Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Matthew
Book: Matthew
Chapter: 6
Overview:
Against hypocrisy in
Alms giving.
(1-4) Against hypocrisy in
Prayer.
(5-8) How to pray.
(9-15) Respecting fasting.
(16-18)
Evil of being worldly-minded.
(19-24) Trust in
God commended.
(25-34)
1-4 Our
Lord next warned against hypocrisy and outward show in
religious duties. What we do, must be done from an inward
principle, that we may be approved of
God, not that we may be
praised of men. In these verses we are cautioned against
hypocrisy in giving
Alms. Take heed of it. It is a subtle
Sin;
and vain-
Glory creeps into what we do, before we are aware. But
the duty is not the less necessary and excellent for being
abused
By hypocrites to serve their pride. The doom
Christ
passes, at first may seem a promise, but it is their reward; not
the reward
God promises to those who do good, but the reward
hypocrites promise themselves, and a
Poor reward it is; they did
it to be seen of men, and they are seen of men. When we take
least notice of our good deeds ourselves,
God takes most notice
of them. He will reward thee; not as a master who gives his
servant what he earns, and
No more, but as a
Father who gives
abundantly to his son that serves him.
5-8 It is taken for granted that all who are disciples of
Christ pray. You may as soon find a living
Man that does not
breathe, as a living
Christian that does not pray. If
prayerless, then graceless. The
Scribes and
Pharisees were
guilty of two great faults in
Prayer, vain-
Glory and vain
repetitions. "Verily they have their reward;" if in
So great a
matter as is between us and
God, when we are at
Prayer, we can
look to
So Poor a thing as the praise of men, it is just that it
should be all our reward. Yet there is not a secret, sudden
breathing after
God, but he observes it. It is called a reward,
but it is of
Grace, not of
Debt; what merit can there be in
begging? If he does not give his people what they ask, it is
because he knows they do not need it, and that it is not for
their good.
So far is
God from being wrought upon
By the length
or words of our prayers, that the most powerful intercessions
are those which are made with groanings that cannot be uttered.
Let us
Well study what is shown of the frame of mind in which
our prayers should be offered, and learn daily from
Christ how
to pray.
9-15 Christ saw it needful to show his disciples what must
commonly be the matter and method of their
Prayer. Not that we
are tied up to the use of this only, or of this always; yet,
without doubt, it is very good to use it. It has much in a
little; and it is used acceptably
No further than it is used
with understanding, and without being needlessly repeated. The
petitions are six; the first three relate more expressly to
God
and his honour, the last three to our own concerns, both
temporal and spiritual. This
Prayer teaches us to seek first the
Kingdom of God and his
Righteousness, and that all other things
shall be added. After the things of
God's
Glory, kingdom, and
will, we pray for the needful supports and comforts of this
present
Life. Every
Word here has a lesson in it. We ask for
Bread; that teaches us sobriety and temperance: and we ask only
for
Bread; not for what we do not need. We ask for our
Bread;
that teaches us honesty and industry: we do not ask for the
Bread of others, nor the
Bread of deceit, Pr 20:17; nor the
Bread of idleness, Pr 31:27, but the
Bread honestly gotten. We
ask for our daily
Bread; which teaches us constantly to depend
upon Divine
Providence. We
Beg of
God to give it us; not sell it
us, nor lend it us, but give it. The greatest of men must be
beholden to the
Mercy of
God for their daily
Bread. We pray,
Give it to us. This teaches us a compassion for the
Poor. Also
that we ought to pray with our families. We pray that
God would
give it us this
Day; which teaches us to renew the desires of
our souls toward
God, as the wants of our bodies are renewed. As
the
Day comes we must pray to our heavenly
Father, and reckon we
could as
Well go a
Day without
Food, as without
Prayer. We are
taught to hate and dread
Sin while we
Hope for
Mercy, to
distrust ourselves, to rely
On the
Providence and
Grace of
God
to keep us from it, to be prepared to resist the tempter, and
not to become tempters of others. Here is a promise, If you
forgive, your heavenly
Father will also forgive. We must
forgive, as we
Hope to be forgiven. Those who desire to find
Mercy with
God, must show
Mercy to their brethren.
