Matthew 6

SERMON ON THE

MOUNT--continued.

Mt 6:1-18.

FURTHER

ILLUSTRATION OF THE

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE

KINGDOM--ITS

UNOSTENTATIOUSNESS.

General Caution against Ostentation in Religious Duties

(Mt 6:1).

1. Take heed that ye do not your alms--But the true reading seems

clearly to be "your righteousness." The external authority for both

readings is pretty nearly equal; but internal evidence is decidedly in

favor of "righteousness." The subject of the second verse being

"almsgiving" that word--so like the other in Greek--might easily be

substituted for it by the copyist: whereas the opposite would not be so

likely. But it is still more in favor of "righteousness," that if we so

read the first verse, it then becomes a general heading for this whole

section of the discourse, inculcating unostentatiousness in all

deeds of righteousness--Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting being, in that

case, but selected examples of this righteousness; whereas, if we read,

"Do not your alms," &c., this first verse will have no reference

but to that one point. By "righteousness," in this case, we are to

understand that same righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, whose

leading features--in opposition to traditional perversions of it--it is

the great object of this discourse to open up: that righteousness of

which the Lord says, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the

righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter

into the kingdom of heaven"

(Mt 5:20).

To "do" this righteousness, was an old and well-understood

expression. Thus, "Blessed is he that doeth righteousness at all times"

(Ps 106:3).

It refers to the actings of righteousness in the life--the

outgoings of the gracious nature--of which our Lord afterwards said to

His disciples, "Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;

so shall ye be My disciples"

(Joh 15:8).

before men, to be seen of them--with the view or intention of being

beheld of them. See the same expression in

Mt 5:28.

True, He had required them to let their light so shine before men that

they might see their good works, and glorify their Father which is in

heaven

(Mt 5:16).

But this is quite consistent with not making a display of our

righteousness for self-glorification. In fact, the doing of the former

necessarily implies our not doing the latter.

otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven--When

all duty is done to God--as primarily enjoining and finally judging of

it--He will take care that it be duly recognized; but when done purely

for ostentation, God cannot own it, nor is His judgment of it even

thought of--God accepts only what is done to Himself. So much for the

general principle. Now follow three illustrations of it.

Almsgiving

(Mt 6:2-4).

2. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before

thee--The expression is to be taken figuratively for blazoning it.

Hence our expression to "trumpet."

as the hypocrites do--This word--of such frequent occurrence in

Scripture, signifying primarily "one who acts a part"--denotes one who

either pretends to be what he is not (as here), or dissembles what he really is (as in

Lu 12:1, 2).

in the synagogues and in the streets--the places of religious and

secular resort.

that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you--In such august

expressions, it is the Lawgiver and Judge Himself that we hear speaking

to us.

They have their reward--All they wanted was human applause, and they

have it--and with it, all they will ever get.

3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right

hand doeth--So far from making a display of it, dwell not on it even in

thine own thoughts, lest it minister to spiritual pride.

4. That thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father which seeth in

secret himself shall reward thee openly--The word "Himself" appears

to be an unauthorized addition to the text, which the sense no doubt

suggested. (See

1Ti 5:25;

Ro 2:16;

1Co 4:5).

Prayer

(Mt 6:5, 6).

5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt--or, preferably, "when ye pray

ye shall."

not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the

synagogues and in the corners of the streets--(See on

Mt 6:2).

that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have,

&c.--The standing posture in prayer was the ancient practice, alike

in the Jewish and in the early Christian Church. But of course this

conspicuous posture opened the way for the ostentatious.

6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet--a place of

retirement.

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--Of course, it is not the simple publicity of prayer which

is here condemned. It may be offered in any circumstances, however

open, if not prompted by the spirit of ostentation, but dictated by the

great ends of prayer itself. It is the retiring character of true

prayer which is here taught.

Supplementary Directions and Model Prayer

(Mt 6:7-15).

7. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions--"Babble not" would be

a better rendering, both for the form of the word--which in both

languages is intended to imitate the sound--and for the sense, which

expresses not so much the repetition of the same words as a senseless

multiplication of them; as appears from what follows.

as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their

much speaking--This method of heathen devotion is still observed by

Hindu and Mohammedan devotees. With the Jews, says

LIGHTFOOT, it was a

maxim, that "Every one who multiplies prayer is heard." In the Church of

Rome, not only is it carried to a shameless extent, but, as

THOLUCK

justly observes, the very prayer which our Lord gave as an antidote to

vain repetitions is the most abused to this superstitious end; the

number of times it is repeated counting for so much more merit. Is not

this just that characteristic feature of heathen devotion which our Lord

here condemns? But praying much, and using at times the same words, is

not here condemned, and has the example of our Lord Himself in its

favor.

8. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what

things ye have need of before ye ask him--and so needs not to be

informed of our wants, any more than to be roused to attend to

them by our incessant speaking. What a view of God is here given, in

sharp contrast with the gods of the heathen! But let it be carefully

noted that it is not as the general Father of mankind that our Lord

says, "Your Father" knoweth what ye need before ye ask it; for it is not

men, as such, that He is addressing in this discourse, but His own

disciples--the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, hungry and

thirsty souls, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, who

allow themselves to have all manner of evil said against them for the

Son of man's sake--in short, the new-born children of God, who, making

their Father's interests their own, are here assured that their Father,

in return, makes their interests His, and needs neither to be told nor

to be reminded of their wants. Yet He will have His children pray to

Him, and links all His promised supplies to their petitions for them;

thus encouraging us to draw near and keep near to Him, to talk and walk

with Him, to open our every case to Him, and assure ourselves that thus

asking we shall receive--thus seeking we shall find--thus knocking it

shall be opened to us.

9. After this manner--more simply "Thus."

therefore pray ye--The "ye" is emphatic here, in contrast with the

heathen prayers. That this matchless prayer was given not only as a

model, but as a form, might be concluded from its very nature.

Did it consist only of hints or directions for prayer, it could only be

used as a directory; but seeing it is an actual prayer--designed,

indeed, to show how much real prayer could be compressed into the fewest

words, but still, as a prayer, only the more incomparable for that--it

is strange that there should be a doubt whether we ought to pray that

very prayer. Surely the words with which it is introduced, in the second

utterance and varied form of it which we have in

Lu 11:2,

ought to set this at rest: "When ye pray, say, Our Father."

Nevertheless, since the second form of it varies considerably from the

first, and since no example of its actual use, or express quotation of

its phraseology, occurs in the sequel of the New Testament, we are to

guard against a superstitious use of it. How early this began to appear

in the church services, and to what extent it was afterwards carried,

is known to every one versed in Church History. Nor has the spirit

which bred this abuse quite departed from some branches of the

Protestant Church, though the opposite and equally condemnable extreme

is to be found in other branches of it.

Model Prayer

(Mt 6:9-13).

According to the Latin fathers and the Lutheran Church, the petitions

of the Lord's Prayer are seven in number; according to the Greek

fathers, the Reformed Church and the Westminster divines, they are only

six; the two last being regarded--we think, less correctly--as

one. The first three petitions have to do exclusively with God:

"Thy name be hallowed"--"Thy kingdom come"--"Thy

will be done." And they occur in a descending scale--from

Himself down to the manifestation of Himself in His kingdom; and from

His kingdom to the entire subjection of its subjects, or the complete

doing of His will. The remaining four petitions have to do with OURSELVES: "Give us our daily bread"--"Forgive

us our debts"--"Lead us not into temptation"--"Deliver

us from evil." But these latter petitions occur in an

ascending scale--from the bodily wants of every day up to our

final deliverance from all evil.

Invocation:

Our Father which art in heaven--In the former clause we express His

nearness to us; in the latter, His distance from us. (See

Ec 5:2;

Isa 66:1).

Holy, loving familiarity suggests the one; awful reverence the other.

