Gary Eugene Howell uses the Berean Standard Bible. The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. The Text of the Berean Standard Bible was dedicated to the public domain as of April 30, 2023.

Verse 1

“Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before men to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Commentary

Up until about the 1950’s the word men was understood to mean all human beings rather than just males. So when Jesus, 2,000 years ago, said do not perform righteous acts before men, he meant “before people”. This could just as easily be a woman performing her righteous acts before other women. The verse is not speaking only to males. It’s referring to people. There are some versions of the Bible which have sought to replace the word men with the word people. The modern NIV and the NLT both do this. Regardless of what version of the Bible you read, just know that when it says things such as “if you forgive men their trespasses”, what it’s referring to is mankind, meaning people. Language changes over time. This is why having different Bible translations is beneficial, as well as having study bibles and other resources.

Performing your righteous acts in order to be seen by other people is an easy error for any Christian to stumble into. The reason is that advancement in business and culture is based nearly entirely on merit and who you know. To advance in nearly any aspect of this life, from high school team sports to employment, and throughout your entire career; it requires that someone of authority above you, notices your hard work, talent and good deeds. Only then might they choose to advance you into a better position of more responsibility, higher pay or greater authority. That’s the world we live in.

But when it comes to Christianity, God doesn’t want you to try to impress other people with your acts of righteousness and good deeds. Performing righteous acts to be seen by other people is a form of bragging. it’s source, therefore, is pride.

God, however, wants us to rely upon Him rather than on our own abilities and talents.

Furthermore, salvation is by faith, not by performing good deeds and righteous acts.

Verse 2

So when you give to the needy, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.

Commentary

Imagine there’s a person who volunteers at a food pantry where he helps to feed homeless people. That’s very kind and very charitable of him. But then when he attends his church’s prayer meeting, he asks that people pray for this food pantry where he volunteers. He describes to the members of his prayer group how he volunteers there and the work that he does.

His request for prayer, however, is a disguise. What he’s actually doing is letting his whole church know that he gives to the needy and serves the hungry. His boasting is disguised as a request for prayer.

Now let me be clear. This is a hypothetical example. There are lots of people who are both sincere with their prayer request, and sincere about the ways in which they serve others, including those who serve food to the homeless. Again, this is a hypothetical example of an individual who serves in order to receive recognition. It’s his opportunity to brag.

The objective should be to check your heart. Analyze your motivation. If you want recognition for your righteous deeds, don’t bother to do them.

Verses 3-4

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Commentary

Let’s be clear, the objective here is not total anonymity. The objective rather, is to not seek glory for yourself.

Here’s an example: If somehow someone secretly deposited a large amount of money into my bank account, upon discovering it, I would assume the bank made an error and I would go immediately to the bank teller to inform them that there’s been a mistake and that, that money should not be in my account. Because if you’ve ever experienced this type of bank error before, (which I have) you know that the bank is going to figure out their mistake, and they’re going to take that money back again. So if you’ve already spent it when they come looking for it, you’re going to be in big trouble!

Most good deeds can not be done in complete secrecy or totally anonymous. Good deeds often require the cooperation of others in order to bring about their fruition. For example, if you want to pay a needy family’s electricity bill, you have to call the electricity company and let them know of your intent to pay that family’s bill.

Another example; if you wanted to give $100 to a needy family at church. You have to go to the pastor or church deacons and ask them if there are any needy families at church. How else are you going to find out about such people? Then, you would have to give instructions to the church treasurer that the money you are giving anonymously is supposed to go to those people. The church treasurer is not a mind-reader, you have to tell him or her what you are doing. But the point that Jesus is making is that you must not seek to be honored and recognized for your good deeds. You are not announcing to everyone what you are doing. As much as is possible, do your good deeds in secret. When you need to enlist the cooperation of others, do so without trying to exalt yourself.

