The Gospel of Jesus Christ - MATTHEW 6

MATTHEW 6

CHAPTER VI.

Alms, prayer, and fasting recommended, but ostentation to be avoided.  Forgiveness of injuries urged: simplicity of intention, and greater solicitude for the next than this life.

1 Take *heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall have no reward of your Father, who is in heaven.

2 Therefore when thou dost an alms-deed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men.  Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.

3 But when thou dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth:

4 That thy alms may be in secret, and thy Father, who seeth in secret, will repay thee.

5 And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, who love to pray standing in the synagogues, and at the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men: Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.

6 But thou, when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father, who seeth in secret, will reward thee.

7 And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

8 Be not you therefore like them.  For your Father knoweth what you stand in need of, before you ask him.

9 You therefore shall pray in this manner: *Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our supersubstantial bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation.  But deliver us from evil.  Amen.

14 *For if you forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences.

15 But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences.

16 And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear fasting to men.  Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.

17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face,

18 That thou appear not fasting to men, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee.

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and the moth consume, and where thieves dig through, and steal.

20 *But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor the moth doth consume, and where thieves do not dig through, nor steal.

21 For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.

22 *The light of thy body is thy eye.  If thy eye be simple, thy whole body shall be lightsome.

23 But if thy eye be evil, thy whole body shall be darksome.  If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great will the darkness itself be?

24 *No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and mammon.

25 *Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on.  Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment?

26 Behold the birds of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them.  Are not you of much more value than they?

27 And which of you by thinking can add to his stature one cubit?

28 And for raiment why are you solicitous?  Consider the lilies of the field how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin.

29 Yet I say to you, that not even Solomon, in all his glory, was arrayed as one of these.

30 Now if God so clothe the grass of the field, which is to-day, and to-morrow is cast into the oven: how much more you, O ye of little faith?

31 Be not solicitous therefore, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed?

32 For after all these things do the heathens seek.  For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.

33 Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice: and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Be not therefore solicitous for to-morrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself.  Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.

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*

1:  A.M. 4035.; A.D. 31.

9:  Luke xi. 2.

14:  Eccli. xxviii. 3. 4. and 5.; Infra xviii. 35.; Mark xi. 25.

20:  Luke xii. 33.; 1 Tim. vi. 19.

22:  Luke xi. 34.

24:  Luke xvi. 13.

25:  Ps. liv. 23.; Luke xii. 22.; Phil. iv. 6.; 1 Tim. vi. 7.; 1 Pet. v. 7.

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