the knowledge of God and the adoration of His goodness and glory.
II. The lower kind of pleasure, which thoughtless and unreflecting people sometimes derive from the beauties of visible nature, is not accompanied by any thought about the human soul itself, which is the perceiver of it; it does not bring up any solemn thought about themselves as thus admitted to this insight into Divine order and beauty. The proper delight in visible nature sends men to the thought of themselves and their own souls. And this is the very direction taken in our Lord’s observations upon nature as given in the text. He immediately goes from external nature to the human soul; He reminds us how precious a thing the human soul is, how high its rank is in God’s sight, how vast its interests are, how glorious its prospects. "If God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" This is the lesson in which His discourse upon nature ends—the great truth of the worth and value of the human soul; its great superiority above all other things in this world; the supremacy it holds in the created universe.
J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 151.
Consider the lilies. There is ample opportunity to do so. Flowers stay with us, rooted in the earth. Consider; that is, think of this beauty, see what you make of it. The word itself indicates at once the great stress laid by our Lord on the teachings of nature. Our text has two sides: a negative and a positive—what the plant does not, what it does.
I. Negative: "They toil not, neither do they spin," etc. (1) Here is a wonderful and beautiful effect, without care or anxious toil. (2) The lilies do not attempt what is impossible. They do what they can; they were never made to toil or spin; yet wait a few months, and a blossom is quietly matured that all the striving and curious ingenuity of man can, at the best, but distantly imitate.
II. Consider the lilies, how they grow. (1) Growth, for the most part, is secret; it is work done at the heart of things—work within, and not on the outside. (2) Growth is an unfolding. As the beauty of the flower is unfolded by the creating spirit from within, so all true beauty of heart, moral and spiritual beauty, so all real adornment of human nature, must unfold by the same almighty power from within.
G. Walker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 166.
References: Mat 6:28, Mat 6:29.—J. P. Gledstone, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 37; E. R. Conder, Drops and Rocks, p. 199. Mat 6:30.—H. P. Liddon, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 11.
Mat 6:31-32
I. There is a kind of low-toned care which is heard, as it were, in the distance, surging and moaning as it breaks upon the shore of human life; and many a man’s music is this melancholy dirge or undertone of human life. Those that have it not are often called children of levity, and those that have it are often called serious, sober, earnest, religious people. Now, our Master tells us that this particular form of mental activity is useless—that nothing good ever comes of it. He who works in a spirit of fear and solicitude and anxiety doubles and trebles the laboriousness of labour.
II. Not only does this spirit of reprehensible care make the burdens of life heavier and the experiences of life sadder, but it converts one of the most joy-inspiring of our faculties into a minister of misery. The element of faith, that which we call imagination, the peculiar constitution of the understanding by which it brings home to itself things invisible, that power of the mind by which the whole of our life is largely opened into the future—this is perverted by care.
III. Then another ill-effect is that it takes away good-nature. Good-nature is the generic form which is produced by all the Christian graces. As light is white, although it is made up of all the other coloured rays, so I think hope and love and joy and peace, mingled together, make good-nature. A man who has good health and good-nature, and is a good man through and through, asks no favours of fortune and asks none of God; he asks only that he may be grateful to God for such blessings. And there is nothing that pecks at a fair life, and scratches its brilliant surface and undermines it, sooner than this anxious care. It is a sort of south-east wind of the soul, that does not rain, but chills everything.
IV. No craven-hearted man was ever fit to be a citizen. Courage is the source of patriotism. In looking upon the commonwealth, believe in providence, believe in God, believe in the blessedness of the future.
H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 252.
Reference: Mat 6:31-33.—C. Kingsley, Sermons for the Times, p. 203.
Mat 6:32
I. In every suffering of body or mind the eternal God knows and measures most exactly our afflictions, be they what they may, great or small. The doctrine was known of old to the Psalmist, and was evidently a great and solid comfort to him. But it was most expressly declared by our Saviour Christ Himself: "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." As much as to say, It is not that God is ignorant of man’s distresses, or that, knowing them, He is indifferent about them; but He has good reasons for sending such and such afflictions on such and such persons. If they are truly wise, they will take them, as sent by Him, with constancy, penitence, and hope; if vain and self-willed, they will fret and disturb themselves with useless anxieties, and be in the end nothing the better for what their compassionate Father meant to be of the greatest good to them.
II. But it will be said, If God sees His faithful servants in affliction, and knows what things they have need of, why does not He, the Father of mercy, listen to their supplications and supply their wants? To this what can we answer? Can we say any of us that we are faithful servants—so faithful as to deserve His blessings, so diligent as not to deserve His chastisements? Can any of us venture to say this of ourselves? Besides, we do not know what reasons God may have for afflicting us. Some of these reasons may be plain to a considerate person, but there may be others beyond our reach.
III. Let us bear in mind that we are not placed in the world to enjoy ourselves, but to be exercised and disciplined in order to our admission to a world of real enjoyment, lasting happiness, eternal rest. Let our life be a life of prayer, of constant aspirations after the aid of the Holy Spirit, without which we cannot but fall, without which we have no strength.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. i., p. 109.
Anxiety must be a sin. And it must be a sin very deep in the heart. So large a portion of the Sermon on the Mount would never have been directed against anxiety, and so many arguments would not have been heaped up, if the sin were not very large and its grasp very wide.
I. Anxiety does two things. (1) It makes you unhappy, and unhappiness is not a matter for pity, it is a matter for blame. For whoever is unhappy and disquieted is, in so far, unfitted for the duties of life—he can do nothing as he ought to do. And, as far as he is concerned, he is frustrating the purposes of Almighty God, for the design of God was a happy creation. (2) Every shade of anxiety which passes over a man’s mind is a positive wrong done to God,—it distrusts Him; it sets aside one of His attributes, it gives the lie to one of His promises.
II. The whole stress of Christ’s argument rests on the fatherly character of God. We live in our great Father’s house, and may look on all the treasures in His creation; we may go up and down in the immensity of the universe; we may travel for ever and ever among the promises; we may survey all the bounties of the vast profusion of God’s grace in Christ Jesus,—and they are all for the children. You may read it written on all the host of them, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things."
III. Remember, that you may expect God to supply your wants as bountifully as He supplies the birds—but on the same condition. The birds work from morning to night; they have not a grain but they have sought it, and sought it with patient labour. But if you do this, and still the untrodden path of your future life looks dark, and every tomorrow wraps itself in a thick cloud, do not be afraid, only believe. The same act which made you a child of God pledged Him, as your heavenly Father, to supply all you want for body and soul.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 8th series, p. 169.
Reference: Mat 6:32, Mat 6:33.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 93.
Mat 6:33
Prosperity shall follow true piety. When it is said "Seek first" it means first in both senses of the term—first in time, and first in emphasis. The intensity is on both of them combined. Aim mainly at the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the proper ends which you seek in this world shall be added to you—that is the statement.
I. Now, what is this righteousness? What is this kingdom? The Old Testament is full of the doctrine of righteousness; and nowhere in the New Testament is that doctrine, as it is enunciated in the Old Testament, rebuked. The methods of seeking after gain are there criticized, but the ideal of manliness in body, in affection, in soul, in understanding, as it was held by the riper minds of the Old Testament dispensation—manliness as the effect of striving for God’s Spirit with our natural faculties—that ideal of the Old Testament not only never was rebuked, but was adopted by the New Testament. He who, as first in importance, as first in his purpose, and as first in time, seeks to establish in himself a true Christian manliness, giving it the precedence from the beginning of his life clear down to the end, shall have all these other things added to him.
II. True piety, moderation of desire, restraint of appetite, and the unfolding of these sweeter affections which are developed by faith and the love of God, tends, (1) to make true health, which is the primitive, original, first element of success in life; (2) true piety, with its control over the passions, whereby it holds them in and harnesses them, prevents the waste which destroys men who give themselves the swing of full indulgence in passion. (3) The element of success in life is largely founded on good judgment, good "common sense." True piety tends to give this. (4) There is another element in the success of life—justice. Men that are just are always men who have a considerable regard for the rights of other people, and are sensitive to them. The man who keeps about him a clear atmosphere of benevolence, and lives in the true spirit of the Gospel, which says, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others," and is concerned for the prosperity of those who are round about him, and is not swallowed up by his own prosperity—he is gradually being prepared for success in life.
H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 164.
The whole thought hinges upon a point of order. Indeed, all religion, practically, is a point of order. The Christian places heaven first, and this world in a very distant second. To the man of secular mind this world is always large in the foreground; while the life to come is far-off, dim, and unreal in the distance.
I. The important word in the text is "first." For if we set aside the very ungodly, there are very few who do not seek, or who do not at some time or other mean to seek, the kingdom of God and His righteousness. He who knew the heart as none other ever knew it, He saw the necessity of this precept. And the reason of all the disappointment and all the unhappiness which there is in this world is, that that great precept of order is not kept.
II. The kingdom of God is an empire with three provinces. One province is a man’s own heart, when the throne of Christ is once really set up in it; another province is the Church, as it is set up on earth; and another is that final and magnificent condition of all things when Christ shall come and reign in His glory. There are, then, before every one, these three primary objects: the first is to have the whole of his heart in subjugation to God; the second is to extend the Church; and the third is to long, and pray for, and help on the Second Advent. To strive after these things is to seek the kingdom of God.
III. What is God’s righteousness? There is a righteousness such as that in which man was originally made upright—a righteousness which consists in the due sense and performance of all the relative duties which we owe to God, to ourselves, and to our fellow-creatures. There is a righteousness which is a part of the character of God, whereby it is now become a just thing with God to save those for whom Jesus died. And there is a righteousness composed of all the perfections of the life of Christ, which is given to every one that believes. This triple righteousness is what every good man is seeking after. First, something which will justify him before God, and then something which will justify him to his own conscience and to the world in believing that he is justified before God.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 286.