Christ came
into the world as the great Peace-maker, not only to reconcile
us to
God, but one to another.
16-18 Religious fasting is a duty required of the disciples of
Christ, but it is not
So much a duty itself, as a means to
dispose us for other duties. Fasting is the humbling of the
soul, Ps 35:13; that is the inside of the duty; let that,
therefore, be thy principal care, and as to the outside of it,
covet not to let it be seen.
God sees in secret, and will reward
openly.
19-24 Worldly-mindedness is a common and fatal symptom of
hypocrisy, for
By No Sin can
Satan have a surer and faster
Hold
of the soul, under the
Cloak of a profession of religion.
Something the soul will have, which it looks upon as the best
thing; in which it has pleasure and confidence above other
things.
Christ counsels to make our best things the joys and
glories of the other world, those things not seen which are
eternal, and to place our happiness in them. There are treasures
in
Heaven. It is our
Wisdom to give all diligence to make our
title to eternal
Life sure through
Jesus Christ, and to look
On
all things here below, as not worthy to be compared with it, and
to be content with nothing short of it. It is happiness above
and
Beyond the changes and chances of time, an inheritance
incorruptible. The worldly
Man is wrong in his first principle;
therefore all his reasonings and actions therefrom must be
wrong. It is equally to be applied to false religion; that which
is deemed
Light is thick
Darkness. This is an awful, but a
common case; we should therefore carefully examine our leading
principles
By the
Word of God, with
Earnest Prayer for the
teaching of his
Spirit. A
Man may do some service to two
masters, but he can devote himself to the service of
No more
than one.
God requires the whole
Heart, and will not share it
with the world. When two masters oppose each other,
No Man can
serve both. He who holds to the world and loves it, must despise
God; he who loves
God, must give up the friendship of the world.
25-34 There is scarcely any
Sin against which our
Lord Jesus
more warns his disciples, than disquieting, distracting,
distrustful cares about the things of this
Life. This often
ensnares the
Poor as much as the
Love of wealth does the rich.
But there is a carefulness about temporal things which is a
duty, though we must not carry these lawful cares too far. Take
No thought for your
Life. Not about the length of it; but refer
it to
God to lengthen or shorten it as he pleases; our times are
in his
Hand, and they are in a good
Hand. Not about the comforts
of this
Life; but leave it to
God to make it
Bitter or sweet as
he pleases.
Food and raiment
God has promised, therefore we may
expect them. Take
No thought for the morrow, for the time to
come. Be not anxious for the future, how you shall live next
Year, or when you are old, or what you shall leave behind you.
As we must not boast of tomorrow,
So we must not care for
to-morrow, or the events of it.
God has given us
Life, and has
given us the body. And what can he not do for us, who did that?
If we take care about our souls and for eternity, which are more
than the body and its
Life, we may leave it to
God to provide
for us
Food and raiment, which are less. Improve this as an
encouragement to trust in
God. We must reconcile ourselves to
our worldly estate, as we do to our stature. We cannot alter the
disposals of
Providence, therefore we must submit and resign
ourselves to them. Thoughtfulness for our souls is the best cure
of thoughtfulness for the world. Seek first the
Kingdom of God,
and make religion your business: say not that this is the way to
starve;
No, it is the way to be
Well provided for, even in this
world. The conclusion of the whole matter is, that it is the
will and command of the
Lord Jesus, that
By daily prayers we may
get strength to
Bear us up under our daily troubles, and to
Arm
us against the temptations that attend them, and then let none
of these things move us. Happy are those who take the
Lord for
their
God, and make full proof of it
By trusting themselves
wholly to his
Wise disposal. Let thy
Spirit convince us of
Sin
in the want of this disposition, and take away the worldliness
of our hearts.