Matthew 6


Giving to the Needy

¹"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
²"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ³But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Prayer

⁵"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ⁶But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
⁹"This, then, is how you should pray:
   " 'Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name,
    ¹⁰your kingdom come,
   your will be done
       on earth as it is in heaven.
    ¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
    ¹²Forgive us our debts,
       as we also have forgiven our debtors.
    ¹³And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.' ¹⁴For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Fasting

¹⁶"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Matthew 6:1-18

Explanation:

Showing Righteousness to God Alone (6:1-18)
Jesus begins this section of his teaching with a thesis statement summarizing his point: Do your righteousness for God to see you, not others (6:1). Jesus then illustrates his point with the examples of secret charity (vv. 2-4), prayer (vv. 5-15) and fasting (vv. 16-18). The middle section on prayer is the longest (following accepted practices of arrangement in his day, Matthew may have inserted the Lord's Prayer from a different context; compare Lk 11:1-4).


Righteousness When Only God Sees (6:1)
Several observations concerning 6:1, the thesis statement for this section, are appropriate before we approach the following paragraphs of the passage in more detail.
First, we must impress God alone. In all three examples Jesus warns his followers not to be like the hypocrites (6:2, 5, 16; also 15:7; 22:18; 23:13-29; 24:51). This term originally designated actors in the theater, though both Greek and Jewish texts had long before come to apply it figuratively.

One of human religion's greatest temptations is to act piously to elicit the praise of others. A secret atheist could practice religion in that form without the slightest element of faith (compare 23:5). Such temptations were part and parcel of ancient religion; for instance, when some first-century Jewish leaders called a fast for unrighteous reasons, others feared not to observe it, lest anyone question their piety (Jos. Life 290-91). Yet the same temptation is no less real today. Jesus reminds us that true piety means impressing God alone-living our lives in the recognition that God knows every thought and deed, and it is his approval alone that matters. Matthew again praises the meek, whose only hope is in God, not in others' opinions of them. Those of us who are "religious professionals," making our living from public ministry, should take special heed: if we value the approval or pay of our congregations more than what God has called us to do, we will have no reward left when we stand before him.

Second, Jesus' warning does not preclude public acts of righteousness. Public righteousness, even when carried out in the knowledge that such acts will draw attention, is not wrong so long as we seek to be seen for God's glory rather than our own (5:16). This text warns us, however, how easy it is to justify our own desire to impress others as "being a light." We should do everything for God (Rom 14:6-8; 1 Cor 10:31; Col 3:17); the repentant person who lives in view of the coming kingdom (4:17) is concerned more with God's evaluation than with that of others. Many people practice religion without paying attention to God, and this warns us to search our motives.

Third, Jesus demands practice, not just theory. Jesus' Jewish contemporaries agreed with most of what he was teaching here (ARN 28A; 40A; 46, 129B). Thus Jesus is not satisfied that we claim to agree with his ethics; he wants us to live accordingly.

Fourth, Jesus' three examples are random, so secrecy must apply to all acts of righteousness. Judaism often listed righteous works, sometimes in sets of threes (Jesus' list here resembles Tobit 12:8), but such lists were never more than random examples. We must thus apply Jesus' principle to all our acts of righteousness.

Fifth, Jesus promises eternal reward for those who seek to please God rather than mortals. Jesus concludes his warnings with another graphic image: businessmen regularly wrote the phrase received their reward in full (see 6:2, 5, 16) on receipts to indicate that no further payment was required (Deissmann 1978:110). Jesus is saying that those who give charity to be admired by others, or pray and fast to people rather than to God, already have what they wanted: others' approval. They will not be rewarded again for their deeds on the day of judgment.


Finally, Jesus defines true religion differently from the way many Christians do. If it is possible to pray, fast and give alms extensively and yet do it from wrong motives, we must reevaluate our religious values. Most people I know who pray four hours a day have a very close walk with God. But I know others whose calling may allow them only an hour a day of concerted prayer, yet their walk is probably just as close to God, since they are living according to his will. We should pray, fast and serve the needy because we love God-not in order to convince anyone, including ourselves, that we do.



Doing Charity Secretly (6:2-4)
This paragraph assumes that disciples give to the poor (compare 6:19-24 at greater length); what it evaluates is how we give to the poor.