In calling Him "Father" we express a relationship we have all known and

felt surrounding us even from our infancy; but in calling Him our

Father "who art in heaven," we contrast Him with the fathers we all

have here below, and so raise our souls to that "heaven" where He

dwells, and that Majesty and Glory which are there as in their proper

home. These first words of the Lord's Prayer--this invocation with

which it opens--what a brightness and warmth does it throw over the

whole prayer, and into what a serene region does it introduce the

praying believer, the child of God, as he thus approaches Him! It is

true that the paternal relationship of God to His people is by no means

strange to the Old Testament. (See

De 32:6;

Ps 103:13;

Isa 63:16;

Jer 3:4, 19;

Mal 1:6; 2:10).

But these are only glimpses--the "back parts"

(Ex 33:23),

if we may so say, in comparison with the "open face" of our Father

revealed in Jesus. (See on

2Co 3:18).

Nor is it too much to say, that the view which our Lord gives,

throughout this His very first lengthened discourse, of "our Father in

heaven," beggars all that was ever taught, even in God's own Word, or

conceived before by His saints, on this subject.

First Petition:

Hallowed be--that is, "Be held in reverence"; regarded and

treated as holy.

thy name--God's name means "Himself as revealed and manifested."

Everywhere in Scripture God defines and marks off the faith and love and

reverence and obedience He will have from men by the disclosures which

He makes to them of what He is; both to shut out false conceptions of

Him, and to make all their devotion take the shape and hue of His own

teaching. Too much attention cannot be paid to this.

Second Petition:

10. Thy kingdom come--The kingdom of God is that moral and spiritual

kingdom which the God of grace is setting up in this fallen world, whose

subjects consist of as many as have been brought into hearty subjection

to His gracious scepter, and of which His Son Jesus is the glorious

Head. In the inward reality of it, this kingdom existed ever since there

were men who "walked with God"

(Ge 5:24),

and "waited for His salvation"

(Ge 49:18);

who were "continually with Him, holden by His right hand"

(Ps 73:23),

and who, even in the valley of the shadow of death, feared no evil when

He was with them

(Ps 23:4).

When Messiah Himself appeared, it was, as a visible kingdom, "at hand."

His death laid the deep foundations of it. His ascension on high,

"leading captivity captive and receiving gifts for men, yea, for the

rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them," and the

Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit, by which those gifts for men

descended upon the rebellious, and the Lord God was beheld, in the

persons of thousands upon thousands, "dwelling" among men--was a

glorious "coming" of this kingdom. But it is still to come, and this

petition, "Thy kingdom come," must not cease to ascend so long as one

subject of it remains to be brought in. But does not this prayer stretch

further forward--to "the glory to be revealed," or that stage of the

kingdom called "the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus

Christ"

(2Pe 1:11)?

Not directly, perhaps, since the petition that follows this--"Thy will

be done in earth, as it is in heaven"--would then bring us back to this

present state of imperfection. Still, the mind refuses to be so bounded

it irresistibly stretches the wings of its faith, and longing, and

joyous expectation out to the final and glorious consummation of the

kingdom of God.

Third Petition:

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven--or, as the same words

are rendered in Luke, "as in heaven, so upon earth"

(Lu 11:2)

--as cheerfully, as constantly, as perfectly. But

some will ask, Will this ever be? We answer, If the "new heavens and

new earth" are to be just our present material system purified by fire

and transfigured, of course it will. But we incline to think that the

aspiration which we are taught in this beautiful petition to breathe

forth has no direct reference to any such organic fulfilment,

and is only the spontaneous and resistless longing of the renewed

soul--put into words--to see the whole inhabited earth in entire

conformity to the will of God. It asks not if ever it shall be--or if

ever it can be--in order to pray this prayer. It must have its

holy yearnings breathed forth, and this is just the bold yet simple

expression of them. Nor is the Old Testament without prayers which come

very near to this

(Ps 7:9; 67:1-7; 72:19,

&c.).