References: Mat 6:33.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi., No. 1864; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 402; vol. viii., p. 64; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 388; J. M. Wilson, Ibid., vol. xxix., p. 113; F. O. Morris, Ibid., vol. xxxii., p. 188; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1,959; J. C. Hare, Sermons in Herstmonceux Church, vol. i., p. 283; J. Martineau, Hours of Thoughts, vol. i., p. 17.
Mat 6:34
I. In considering this text the question naturally arises, Is not the Christian character essentially a provident one? Is it not the very nature of the new life which is within us, that, taking all its interests and affections out of the present, as it passes, it throws them on to that which is coming, and always is living in the future? All this is perfectly true; and perhaps the very habit of a Christian’s mind in looking always onwards has a tendency to make his temperament anxious. Every duty has its dangers; every height has its precipice; every light has its shadow. But this is true only of an early and imperfect religion. As a believer grows, his tomorrow becomes more and more eternity. So it comes to pass that the very forethought of the Christian, which becomes the law and condition of his being, turns into the remedy for every unhappy disposition, and he takes no thought for the morrow, being engrossed in the thought of that never-ending eternity which lies before him.
II. Consider the benefit of living by the day. (1) As respects our pleasures. Just as snow-clad mountains in the distance give a distinctness to the nearer prospect, so every child of God knows well how the joy is heightened by the privilege of not having to dilute it by anxiety for any future good. (2) As respects our pains. It is the sorrow and the pain which are coming which are so hard to bear. The unknown and the undefined are always the largest weights; and in the same proportion suspense is always the greatest of evils. So that he has well-nigh found a panacea who has thoroughly imbued his mind with the truth of the text. It will be a sweet, a prevailing argument with God, every moment—"O Lord, think of me this day; for this is that tomorrow of which Thou didst command me not to think." And as you do this the yesterdays will become memory’s witnesses to God’s mind, and the tomorrows will be fields for faith’s peaceful exercise.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 221.
I. There are two classes of persons who take no thought for the morrow. There are those who live heedlessly and giddily, absorbed in each new fancy or pleasure as it passes, without any definite aim or aspiration, and only free from anxiety because they are free from all serious thoughts whatever. There are also those who are careless for the morrow, because they are careful for today. They have a firm trust in God. They believe that every day is His, and that their powers are His, and that if every moment as it comes is given to Him, He will provide for the future. The first class may be said to be below anxiety, the second to be above it. It is very important to ask ourselves whether we are not in the first of these two classes. May it not be that even the reproofs, even the warnings and cautions of Christ presuppose a degree of strength to which we have not yet attained? Can it be that the words of the text speak with a certain irony to some of us?
II. Christ was speaking mainly to poor men. They were anxious, as the poor always are, about very simple things. They were anxious about food and clothing for themselves and for their families. Christ addressed Himself to the special needs of those He saw before Him. How does He address Himself to ours? The principle of His admonition is, "Do not be anxious about the future. One thing is needful. Trust your Father in heaven to send you all other things." To those who fear they will not be able to hold out either in diligence or goodness, Christ says, "Take no thought for the morrow." Do right today. Make one thing clearly your first object. Seek to know and to do God’s will, and then all other good things will be added unto you. Best of all good things, greater spiritual strength, a more habitual consciousness of Christ’s presence, a truer delight in feeling, "I am His and He is mine;" a growing power of confessing Him before others, a growing impossibility of denying Him in anywise.
III. If we dream of what we shall do tomorrow, we shall do nothing today. We have read of sieges in which resistance was protracted day after day and week after week, with apparently scarcely a possibility of ultimate success. If we question the defenders, they tell us that they looked forward very little. The duties of each day, the hope of being able to know at the close of each evening "The city is still ours," were sufficiently absorbing, and did not allow the mind to be unnerved by the contemplation of the extreme improbability of final escape. If our warfare is to end triumphantly, if we are to hold out against temptation till relief comes, we must take counsel of this sober short-sightedness—this wise refusal to anticipate evil. "Give us this day our daily bread." Let this be our prayer for all wants of the body. "Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin." Let this be our simple prayer for all wants of the soul.
H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, 1st series, p. 108.
I. It is most obvious that in these words Christ could not have meant to say, "Live only in the present; be forgetful of the future." His precepts direct men to think of the future. The whole tendency of Christianity is to produce the deepest thoughtfulness for the morrow, for its spirit prompts men to stand ever "with their loins girt and their lights burning"—ready alike for the coming trials of life and the change of death. It is evidently of the evil of the future that Christ is speaking, and, therefore, it is the anxious restlessness which springs from fear of that evil which He condemns. Regarding the words in this light, they present to us the Christian law of living: "Do the day’s work God gives you, bear the day’s burden God sends you, and be not anxious about the evil which the morrow may bring."
II. In showing that this is both possible and necessary for the Christian man, we must regard this injunction as Christ here regards it, as flowing from faith. Faith may rise in three different ways, each of which seems to give it a different aspect. It may be intuitive, reflective, or submissive. In our hopeful moments it rises from the intuition of love; in our thoughtful hours it is the offspring of intellectual reflection, and when depressed and sorrowful it is the profound outgoing of trust in One who is stronger than we. (1) The highest faith is that which rises from the intuition of love, and the essential feature of such faith is this—that it thinks not of the future, but grasps eternity as a present reality. The necessary result of such faith is a defiance of life’s evils, for the love of God, when realized in Christ, dares all futurity, and angels, and principalities, and powers to sunder it from God. It prevents our taking thought for the morrow. (2) Again, faith rises from reflection on the revelation of God. Is it possible that faith in a Father can exist with an anxious care for the morrow which makes the work of today restless and confused? The mighty calmness of nature shames our restlessness into repose. We cannot trace the Father in the glory of His universe, and yet disbelieve in the provision of His care for us. (3) Once more, faith rises from the conscious feebleness of man. Times of childlike trust and submission, arising from a sense of infirmity, help to the fulfilment of Christ’s injunction, "Take no thought for the morrow." For the more powerfully we are conscious of our ignorance and helplessness, the more utterly can we leave the future in God’s hands.
E. L. Hull, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 52.
On a Particular Providence.
I. Perhaps one of the most important uses of the Old Testament is, that it points out to us how clearly what the world calls chance is to be attributed to providential interposition. The veil is uplifted, and the finger of God is seen. It is true, indeed, that the word chance is used in Scripture, as in Ecc 9:11.; but there it is used to denote, not what infidels mean when they speak of chance, but merely such accidents as have occurred contrary to the expectations and designs of men God Himself being mediately or immediately the cause.
II. The doctrine of a special providence lies between two extremes, as all truth does; between the system which denies to man any power, and that which refuses to recognize the occasional interference of the Deity.
III. Only let us from the heart believe in the special providence of God, and then no notion of expediency will induce us, in any single instance, to do evil that good may come; or, which is a greater trial, to fear to do good lest evil should ensue. The true Christian, strong in the faith of God’s special providence, and he only, is the really consistent man, whom neither the frown of the tyrant, nor the preferments of the powerful, nor the flattery of the crafty can drive or allure from the narrow path; who can alike defy lawless power and public opinion—that is, the opinion of the thoughtless many, as opposed to the truth possessed by the thoughtful few; he only can resolutely oppose the spirit of the age, when the spirit of the age is not in accordance with the Spirit of God.
IV. See the influence of the doctrine of a special providence on the duty of prayer. If we believe that God does sometimes interfere and interpose, under circumstances apparently the most trivial, we shall most assuredly pray to God, whenever we have any object at heart, that by His good providence our exertions may be rendered successful; we shall feel that whatever is worthy of our labour is worthy of our prayers; and prayer will thus sanctify our actions, while our energy of action will give incitement to our prayers.
W. F. Hook, Sermons on Various Subjects, p. 25.
I. Christ’s thought in the text, as I imagine it, is this: As the birds and the flowers, in a sort of necessary way, keep the laws of their nature, under the kindly care of their Father, all their wants are met; they sing and feed, they bloom and live out their brief lives in glad perfection. But the secret of it lies in their unconscious obedience to the laws of their being; it is in obedience that the watchful care of God is realized. Hence, when Christ comes to apply the matter to men, He introduces the condition. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and food and drink and raiment will follow. He by no means says, Live as careless as a bird; but rather, Be as true to your law of righteousness as a bird is to the law of its condition, and you may be as free from anxiety.
II. Christ does not here hold us back from forethought and care, and even a sort of anxiety. Seek, He says, first and always; and no seeking, no search, worthy of the name, can be made without care. The matter turns, then, on the thing that is to engage our thought and care. Not meat and drink and raiment; not the things the Gentiles seek after. Let your search be after righteousness. Put your solicitude, your careful thought, your strife, where they belong—in the realm of righteous obedience—and there will be no occasion for anxiety elsewhere.
III. Christ takes pains to tell us why and how we may trust. His reasons are as solid as the world, as sure as the process of nature, as true as God Himself. (1) We are put into the sure order of nature, and this order is one of supply of wants. (2) We are put under a law of righteousness, and this law also works towards a supply of wants. (a) A righteous man, by the habit and law of his being, sows seed for the bread of tomorrow. (b) Righteousness puts a man into such relations to his fellowmen that it builds for him houses of habitation for all his mortal years.
IV. Why does Christ in this inaugural discourse devote so much time to such a matter as anxiety—a thing that hardly comes within the range of morals? He treated it as a matter of great importance: (1) because it is a source of great unhappiness; (2) to create an atmosphere of peace about the soul.
T. T. Munger, The Appeal to Life, p. 149.
In regard to the future, there are two wrong feelings which we are apt to cherish. There is the feeling of over-confidence, the feeling which results in what the old proverb warns us against, "boasting one’s self of the morrow." And there is the opposite extreme—the feeling of anxiety, of distrust, of fear, which shows itself in dark forebodings of the future. It is this second extreme our Lord admonishes us to avoid.
I. There is the testimony of life. However trying your circumstances may be, your life is a witness that you are not forsaken by God. Next to Christ, life is the supreme gift of the Creator. And it is life pre-eminently which announces His presence.