Jesus again employs hyperbole in his descriptions (as in 5:19, 29-30), thereby adding graphic force to his warnings. Although some scholars have argued that people actually blew trumpets during giving in the synagogues, Jesus probably simply uses rhetorical exaggeration to reinforce his point, as when picturing the Pharisees who swallow a camel whole but strain out a mere gnat (23:24). Jesus adds to this stark image still another: we should be so secretive in giving that we should not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing (6:3; 1 Cor 4:3-5). He challenges us about the danger of public piety with such forceful language precisely "because our assurance that such hypocrisy is no great problem with us is a major part of the problem" (Tannehill 1975:85).

Jesus emphasizes future reward for those who forgo present honor. He promises something better than a charitable deduction on one's income tax, nice as that may be (vv. 1, 2, 4). Many of his contemporaries believed that charity delivers the giver from death and stores up treasure in heaven (Tobit 4:10; 12:8; 14:10; t. Pe'a 4:21; Pes. Rab. 25:2); Jesus likewise emphasizes heavenly reward for serving those truly in need (6:19-21). In contrast to nineteenth-century evangelicalism, much of today's church is divided between those who emphasize personal intimacy with God in prayer and those who emphasize justice for the true poor (see Sider 1993). Like the prophets of old, however, Jesus demanded both (6:2-13; Mk 12:40); he also recognized that without keeping God himself in view, we can pervert either form of piety.

We should care for the poor. The phrase when you give to the needy implies the expectation, standard in Judaism, that one would care for the needs of the poor (Tobit 4:7), just as the phrase when you pray (6:5) takes for granted that the hearer will pray (m. 'Abot 2:10). Jesus' Jewish contemporaries emphasized that one must give charity from the right kind of heart (m. 'Abot 5:13) and sometimes objected to ostentation in charity (Test. Job 9:7-8; m. Seqalim 5:6).

If more of us Christians feared God, this realization would scare some sense into us. We like to think that Jesus was condemning the "legalistic" religion of Judaism, but we are wrong. Jesus was not condemning an officially legalistic religion, but the ostentatious practice of those whose religion taught purity of heart. In other words, on many points the Pharisees believed the same things we do, the same things Jesus was teaching. When we parade up to the altar to give our money (in some churches) or make sure the ushers see us contribute a significant offering when they pass the plate (in other churches), our hearts stand condemned regardless of our doctrine. True religion demands sufficient faith to settle for God's approval, to do what pleases him no matter what others may think.


Fasting Secretly (6:16-18)
In this case (as opposed to generally) the hypocrites who disfigure [literally, ruin!] their faces may well evoke the original sense of "hypocrites" as actors in the theater, who typically wore large theatrical masks. Fasting typically accompanied grief, often the sorrow of penitence (Neh 1:4-7; 9:1-2; Zech 7:5; Sirach 31:26; Judith 4:9-13). Yet as Joel put it, the true penitent must rend his or her heart and not merely garments (2:13); Isaiah declared that the true fast was to act for justice (Is 58:6-10). Fasting is a time of drawing close to God by demonstrating our commitment to him. Normally coupled with prayer in the New Testament (Acts 9:9; 13:2-3; 14:23; compare Ezra 8:23; Neh 1:4), biblical fasting is not asceticism for asceticism's sake (Col 2:18-23). Many Pharisees may have fasted twice a week as a mark of piety (Lk 18:12; b. Ta`anit 12a); but I fear that some early Christians missed the point of this passage when they insisted that believers should not fast on Mondays and Thursdays like the "hypocrites," but rather on Wednesdays and Fridays (Did. 8:1).
Under normal circumstances people trimmed beards or changed clothes before appearing in public, as well as anointing themselves. (Palestinian Jews used oil to clean and anoint their skin, especially on their heads; t. Sebi`it 6:9; ARN 3A, probably to lubricate dry scalps.) Because penitent fasting included afflicting oneself (Lev 23:32), for most Jewish people the most extreme fasts meant not only abstaining from food but also practicing other forms of self-abasement like not shaving, washing one's clothes, anointing or having intercourse (m. Ta`anit 1:6; 4:7; Yoma 8:1). Jesus is so concerned with keeping one's righteousness private that he prohibits customary features of what his contemporaries considered a strict fast.