Fourth Petition:

11. Give us this day our daily bread--The compound word here rendered

"daily" occurs nowhere else, either in classical or sacred Greek, and

so must be interpreted by the analogy of its component parts. But on

this critics are divided. To those who would understand it to mean,

"Give us this day the bread of to-morrow"--as if the sense thus slid

into that of Luke "Give us day by day"

(Lu 11:2,

(as BENGEL, MEYER, &c.) it may

be answered that the sense thus brought out is scarcely intelligible,

if not something less; that the expression "bread of to-morrow" is not

at all the same as bread "from day to day," and that, so understood, it

would seem to contradict

Mt 6:34.

The great majority of the best critics (taking the word to be

compounded of ousia, "substance," or "being") understand

so the sense will be, "Give us this day the bread which this day's

necessities require." In this case, the rendering of our authorized

version (after the Vulgate, LUTHER and some

of the best modern critics)--"our daily bread"--is, in sense, accurate

enough. (See

Pr 30:8).

Among commentators, there was early shown an inclination to understand

this as a prayer for the heavenly bread, or spiritual nourishment; and

in this they have been followed by many superior expositors, even down

to our own times. But as this is quite unnatural, so it deprives the

Christian of one of the sweetest of his privileges--to cast his bodily

wants in this short prayer, by one simple petition, upon his heavenly

Father. No doubt the spiritual mind will, from "the meat that

perisheth," naturally rise in thought to "that meat which endureth to

everlasting life." But let it be enough that the petition about bodily

wants irresistibly suggests a higher petition; and let us not

rob ourselves--out of a morbid spirituality--of our one petition in

this prayer for that bodily provision which the immediate sequel of

this discourse shows that our heavenly Father has so much at heart. In

limiting our petitions, however, to provision for the day, what

a spirit of childlike dependence does the Lord both demand and

beget!

Fifth Petition:

12. And forgive us our debts--A vitally important view of sin,

this--as an offense against God demanding reparation to His dishonored

claims upon our absolute subjection. As the debtor in the creditor's

hand, so is the sinner in the hands of God. This idea of sin had indeed

come up before in this discourse--in the warning to agree with our

adversary quickly, in case of sentence being passed upon us, adjudging

us to payment of the last farthing, and to imprisonment till then

(Mt 5:25, 26).

And it comes up once and again in our Lord's subsequent teaching--as in

the parable of the creditor and his two debtors

(Lu 7:41, 42,

&c.), and in the parable of the unmerciful debtor

(Mt 18:23,

&c.). But by embodying it in this brief model of acceptable prayer, and

as the first of three petitions more or less bearing upon sin, our Lord

teaches us, in the most emphatic manner conceivable, to regard this

view of sin as the primary and fundamental one. Answering to this is

the "forgiveness" which it directs us to seek--not the removal from our

own hearts of the stain of sin, nor yet the removal of our just dread

of God's anger, or of unworthy suspicions of His love, which is all

that some tell us we have to care about--but the removal from God's own

mind of His displeasure against us on account of sin, or, to retain the

figure, the wiping or crossing out from His "book of remembrance" of

all entries against us on this account.

as we forgive our debtors--the same view of sin as before; only now

transferred to the region of offenses given and received between man and

man. After what has been said on

Mt 5:7,

it will not be thought that our Lord here teaches that our exercise of

forgiveness towards our offending fellow men absolutely precedes and is

the proper ground of God's forgiveness of us. His whole teaching,

indeed--as of all Scripture--is the reverse of this. But as no one can

reasonably imagine himself to be the object of divine forgiveness who

is deliberately and habitually unforgiving towards his fellow men, so

it is a beautiful provision to make our right to ask and expect daily

forgiveness of our daily shortcomings and our final absolution and

acquittal at the great day of admission into the kingdom, dependent

upon our consciousness of a forgiving disposition towards our fellows,

and our preparedness to protest before the Searcher of hearts that we

do actually forgive them. (See

Mr 11:25, 26).