II. Whatever your circumstances may be, the minutest of them is under the power of God. Our Lord introduces us to the blessed fact that no creature is unimportant in His sight. "Behold the fowls of the air," He says: for "they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." God’s providence is indeed broad and universal in its plans, and it does work in great tracts and circles of toil; but it finds room and time to visit the nest and supply the table of every sparrow that chirps upon the hedge. Hear the gospel of the birds.
III. Whatever sorrow or distress there may be in your lot, God is abler to help than you yourself are, and His way of helping is better than your own. Do not doubt the power, or the pity, or the care of God. And do not cherish the evil thought that your own ordering of your affairs would be better. He who crowns the lily with its glory can supply you, if you will patiently wait for it at His hands, with a blessedness which can never be taken away.
IV. He who best knows the reality, who came down from heaven to tell us what is in God, gave us the assurance of a Father. God is our Father, and we are bound to trust Him with the trustfulness of a child, and we are free to expect from Him a child’s inheritance.
V. Be not, then, wistful about the future; be not filled with anxieties about the morrow. If you have made this loving God your soul’s dwelling-place, no evil can come near you. "The young lions may lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing."
A. Macleod, Days of Heaven upon Earth, p. 119.
To accept this saying as a rule of life makes life easier, and it makes work for others surer, wiser, better, and more joyous.
I. Put your whole force into the work of today, not troubling about the next day. If you do that, you will not at least be troubled by the anxieties about work which ought to have been done in the past, and you will be free from all back trouble when the morrow comes. And if it is duty you do, it will arrange itself rightly in the world, for others and for you. It is true you may fail, but God will not allow our failure to bring ruin to the cause of man, though it may spoil our own life for a time. But even then there is so much time before us that we need not despair. In kindlier weather, in a brighter world, we may repair the past, resume the half-written life, re-knit the broken web, accomplish the love which duty here forbade. For we abide for ever, and we have a Father who will not let us fail for ever.
II. It is plain that when Christ said, "Take no thought for the morrow," He did not mean that to embrace the whole of life, or of His teaching on the subject. He did not mean, do not work in the present for the future, but do not spoil your work in the present by over-care for a future not in your own hands; He did not mean, do not look forward for yourself, nor consider how your acts now will bear on time to come; but He did mean, do not let anxiety, care for meat and drink and the visible things of life, so crowd and disturb your mind that you cannot give that free, wise, sober, unfearful consideration to the education of yourself, your children, your nation, and mankind that is most noble in a man. He did not mean, think only of yourself and your joy, but have your view so free from self-trouble that you may think for others, your life so full of joyous freedom that you may be able to act with unfettered energy for others.
S. A. Brooke, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 68.
References: Mat 6:34.—T. Jackson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 195; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. xxv., p. 244; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 193; J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons, p. 367; C. Girdlestone, A Course of Sermons, vol. ii., p. 325; C. Kingsley, All Saints’ Day and Other Sermons, p. 365; Ibid., The Good News of God, p. 276; J. C. Hare, Sermons in Herstmonceux Church, vol. i., p. 265. Mat 6:34.—J. Vaughan, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 11.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Sermon on the Mount (continued)
The Sermon on the Mount (continued)
1. God's approval, not man's, to be sought in all our actions. Jesus does not say that we are to do good expecting no reward of any kind, but that we are to look for our reward to God alone: see on Mat_6:4. That ye do not your alms] RV 'your righteousness.' The same Heb. word (tsedakah) means both righteousness in general and almsgiving in particular. Our Lord probably used it in the former sense in Mat_6:1, and in the latter sense in Mat_6:2 hence the evangelist translates it differently.
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2-4. Ostentation in almsgiving reproved.
2. A trumpet] There was a trumpet in every synagogue, which was sounded on various occasions (e.g. at the beginning of the sabbath and at excommunications), not, however, so far as we know, at the collection of alms. The expression is, therefore, probably a metaphor for 'ostentation.' Hypocrites] In classical Gk. the word means 'an actor.' In the Bible it generally means one who acts a false part in life, i.e. one who pretends to be religious and is not, as here. But sometimes it simply means a wicked person without any idea of hypocrisy, e.g. Mat_24:51, and several times in OT., e.g. Job_34:30. In the synagogues and in the streets] In a Jewish community alms were given publicly in three ways. (1) Every day three men went round with a basket collecting alms for 'the poor of the world,' i.e. Jews and Gentiles alike. (2) Two synagogue officials went from house to house collecting alms for 'the poor man's chest.' This was for Jews alone. (3) On the sabbath day alms were collected in the synagogue itself: cp. 1Co_16:2. The abuse which our Lord here attacks is probably that of publishing the amounts given, which would naturally lead to ostentatious rivalry. They have their reward] in the praise of men.
3. Let not thy left hand] A metaphor for secrecy. Yet alms need not on all occasions be secret (cp. Mat_5:16, 'Let your light so shine before men,' etc.), provided that ostentation be avoided. The best Jewish thought strongly approved of alms done in secret. In the Temple was 'the treasury of the silent' for the support of poor children, to which religious men brought their alms in silence and privacy, and it was strikingly said by one of the rabbis that 'he that doeth alms in secret is greater than our master Moses himself.'
4. Reward thee openly] RV omits openly. The reward will take place at the Day of Judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed. Yet even in this life there is the reward of a good conscience, and of God's approval.
5-15. Maxims for prayer, and the Lord's Prayer. Perhaps the most significant v. of this section is Mat_6:8, 'Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.' Christians, therefore, are not to pray mainly with the object of bringing their needs before God who knows them already, but because they love Him and delight to be in His presence, and to open their hearts to Him, and to receive from Him those holy inspirations and aspirations which He gives to those who pray aright. Those who thns understand what prayer is, will not pray like the hypocrites (Mat_6:5), or like the heathen (Mat_6:7). They will pray in secret, as well as in public, from the mere delight of praying. The section coneludes with the Lord's Prayer, which is given is the perfect model of all prayer.
5. To pray standing] Standing was the usual Jewish attitude in prayer, as kneeling is with us. In prayer a Jew usually (1) stood, (2) turned towards Jerusalem, (3) covered his head, (4) fixed his eyes downwards. The ancient Church prayed standing on Sundays and festivals, but kneeling on fast-days, and the Eastern Church still observes this rule.
In the synagogues and in the corners of the streets] During the synagogue services those who wished to be thought devout did not follow the public prayers, but said private self-righteous prayers of their own, loud enough to be heard and to attract the attention of the congregation. In the streets the same people would sometimes stand for three hours at a time in the attitude of prayer. The prayers of the phylacteries (see on Mat_23:5) were required to be said at a fixed time with great parade and ceremony. When the time came, the workman put down his tools, the rider descended from his ass, the teacher suspended his lecture, to say them. The ostentatious were careful to be overtaken by the prayer-hour in a public place, and to remain longer praying than any one else.
6. Into thy closet] RV 'into thine inner chamber': cp. Isa_26:20; 2Ki_4:33. There is no disparagement here of public worship, which our Lord elsewhere emphatically commends by precept and practice. But private prayer affords a test of sincerity which public worship does not. Shall reward thee openly] RV 'shall recompense thee.'
7. Use not vain repetitions] Our Lord reproves not repetitions, but vain repetitions. In the agony in the garden He Himself prayed three times in the same words. Vain repetition reaches its culminating point in Thibet, where there are mechanical prayer-wheels worked by the wind to spread out written petitions before the Almighty. Good examples of heathen repetitions are found in 1Ki_18:26 and in Act_19:34. The idea that prayers prevail by their number rather than by their earnestness is pagan, and whenever it appears in Christianity is a corruption.
8. Prayer is not to inform God of our needs, as the heathen think, but that we may have conscious communion with Him as His children.
9. After this manner therefore pray ye] Our Lord is not giving simply an illustration of the manner in which Christians ought to pray, but a set form of words to be learnt by heart and habitually used. This is clear from Luk_11:1, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.' Every Jew was required to recite daily eighteen set prayers of considerable length, or, if hindered by press of business, a summary of them. The rabbis also taught their pupils an additional form of prayer composed by themselves, to be added to these eighteen prayers. Our Lord's disciples would therefore understand that they were to recite the Lord's Prayer every day at the end of their ordinary prayers. That this was done there can be little doubt, for 'The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,' which probably dates from the 1st cent. a.d., directs the Lord's Prayer to be said three times a day by all Christians.
Our Lord's followers would further regard the prayer as a badge of discipleship, something intended to distinguish the disciples of Jesus from all other men. For this reason among others it has always been regarded as the prayer of the Church, not of the world. So jealously was its secrecy guarded in early times, that, like the Creed, it was only taught to catechumens just before their baptism, and was never used in those portions of public worship to which the heathen were admitted. It was always used at Holy Communion, where it formed the conclusion of the canon or prayer of consecration.
The Doxology ('for thine is the kingdom,' etc.), which is based on Jewish models, is no original part of the prayer. It was added as early as the 1st cent, in the Public Liturgy, and thence passed into the text of St. Matthew's Gospel, where it is found in many MSS.
The prayer is given by St. Luke (Luk_11:2-4) in a shorter form (the petitions 'thy will be done' and 'deliver us from evil' being omitted, see RV) and in a different historical connexion. Many account for this by supposing that the prayer was given twice, once complete and once abridged, but it is more probable that it was given only once, viz. on the occasion mentioned by St. Luke, and that St. Matthew has purposely placed it earlier, inserting it in our Lord's first recorded sermon in order to set before the reader at once a comprehensive view of His teaching about prayer. As to the form of the prayer, St. Matthew's version is, without doubt, to be preferred. It is not only fuller, but contains distinct marks of greater closeness to the original Aramaic.
The originality of the Lord's Prayer has sometimes been called in question, but without reason. The parallels adduced from rabbinical prayers are for the most part superficial, and prove no more than that our Lord availed Himself of current Jewish forms of expression.