It may be difficult for a member of a family to get around explaining why he or she is not sharing a meal, but in normal circumstances we may wish to observe Jesus' warning as literally as possible to guard our own motives before God. If we want our credit with God, we need to be satisfied that he alone knows, for we can trust that his reward will be more than adequate.

Matthew 6


Treasures in Heaven

¹⁹"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not 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 eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. ²³But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
²⁴"No one can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.

Matthew 6:19-24

Explanation:

Do Not Value Possessions (6:19-34)
Jesus exhorts us not to value possessions enough to seek them (6:19-24), quite in contrast to today's prosperity preachers and most of Western society. Yet he also exhorts us not to value possessions enough to worry about them (vv. 25-34), a fault shared by most believers who rightly reject the prosperity teaching. Jesus' words strike at the core of human selfishness, challenging both the well-to-do who have possessions to guard and the poor who wish they could acquire them. His words are so uncomfortable that even those of us who say we love him and fight to defend Scripture's authority find ourselves looking for ways around what he says.


Do Not Value Possessions Enough to Seek Them (6:19-24)
So prominent in Jesus' parables and wisdom sayings is his emphasis on utter faith in God and relinquishment of possessions that Geza Vermes (1993:148) considers this a central element in Jesus' teaching. Paul S. Minear declared that it was no wonder those with vested interests hated Jesus: "So insidious was [his] attack upon earthly treasures that he became, according to Kierkegaard, a `far more terrible robber' than those who assault travelers along a highway. Jesus assaulted the whole human race at the point where that race is most sensitive: its desire for security and superiority" (Minear 1954:133).
We like to point out Jesus' rhetorical overstatement in this passage while ignoring why he used it to secure our attention. Most Christians disagree with what the prosperity preachers say over the radio and television, but the main difference between us and them in practice is often that they provide a theological justification for their materialism, where we do not.

Seek Treasure in Heaven (6:19-21)

Jesus teaches that if we really trust God, we will act as if treasure in heaven is what matters (compare 1 Tim 6:8-10). Although Jesus illustrates his point here with images about treasure in heaven shared by many of his contemporaries (such as Sirach 29:10-11; 4 Ezra 7:77; 2 Baruch 14:12), only the most radical sages of antiquity shared Jesus' view that earthly possessions were essentially worthless. Yet for Jesus the treasure is not merely in heaven (Mt 19:21); it represents the kingdom of heaven (13:44). Idolaters who value Mammon too highly to abandon it for what Jesus values will have no place in his kingdom (19:21-30; compare Lk 14:33).

Some other countercultural sages in antiquity also advocated lack of attachment to material possessions (Epict. Disc. 1.18.15-16). Unlike some philosophers, however, Jesus is not against possessions because he supposes them to be evil (compare Lucr. Nat. 5.1105-42; Sen. Dial. 5.33.1); the issue is not that possessions themselves are bad but that a higher priority demands our resources. If we value what our Lord values rather than what our society values, he demands that we meet the basic needs of people lacking adequate resources before we seek to accumulate possessions beyond our basic needs (19:21; compare Lk 3:11; 12:33-34).


Someone will object that we have to stop sacrificing at some point because we will never finish meeting all this world's needs (Mt 26:11). But could not the abundance of this world's needs represent a call to keep sacrificing? Do we use the behavior of many of our fellow Christians to justify reinterpreting Jesus' explicit call to value what he cares about more highly than possessions? Many professing Christians before Luther were wrong about justification by faith; is it possible that most Western Christians today wrongly miss Jesus' explicit teaching about sacrifice?

One researcher suggests that professed followers of Christ take in 68 percent of the world's income, yet only 3 percent of that goes to the church and a tiny percentage to world missions. Perhaps if more Westerners lived even briefly among the desperately hungry or developed friendships with people from lands where laborers for the gospel are few, our priorities would change. Meanwhile Jesus, who already sees the needs of all people, summons us to value what matters to him-if not yet out of love for them, then out of love for our Lord who loves them.

Can we claim not to love wealth more than our brothers and sisters in Christ when we see them hurting and do not sacrifice what should matter to us less than their need? While many of us pursue status symbols that television suggests are "necessities," evangelical ministries to the poor claim that forty thousand people die of starvation and malnutrition daily. That means roughly twenty-seven a minute, twenty of whom are children under five years old. (This represents a loss of life roughly equivalent to the first atom bomb being dropped again-every three days.) Wherever possible, people should earn their own wages and not become dependent on charity. But children under five cannot "pull themselves up by their bootstraps," nor can our brothers and sisters in drought- and famine-stricken areas. Those who say, "For the sake of everyone it is better to let the weak die off," are social Darwinists, not Christians; Christians are called to serve the weak.

