Matthew 6:1 The Law kept by Sincerity. I. It was the custom for great personages princes and governors and such like when making high procession through some favoured province, to sound a trumpet before them, and scatter largess of gold and silver, whereby they gained the good will of the poor. Ou... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:1 Running through this chapter are two lines of thought that become one in the deep underlying truth: I. The Father's claim. Born of God, we are bound to Him in the deepest, closest, most abiding relationship. This great love of our Father has its claim upon us. His love would have us com... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:2 Here we have I. A profound truth about human nature. Man, as man, works, as our Lord calls it, for a reward. II. A tragic contrast "their reward." There is another reward than theirs another and a higher. III. A judicial sentence which the Divine speaker passes upon some of the men o... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:5 I. "When thou prayest," the Lord says, "thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men." Neither the synagogues nor the streets were the appointed places of prayer. But a custom ha... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:6 I. By the word "closet" our Saviour is understood to convey an allusion to the room in the ancient Jewish dwelling which was set apart for the office of lonely prayer. Yet as "Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage," for the soul, neither are they, nor any material bou... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:9 _(with Romans 8:15)_ I. I observe, first, as suggested by the place where we find the words "Our Father," that when we can truly and intelligently call God by this name new life is given to our devotions. It is not without significance that the prayer, so simple in its terms and so wid... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:9 I. Mark the force of this petition. (1) Simultaneously with our discernment of the Redeemer's right to rule us, there is the regretful discovery made that we have withheld our hearts, and our fellowmen have withheld their hearts, from this gracious sovereignty. Recognizing this successiv... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:9 _(with Matthew 7:7; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; James 4:3; James 5:16)_ A question about which there has been a good deal of discussion of late years is the question of prayer. Are our prayers answered? If so, if we admit in general the efficacy of prayer, what ought we to pray for? Should w... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:10 The Kingdom of Grace within us. I. If the kingdom has to come to us, we must be by nature outside of it. This petition reminds us, then, of the fall and its consequences. True, the kingdom of God is around us; the light shineth into the darkness; love seeks the banished ones, even the... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:11 I. The Giver of bread is our Father in heaven. God is the only giver, and yet least recognized. Because He gives so constantly, so quietly, we forget to notice and to thank Him. (1) God gives, for there is none beside Him. (2) God gives good gifts, for He is God and He is our Father. ... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:9 , MATTHEW 6:12 I. The request. (1) We are in debt to God. We have only to listen to the voice of conscience to admit this at once. For amongst the deepest of all our instincts is the sense of responsibility a feeling that some things are _due_from us. (2) The Saviour's word, assuming the... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:13 Temptation from God and from Satan. I. Speaking of Satan's temptation is in itself a temptation, unless in humble dependence upon God our object is practical, to guard against the enemy, and to be prepared and strengthened for the conflict. The world does not know or remember Satan's e... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:16 Let us ask what is the use of fasting, for so we shall best come to understand the true methods and degrees of fasting. All bodily discipline, all voluntary abstinence from pleasure of whatever sort, must be of value either as a symbol of something or a means of something. These two fu... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:19 When Christ said these words, were there young people standing by? If so, they must have sounded very strangely in their ears. For youth does not realize that life on earth grows pale, nor in the midst of its treasures dreams that the day will come when they shall fail. But on the ears... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:20 I. This is one of those passages in which God takes hold of a strong master-passion of the human mind, and turns it to great spiritual account. The love of accumulation is such a principle in our nature that it will be doubted whether there is any man who is altogether free from the pow... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:22 The idea conveyed by a "single eye" appears to be, from its etymology, threefold. First, it means clear, with no film; secondly, it means in opposition to double, seeing one object at a time; and thirdly, it means concentration, centred upon a focus. These three thoughts mainly go to m... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:22 The illustration of the text has a twofold reference. It bears on what went before, and also on what follows. If we lay up treasures on earth, that will produce an evil eye; if we try to serve God and mammon, that will destroy the single eye. Look at the passage in both these aspects.... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:24 I. It is very difficult to make men believe these words; so difficult, that our Lord Himself could not make the Jews believe them, especially the rich and comfortable religious people among them. They thought that they could have their treasure on earth and in heaven also; and they wen... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:24 I. Anxious thought is contrary to the teaching of nature. (1) You are obliged to trust God for your body, for its structure, for its form, for its habitudes, and for the length of your being; you are obliged to trust Him for the foundation trust Him for the superstructure. (2) God gives... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:25 In Matthew 6:25 we have an argument against giving place to the cares of this world, on the ground that they are unworthy of an immortal being like man; and also an illustration pointedly leading to the exercise of faith. I. The question before the Lord was not whether we should be as... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:26 , MATTHEW 6:28 Consider the Lilies of the Field. I. What has this text to do with Easter Day? Let us think a while. Life and death; the battle between life and death; life conquered by death; and death conquered again by life. Those were the mysteries over which the men of old time tho... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:27 It is well for men to think that there are some things which, with all their power, they cannot do. The inquiry of the text serves to rebuke our anxiety and humble our impious ambition, by asking us questions which conduct us still farther into the glory and the mystery of God's kingdo... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:28 I. Consider the lilies and identify little things with God's care. Can you make a lily? You cannot make a _sun;_can you make one drop of dew? God writes minutely as well as largely. He writes the great letters of the stars; He writes also the small letters of the violets and daisies.... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:26 , MATTHEW 6:28 Consider the Lilies of the Field. I. What has this text to do with Easter Day? Let us think a while. Life and death; the battle between life and death; life conquered by death; and death conquered again by life. Those were the mysteries over which the men of old time tho... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:31 I. There is a kind of low-toned care which is heard, as it were, in the distance, surging and moaning as it breaks upon the shore of human life; and many a man's music is this melancholy dirge or undertone of human life. Those that have it not are often called children of levity, and t... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:32 I. In every suffering of body or mind the eternal God knows and measures most exactly our afflictions, be they what they may, great or small. The doctrine was known of old to the Psalmist, and was evidently a great and solid comfort to him. But it was most expressly declared by our Sav... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:33 Prosperity shall follow true piety. When it is said "Seek first" it means first in both senses of the term first in time, and first in emphasis. The intensity is on both of them combined. Aim mainly at the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the proper ends which you seek in... [ Continue Reading ]
Matthew 6:34 I. In considering this text the question naturally arises, Is not the Christian character essentially a provident one? Is it not the very nature of the new life which is within us, that, taking all its interests and affections out of the present, as it passes, it throws them on to that... [ Continue Reading ]