The Lord's Prayer is generally divided into seven petitions, by some, however, into only six, the last two being reckoned as one. It falls into two distinct portions. The first portion, i.e. the first three petitions, is concerned chiefly with the glory of God; the second portion, i.e. the four latter petitions, with our own needs. Even those needs are mainly of a spiritual character. Bodily wants are mentioned in only one petition, and even that has been generally interpreted of spiritual as well as bodily needs.
9. Our Fatherwhich artinheaven] Christians are taught to say 'Our Father' not 'My Father' because they are brethren, and may not selfishly pray for themselves without praying for others. Every time they use this prayer they are reminded that they are a brotherhood, a society, a Holy Church, a family, of which the members are mutually responsible for one another's welfare, and cannot say, as Cain, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' This was also, though in a lower way, a principle of Judaism. The rabbis said, 'He that prays ought always, when he prays, to join with the Church' (i.e. to say 'we' instead of 'I'). God is never addressed as Father in the OT., and references to His Fatherhood are rare. Where they occur (Deu_32:6; Isa_63:16, etc.) He is spoken of as the Father of the nation, not of individual men. In the Apocrypha individuals begin to speak of God as their Father (Wis_2:16; Wis_14:3; Sir_23:1, Sir_23:4; Sir_51:10), and 'Our Father' becomes a fairly common form of address in later rabbinical prayers. Jesus first made the fatherhood of God the basis of religion, and gave it its full meaning. Since the Lord's Prayer is a distinctively Christian prayer, the prayer of the Church, not of humanity, 'Our Father' must be understood in its full Christian sense. In a certain sense God is the Father of all men. He is their Father because He created them, and because, in spite of sin, they are spiritually like Him, being made in His image. But He is the Father of Christians in an altogether new sense. They are His sons by adoption, reconciled to Him by the death of Christ; and, as a continual testimony that they are sons, He sends forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, crying, 'Abba,' i.e. 'Father.' Hence none but a Christian, i.e. one who by baptism 'has put on Christ,' and become 'a member of Christ, the child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven,' can rightly use the Lord's Prayer.
Which art in heaven] lit. 'in the heavens.' We are reminded that He who is called Father on earth, is also called Father in the heavens, by the hosts of angels who worship before His throne, and by the spirits of just men made perfect. Heaven is generally plural in NT. (as always in OT.) to indicate that there are various states of glory and blessedness assigned to different persons or to different celestial natures. The expression 'Our Father which art in heaven' is found in Jewish prayers.
Hallowed be thy name] i.e. let Thy Name be regarded as holy by all creatures both in heaven and earth. God's name is His revealed nature, i.e. practically God Himself. Observe that the glory of God, not human needs, is here put first. 'Hallowed be Thy Name' is a prayer that God may be rightly worshipped, and its utterance is in itself an act of worship.
The prayer begins with worship, because worship is the highest spiritual activity of man. It is higher than petition. An unspiritual man can ask for benefits, but no one can worship who does not in his inmost soul apprehend what God is. To worship is to give God His due, to be penetrated with a sense of His perfections, His infinity, His majesty, His holiness, His love, and to prostrate body and soul before Him. In the worship of God is included also due reverence towards all that is God's, or comes from God. We 'hallow His Name, 'when we reverence His holy Word, His day, His Sacraments, His Church, His ministers, His saints, and the revelation which He makes to us outwardly through nature, and inwardly in our own souls through the voice of reason and conscience.
10. Thy kingdom come] A glorious prayer of infinite scope, known also, yet not in its full sense, to the Jews, who held it for a maxim that 'That prayer, wherein is not mentioned the kingdom of God is no prayer at all.' 'Thy kingdom come' means, May justice triumph over injustice, truth over error, kindness over cruelty, purity over lust, peace over enmity. It is a prayer for the peace and unity of the Church, for the growth in grace of its members, and for the conversion of the world. But chiefly it is a prayer 'that it may please Thee, of Thy gracious goodness, shortly to accomplish the number of Thine elect, and to hasten Thy kingdom; that we, with all those who are departed in the true faith of Thy holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in Thy eternal and everlasting glory.'
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven] RV 'as in heaven so on earth.' (Lk in RV omits the whole petition.) The nearest Jewish parallel is, 'Do Thy will in heaven, and give quietness of spirit to those who dwell beneath.' 'Thy will be done' is a prayer for grace to conform our wills to the will of God, and for diligence to carry out that will in action. It is also a prayer for the grace of patience. Sometimes God wills that we should suffer pain and sorrow, therefore we pray that we may suffer patiently. In the words 'as in heaven so on earth,' our Lord sets before us the example of the holy angels, who in heaven do God's will perfectly.
11. Give us this day our daily bread] We are not taught to pray for bread for many days, but for one day, God thereby reminding us of our continual dependence upon Him. Nor are we taught to pray for luxuries, but for bread, i.e. for necessary food, shelter, clothing, and health. We pray also for bread for our souls, i.e. the grace to confess our sins and to receive God's pardon, and to persevere, and to know God. But chiefly we pray that we may feed daily by faith on Jesus Christ, who is our true daily bread, and may be worthy partakers of the bread of blessing which makes us one with Him, and Him one with us, and which was to the first Christians literally their daily bread (Act_2:46).
The Gk. word here translated 'daily' occurs nowhere else in Gk. literature, and its meaning is entirely unknown. The most likely meanings are, (1) daily bread, (2) tomorrow's bread, (3) heavenly bread. Probably the second is the true one, because the ancient Hebrew gospel of the Ebionites so understood it, perhaps preserving the original Heb. word used by Christ (Mahar).
12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors] RV 'as we also have forgiven our debtors.' No one who has not forgiven his enemies can pray the Lord's Prayer, which is another proof that it is meant for Christians alone. To forgive one's enemies is the act of a Christian, and the very opposite of the way of the world. Even for Christians it is so hard that our Lord thinks it needful to remind us of its urgent necessity every day when we say our prayers. Unless we forgive, we cannot be forgiven; unless we put away all malice and bitterness and hatred and revengeful feeling from our hearts, we are yet in our sins. Sin is here called a debt, i.e. it is regarded as 'an act by which we have robbed God of His rights, and incurred an obligation, or debt which we cannot satisfy, and in regard to which we can only appeal to the divine pity.' For debts St. Luke substitutes 'sins.' St. Matthew's expression, being the more difficult, is the nearer to the original.
This petition, occurring as it does in a prayer intended for Christians only, is conclusive proof that our Lord did not expect His followers to attain sinless perfection in this life. The belief that a converted Christian lives a perfectly sinless life, is directly contrary to the NT.: see 1Jn_1:8.
13. And lead (RV 'bring') us not into temptation] God does not Himself tempt (Jam_1:13), but He allows us to be tempted, and what God permits is often spoken of in Scripture as His act. The temptations here spoken of are not only the direct assaults of the evil one, but the trials and sorrows of life by which our souls are purified and refined, as gold and silver are purged from their dross in a furnace. We pray here that we may not be tempted 'above that we are able,' but that with the temptation God may also make 'a way to escape,' that we may be able to bear it (1Co_10:13).
But deliver us from evil] RV 'from the evil one' (omitted by Lk in RV). This is a prayer that God may keep us 'from all sin and wickedness, and from our ghostly enemy, and from everlasting death.' The translation 'evil one' in this passage is adopted by nearly all modern commentators: cp. Mat_13:19, Mat_13:38; Joh_17:15; Eph_6:16; 2Th_3:3 (RV), especially 1Jn_2:13-14; 1Jn_3:12; 1Jn_5:18, 1Jn_5:19.
For thine is the kingdom] RV rightly omits the Doxology, which is a liturgical addition, dating, however, from an early age, for it is found in 'The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles' (cirMatthew 80-160 a.d., but probably before 100). It is Jewish in origin. In the Temple services the people did not respond 'Amen' to the prayers as they did in the synagogues, but 'Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom for ever.'
14, 15. Repeated in Mar_11:25 : cp. Eph_4:32; Col_3:13. One of the weightiest precepts and warnings of the Christian religion, and one of the most neglected.
16-18. Precepts for private fasts (not in St. Luke). Our Lord says nothing of public fasts, because when every one else is fasting there is little temptation to vainglory. In our Lord's time there were not more than five (or six) public fasts (see below), but the strict Jews, especially the Pharisees, were accustomed to fast also on Thursday (the day when Moses ascended Mount Sinai), and on Monday (the day when he came down): see Luk_18:12. Vainglorious persons fasted more frequently even than this, and were careful to advertise the fact. A faster did not wash, or bathe, or anoint the body, or shave the head, or wear sandals, but placed ashes on his head, thereby 'disfiguring his face.' It was said of a certain Rabbi Joshua, that 'all the days of his life his face was black by reason of his fastings.' Christians are directed by our Lord when fasting privately, to conceal the fact, lest they should be guilty of ostentation. This command does not apply to public fasts ordered by lawful authority. On such occasions Christians should fast publicly, both as an outward expression of obedience, and for the encouragement of others who are afraid of ridicule. All excessive fasting which would injure the body or interfere with the due discharge of social duties is contrary to Christianity. People who are strictly abstemious or temperate can fast very little with regard to the quantity of food, but it is open to them to fast with regard to its quality. To fast is also to abstain from usual and lawful indulgences and amusements, so far as can be done in charity and without attracting undue attention. The time saved can be given to prayer, meditation, visiting the sick, etc. Money saved by fasting should of course be spent in charity. The object of Christian fasting is, (1) to subdue the flesh to the spirit, and (2) to fit the mind for devotion. A fast which is not joined with prayer and devotion is no Christian fast. See further Luk_9:14-17; Act_13:2; Act_14:23; 2Co_6:5; 2Co_11:27.