The world's need is overwhelming, but if as individuals we calculate what resources we do not need and contribute them to ministries like World Vision and Food for the Hungry, we can at least do our part to make a difference in the world, trusting that God will raise up others to join us. One wonders, too, what a witness it would be among the world's poor who are not Christians if they saw that wealthier Christians cared more about the poor than about their own affluence.

Materialism Blinds People to God's Truth (6:22-23)

If we justify valuing material possessions because "everyone does it" or "other people do it more," our self-justification will blind us to the truth of our disobedience and affect our whole relationship with God. Jesus' illustration about the "single" (NIV good) eye and the evil eye would immediately make sense to his hearers: a "good" eye was literally a healthy eye, but figuratively also an eye that looked on others generously (Sirach 32:8). In the Greek text of the Gospels, Jesus literally calls the eye a "single" eye, which is a wordplay: the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible also uses this word for "single" to translate the Hebrew term for "perfect"-thus "single-minded" devotion to God, with one's heart set on God alone. An "evil eye," conversely, was a stingy, jealous or greedy eye; yet it also signifies here a bad eye (Mt 6:23), one that cannot see properly. Jesus uses the "single" eye as a transition to his next point, for the "single" eye is literally undivided, having the whole picture: thus one is not divided between two masters, as the text goes on to explain (v. 24).

Many leaders in past revival movements have warned that Christians ought not to pray for revival if they want to hold on to their money, because we cannot have both. For John Wesley, defying material prosperity was part of holiness, separation to God away from the things the world valued (Jennings 1990:157-79). He warned that riches would increase believers' conformity to the world and attacked those who preached in favor of the accumulation of wealth (Jennings 1990:36, 98-102). He felt that Acts 2 was for today-including the part about sharing possessions (2:44-45; Jennings 1990:111-16). He chose to live as simply as possible so as to give all else to the poor, and called on his followers to do the same (Jennings 1990:119-23; Sider 1990:152). In contrast to most contemporary Western Christians, Wesley felt that "stewardship means giving to the poor. . . . We give to God not by giving to the church, but by giving to the poor" (Jennings 1990:105). If one did not give all one could, Wesley taught, one was in disobedience to Jesus' teaching and would end up in hell (Jennings 1990:133).

Noting that the church has adequate funds to evangelize the world if we would choose to do so, nineteenth-century evangelist Charles G. Finney warned that God requires us to surrender to him the ownership of everything, so that we never again consider it as our own; we must do with it only what he would do (Finney 1869:353-54). Finney further exhorted that "young converts should be taught that they have renounced the ownership of all their possessions, and of themselves, or if they have not done this they are not Christians" (ibid., p. 127).

Years ago I eagerly read Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (rev. 1990) after I heard Gordon Fee state that every American Christian should read it. While I cannot evaluate Sider's macroeconomic proposals (for important proposals in this area see also National Conference of Catholic Bishops 1986), I appreciate his emphasis on the Bible's commitment to serving the poor. Yet some critics wrongly criticized Sider's motives as Marxist (he is not a Marxist). Some consider Wesley and Finney, who preached more strongly than Sider, legalists. When Jesus, John the Baptist or James (Lk 3:10-11; 14:33; Jas 2:14-16) preaches far more strongly than Sider, Wesley or Finney, we call it hyperbole. I fear that many of us hear what we want because we have vested interests to guard-interests many Christians value more than they value the agendas of God's kingdom. Our eyes are not "single."

We Must Love Either God or Money (6:24)

One must serve someone, but a person whose service is divided will love one master and hate the other. Masters only rarely owned a slave jointly (for example, m. `Eduyyot 1:13; Gittin 4:5), but when they did, the slave naturally preferred one master to the other. Jesus warns us that we must choose: if we work for possessions, we will end up hating God; if we work for God, we will end up hating possessions. (Hate may mean by comparison of one's love for something else-10:37 par. Lk 14:26.)