God sees His own image reflected in His forgiving children; but to ask

God for what we ourselves refuse to men, is to insult Him. So much

stress does our Lord put upon this, that immediately after the close of

this prayer, it is the one point in it which He comes back upon

(Mt 6:14, 15),

for the purpose of solemnly assuring us that the divine procedure in

this matter of forgiveness will be exactly what our own is.

Sixth Petition:

13. And lead us not into temptation--He who honestly seeks and

has the assurance of, forgiveness for past sin, will strive to avoid

committing it for the future. But conscious that "when we would do good

evil is present with us," we are taught to offer this sixth petition,

which comes naturally close upon the preceding, and flows, indeed,

instinctively from it in the hearts of all earnest Christians. There is

some difficulty in the form of the petition, as it is certain that God

does bring His people--as He did Abraham, and Christ Himself--into

circumstances both fitted and designed to try them, or test the

strength of their faith. Some meet this by regarding the petition as

simply an humble expression of self-distrust and instinctive shrinking

from danger; but this seems too weak. Others take it as a prayer

against yielding to temptation, and so equivalent to a prayer for

support and deliverance when we are tempted; but this seems to go

beyond the precise thing intended. We incline to take it as a prayer

against being drawn or sucked, of our own will, into

temptation, to which the word here used seems to lend some

countenance--"Introduce us not." This view, while it does not put into

our mouths a prayer against being tempted--which is more than the

divine procedure would seem to warrant--does not, on the other hand,

change the sense of the petition into one for support under

temptation, which the words will hardly bear; but it gives us a subject

for prayer, in regard to temptation, most definite, and of all

others most needful. It was precisely this which Peter needed to

ask, but did not ask, when--of his own accord, and in spite of

difficulties--he pressed for entrance into the palace hall of the high

priest, and where, once sucked into the scene and atmosphere of

temptation, he fell so foully. And if so, does it not seem pretty clear

that this was exactly what our Lord meant His disciples to pray against

when He said in the garden--"Watch and pray, that ye enter not

into temptation"?

(Mt 26:41).

Seventh Petition:

But deliver us from evil--We can see no good reason for

regarding this as but the second half of the sixth petition. With far

better ground might the second and third petitions be regarded as one.

The "but" connecting the two petitions is an insufficient reason for

regarding them as one, though enough to show that the one thought

naturally follows close upon the other. As the expression "from evil"

may be equally well rendered "from the evil one," a number or superior

critics think the devil is intended, especially from its following

close upon the subject of "temptation." But the comprehensive character

of these brief petitions, and the place which this one occupies, as

that on which all our desires die away, seems to us against so

contracted a view of it. Nor can there be a reasonable doubt that the

apostle, in some of the last sentences which he penned before he was

brought forth to suffer for his Lord, alludes to this very petition in

the language of calm assurance--"And the Lord shall deliver me from

every evil work (compare the Greek of the two passages), and

will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom"

(2Ti 4:18).

The final petition, then, is only rightly grasped when regarded as a

prayer for deliverance from all evil of whatever kind--not only from

sin, but from all its consequences--fully and finally. Fitly, then, are

our prayers ended with this. For what can we desire which this does not

carry with it?

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen--If any reliance is to be placed on external evidence, this

doxology, we think, can hardly be considered part of the original text.

It is wanting in all the most ancient manuscripts; it is wanting in the

Old Latin version and in the Vulgate: the former mounting up to

about the middle of the second century, and the latter being a revision

of it in the fourth century by JEROME,

a most reverential and

conservative as well as able and impartial critic. As might be expected

from this, it is passed by in silence by the earliest Latin fathers; but

even the Greek commentators, when expounding this prayer, pass by

the doxology. On the other hand, it is found in a majority of

manuscripts, though not the oldest; it is found in all the Syriac versions, even the Peschito--dating probably as

early as the second

century--although this version lacks the "Amen," which the doxology, if

genuine, could hardly have wanted; it is found in the Sahidic or

Thebaic version made for the Christians of Upper Egypt, possibly as

early as the Old Latin; and it is found in perhaps most of the later

versions. On a review of the evidence, the strong probability, we think,

is that it was no part of the original text.

