Matthew 6

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:8

Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of - Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven, and to put him in mind that There is his Father, his country, and inheritance. In the preceding verses we may see three faults, which our Lord commands us to avoid in prayer: - 1st. Hypocrisy. Be not as the hypocrites. Matthew 6:5 . ... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:9

After this manner therefore pray ye - Forms of prayer were frequent among the Jews; and every public teacher gave one to his disciples. Some forms were drawn out to a considerable length, and from these abridgments were made: to the latter sort the following prayer properly belongs, and consequently, besides its own very important use, it is a plan for a more extended devotion. What satisfaction must it be to learn from God himself, with what words, and in what manner, he would have us pray... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:10

Thy kingdom come - The ancient Jews scrupled not to say: He prays not at all, in whose prayers there is no mention of the kingdom of God. Hence, they were accustomed to say, "Let him cause his kingdom to reign, and his redemption to flourish: and let the Messiah speedily come and deliver his people." The universal sway of the scepter of Christ: - God has promised that the kingdom of Christ shall be exalted above all kingdoms. Daniel 7:14-27 . That it shall overcome all others, and be at... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:11

Give us this day our daily bread - The word επιουσιαν has greatly perplexed critics and commentators. I find upwards of thirty different explanations of it. It is found in no Greek writer before the evangelists, and Origen says expressly, that it was formed by them, αλλ ' εοικε πεπλασθαι υπο των ευαγγελιστων . The interpretation of Theophylact, one of the best of the Greek fathers, has ever appeared to me to be the most correct, Αρτος επι τη ουσιᾳ και συστασει ημων αυταρκης , Bread,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:12

And forgive us our debts - Sin is represented here under the notion of a debt, and as our sins are many, they are called here debts. God made man that he might live to his glory, and gave him a law to walk by; and if, when he does any thing that tends not to glorify God, he contracts a debt with Divine Justice, how much more is he debtor when he breaks the law by actual transgression! It has been justly observed, "All the attributes of God are reasons of obedience to man; those attributes... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:13

And lead us not into temptation - That is, bring us not in to sore trial. Πειρασμον , which may be here rendered sore trial, comes from πειρω , to pierce through, as with a spear, or spit, used so by some of the best Greek writers. Several of the primitive fathers understood it something in this way; and have therefore added quam ferre non possimus , "which we cannot bear." The word not only implies violent assaults from Satan, but also sorely afflictive circumstances, none of which we... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:14

If ye forgive men - He who shows mercy to men receives mercy from God. For a king to forgive his subjects a hundred millions of treasons against his person and authority, on this one condition, that they wilt henceforth live peaceably with him and with each other, is what we shall never see; and yet this is but the shadow of that which Christ promises on his Father's part to all true penitents. A man can have little regard for his salvation, who refuses to have it on such advantageous terms.... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:15

But if ye forgive not - He who does not awake at the sound of so loud a voice, is not asleep but dead. A vindictive man excludes himself from all hope of eternal life, and himself seals his own damnation. Trespasses - Παραπτωματα , from παρα and πιπτω , to fall off. What a remarkable difference there is between this word and οφειληματα , debts, in Matthew 6:12 ;! Men's sins against us are only their stumblings, or fallings off from the duties they owe us; but our's are debts to... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:16

When ye fast - A fast is termed by the Greeks νηϚις , from νη not, and εσθειν to eat; hence fast means, a total abstinence from food for a certain time. Abstaining from flesh, and living on fish, vegetables, etc., is no fast, or may be rather considered a burlesque on fasting. Many pretend to take the true definition of a fast from Isaiah 58:3 , and say that it means a fast from sin. This is a mistake; there is no such term in the Bible as fasting from sin; the very idea is... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:17

Anoint thine head and wash thy face - These were forbidden in the Jewish canon on days of fasting and humiliation; and hypocrites availed themselves of this ordinance, that they might appear to fast. Our Lord, therefore, cautions us against this: as if he had said, Affect nothing - dress in thy ordinary manner, and let the whole of thy deportment prove that thou desirest to recommend my soul to God, and not thy face to men. That factitious mourning, which consists in putting on black... read more

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:8

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:9

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:10

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:11

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:12

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:13

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:14

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:15

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:16

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 6:17

Verse of the Day

Daily Devotional

Group of Brands