"Mammon," translated Money in the NIV, was a common Aramaic term for money or property (Flusser 1988:153), but its contrast with God as an object of service here suggests that it has been deified as well as personified (compare Sirach 34:7). Early Christians extended the principle of not serving two masters to avoiding theaters (where other humans were routinely slaughtered for public entertainment, perhaps akin to some movies today; Tert. Spect. 26) and to gaining the world and thereby forfeiting one's soul (2 Clement 6). But Jesus here applies the principle to one of the greatest temptations: the idolatry of materialism (compare possibly Col 3:5).

Unfortunately, covetousness (materialism) has achieved nearly cultic status as a traditional American value (with some other Western cultures not far behind), under such euphemisms as "the good life" and "getting ahead." As Craig Blomberg (1992:124) laments, "Many perceptive observers have sensed that the greatest danger to Western Christianity is not, as is sometimes alleged, prevailing ideologies such as Marxism, Islam, the New Age movement or humanism but rather the all-pervasive materialism of our affluent culture." Reminding us that the New Testament summons churches in one part of the world to look out for the needs of the church elsewhere (2 Cor 8:13-15), Blomberg further reminds us that because "over 50 percent of all believers now live in the Two-Thirds World . . . a huge challenge to First-World Christianity emerges. Without a doubt, most individual and church budgets need drastic realignment" (1992:126-27). Unlike the rich man in Luke 16:19-31, however, few suburban First World Christians could go to hell for allowing a man to starve at our doorstep: those who are starving rarely are able to get near our doorstep.

North American Christians can pour nearly a billion dollars a year into new church construction. Church buildings are helpful tools in our culture, but the Bible does not require them-and the Bible does expressly command serving the poor. How many churches pour equivalent resources into church-sponsored homeless shelters and other means of service (and witness) to the needy of our communities? The streets of our most affluent Western cities host hundreds of thousands of homeless people, many of them children. Many young people sell their bodies on those streets to get a place to sleep at night, and mere sermons against prostitution are not going to do anything about it.

Church buildings are important in our present culture, but the early church did live without them for its first three centuries, and in a time of persecution we would be obliged to do the same. The early church therefore had funds for other purposes: second-century pagans continually noted Christians' charity toward both Christian and non-Christian poor. Church buildings are valuable, but when they take precedence over caring for the poor or evangelism, our priorities appear to focus more on our comfort than on the world's need-as if we desire padded pews more than new brothers and sisters filling the kingdom. Have we altogether forgotten the spiritual passion of the early church and nineteenth-century evangelicalism?

Jesus in this passage uses graphic imagery about idolatry not to force us into legalism but to prevent us from rationalizing away his point. First World Protestants are quick to judge Christians in other parts of the world who venerate their ancestors or worship the saints. When symbols of respect become objects of worship, our concerns are surely justified. But in condemning such practices we may be sporting a "plank" in our own eye (7:3), for those concerned with wealth become as sterile in their Christianity as those who forget their faith or fall away under persecution (13:19-22).

Most of us respond to Jesus' devaluation of possessions in one of two ways: (1) we retort that there is nothing wrong with making money, or (2) we claim we do not love wealth, we just accumulate it. The first response is tangential: the issue is never how much money we make (as long as it is made honestly, the more the better), but what we do with what we make. The second response is simply dishonest, like the man immersed in television six hours every evening who says that it does not really interest or affect him. If we are seeking and accumulating wealth for ourselves, then we do love it.

Matthew 6


Do Not Worry

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34

Explanation:

Do Not Value Possessions Enough to Worry About Them (6:25-34
Jesus' message here picks up his earlier discussion of secret charity (6:1-4). If many prosperity preachers err in urging Christians to seek material gain (see vv. 19-24), many of us err by doubting God's power to provide. Yet in this passage while Jesus emphasizes God's power, he also stresses that God guarantees only what we need. If God sustains life and protects our bodies, will we complain if he does it differently from the ways our culture values (v. 25)? If he feeds us like the birds (v. 26; compare 1 Kings 17:6) or clothes us like the flowers (v. 28), he will have provided us more than what our culture values, not less (v. 29). Yet if God provides for birds and flowers, he will also provide for us (v. 30).
God promises the basics. This theme is important to the passage (vv. 25-26, 28-30). Jesus twice uses a standard type of Jewish argument traditionally called qal wahomer-"how much more?" (vv. 26, 30). If God cares for birds and for perishable flowers, how much more for his own beloved children (compare vv. 8, 32)!