Verses 5-6

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. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Commentary

The same applies when it comes to prayer. If you are seeking to be honored by the people around you, or are trying to impress people with your self-perceived holiness, you’re doing it wrong! Prayer is about having a relationship with God. Praying in order to receive praises from people is one aspect of using the Lord’s name in vain.

Jesus is giving an example not a recipe. The objective here is not to suggest that the only legitimate prayers are ones delivered from inside a closet. We pray at church as a congregation, we pray in fellowship at our bible study, We pray with other people who have various needs. The point is not the act of locking yourself in a closet, although you can do that if the closet is a favorite place to pray, the point, however, is that you are not praying for the purpose of trying to impress other people.

The point of what Jesus is saying is not that you must be in a closet. His point is that you are not performing theater.

Verses 7-8

And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Commentary

Again, the Christian faith is about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. The pagans in Jesus’s time thought that by babbling on and on with their many words, they could somehow force God to hear them. That is not what God is looking for.

Verses 9-13

So then, this is how you should pray:

‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

Commentary

Jesus offers an example of how to pray. However, this is not a formula. It’s a template. The irony from verse 7 is that some Christian churches will stand to their feet and recite the Lord’s prayer every Sunday as a memorized babbling chant. I recall visiting a church and receiving the impression that the people sounded robotic when they recited the Lord’s prayer.

When we examine the Lord’s prayer bit by bit, what do we see happening?

‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.’ – This is giving praise to God.

‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ – We are seeking God’s will above our own.

‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ – We want to rely upon God for our sustenance, provision and needs.

‘forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’ – This is asking the Lord to forgive us of our sins and reminding ourselves that we also must forgive those who sin against us.

‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ – This is asking the Lord to be our guide as we walk through life and to be our shield to protect us from demonic influences.

So let’s review: Praise, God’s will, reliance on God, God’s provision, forgiveness, God’s leading and deliverance.

Notice that Jesus is giving an example of a prayer that is not a babbling, repetitive chant.

I often find humor in our group prayer meetings at church because there will almost always be someone who feels the need to explain to God the circumstances surrounding a prayer. Now, in reality, I understand that such explanations are for the benefit of the other people in the prayer group, so that they can know what it is they’re praying about, but it’s humorous to me that the background information is presented as part of the prayer as though God needs to be informed of something.

For example, someone might pray,

“Dear Lord, Marybeth fell on her steps at home last Tuesday and hurt her knee. Now the doctors are telling her she may need surgery, but she was planning to visit her grandchildren in Florida next week, and this surgery might force her to cancel that trip, so we come before you to pray for healing for Marybeth.”

My personal opinion is that if it’s necessary to give some background information to your prayer group members, do so before beginning to pray.

Verses 14-15

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.

Commentary

These two verses are a curiosity to me because if a person is saved, all their sins are forgiven. The Bible describes it this way:

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)

Therefore, if you are saved, in other words, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, even if you harbored some grudge against a person, (which is a sin) the Lord would forgive you of that sin. By putting our faith in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven.

Again, as stated numerous times in this commentary, we can not earn salvation. Salvation is by faith. Thus, by rightly dividing the word of truth, we must dismiss the idea that verses 14 and 15 are interpreted as our sins being forgiven by our good deeds. That would be an error.

What then do these verses mean? Let’s think logically about this…whose sins will the heavenly father not forgive? Those who do not put their faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, when Jesus says “if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.” To whom is he referring? He must be talking about unsaved people. They are the only ones whose sins will not be forgiven. Therefore, we can conclude that those who forgive men their trespasses must themselves be those who have already put their faith in Christ.

So, I am interpreting these two verses as being a type of external hint regarding a man’s internal condition. For the past several paragraphs Jesus has been warning against performing righteous acts to be seen by men. But now it would seem he’s flipping the example by showing us not what is external, but what is internal. If you are unwilling to forgive someone who has wronged you, it may be an indication that you are not yet saved. You have not yet put your faith in Jesus Christ. Because anyone who has put their faith in Jesus Christ, will come to a point at which they are willing to forgive those who have wronged them.