What fasts were observed in our Lord's time is not quite certain. Only one fast (the Day of Atonement) was prescribed in the Law. During the exile arose the custom of observing four yearly fasts to commemorate the calamities of Jerusalem. That of the fourth month commemorated the capture of Jerusalem (Jer_52:6.), that of the fifth the destruction of the city and Temple (Jer_52:12), that of the seventh the murder of Gedaliah (Jer_41:1), that of the tenth the beginning of the siege (Jer_52:4). Of much later origin was the fast on the 13th of Adar, supposed to commemorate the advice of Haman to massacre the Jews. To what extent, if at all, these fasts were observed in Palestine in our Lord's time, is a disputed question.
16. Disfigure their faces] viz. with ashes, or perhaps, 'conceal their faces with a veil': see 2Sa_15:30; Est_6:12.
17. Anoint] This may mean 'Anoint thy head as for a banquet,' but anointing was a common practice at all times.
18. Shall reward thee openly] RV 'shall recompense thee.'
19-34. These vv. are not very closely connected, but they form a kind of unity, and are printed as a single paragraph in RV. They deal with excessive care for earthly things: (a) wealth, Mat_6:19-24; (b) food and raiment, Mat_6:25-34. For purposes of exposition they maybe conveniently divided into three sections.
9-21. The earthly treasure and the heavenly treasure. When do we lay up 'treasure in heaven'? Whenever we give alms (Mat_6:2), or pray (Mat_6:5), or fast (Mat_6:16), to please God rather than man. But these three examples are only introduced to prepare the way for the wider principle that in every action of our lives, and not only in almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, it is possible to lay up treasure in heaven. Not only by the right use of wealth, but by the right use of any faculty, talent, or opportunity with which God has entrusted us, heavenly treasure is laid up. Even when we are doing nothing actively for God, but are only patiently suffering what He wills that we should bear, we are laying up treasure in heaven. Every act, however small, which is done purely for the glory of God, and for no lower motive, will receive its reward.
19. Moth and rust] Wealth in Eastern lands is largely stored and hoarded. Much of it consists of costly changes of raiment, which are liable to the attacks of moths. Breakthrough] lit. 'dig through,' viz. the wall of the house, which was often only built of clay.
21. For where your treasure is, etc.] see Luk_12:34. The heavenly treasure is the approval of our heavenly Father, which is represented as wealth stored up in heaven, ready to be enjoyed hereafter. The earthly treasure is not only wealth (though that is its most striking exemplification), but everything lower than God Himself on which men set their hearts,—honour, fame, pleasure, ease, power, excitement, luxury, animal enjoyment.
22-24. Singlemindedness in God's service, and how it is to be attained (Luk_11:34; Luk_16:13). The connexion of thought is—How can we be sure that we are laying up treasure in heaven, and acting simply and purely for the glory of God? Our Lord replies: By paying attention to our consciences, and keeping them in a healthy state. We are too much inclined to believe that our consciences are sure to lead us right, forgetting that the conscience itself may be darkened by sin. Conscience is like the eye. When the eye is in a healthy state the whole body is full of light (Mat_6:22). Every object is seen in its true colours, true proportions, and accurate position. But if there is a cataract in the eye, or malformation of the lens, or colour-blindness, then the whole body is full of darkness, or distorted light (Mat_6:23). So it may be with conscience, and therefore we are warned against blindly trusting our consciences, which may, through past sin or from lack of moral education, be seeing things in a false light, or may even be thoroughly corrupt, giving us moral darkness instead of light. We are to put our consciences to school with Jesus Christ, and to be quite sure before we trust them, that they give the same moral judgments and are as sensitive as those of the best Christians. When our consciences are sound, and our souls are full of light, we shall be able to discern whether we are serving God. or mammon. If our consciences are unsound, we may go on serving mammon all our lives without knowing it.
22. The light] RV 'the lamp.' The body] In the parable the 'body' stands for the soul of man. Thine eye] i.e. thy conscience.
Single] i.e. seeing things in their true light.
24. Two masters] It is a common idea that virtue shades off into vice by imperceptible gradations, and that the majority of men are neither bad nor good. Our Lord pronounces absolutely that in the last resort there are only two classes of men, those who are serving God, and those who are serving the world. Mammon] RV 'mammon.' Not a proper name as readers of Milton would naturally suppose, but an Aramaic word for 'riches' (Luk_16:9, Luk_16:11) Here it stands for 'worldliness,' which finds its chief expression in the love of money.
25-34. The Christian's freedom from care and anxiety (Luk_12:22-34). The worldly man is oppressed with care. He is always in fear that his deep-laid plans for the future will miscarry, that some object that he loves will be torn from his grasp, that his wealth will vanish, or that his health will fail so that he can enjoy life no longer. The actual failure of his earthly prospects makes him the most miserable of men, for those prospects were his all, and however little he may confess it to himself, he in truth loves nothing else. He seemed, perhaps, to be serving God much, and mammon a little, but he was in reality serving mammon with undivided devotion.
The Christian also pays attention to worldly things. He is diligent in his trade or profession. He makes all reasonable provision for the future. Often he prospers in business just because he is a Christian, and does honest work where a less scrupulous man would not. But his heart is not set on these things, nor is he anxious about them. He does his best, and leaves the issue to God: cp. Psa_37:25. Observe that the promise of sufficient maintenance is made not to the idle, the improvident, and the vicious, but to the righteous, who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mat_6:33). Those who do this can never be idle or improvident: cp. 1Ti_5:8.
25. Take no thought] RV 'be not anxious': cp. 1Pe_5:7.
26. They sow not] God provides for the birds without labour on their part, because labour is not natural to birds. But labour is natural to men, therefore God provides for men by blessing their labour. There is a close rabbinical parallel to this saying: 'Have you ever seen beast or fowl that had a workshop? and yet they are fed without trouble of mind.'
27. By taking thought] RV 'by being anxious.' One cubit unto his stature] Since no one would literally desire to have a cubit (a foot and a half) added to his stature, and the word translated 'stature' generally means 'age' (see RM), it is better to translate, 'Which of you.. can add one span to his age?'
28. Take ye thought] RV 'are ye anxious.'
30. Into the oven] Dried grass is used in the East for heating the baking ovens, which are holes in the ground rather more than 3 ft. deep and 2½ ft. wide, shaped like a jar. The walls are cemented to resist the action of fire. Grass is burnt in the ovens, until they are thoroughly hot. Then dough rolled out into thin sheets is spread on the sides of the oven, where it is baked in a few minutes, and is taken out in the form of wafer-cakes.
34. Take no thought] RV 'Be not anxious.' Our Lord regarded cheerfulness and joy, and the absence of care and anxiety, as the mark of a true Christian who puts his trust in God. Similarly the rabbis said, 'There is enough of trouble in the very moment.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On v1 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XLII. E. Almsgiving,…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XLII. E. Almsgiving, Prayer, Fasting].
XLII. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. (A Mountain Plateau not far from Capernaum.) Subdivision E. ALMSGIVING, PRAYER, AND FASTING TO BE \line PERFORMED SINCERELY, NOT OSTENTATIOUSLY. aMATT. VI. 1-18.
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a1 Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. [This verse refers back to Mat_5:20, where the disciple is told that his righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. Matthew's fifth chapter deals with the actions themselves, but this sixth chapter treats of the motives and manners of our actions.] 2 When therefore when thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. [Trumpets were sounded as signals to large bodies. This fact gave to the word trumpet a symbolic significance. Anything which is noised or blazoned abroad is spoken of as being trumpeted. The figure also conveys the idea of pompous self-laudation. Hence we still speak of an egotistical man as one who "blows his own trumpet." The hypocrites of that day did not blow a literal trumpet to call attention to their gifts any more than the hypocrites of this day do. But they used methods to call attention to their generosity as those of our time do when they publish an account of their munificence in the newspapers. Almsgiving was a prominent feature of Jewish life. Transplanted from Judaism, almsgiving became one of the characteristic features of the early church ( Act_9:36, Act_10:2, Gal_2:10). Christ corrected the error as to it in what he said about the widow's mites. As these hypocrites sought the praise of men, they had their reward when they received it.] 3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4 that thine alms [250] may be in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee. [Jesus here recommends secret and noiseless giving, by the never-to-be-forgotten metaphor of the left and right hand. Our generosity is to come so spontaneously, and with so little thought, that the liberality of one part of the body shall not be communicated to the other. The command does not forbid publicity, but that spirit which desires publicity. "The true Christian cares not how much men hear of his public charities, nor how little they hear of his private ones" (Toplady). Good deeds may be published by others to stimulate good in others; but care should be taken lest they be stimulated to give for the sake of like notoriety ( Mar_12:41-44, Act_4:36, Act_4:37). Salvation is a matter of favor, and not of merit. But there is, nevertheless, a recompense attendant upon it. The joys of the world come, and the blessings in this world are included in that recompense-- Mat_25:34-40.] 5 And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites: for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the street. that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. [Jesus deals with our conduct toward God as well as toward man. However perfectly we may act toward man, our life is one-sided and imperfect if we omit or improperly perform our duties toward God. The Pharisaical habit of standing in a prayerful attitude, to be seen of men, was certainly not prayer. In their case public opinion, and not the praise of God, "was the wind that set the wind-mill a-work" (Trapp). As Pharisees loved the standing and not the praying, so Christians should love the praying and not the standing. Yet prayer for the edification or comfort of others is not here condemned. Prayer itself is nowhere condemned. It is the ostentatious prayer-attitude which Jesus stamps with his displeasure. Needless attitudes of private prayer in pulpit and pew are here condemned.] 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, [251] and thy Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee. [The inner chamber was properly a little room in the interior of the house or on the housetop, but it is here used to indicate any place of privacy, and the shut door emphasizes the strictness of the privacy, for in all personal prayer we should strive to be alone with God. Jesus found a prayer-chamber upon the mountain-top and in the garden.] 