마태복음 Chapter 6

Translation: ESV

1

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Key Message

The motive behind acts of piety must be pure; righteousness performed before God surpasses righteousness performed before people.

▸This verse introduces the governing principle of the second section of the Sermon on the Mount.

This verse introduces the governing principle of the second section of the Sermon on the Mount. 'Righteousness' (δικαιοσύνη, dikaiosynē) here refers broadly to acts of piety — almsgiving, prayer, and fasting — the three disciplines treated in the following verses. Jesus does not forbid these acts but warns against the corrupting motive of performing them 'to be seen.' The contrast is between divine reward and human applause: those who perform piety for an audience already receive their full payment.

Related Verses

They do all their deeds to be seen by others.
2

Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Key Message

Piety aimed at human recognition receives that recognition as its complete and final payment; no reward from God follows.

▸'Sound no trumpet' vividly depicts ostentatious display.

3

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

Key Message

Genuine charity is so free of self-consciousness that the giver does not even observe their own generosity.

▸The hyperbolic image of one hand not knowing what the other does expresses total secrecy and unselfconsciousness in giving.

4

so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Key Message

The Father who sees all hidden acts will himself repay the generosity that is offered to him rather than to an audience.

▸The divine Father who 'sees in secret' (ὁ βλέπων ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ) is the theological ground for secret giving.

5

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Key Message

Prayer staged for a human audience is religious theater, not communion with God; its reward is exhausted in the applause it receives.

▸Jesus applies the same principle of hidden piety to prayer.

6

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Key Message

True prayer is intimate communion with the Father in private; his all-seeing presence in that hidden place guarantees a reward no public performance can secure.

▸'Your room' (ταμεῖον, tameion) was the innermost storeroom of a Palestinian house, a private chamber with a lockable door.

7

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Key Message

Prayer's efficacy rests on the Father's attentive knowledge, not on the volume or repetition of words; endless verbal multiplication betrays a misunderstanding of God's character.

▸Having addressed the Jewish hypocrisy of public display, Jesus now addresses a Gentile error in prayer: 'empty phrases' (βαττολογήσητε, battalogēsēte) — meaningless repetition or verbal padding designed to wear down divine resistance or to cover all possible divine names.

8

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Key Message

Because the Father knows our needs before we articulate them, prayer is an expression of relational trust rather than an attempt to inform or persuade a reluctant God.

▸The theological basis for avoiding both hypocritical display and pagan verbosity is the Father's prior knowledge (οἶδεν γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν).

9

Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Key Message

Prayer begins not with our needs but with God's honor: the primary concern of the disciple is that God's name be acknowledged as holy throughout the world.

▸The Lord's Prayer opens with 'Our Father' — a communal, relational address that establishes the prayer's foundation in covenant sonship.

10

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Key Message

The disciple prays not only for divine intervention but for alignment between the present world and heaven's perfection — a prayer that transforms the one who prays.

▸The second and third petitions are closely parallel: God's kingdom coming and God's will being done describe the same eschatological reality from complementary angles.

11

Give us this day our daily bread,

Key Message

Disciples are to live in daily dependence on the Father for material provision, resisting the anxiety of hoarding and trusting in God's day-by-day faithfulness.

▸The fourth petition turns from God's concerns to human needs.

12

and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Key Message

The experience of divine forgiveness creates a community of forgivers; those who truly receive mercy will inevitably extend mercy.

▸The fifth petition frames sin as 'debts' (ὀφειλήματα, opheilēmata) — moral obligations that have not been met.

13

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Key Message

Disciples acknowledge their vulnerability to spiritual failure and depend entirely on divine guidance and deliverance for perseverance through trial.

▸The sixth petition asks God not to 'lead us into temptation' (μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν).

14

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,

Key Message

Human forgiveness is not the cause but the sign of having received divine forgiveness; a forgiving spirit is the necessary fruit of a forgiven heart.

▸Jesus singles out the forgiveness petition (v.

15

but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Key Message

An unforgiving spirit is incompatible with the experience of divine grace; those who refuse mercy reveal they do not understand the mercy they claim to have received.

▸The negative formulation makes the point unmistakable: persistent refusal to forgive reveals that one stands outside the experience of divine forgiveness.

16

And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

Key Message

Fasting performed for an audience receives its reward from that audience alone; genuine fasting is between the disciple and God alone.

▸The third act of piety — fasting — receives the same analysis as almsgiving and prayer.