14. For if ye forgive men, &c.--See on

Mt 6:12.

15. But if ye forgive not, &c.--See on

Mt 6:12.

Fasting

(Mt 6:16-18).

Having concluded His supplementary directions on the subject of prayer

with this Divine Pattern, our Lord now returns to the subject of

Unostentatiousness in our deeds of righteousness, in order to give

one more illustration of it, in the matter of fasting.

16. Moreover, when ye fast--referring, probably, to private and

voluntary fasting, which was to be regulated by each individual for

himself; though in spirit it would apply to any fast.

be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure

their faces--literally, "make unseen"; very well rendered "disfigure."

They went about with a slovenly appearance, and ashes sprinkled on their

head.

that they may appear unto men to fast--It was not the deed, but

reputation for the deed which they sought; and with this view those

hypocrites multiplied their fasts. And are the exhausting fasts of the

Church of Rome, and of Romanizing Protestants, free from this taint?

Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

17. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy

face--as the Jews did, except when mourning

(Da 10:3);

so that the meaning is, "Appear as usual"--appear so as to attract no

notice.

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--The "openly" seems evidently a later addition to the text

of this verse from

Mt 6:4, 7,

though of course the idea is implied.

Mt 6:19-34.

CONCLUDING

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE

KINGDOM--HEAVENLY-MINDEDNESS AND

FILIAL

CONFIDENCE.

19. Lay not up for ourselves treasures upon earth--hoard not.

where moth--a "clothes-moth." Eastern treasures, consisting partly

in costly dresses stored up

(Job 27:16),

were liable to be consumed by moths

(Job 13:28;

Isa 50:9; 51:8).

In

Jas 5:2

there is an evident reference to our Lord's words here.

and rust--any "eating into" or "consuming"; here, probably, "wear and

tear."

doth corrupt--cause to disappear. By this reference to moth and rust

our Lord would teach how perishable are such earthly treasures.

and where thieves break through and steal--Treasures these, how

precarious!

20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven--The language

in Luke

(Lu 12:33)

is very bold--"Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves

bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth

not," &c.

where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not

break through nor steal--Treasures these, imperishable and

unassailable! (Compare

Col 3:2).

21. For where your treasure is--that which ye value most.

there will your heart be also--"Thy treasure--thy heart" is

probably the true reading here: "your," in

Lu 12:34,

from which it seems to have come in here. Obvious though this maxim be,

practically disregarded! "What a man loves," says LUTHER, quoted by THOLUCK, "that is

his God. For he carries it in his heart, he goes about with it night

and day, he sleeps and wakes with it; be it what it may--wealth or

pelf, pleasure or renown." But because "laying up" is not in itself

sinful, nay, in some cases enjoined

(2Co 12:14),

and honest industry and sagacious enterprise are usually rewarded with

prosperity, many flatter themselves that all is right between them and

God, while their closest attention, anxiety, zeal, and time are

exhausted upon these earthly pursuits. To put this right, our Lord adds

what follows, in which there is profound practical wisdom.

22. The light--rather, "the lamp."

of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single--simple,

clear. As applied to the outward eye, this means general soundness;

particularly, not looking two ways. Here, as also in classical

Greek, it is used figuratively to denote the simplicity of the

mind's eye, singleness of purpose, looking right at its object, as

opposed to having two ends in view. (See

Pr 4:25-27).

thy whole body shall be full of light--illuminated. As with the bodily

vision, the man who looks with a good, sound eye, walks in light, seeing

every object clear; so a simple and persistent purpose to serve and

please God in everything will make the whole character consistent and

bright.

23. But if thine eye be evil--distempered, or, as we should say, If we

have got a bad eye.

thy whole body shall be full of darkness--darkened. As a vitiated eye,

or an eye that looks not straight and full at its object, sees nothing

as it is, so a mind and heart divided between heaven and earth is all

dark.