7 And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. [For samples of repetitions, see 1Ki_18:26, Act_19:34. Strictly speaking, Jesus does not here forbid either a long prayer, or the use of the same words in a prayer when the heart sincerely prompts the utterance. He himself prayed at great length, even continuing in prayer all night ( Luk_6:12), and in the garden he thrice repeated the same words. What he does forbid is making the number and length of prayers an object of consideration or a source of trust. This command is especially violated by the repetitions of the Roman Catholic rosary. Speech to God can not be ordered too carefully ( Ecc_5:2). In stating that God knows our desires before we ask, Jesus gives the reason against vain repetitions. God does not need elaborate explanations, and prayer is not uttered to inform him, but to put ourselves in such communion with him as to make us fit to receive. Moreover, prayer is a matter of asking and receiving, and not a meritorious service, as Mohammedans and Catholics still hold, and as the Pharisees held. With them, as public prayers were to gain credit with men, so long and repeated prayers were to obtain merit before God. Christ teaches contrary to all this.] 9 After this manner therefore pray ye [having pointed out the errors which then characterized prayer, Jesus proceeds to give a brief outline as a model in matter, arrangement, and expression]: Our Father who art in heaven. [The common Jewish invocation was, "O Lord God of our fathers." Jesus, as the brother of man, [252] introduced this new and precious invocation, which puts us in prayer's proper attitude], Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. [This is the first section of the prayer.] 11 Give us this day our daily bread. [So long as it is "this day" we do not need to-morrow's bread.] 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. [God can not forgive the temper that is unforgiving, for it can only exist in a heart blind as to the amount of its debt. Forgiveness, too, must be a completed act before we begin to pray. Our Lord lays stress on this one point in the prayer, returning to it after he had closed the form, that he may assure us that the divine procedure will, in this respect, be fashioned to our own. Debt is a mild word for our sin, and is broader than trespass. Trespass indicates a misstep, a wrong-doing, but debt an unfulfilled obligation of any kind. We must not be hard in exacting our rights, when to do so would be oppressive.] 13 And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil i one. [This petition, to be effective, must be followed by an earnest effort on our part to fulfill it. We prefer to read "the evil," rather than "the evil one," for the neuter is more comprehensive ( 2Ti_4:18), and includes deliverance from the evil thoughts of man's own heart, and from evils from without as well as temptations of Satan. As to the prayer generally, we note the following: It is divided into two sections, and each section is subdivided into three heads. Of these the first three are invocations for the glory of God; thus: 1. That God may be glorified in his name, so that it shall be universally reverenced; 2. That God may be glorified in his kingdom--that kingdom before which every power of evil shall eventually fall; 3. That God may be glorified in the hearts of humanity by all men becoming obedient unto his will. These petitions come first, for it is of first importance to us that God should be honored in his person, in his authority and in his desires. The three petitions represent three stages of spiritual growth in the communion and fellowship with God. We first know and revere his name [253] as God. From that we advance to the full recognition of his royal and divine authority. And from this in turn we again advance until we know him fully as Father, and, forgetting his authority, perform his wishes through the joyous constraint of love, as do the angels in heaven. The second three petitions are for humanity; thus: 1. For their bodies, that they may have sustenance. It is not a petition for milk and honey, symbols of luxury, but for bread, life's staff and necessity, and for bread in moderation--bestowed day by day, like the manna. 2. For their souls in things concerning the past--that past trespasses may be forgiven. This is the one thing needful to the soul in regard to the past. Since a certain soul condition is necessary (viz.: the spirit of forgiveness), as a condition precedent to obtaining this petition, that condition is plainly stated in the petition itself. 3. For their souls as to the future, that they may be enabled to avoid temptation, and that they may be finally delivered from evil. God does not tempt us ( Jam_1:13), but he can permit us to be led into temptation, or he can shield us from it, only permitting us to enter so far into it as to come off victorious over it ( 1Co_10:13, 2Pe_2:9); so that it shall prove unto us a blessing instead of a curse-- Jam_1:12, Jam_5:11.] 14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. [Forgiveness may be difficult, but it is essential: we should realize that as we pray. Jesus presents this truth positively and negatively, that we may make no mistake about it. Those who are accustomed to repeat the Lord's Prayer will notice that the doxology with which it closes is omitted. It was probably inserted from some early liturgy. It is absent from the oldest manuscripts, and interrupts the connection of the thought about forgiveness. All textual editors omit it.] 16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces. [by omitting to wash their faces and neglecting to dress or anoint their beards], that they may [254] appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall recompense thee. [Fasting, as an aid to meditation and prayer, is a wholesome practice, but stated fasts lead to hollow formality, and fasts which are endured for public praise are an abomination. Christ admonishes us to conceal the fast, and so avoid the temptation to be hypocritically ostentatious, for fasting is intended for self-abasement, and not to cultivate pride. His words allude to the practice of anointing. Rich Jews were accustomed to anoint their bodies daily with olive or sweet oil. This was refreshing, and prevented many of the disease which the dry, hot air of Palestine made prevalent. The custom still prevails among Eastern nations.]
[FFG 250-255]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Or, righteous acts. The word refers to religious externalities.…
alms
Or, righteous acts. The word refers to religious externalities. These may be seen of men, but that must not be the motive.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The Better Righteousness.(Mat 6:1-18.)
CHAPTER 6
1. The Better Righteousness.(Mat 6:1-18.)
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2. Kept in the World; Single-eyed; Trusting God.(Mat 6:19-34.)
Our Lord said: “For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in nowise enter into the kingdom of the heavens” (Mat 5:20). This righteousness He had taught in His confirmation and expansion of the law, but now He speaks of something higher still. He makes known the motive of this true righteousness, which the heir of the kingdom is not alone to possess but also to practice. The motive is in all to act in the presence of the Father. The first eighteen verses of the sixth chapter shows this in a threefold relation. First, in relation to man (Mat 6:1-4), then in relation to God (Mat 6:5-15) and lastly in relation to self (Mat 6:16-18). The word Father is found ten times in these first eighteen verses of the sixth chapter. The Father sees, the Father knows; therefore all is to be done before Him, the Seeing and Knowing One. Here, then, relationship is acknowledged and made prominent, such a relationship which was unknown in the Old Testament. How we are brought into this relationship to God as Father, and to know Him as our Father, so as to act continually as in His presence, is not taught in the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of John makes this fully known. There we read all about eternal life, the reception of this life, being born anew, born into the family of God, etc. “As many received Him (Christ, the true God and eternal life), to them gave He the right to be children of God, to these that believe on His name; who have been born, not of blood nor of flesh’s will nor of man’s will, but of God” (Joh 1:12-13). This is all anticipated in Matthew, and the Father here is not that “All-Father,” as the modern twentieth-century teachers of a Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of men teach, but He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead (1Pe 1:3-5). Only such as are begotten again, born into the family of God are children and though they are little children, yet do they know God as their Father. “I write to you, little children, because ye have known the Father” (1Jn 2:13). Only such who are children and partakers of the divine nature can act as in the presence of the Father; with all others this is an impossibility; for how can they act and walk before One and do all out of love for One and to please that One, whom they do not know? This is another proof how impossible it is for the unregenerated, who have taken the sermon on the mount as a so-called rule for conduct, to do that which is taught.
Our Lord begins with alms. In the first verse the word alms is best translated (as several old manuscripts read) by “righteousness.” “Take heed not to do your righteousness before men to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward with your Father who is in the heavens.”
Alms are good deeds towards others, charitable actions, bestowing upon the poor, needy and afflicted. Such deeds of mercy and kindness are generally designated by Jews as righteousness. In their prayers on New Year’s Day they profess that repentance, prayer and Zodoko--righteousness will influence God and change the evil to come upon them for their sins, into good. Under righteousness every orthodox Jew understands alms. It must have been so during the days of our Lord in the midst of His earthly people. How was it done? We believe that the description our Lord gives here was a literal performance by the self-righteous religionists. Alms were given so as to be seen by men, a trumpet was sounded before them and the sums they gave to the poor were heralded through the streets. And is it not so now even in the midst of Christendom? How much almsgiving and charities would there be if it were not for a big display? Such almsgiving, such deeds of mercy are not pleasing to God. Such a righteousness, and done by such a motive, are but filthy rags which give no covering and defile. But so it is among Jews and professing Christians, almsgiving, charities without end, good works to appear before men as religious, and no knowledge of the Father. “Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does; so that thine alms may be in secret and thy Father who sees in secret will render it to thee” (Mat 6:4). The lesson here for every true believer is that all our good works are to be done as to our Father and as before Him alone; when we have done all things that are commanded, we are to say, we are unprofitable servants (Luk 17:10).
Prayer is the next which follows. Prayer is that which relates to God. How much might be said on that most precious duty and privilege -- prayer! But we cannot digress here. “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hyprocrites; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, so that they should appear to men.” What glaring contradiction to pray in words which are addressed to God, and in motive they are but uttered so as to “be heard by men! What our Lord describes any one can witness still, on any Saturday morning on the lower East Side of New York City. In synagogues and private dwellings many a Jew can be seen marching up and down, or standing still, or swaying his head and reading his prayers. He is attired with the philacteries (prayerstraps), a purely rabbinical invention, and his shoulders are enshrouded by a prayer-mantle. His whole behavior as he takes a prominent stand in the synagogue or before an open window, shows but too well that it is done so as to appear before men. “Hypocrites” is the word with which our Lord designates such men. Yet, is it any better in Christendom? The modern “church prayer meeting” shows only too often the same spirit. We have known men and seen them standing in public places to lead in prayer, and before them a very carefully worded prayer written beforehand, which was read with much pathos. Some observer of religious movements spoke of a leading New York preacher a short time ago as making “beautiful and very flowery public prayers.” Alas! without sitting in judgment upon any one, the flowery prayers, human eloquence in prayer, are only too often a form of address to God but only uttered to be seen of men. None is excepted of this danger which comes with public prayer. It should be with much godly fear and earnest looking to the Lord when a brother rises to lead in prayer. It is to be done as before God and not before men.
