6

How to Give

1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness # 6:1 Other mss read charitable giving in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven. 2So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward.#Mt 23:5; Lk 6:24 3But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.#6:4 Other mss read will himself reward you openly#Jr 17:10; Lk 14:14; Col 3:23-24; Heb 4:13

How to Pray

5 “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. # Mt 6:16; Mk 11:25; Lk 6:24; 18:11 6But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.#6:6 Other mss add openly#2Kg 4:33; Is 26:20; Mt 6:18 7When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words.#1Kg 18:26; Ec 5:2 8Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.#Mt 9:12; Mk 2:17; Lk 5:31; 9:11; 10:42; Ac 2:45

The Lord’s Prayer

9 “Therefore, you should pray like this: # Lk 11:1-13

Our Father in heaven,

your name be honored as holy. # Lk 11:2; 1Co 7:14

10 Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven. # Ps 103:20; Mt 3:2; 4:17; 26:42; Lk 22:42; Ac 21:14

11 Give us today our daily bread. # 6:11 Or our necessary bread, or our bread for tomorrow

12 And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors. # Pr 30:8; Rm 4:4; Gl 5:3

13 And do not bring us into # 6:13 Or do not cause us to come into temptation,#Mt 26:41; 1Co 10:13; 2Pt 2:9

but deliver us from the evil one. # 6:13 Or from evil; some later mss add For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. # Mt 5:37; Jn 17:15; 2Th 3:3; 2Tm 4:18

14 “For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. # Mk 11:25; Eph 4:32; Col 3:13 15But if you don’t forgive others,#6:15 Other mss add their wrongdoing your Father will not forgive your offenses.

How to Fast

16 “Whenever you fast, don’t be gloomy like the hypocrites. For they make their faces unattractive # 6:16 Or unrecognizable, or disfigured # Is 58:5; Mt 18:35; Jms 2:13 so that their fasting is obvious to people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face,#Ru 3:3; 2Sm 12:20; Dn 10:3 18so that your fasting isn’t obvious to others but to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.#6:18 Other mss add openly

God and Possessions

19 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures # 6:19 Or valuables on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.#Pr 23:4; Heb 13:5 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,#Mt 19:21; Lk 12:33; 18:22; 1Tm 6:19 where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness!#Mt 4:16; 8:12; 22:13; 25:30; 27:45

24 “No one can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. # Lk 16:13; Gl 1:10; Jms 4:4

The Cure for Anxiety

25 “Therefore I tell you: # Lk 12:22-31 Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?#Lk 10:41; Php 4:6; 1Pt 5:7 26Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?#Jb 38:41; Ps 147:9; Mt 10:29-31 27Can any of you add one moment to his life span#6:27 Or add a single cubit to his height by worrying? 28And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you — you of little faith?#1Kg 10:4-7; Mt 8:26; 14:31; 16:8 31So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat? ’ or ‘What will we drink? ’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first the kingdom of God#6:33 Other mss omit of God#Mk 1:15; Ac 20:25 and his righteousness,#Mt 27:19; Lk 7:29; 23:41,47; Jn 5:30; 17:25; Ac 3:14 and all these things will be provided for you.#1Kg 3:13; Mt 19:28; Mk 10:29; Lk 18:29; 1Tm 4:8 34Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble#Mt 6:25; Lk 10:41; Php 4:6; 1Pt 5:7 of its own.

Matthew 6:1-4

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