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BOOK 40 OF 66 · GOSPELS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Matthew 6

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REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Matthew 6 Overview

Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount by contrasting sincere devotion with religious performance. He addresses almsgiving, prayer, fasting, treasure, the eye, serving God rather than mammon, and anxiety about food, drink, and clothing. The chapter calls disciples to seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness while trusting the Father’s knowledge and care.

MatthewBook
6Chapter
34Verses
GospelsDivision

Before you read Matthew 6

Coming from

Matthew 5 established the immediate context: Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, calls His disciples salt and light, explains His relationship to the law, and repeatedly moves from external righteousness to the heart.

In this chapter

Matthew 6 turns from public moral relationships to devotion before the Father, exposing the danger of performing spiritual practices for human applause.

Leads into

Matthew 7 continues the account: Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount with teaching on judgment, hypocrisy, prayer, the narrow way, false prophets, false professions, and the wise builder.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The repeated contrast is between reward from men and reward from the Father who sees in secret. The practices themselves are not condemned; hypocrisy is.

The model prayer teaches priorities in prayer. It is not a required formula whose exact repetition earns favor, and Jesus has just warned against vain repetitions.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God sees hidden motives

Secret giving, prayer, and fasting matter because the Father sees what crowds cannot.

Prayer begins with God’s name, kingdom, and will

Personal needs are real, but they are ordered under God’s priorities.

Treasure directs the heart

Where treasure is placed shapes affection and attention.

Anxiety is answered by the Father’s care and kingdom priority

Jesus points to God’s provision for creation and calls disciples to trust rather than live dominated by worry.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

1 Kings 8

Solomon’s temple prayer likewise centers God’s name, forgiveness, provision, and kingdom concerns.

Proverbs 30:8–9

The request for daily provision has affinity with the wisdom prayer for sufficient food.

Philippians 4:6–7

Paul likewise directs believers from anxiety toward prayer and trust in God.

1 Timothy 6:6–10,17–19

Paul warns against trust in riches and calls for treasure in good works, echoing Jesus’ contrast between earthly and heavenly treasure.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not forbid all public prayer or giving

Jesus condemns performance for praise, not every act done where others can see.

Do not make the model prayer a salvation ritual

Prayer belongs to disciples’ fellowship with the Father; eternal life is received by believing in Christ.

Do not tell anxious people that concern itself proves spiritual failure

Jesus teaches a path of trust and reordered priorities, not a weapon for shaming suffering people.

Read Matthew 6 watching for…

The repeated phrase about the Father seeing in secret.

The order of requests in the model prayer.

The connection between treasure and heart.

The impossibility of serving God and mammon.

The examples from birds, lilies, and daily needs.

TWBC REVIEW STANDARD

Plain language. Scripture first. Fact distinguished from inference. No filler. No fake certainty. Designed to help you read the Bible itself.

Chapter outline3 sections
1-18Jesus teaches giving, prayer, the model prayer, forgiveness, and fasting without seeking human praise19-24Jesus teaches about heavenly treasure, the single eye, and serving God rather than mammon25-34Jesus tells his disciples not to worry but to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
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.

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 their reward.

3

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

4

That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

5

And when thou prayest, 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. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

7

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen 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.

9

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10

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

11

Give us this day our daily bread.

12

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

13

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

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.

16

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

17

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;

18

That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

19

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21

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

22

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

23

But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

24

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29

And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31

Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32

(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

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Matthew 6:16

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