Next our Lord tells us that prayer, like alms, is to be done in secret, as unto the Father and not unto men. “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to the Father who is in secret, and thy Father who sees in secret will render it to thee.” No one would conclude from these words that our Lord forbids public or united prayer. It is seen only that He speaks against the mode and manner of public prayer. A believer praying in public should be as before the Father in secret. Later our Lord says, anticipating the church, “Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father in heaven” (Mat 18:19). United prayer of the assembly and that not in secret alone but in public, yet as before the Father, is a great privilege and attended by untold blessings. “They gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer” (Act 1:14). “And they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers” (Act 2:42). “But we will give ourselves up to prayer and ministry of the Word” (Act 6:4). Unceasing prayer was made by the assembly to God concerning him (Act 12:5). Such was the practice in the apostolic age, and the exhortations given to believers in the New Testament are in harmony with it. “As regard prayer, persevering” (Rom 12:12). “Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us also, that God may open to us a door of the Word to speak the mystery of Christ” (Col 4:4). “In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Php 4:6). Secret prayer is here mentioned by our Lord, and surely the true believer is doing this as he looks to the Father only. What joy, comfort and strength it does afford to be alone before God. Here it cannot be done as unto men. The hypocrite does not know nor practice secret prayer, and the professing Christian often makes an attempt at it in a legal way so as to satisfy his conscience. “The Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.” Some manuscripts have “openly.” The day will be when all the secret prayers, that precious ministry of prayer given to the saints who are holy priests, will be made known. What revelations there will be and what reward to the saints for such faithful and persevering ministry in secret!
“No sooner had Saul of Tarsus passed from death unto life, than the Lord says of him “Behold he prayeth!” Doubtless he had as a “Pharisee of the Pharisees” said many long prayers, but not until he “saw that Just One and heard the voice of His mouth” could it be said of him, Behold he prayeth (Act 22:14). Saying prayers and praying are two totally different things. A self-righteous Pharisee may excel in the former; none but a converted soul can enjoy the latter. The spirit of prayer is the spirit of the new man; the language of prayer is the distinct utterance of the new life. The moment a spiritual babe is born into the new creation it sends up a cry of helpless dependence toward the source of its birth.” -- C.H.M.
“But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as those who are of the nations: for they think they shall be heard through their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like them, for your Father knows of what things ye have need before ye beg anything of Him.” Martin Luther says on this: “Here He censures the abuse of prayer, when they that are praying make use of many words and babblings; He calls this a heathenish practice, a loose, idle and useless talk, of such who think they would otherwise not be heard. The spirit of the worshiper prays, and because he knows that God will hear him, he dares not use such endless, idle talk -- the fewer the words, the better the prayer.” (Luther’s notes on the Gospels.) The Pharisees had their long prayers with many vain repetitions. One only needs to take up an orthodox Jewish “prayer book” to see the numerous vain repetitions, repeating phrases over and over again. That our Lord had this first of all before Him seems clear. Yet what else is Christendom but, as one has said, “an unauthorized revival of a departed shade”? (Adolph Saphir on Hebrews.) It is an aping after that which no longer exists. The rituals of Christendom with their liberal use of the Psalms in responsive readings, set forms of prayer for all occasions, their chant and rapid delivery, are but the daughters of the old mother -- Phariseeism. Here we mention especially rituals which are used at the Lord’s supper, generally called by that unscriptural word “sacrament.” There are used repeatedly phrases like “Lamb of God, have mercy on us,” “Almighty God, have mercy on us,” “O Lord, save us.” These indeed are vain repetitions, and at the Lord’s table when they are used by a believer (who only has a right to the Lord’s table) they are worse than vain. Vain repetitions, however, may also be used by such who use no formal prayers, ritual and prayer book. This is often done when the name of God and the Lord is falsely used in public prayer as well as other oft-repeated phrases. Others have gone into an extreme and have declared that the Lord teaches here that a petition should be made only once, and that if we have asked in faith for something once, to ask again is only proof of our unbelief. The Lord teaches no such thing. Our Lord Himself in Gethsemane made the same petition three times, and Paul with his thorn in the flesh had besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him (2Co 12:7).
This is followed by a model for prayer which the King now gives. This prayer is generally called throughout Christendom “the Lord’s prayer.” Where is the authority in Scripture to call it by this name? If any prayer can be called the Lord’s prayer it certainly is the one contained in Joh 17:1-26. It is not the Lord’s prayer, but the disciples’ prayer. This model for prayer has become the formal prayer, the ritualistic prayer of every sect in Christendom. That which our Lord forbids, vain repetitions, is practiced with this divine model by those who call themselves Christians. In the Roman and Greek Churches , so-called, it becomes a good work to repeat so many “Our Fathers,” and the poor deceived souls expect blessing in this world and in eternity from the mechanical repetition of so many prayers. This of course is very little different from the prayer machines of Thibet, upon which a certain number of prayers written on paper are placed and unwound before some god or goddess. In “evangelical” denominations it is not much better. We remember well in childhood, being strictly brought up in the Lutheran denomination, how constantly this prayer was used. In sickness, in pain, in danger, at mealtime, in the morning and at night, in severe storms, etc., it was ever repeated as if a miraculous power indwelt these words sufficient to dispel sickness, deliver from danger and bring blessing which otherwise would not come. It is one of the rags which Luther brought away from the old Roman sepulchre. Yet it is the same in other denominations. In one of the strongest it is used at the burial of the dead, sprinkling of infants, Lord’s supper, “ordination” of deacons and elders, “consecration” of bishops, and it is repeated in public by the congregation. All this practice, the use of this model for prayer, as the Lord’s prayer given to the Church, to be used by the Church, is wrong, decidedly unchristian, nor can it be proven from the New Testament that it is intended for the Church. In the Acts of the Apostles we read of the breaking of bread, the gifts of the Spirit, the assembly of believers, the baptism of believers, but do we read anywhere in the divinely inspired record of the beginning of the Church that the so-called Lord’s prayer was used by the apostles or by the primitive church? Is there a hint anywhere in the New Testament that the prayer is to be repeated in public and used by believers? Not even the faintest hint that this should be so, but many strong proofs and arguments that it should not be so. Centuries passed before it became a settled custom to make the prayer the King gave to His Jewish disciples the prayer for Christians and to use it in the form and in the way it is used now. An unknown hand then added something to the last petition, “Deliver us from the evil one.” The words, “for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever -- Amen,” are an interpolation. They do not belong into your Bibles, for the Lord never uttered them. The revised version (though so imperfect in many of its revisions) has done well in omitting them altogether. When it was decided to use this model for prayer as a prayer, this ending was written by some one and added to it and thus making it a prayer with the “Amen” attached to it. No such “amen” belongs there.
This perfect model of prayer was given by our Lord to His disciples to be used by them individually and previous to the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was then all on Jewish ground; they were Jewish believers and as such they received this model prayer and used it in the transition state. There came a day when our Lord said another word to these very disciples who had come to Him with the request, “Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples.” It was in the upper room where He spoke all the precious words concerning the Comforter, all that which was so new, altogether new, that which would take them upon a new ground. He said, “Hitherto ye have asked nothing in My name; ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. ... In that day ye shall ask in My name” (Joh 16:24-25). This message alone ought to give perfect light and understanding to any of our readers who are in doubt about this matter. “Hitherto ye have asked nothing in My name.” This shows two things: (1) They asked of God, and (2) They asked not in His name. They had then used the prayer He had taught them, and it was a prayer not in His name. Now He tells them that they were to ask in His name. This, then, is Christian prayer to ask God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When He says “in that day” He means the day which began when the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, and this day is still present.
“When the Holy Spirit was given, and the child was able to draw near to the Father in the name of Christ, you have something different. The Lord’s prayer so-called does not clothe the believer with the name of Christ. What is meant by asking the Father in that name? Can it be merely saying “in His name” at the end of a prayer? When Christ died and rose again, He gave the believer His own standing before God, and then to ask the Father in the name of Christ is to ask in the consciousness that my Father loves me as He loves Christ; that my Father has given me the acceptance of Christ Himself before Him, having completely blotted out all my evil, so as to be made the righteousness of God in Him. To pray in the value of this is asking in His name. Is there a soul using the Lord’s prayer as a form that has a real understanding of what it is to ask the Father in the name of Christ? I believe they have never entered into that great truth.” -- Notes on Matthew by W. Kelly.
The latter is, alas! too true; “they have never entered into that great truth.” How sad to see the great mass of professing Christians without a knowledge of what grace has done, without assurance of salvation, constantly “unchristianizing” themselves, cumbered with much service, running to and fro. -- A.C.G.
The Christian believer, knowing his perfect standing in Christ Jesus, prays in His name, and that is prayer in the Holy Spirit, who now joins His help to our weakness; for we do not know what we should pray for as is fitting, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom 8:26). We glance but briefly at a few of the petitions to show how a Christian believer could not use this model of prayer as a form. However, we desire to state once more the perfection of the prayer. Every word here is as divine as He who spoke it. There could be no imperfection about anything He uttered. Many volumes have been written on it and many more might be written to show the perfection of every petition.
As believers we know that our Lord gave the promise and has fulfilled it by the gift of the Holy Spirit, “That if any love Me, he will keep My word and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him.” We are brought nigh by His blood, and in the person of an adorable Lord we are in heaven seated with Him in the heavenlies. The “Our Father who art in heaven” does not give expression to this nor could it be before the death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord. “Hallowed be thy name” is Jewish. Indeed, the Jewish ritual uses the phrase very often. The believer exalts “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Him whom God has exalted and made head over all things.”