Verses 16-18

When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting will not be obvious to men, but only to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Commentary

Again, as stated before, do not perform your righteous acts to be seen by men.

Verses 19-21

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Commentary

Treasures on earth is an easy concept to understand. Anything that moth and rust can destroy or which thieves can steal could be considered a treasure.

If the intent of your heart is to place so much value on your material possessions that you’re inclined to store them up, they are to you a treasure.

For those of you who are young, let me tell you what a clothing moth is.

Clothing was once often made entirely of wool which comes from sheep, and there is a caterpillar that eats wool, that caterpillar turns into a moth. I’m now 53 years old, and when I was a little kid, (we’re talking about the late 1970’s and early 1980’s), I can remember that the homes of elderly people would often smell like moth balls. Which were like cotton balls covered with insecticide.

So it use to be, maybe just two or three generations ago, that without moth balls in the closet, a person would hang up a sweater at the end of winter and 6 months later when the weather started getting cold again, that person would reach to the back of their closet to pull out that sweater only to find it was full of holes because moths had gotten in there, laid eggs, and those caterpillars literally ate the sweater.

So Jesus is illustrating this example that moths can destroy expensive clothes and

Rust can destroy things made of metal.

So Jesus is saying “don’t set your heart upon storing up things that don’t last”.

My wife and I joke about middle-class America. Whenever you are walking or driving through a middle-class American neighborhood, and someone has their garage door open,

You’re likely to see that their garage has no room for cars because it’s filled with boxes of stuff. These things are stored up treasures that the home owner never uses. My observations have been that the same is not true for rich neighborhoods.

When the garage door of a large mansion is open, you’re likely to see only vehicles inside the garage. I could speculate on why this is, but that would be outside the scope of this commentary. The point I want to make is that it’s often the people who are not rich that choose to store up treasures in boxes filled with the stuff they never use.

There is a bible verse that says:

Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me…(Matthew 10:37)

We will get to Matthew chapter ten very shortly, but in the context of this chapter, just know that if you love anything more than Jesus, you are not worthy of Jesus. Thus, the danger of storing up treasures on earth is that you may love them more than Jesus.

Jesus’s advice is to store up treasures in heaven. What are treasures in heaven? Jesus is suggesting that what we do in this life can lead to the storing up of treasures in heaven. What did Jesus ask us to do in this life? What could those treasures in heaven be? I believe they are eternal relationships. Jesus wants us to go out to all nations and share the gospel.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)

So imagine this; in this life you make it a priority to either share the gospel with others or to financially support those who do. Rather than spending your money on treasures that you pack into boxes and store in your garage, instead, you use your money to support the spreading of the gospel. To support missionaries, printing Bibles into foreign languages, to provide scholarships for Bible school or seminary students, to give to gospel-centered nonprofits and charities, help finance church planting efforts, support prison ministries and hospital ministries, support christian media ministries and digital evangelism, contribute to christian radio, and tithe to your local church.

As a result of your efforts, people come into a relationship with Jesus Christ and then, at the end of their earthly life, they enter into the kingdom of heaven. Those same people, while in heaven, are going to come and find you, in heaven. They’re going to say “Thank you, because of what you did, we came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.”

From that time onward, forever and forever more, you and they will be the best of friends. Those eternal relationships will be to you a greater treasure than anything money can buy in this life.

 

Verses 22-23

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But 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!

Commentary

These verses have been interpreted in two ways; the first way this verse is often interpreted is out of context with our discussion of storing up treasures but is none the less a good point.

The way in which you view the world will often determine if you are full of light or full of darkness. If you go around, all the time, seeing everything as negative; if you spend all your time complaining about everything and criticizing everyone, you will be full of darkness. However, if you choose to see the good things in life, to be kind and patient with people and to give thanks to the Lord in all circumstances, your whole body will be full of light.