If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that

darkness!--As the conscience is the regulative faculty, and a man's

inward purpose, scope, aim in life, determines his character--if these

be not simple and heavenward, but distorted and double, what must all

the other faculties and principles of our nature be which take their

direction and character from these, and what must the whole man and the

whole life be but a mass of darkness? In Luke

(Lu 11:36)

the converse of this statement very strikingly expresses what pure,

beautiful, broad perceptions the clarity of the inward eye

imparts: "If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part

dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a

candle doth give thee light." But now for the application of this.

24. No man can serve--The word means to "belong wholly and be entirely

under command to."

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--Even if the two

masters be of one character and have but one object, the servant must

take law from one or the other: though he may do what is agreeable

to both, he cannot, in the nature of the thing, be servant to more

than one. Much less if, as in the present case, their interests are

quite different, and even conflicting. In this case, if our affections

be in the service of the one--if we "love the one"--we must of necessity

"hate the other"; if we determine resolutely to "hold to the one," we

must at the same time disregard, and (if he insist on his claims upon

us) even "despise the other."

Ye cannot serve God and mammon--The word "mamon"--better written

with one m--is a foreign one, whose precise derivation cannot

certainly be determined, though the most probable one gives it the sense

of "what one trusts in." Here, there can be no doubt it is used for

riches, considered as an idol master, or god of the heart. The

service of this god and the true God together is here, with a kind of

indignant curtness, pronounced impossible. But since the teaching of the

preceding verses might seem to endanger our falling short of what is

requisite for the present life, and so being left destitute, our Lord

now comes to speak to that point.

25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought--"Be not

solicitous." The English word "thought," when our version was made,

expressed this idea of "solicitude," "anxious concern"--as may be seen

in any old English classic; and in the same sense it is used in

1Sa 9:5,

&c. But this sense of the word has now nearly gone out, and so the mere

English reader is apt to be perplexed. Thought or forethought,

for temporal things--in the sense of reflection, consideration--is

required alike by Scripture and common sense. It is that anxious

solicitude, that oppressive care, which springs from unbelieving doubts

and misgivings, which alone is here condemned. (See

Php 4:6).

for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for

your body, what ye shall put on--In Luke

(Lu 12:29)

our Lord adds, "neither be ye unsettled"--not "of doubtful mind," as in

our version. When "careful (or 'full of care') about nothing," but

committing all in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving unto God,

the apostle assures us that "the peace of God, which passeth all

understanding, shall keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus"

(Php 4:6, 7);

that is, shall guard both our feelings and our thoughts from undue

agitation, and keep them in a holy calm. But when we commit our whole

temporal condition to the wit of our own minds, we get into that

"unsettled" state against which our Lord exhorts His disciples.

Is not the life more than meat--food.

and the body than raiment?--If God, then, gives and keeps up the

greater--the life, the body--will He withhold the less, food to sustain

life and raiment to clothe the body?

26. Behold the fowls of the air--in

Mt 6:28,

"observe well," and in

Lu 12:24,

"consider"--so as to learn wisdom from them.

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?--nobler

in yourselves and dearer to God. The argument here is from the greater

to the less; but how rich in detail! The brute creation--void of

reason--are incapable of sowing, reaping, and storing: yet your heavenly

Father suffers them not helplessly to perish, but sustains them without

any of those processes. Will He see, then, His own children using all

the means which reason dictates for procuring the things needful for the

body--looking up to Himself at every step--and yet leave them to starve?

27. Which of you, by taking thought--anxious solicitude.

can add one cubit unto his stature?--"Stature" can hardly be the

thing intended here: first, because the subject is the prolongation

of life, by the supply of its necessaries of food and clothing: and

next, because no one would dream of adding a cubit--or a foot and a

half--to his stature, while in the corresponding passage in Luke

(Lu 12:25, 26)

the thing intended is represented as "that thing which is

least." But if we take the word in its primary sense of

"age" (for "stature" is but a secondary sense) the idea will be

this, "Which of you, however anxiously you vex yourselves about it, can

add so much as a step to the length of your life's journey?" To compare

the length of life to measures of this nature is not foreign to the

language of Scripture (compare

Ps 39:5;

2Ti 4:7,

&c.). So understood, the meaning is clear and the connection natural.

In this the best critics now agree.

28. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider--observe well.

the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not--as men, planting

and preparing the flax.

neither do they spin--as women.

29. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not

arrayed like one of these--What incomparable teaching!--best left in

its own transparent clearness and rich simplicity.

30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass--the "herbage."

of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the

oven--wild flowers cut with the grass, withering by the heat, and

used for fuel. (See

Jas 1:11).

shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?--The argument

here is something fresh. Gorgeous as is the array of the flowers that

deck the fields, surpassing all artificial human grandeur, it is for but

a brief moment; you are ravished with it to-day, and to-morrow it is

gone; your own hands have seized and cast it into the oven: Shall, then,

God's children, so dear to Him, and instinct with a life that cannot

die, be left naked? He does not say, Shall they not be more beauteously

arrayed? but, Shall He not much more clothe them? that being all

He will have them regard as secured to them (compare

Heb 13:5).

The expression, "Little-faithed ones," which our Lord applies once and

again to His disciples

(Mt 8:26; 14:31; 16:8),

can hardly be regarded as rebuking any actual manifestations of

unbelief at that early period, and before such an audience. It is His

way of gently chiding the spirit of unbelief, so natural even to

the best, who are surrounded by a world of sense, and of kindling a

generous desire to shake it off.

31. Therefore take no thought--solicitude.

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)--rather,

"pursue." Knowing nothing definitely beyond the present life to kindle

their aspirations and engage their supreme attention, the heathen

naturally pursue present objects as their chief, their only good. To

what an elevation above these does Jesus here lift His disciples!

for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these

things--How precious this word! Food and raiment are pronounced

needful to God's children; and He who could say, "No man knoweth the

Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him"

(Mt 11:27),

says with an authority which none but Himself could claim, "Your

heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things."

Will not that suffice you, O ye needy ones of the household of

faith?

33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and

all these things shall be added unto you--This is the great summing

up. Strictly speaking, it has to do only with the subject of the present

section--the right state of the heart with reference to heavenly and

earthly things; but being couched in the form of a brief general

directory, it is so comprehensive in its grasp as to embrace the whole

subject of this discourse. And, as if to make this the more evident, the

two keynotes of this great sermon seem purposely struck in it--"the

KINGDOM" and "the

RIGHTEOUSNESS" of the kingdom--as the grand objects,

in the supreme pursuit of which all things needful for the present life

will be added to us. The precise sense of every word in this golden

verse should be carefully weighed. "The kingdom of God" is the primary

subject of the Sermon on the Mount--that kingdom which the God of heaven

is erecting in this fallen world, within which are all the spiritually

recovered and inwardly subject portion of the family of Adam, under

Messiah as its Divine Head and King. "The righteousness thereof" is

the character of all such, so amply described and variously illustrated

in the foregoing portions of this discourse. The "seeking" of these

is the making them the object of supreme choice and pursuit; and the

seeking of them "first" is the seeking of them before and above all

else. The "all these things" which shall in that case be added to us

are just the "all these things" which the last words of

Mt 6:32

assured us "our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of"; that is,

all we require for the present life. And when our Lord says they shall

be "added," it is implied, as a matter of course, that the seekers

of the kingdom and its righteousness shall have these as their proper

and primary portion: the rest being their gracious reward for not

seeking them. (See an illustration of the principle of this in

2Ch 1:11, 12).

What follows is but a reduction of this great general direction into a

practical and ready form for daily use.

34. Take therefore no thought--anxious care.

for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of

itself--(or, according to other authorities, "for itself")--shall

have its own causes of anxiety.

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof--An admirable practical

maxim, and better rendered in our version than in almost any other, not

excepting the preceding English ones. Every day brings its own cares;

and to anticipate is only to double them.