We generally expect biologists today to examine and classify data without making many ethical or theological pronouncements. But ancient naturalists were sometimes also sages who regarded all God's creation as a legitimate field for inquiry. Wisdom sayings often addressed nature (for example, 1 Kings 4:33; Ahiqar column 6; Sirach 43:33).

Jesus draws a lesson from God's care for birds and flowers (Mt 6:26, 30). Some other Jewish teachers also recognized that God provides for creatures (compare Ps 104:24-27) and that people are worth much more than birds (compare m. Qiddusin 4:14). Jesus, who regards God's original creation purpose as still valid (Mt 19:4-6), believes that the God who cares for unemployed animals will care still more for his children, regardless of their economic situation.

People in Jesus' day considered their cloaks essential, and the law in fact took this for granted (Ex 22:26-27; Guelich 1982:339). Paul (less given to hyperbole than his Palestinian Master) declares that Christians need nothing more than food and clothing (1 Tim 6:8). But Jesus declares that God can provide for us adequately even if we lack clothing (Mt 6:25)! He then goes on to assure us that God will supply covering for our bodies, pointing to the splendor of the fields, whose vegetation is nevertheless used as fuel for baking bread. Solomon's splendor had become proverbial (for example, CIJ 2:83, 837; m. Baba Mesi`a 7:1), but it remained minuscule compared to the splendor of God's creation (compare Ps 8:1-9). In the end, wealth does not matter, but God will supply what we genuinely need.


Jesus again shames his hearers by reminding them that even Gentiles seek material things. Pagans seek (NIV run after) their own needs (Mt 6:31-32; compare Ep. Arist. 140-41); God's children should seek instead God's agendas, assured that God will also care for them in the process (6:33). Even in Jesus' model prayer, disciples seek God's kingdom first (vv. 9-10). Faith is not an intricate ritual to get what we want for ourselves; faith is obeying God's will with the assurance that he will ultimately fulfill for us what is in our best interests. That kind of faith grows only in the context of an intimate relationship of love between the heavenly Father and his children.

Some people today associate faith with being able to obtain possessions from God, but Jesus did not even associate it with seeking basic needs from God. Pagans seek those things, he warned (v. 32; compare 5:47; 6:7); we should seek instead God's kingdom and his righteous will (6:33). It is when his people care for others in need among them that God supplies the needs of his people as a whole, perhaps because then he can best trust them to use his gifts righteously (Deut 15:1-11; Blomberg 1992:126). In our lifelong plans and each day as we decide what to do with our life and resources, we have fresh opportunities to prove to God our love for him-or our lack of it.

Anxiety does no good. Jesus highlights this theme in Matthew 6:26, 34. Anxiety will not add even the smallest unit of time to one's life. Not only is it true that we cannot extend our life by worrying, but daily experience in our comparatively fast-paced culture confirms the wisdom of an earlier Jewish sage, who observed that worry and a troubled heart actually shorten life (Sirach 30:19-24). If much study is wearying to the flesh (Eccl 12:12-undoubtedly many a scholar's favorite verse), worry about wealth also banishes sleep and destroys the flesh (Sirach 34:1).

Unlike some ancient philosophers, Jesus never condemns people for recognizing their basic needs; their Father knows they need food and clothing. Yet he calls them to depend on God for their daily sustenance. Those who can trust their heavenly Father to care for them (as most first-century Jewish children could depend on their earthly fathers) need not be anxious concerning clothes or food.

Jesus paints his point in graphic word pictures. Like a typical sage, he finally notes that one has enough to worry about for the day without adding tomorrow's worries (Mt 6:34; compare Prov 27:1). Employing the typical rhetorical technique of personification (Kennedy 1984:60), Jesus further admonishes his hearers to let tomorrow worry about itself. Yet when Jesus forbids us to worry about tomorrow, this does not mean that concerns will never press upon us. It means instead that we should express dependence on God in each of these concerns. We should pray for our genuine needs (v. 11), provided we pray for God's kingdom most of all (vv. 9-10; most of Paul's "concerns" fit this category: 2 Cor 11:28; 1 Thess 3:1-5). The part of the future we must concern ourselves with and work toward is what he has revealed to us and called us to do (compare Mt 10:5-25).