Rejoice at all times. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

However, both before and after verses 22 and 23, Jesus was talking about material possessions, money and wealth. So it seems to make little sense that he would suddenly interrupt his line of thought with something concerning a different subject.

Prior to these verses he said, do not store up treasures on earth. After these verses he says we can’t serve both God and money. So then in that context, what could it mean that your eyes are light or dark and your body is filled with light or dark?

It could be a metaphor of generosity or stinginess. You see a person in need but you’re not willing to help them because you want to save up your money to buy a new boat. That stinginess leads to your whole body being filled with darkness.

Whereas, on the other hand, you see the needs of others and you’re willing to help, or contribute or to take the time out of your schedule. You will be filled with light. You are the light of Christ.

Verse 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.

Commentary

What you value most is what you will love the most. If you value money more than Jesus, you will end up loving money and despising Jesus.

Verses 25-34

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 than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.

Commentary

Verse 25 begins with the word “therefore”, which means that what comes next is the conclusion drawn from what was previously stated. So let’s look back and review. Jesus said we can not serve both God and money, “therefore” he says, do not worry about your material needs.

He is now about to tell us that we shouldn’t worry about what we will eat, drink or what we will wear, in other words, our basic needs.

I personally define basic human needs as being: food, water, clothing, shelter, sleep, security, transportation, communication and relationships.

It appears to me that the overall idea being conveyed is that we should not prioritize above God, the earning of money for the meeting of our basic needs. We aren’t worried about making ends meet, instead, we are relying upon our heavenly father to be our provider.

By no means does this mean we can sit on the couch all day playing video games and expect God to act like our servant, balancing our checkbook, going through our mail, and paying our bills. Nor is God outside mowing our lawn or washing our car. He said;

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground…(Genesis 3:19a)

In Matthew thirteen, Jesus talks more about those who always worry.

“The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22)

If we prioritize money over God, and if we spend all our mental energy worrying about how we’re going to afford groceries and how we’re going to pay the bills, we are choking the word of God within us and are thus becoming unfruitful.

If, instead, we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things will be added to us as well. In other words, God is our provider. If we prioritize God over the pursuit of money and the worries of meeting our basic needs, we can have assurance that God will meet our needs.

Again, this doesn’t mean we can quit our jobs and just sit under a tree in the shade waiting for money to fall from the sky. We have to earn our living by the sweat of our brow. In other words, it’s God’s will that we work hard.

Although we are required to toil, there is no need to prioritize work and finances above God. God will meet our needs. We should trust in him more than we trust in the money we are trying to earn.

A critical part of your walk with Jesus Christ is learning how to rely upon Him rather than upon yourself. The God that is able to speak to the wind and the waves and have them obey, is the same God that can provide you with food, water, clothing, shelter, etc…

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. (James 4:8a)

Here is another way to interpret those verses and I tend to hold both of these interpretations together.

Jesus said, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”. There are a lot of people who go to bed thinking about their worries and they wake up in the morning thinking about their worries. They gobble down breakfast and rush out the door to go pursue the earning of money.

But what if the first thing you did every day was to seek God and his righteousness? In other words, seeking first the kingdom of God could be interpreted as a matter of priority, but it could simultaneously also be interpreted as the sequence of your daily events.

Jesus says the Gentiles strive after all these material things. But imagine if the first thing you did every day was to pray, read from the Bible and spend time with Jesus. Seek first, the kingdom of heaven. Then go to your job or your business to pursue money.

Drawing near to Jesus Christ requires self-discipline. Make the habit of turning off the TV at night, going to bed earlier, so that you can get out of bed each morning with enough time to pray, read your bible, have breakfast, walk the dog and still get to work on time.

Many successful people have given the advice that we ought to do the most important things in our day, first. Make the first thing you do each day, spending time with Jesus. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

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