17

But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,

Key Message

True fasting maintains outward normalcy to prevent the fast from becoming a performance; self-denial is itself to be denied as a public display.

▸Anointing the head and washing the face were normal aspects of daily grooming — acts of self-care that would conceal rather than advertise fasting.

18

so that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Key Message

All three foundational acts of piety — almsgiving, prayer, and fasting — are to be directed to the Father alone; his secret-seeing and faithful rewarding makes human audiences unnecessary.

▸The formula of divine reward for secret piety concludes the third section, as it concluded the first (v.

19

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,

Key Message

Earthly wealth is radically insecure; its vulnerability to moth, rust, and theft makes it an inadequate foundation for life.

▸Jesus moves from acts of piety to the disposition toward material possessions.

20

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

Key Message

The disciple redirects the energy of treasure-accumulation toward eternal investments that are immune to the decay and theft that doom earthly wealth.

▸The positive alternative to earthly treasure-accumulation is investment in heavenly treasure.

21

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

Key Message

The location of one's treasure reveals and forms the orientation of one's entire self; to change the heart, one must change the investment.

▸This aphorism identifies treasure and heart as mutually determinative: what we invest in, we love; where our deepest emotional and volitional commitment lies, our heart follows.

22

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light,

Key Message

The spiritual orientation of the inner person — whether toward God and generosity or toward wealth and avarice — determines whether one lives in divine light or darkness.

▸The eye metaphor operates in the context of wealth and allegiance (vv.

23

but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Key Message

The most dangerous darkness is self-deception — when the inner person is wholly oriented toward wealth, they may mistake this slavery for enlightenment.

▸The 'bad eye' (πονηρός, ponēros) in Jewish idiom denoted greed and envy.

24

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Key Message

Ultimate allegiance is singular; the disciple must choose between God and wealth as the organizing center of life — no middle position exists.

▸The passage on wealth reaches its climax in a binary: God or Mammon.

25

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Key Message

Anxiety about material provision reveals misplaced trust; the disciple who has chosen God over Mammon trusts the Father who gave life itself to sustain what he has given.

▸'Therefore' connects this section to v.

26

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Key Message

Divine providence demonstrated in creation argues powerfully that the Father who cares for birds cares infinitely more for the children he has redeemed.

▸Jesus appeals to natural observation as evidence of divine care.

27

And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Key Message

Anxiety is not only faithless but futile; it achieves nothing and costs the soul the peace that trust in the Father provides.

▸Jesus adds a pragmatic argument: anxiety is not merely theologically wrong but practically useless.

28

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

Key Message

Creation's effortless beauty testifies to the Father's lavish care; if he clothes transient wildflowers so magnificently, his care for his children is immeasurably greater.

▸Jesus shifts from birds (food) to wildflowers (clothing), completing his argument for divine provision of life's two basic necessities.

29

yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Key Message

The greatest human wealth and glory is surpassed by what God creates effortlessly in a field; this demonstrates the lavishness of his provision for those who trust him.

▸Solomon represented the zenith of human wealth and glory in Israel's history (1 Kgs 10:4-7).

30

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Key Message

God's lavish care for transient creation is a rebuke to the 'little faith' that doubts his provision for those whom he eternally loves.

▸Jesus clinches the argument with a sharp a fortiori: if God lavishes such beauty on grass that is here today and burned in a fire tomorrow, how much more will he provide for his children who are eternal? The phrase 'little faith' (ὀλιγόπιστοι, oligopistoi) is characteristic of Matthew — it does not denote absence of faith but insufficient faith, faith that has not yet learned to rest in the Father's provision.

31

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

Key Message

The recurring anxieties about basic survival are to be released into the Father's care rather than held in frantic self-reliance.

▸The three repeated questions echo the anxieties of v.

32

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

Key Message

Anxious seeking of material necessities is the default mode of those without a Father; disciples are distinguished by knowing that the Father already knows and will provide.

▸The anxious pursuit of material necessities is identified as characteristic of the Gentiles — those who do not know God as Father and therefore have no ground for trust in his provision.

33

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Key Message

The cure for anxiety is not self-sufficiency but the radical reordering of life around God's kingdom, trusting that provision for genuine need will follow.

▸The positive alternative to Gentile-style anxiety is 'seek first the kingdom.

34

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Key Message

Disciples are called to present-tense faithfulness, entrusting tomorrow to the Father rather than consuming today's strength in anxious anticipation of future troubles.

▸The Sermon on the Mount's teaching on anxiety concludes with a practical wisdom saying.