Matthew 6:8

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 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, anymore 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 pagan! 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; because 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 newborn chil...

8._For your Father knoweth _This single remedy is sufficient for removing and destroying the superstition which is here condemned. For whence comes this folly of thinking that great advantage is gained, when men weary God by a multiplicity of words, but because they imagine that he is like a mortal man, who needs to be informed and solicited? Whoever is convinced, that God not only cares for us, but knows all our wants, and anticipates our wishes and anxieties before we have stated them, will leave out vain repetitions, and will reckon it enough to prolong his prayers, as far as shall be necessary for exercising his faith; but will reckon it absurd and ridiculous to approach God with rhetorical embellishments, in the expectation that he will be moved by an abundance of words. But if God _knows what things we have need of, before we ask him, _where lies the advantage of prayer? If he is r...

5-8 It is taken for granted that all who are disciples of Christ pray. You may as soon find a living man that does not breathe, as a living Christian that does not pray. If prayerless, then graceless. The Scribes and Pharisees were guilty of two great faults in prayer, vain-glory and vain repetitions. "Verily they have their reward;" if in so great a matter as is between us and God, when we are at prayer, we can look to so poor a thing as the praise of men, it is just that it should be all our reward. Yet there is not a secret, sudden breathing after God, but he observes it. It is called a reward, but it is of grace, not of debt; what merit can there be in begging? If he does not give his people what they ask, it is because he knows they do not need it, and that it is not for their good. So far is God from being wrought upon by the length or words of our prayers, that the most powerful...

Verse 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. 2ndly. DISSIPATION. _Enter into thy closet_. Matthew 6:6. 3rdly. MUCH SPEAKING, or UNMEANING REPETITION, