Mateo 6

Verse-by-verse explanation

1. Mateo 6:1This opens the second section of the sermon, on religious practices — almsgiving, prayer, fasting — always with the same pattern: warning against doing them only to be seen, without denying the value of the practice itself.
2. Mateo 6:2There is no record of anyone literally sounding a trumpet before giving alms — it is an exaggerated image describing someone who gives to charity in a flashy way, making sure everyone notices. The contrast drawn here is between doing good to be seen and doing good without fanfare.
3. Mateo 6:3“Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth” is an exaggerated way of saying that the act of giving should be so discreet that not even the giver should boast about it afterward.
4. Mateo 6:4The contrast between “in secret” and “openly” sums up the argument: what is done without a human audience is still seen by God, and that is the reward that matters, according to the text.
5. Mateo 6:5Praying standing, with hands raised, was the common posture of Jewish prayer at the time, usually practiced at fixed hours of the day. The problem pointed out is not the posture itself, but deliberately choosing the busiest spots — street corners, the entrance of the synagogue — to be seen praying.
6. Mateo 6:6The closed “closet” contrasts with the busy street corners mentioned earlier — the instruction does not forbid praying in public on other occasions, but criticizes deliberately choosing the most visible places just to be noticed praying.
7. Mateo 6:7The “heathen” here are non-Jews, and the criticism targets a common practice in various pagan cults of the time: repeating a deity’s name or titles many times in a row, as if the repetition itself forced a response. The contrast is with a more direct, confident kind of prayer.
8. Mateo 6:8If God already knows one’s needs before they are asked, the prayer taught next does not serve to inform God of something He does not know — it serves another purpose in the relationship with Him.
9. Mateo 6:9This is the opening of the Lord’s Prayer, Christianity’s best-known model of prayer; “Hallowed be thy name” asks that God’s name be treated with reverence, an expression common in Jewish prayers of the time.
10. Mateo 6:10Asking that God’s will be done “in earth, as it is in heaven” ties the next request, for daily bread, to a bigger vision: that the order of heaven extend to the concrete things of life on earth.
11. Mateo 6:11“Give us this day our daily bread” asks for basic provision only for that day, without stockpiling — it echoes the story of the manna in the wilderness, which the Israelites gathered daily and could not store for the next day.
12. Mateo 6:12“Debts” here is a common way of the time to speak of sins or offenses — the request for forgiveness comes tied to the condition that the one praying has also forgiven his own debtors, an idea taken up again in verses 14 and 15.
13. Mateo 6:13“Lead us not into temptation” asks for protection against hard trials of faith; the closing line of praise (“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen”) does not appear in the gospel’s oldest manuscripts, and is probably a later liturgical addition.
14. Mateo 6:14Outside the prayer itself, this reinforces the condition already mentioned in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer: forgiving others is directly tied to receiving forgiveness from God.
15. Mateo 6:15This repeats the same idea from the previous verse in reverse, making clear that the condition works both ways — withholding forgiveness from others affects the forgiveness one receives.
16. Mateo 6:16During a fast, it was common in Jewish culture to cover the head with ashes or leave the face unwashed, a visible sign of mourning or humility before God. The criticism here targets those who exaggerate this sign on purpose, to make sure everyone notices they are fasting.
17. Mateo 6:17Anointing the head with oil and washing the face were normal, everyday grooming habits — the instruction is to keep that ordinary appearance even during a fast, instead of displaying visible signs of suffering.
18. Mateo 6:18This repeats the same pattern as the two previous examples, almsgiving and prayer: what is done without an audience is still seen by God, and that is the reward that matters.
19. Mateo 6:19“Moth and rust” describe the real risks of storing wealth in fabrics and metals in an age without banks — accumulated goods could decay or be stolen over time.
20. Mateo 6:20“Treasures in heaven” contrast with the concrete risks of the previous verse: it is a way of investing that, according to the text, suffers neither decay nor theft.
21. Mateo 6:21The sentence sums up the argument: where someone puts his own resources reveals, in practice, what that person values most — the heart follows the investment, not the other way around.
22. Mateo 6:22A “single” eye and an “evil” eye were common expressions of the time describing, respectively, a generous person and an envious or stingy one — not a literal description of physical eyesight. The comparison with light and darkness expands on this: the way someone looks at the world colors everything that person does afterward.
23. Mateo 6:23This completes the image from the previous verse about the “single” eye (generous) and the “evil” eye (stingy): if what should bring clarity to life is corrupted, the result is an even deeper darkness.
24. Mateo 6:24“Mammon” is an Aramaic word meaning wealth or material goods, sometimes used almost as if it were the name of a rival power competing for someone’s loyalty. The sentence does not treat money as wrong in itself, but describes how it demands the kind of devotion that should belong only to one central commitment in life.
25. Mateo 6:25This introduces the section on anxiety about food and clothing — two basic survival concerns, especially real in an agrarian society with no guaranteed harvest.
26. Mateo 6:26The “fowls of the air” do not store food the way humans do, and yet they survive; the argument uses this simple, everyday example to question the value of excessive worry.
27. Mateo 6:27The “cubit” was a unit of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, used to measure both people’s height and buildings. The question is rhetorical: no one can, just by worrying, add even that small measure to his own height.
28. Mateo 6:28The “lilies of the field” were wildflowers common in the Galilee region, used here as another example of something that neither labors nor produces and yet turns out beautiful without effort.
29. Mateo 6:29Solomon was remembered as the richest and best-dressed king in Israel’s history; saying that even he could not compare to the lilies reinforces the argument’s deliberate exaggeration.
30. Mateo 6:30The “grass of the field,” used as fuel for the oven in an age without other easy fuel sources, had a short life and no lasting value — yet it still received this care from nature, according to the argument.
31. Mateo 6:31This sums up, in question form, the three basic concerns the text has been addressing since verse 25: food, drink, and clothing.
32. Mateo 6:32“The Gentiles” here describes anyone living without trust in this caring Father — constant worry over basic needs is treated as the pattern of someone lacking that relationship, not as something exclusive to one people.
33. Mateo 6:33This is the central point of the whole section: seeking the kingdom of God is set as a greater priority than the basic needs discussed so far, without denying that those needs are real.
34. Mateo 6:34This closes the teaching with a practical principle: dividing worry into daily portions, instead of piling up all at once the anxiety of days that have not even arrived yet.