“Thy kingdom come.” This petition is for the coming of the kingdom, the kingdom of the heavens, the Messianic Kingdom, which is followed by the doing of the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. Here Christendom is the most confused, expecting a kingdom now; a spiritual kingdom without a king. What our Lord taught His Jewish disciples to pray for is the kingdom of the heavens to come, that which John the Baptist preached, and also the Lord up to the time of His rejection. As Believers we do not wait for the coming of the King and the establishment of the kingdom in the earth, but we wait for the coming of the Lord to take us out of the earth. The prayer of the Church is, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” And the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” Without enlarging on the other petitions or attempting a full exposition of them in their full and perfect meaning we wish only to say that this prayer will be heard once more in the earth and will then be used as it was once used by the Jewish disciples when they were sent forth by our Lord. When the Church is taken from the earth a believing Jewish remnant will give the witness and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom once more. They will undoubtedly use this prayer during the great tribulation through which they will pass, the tribulation in which the evil one is in the earth and famine and many temptations will abound. Then can they truthfully ask, “Give us this day our daily bread -- lead us not into temptations -- deliver us from the evil one,” which is the personal Antichrist. “Thy kingdom come.” This prayer will be answered, deliverance will come for them from heaven in the coming of the King. (We pass over the petition, “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” This is a legal, an Old Testament petition. Our forgiveness does not depend upon our relation to each other.)
Then our Lord speaks in connection with prayer of the spirit of forgiveness which every one who is in relationship with God as Father should exercise. If such a spirit of love and patience towards those who have done evil against us is not practiced, it means that we cannot enjoy full communion with Him. Therefore, “let all bitterness, and heat of passion, and wrath, and clamor and injurious language be removed from you, with all malice; and be to one another kind, compassionate, forgiving one another, so as God also in Christ has forgiven you” (Eph 4:32). That which relates to ourself follows next: “And when ye fast be not as the hypocrites, downcast in countenance, for they disfigure their faces so that they may appear fasting to men; verily I say to you, they have their reward. But thou when fasting anoint thy head and wash thy face, so that thou mayest not appear fasting unto men, but to thy Father, who sees in secret; and thy Father who sees in secret shall render it to thee.” Here once more we have the wrong motive and the true. It was done by the hypocrites in just the way spoken of here. It was an attitude of humiliation of the body, denying self, but only as to be seen of men. What else has been and is all the fasting and asceticism as it has been fostered in Christendom? If one does fast, let the fasting be done in secret as unto the Father and not to appear before men.
In the second half of the sixth chapter we are taken upon another ground. The heirs of the kingdom are seen in this section as in the world, subject to the cares and temptations of the wilderness. We must not lose sight here of its Jewish application. When our Lord sent forth His disciples in the tenth chapter to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom He gave them instructions how they should go about, depending in all things upon their Father in heaven. The disciples thus sent forth with the preaching of the Kingdom Gospel are the types of another Jewish remnant which is to preach once more in a future day the same Gospel, “The Kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh.” To this remnant going through the tribulation the exhortations have a special application. However, we pass this by and apply it to ourselves as believers, for all which our Lord speaks in this section is for every member of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, as such, who are in the earth, pilgrims and strangers, waiting for the coming of the Lord. We are in the world though not of the world, hated by the world as the world hated Him, but in this world we are exposed to all the temptations and the cares and sorrows connected with an earthly life which are ever coming upon the believer. Our Lord tells us now how to behave in the midst of these scenes, passing through the wilderness, what our privileges and comforts are. -- “Lay not up for yourself treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust spoils, and where thieves dig through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust spoils, and where thieves do not dig through and steal; for where thy treasure is, there will be also thy heart.” -- The natural man lives for the earthly things and strives for the things which are seen. His delight is in treasures which are here below, and connected with this life is care, worry, anxiety and at last the loss of that which was cherished and loved. As believers born again we have a new nature and belong no longer to the earth, but we belong to heaven. “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above, where the Christ is sitting at the right hand of God: have your mind on the things which are above, not on the things that are on the earth” (Col 3:1-2). “We look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things which are seen are for a time, but those that are not seen are eternal” (2Co 4:18). While, then, this is our calling it is nevertheless true that the heirs of the kingdom are constantly in danger in this present evil age to forget that they are but pilgrims and strangers here. Alas! only too many are like Lot, pitching first the tent towards Sodom and getting there altogether after a while. In these days especially the danger is exceedingly great and the heavenly calling, the laying up of treasures in heaven is often put into a secondary place. The exhortations in the Epistles are but a continuation by the Holy Spirit of this word of our Lord. “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many unwise and hurtful lusts, which plunge men into destruction and ruin. For the love of money is the root of every evil; which some having aspired after, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows” (1Ti 6:9-11). “Enjoin on those rich in the present age not to be high-minded, nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches; but in God who affords us all things richly for our enjoyment; to do good, to be rich in good works, to be liberal in distributing, disposed to communicate of their substance” (1Ti 6:17-18). “Let your conversation be without the love of money, satisfied with your present circumstances” (Heb 13:5). How great the danger of looking back to Egypt ! But as we follow the exhortation and lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven and that in view of the judgment seat of Christ, where we shall receive the rewards, our heart will surely be there. Thus having our treasures there and laying them up there they are not alone secure, but our heart will constantly be drawn there and in this way kept from the earthly things. And where do our thoughts mostly rest -- on earthly or heavenly things? If our thoughts are here surely our treasure cannot be in heaven.
Our Lord continues: “The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be light; but if thine eye be wicked, thy whole body will be dark: If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great the darkness.”
These are most solemn words. The believer has a spiritual nature, a heart in which he sees, “being enlightened in the eyes of your heart” (Eph 1:18). The Word of God is the light and the entrance of His Word bringeth light. The eye, the heart single -- that is looking only above to the heavenlies, the whole body will be light, there will be not only a realization of a heavenly calling but also a walk worthy of this high calling, a heavenly walk. But light rejected becomes darkness, and how great the darkness! Truth given, light flashed forth from the Word and not used and acted upon, leads into the grossest darkness. (This is the deplorable state of thousands of believers.)
Therefore a double service is impossible. We cannot serve two masters. It is impossible that the eye could look at the same time to the earth and to heaven. Friendship with the world is enmity with God (Jas 4:4). Is it then a hard path which we have in the wilderness with no comfort? No, for the very next words of our Lord bring to our hearts that sweet and precious comfort which only he can enjoy who with the single eye looks to things above and walks in separation from the world.
These words (Mat 6:25-34) tell us that we have a Father who careth, a Father who knows and who loves. He who feedeth the birds of heaven provides surely more abundantly for those who are much better than they, and all He asks is trust in Him. “Be not careful” -- oh, how blessedly it sounds -- oh, how full and rich it comes to the believer’s heart. And again it is written “Be careful about nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Php 4:6). Be not careful for your life, what ye shall eat. ... Be careful for nothing. ... Yet how slow we are to learn it. Anxiety and care, hurry and worry, these God-dishonoring works of the flesh are ever coming up again. How true George Mueller used to say:
“Where anxiety begins faith ends, Where faith begins anxiety ends.”
The lesson can only be learned in constant dependence upon Him in seeking the things which are above.
And what does anxiety and care accomplish after all? “But which of you by being careful can add to his growth one cubit? And why are you careful about clothing?” etc. (Mat 6:27-33). We are then utterly helpless in ourselves. Alas! how often we look in our anxiety, in sickness and in health to something in ourselves and to men and man’s help and not to Him in whose hands we are so secure and leave it all with Him, committing our way unto the Lord. And all this is applicable to even the smallest matters of the daily life. Seeking then first of all the kingdom of God and His righteousness -- that is, the things which are above -- the promise is given, all things shall be added unto you.
And there is another characteristic about anxiety. It looks unbelievingly ahead. Unbelief draws dark pictures of despair and occupies the mind with a day which may never come. How different it ought to be and will be if we but follow His word, “Be not careful then as to the morrow, for the morrow will be careful for itself: sufficient for the day is its own evil.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Of Giving of Alms, Praying, and Fasting.
Of Giving of Alms, Praying, and Fasting.
The first part of Christ’s sermon had treated of the right interpretation of the Law, shown by many examples. From scribe law He now passes to Pharisaic practice, holding up the false righteousness in its hollow mockery. A very prominent feature in the religious life of the Pharisees:
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v. 1. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
The reference to a universal practice would be understood at once by all. it is a warning against the common form of showing probity, of practicing charity in the sight of all men, with the intention of bringing one’s own person into prominence. Christ’s idea is that the good works shall be seen and speak for themselves, but that the person of the doer be kept entirely in the background. The Pharisees took great pains that they should be seen while performing works which they falsely thought good. Theirs was a theatrical virtue; they sought only their own honor, a reputation as saints. Anyone thinking himself a disciple of Christ, but guilty of such hypocritical ostentation, can expect no reward from the heavenly Father, and is foolish for indulging in a hope based upon such a false foundation. He has nothing in common with the disposition of the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus continues to teach his disciples in his Sermon on the Mount, which began in Matthew 5:3. In this section, Jesus addresses the "acts of righteousness" of alms, prayer, and fasting.
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General Information:
Jesus is talking to a group of people about what they as individuals should and should not do. All occurrences of "you" and "your" are plural. (See: Forms of You)
before people to be seen by them
It is implied that those who see the person will honor him. This can be stated in active form. AT: "in front of people just so that they can see you and give you honor for what you have done" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Active or Passive)
Father
This is an important title for God. (See: Translating Son and Father)
do not sound a trumpet before yourself
This metaphor means to do something that purposefully gets people's attention. AT: "do not draw attention to yourself like someone who plays a loud trumpet in a crowd" (See: Metaphor)
Truly I say to you
"I tell you the truth." This phrase adds emphasis to what Jesus says next.
translationWords
righteous
reward
God the Father
heaven
alms
trumpet
hypocrite
synagogue
praise
amen
receive
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4 6:1 This verse introduces the theme of 6:2-18, that…
6:1 This verse introduces the theme of 6:2-18, that righteousness should not be done for public recognition but as a service to God. • Good deeds are acts that conform to God’s pattern for proper behavior: e.g., gift giving (6:2-4), prayer (6:5-15), and fasting (6:16-18). Jesus urges secrecy to counteract the human propensity to seek praise for oneself rather than for God (cp. 5:16).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.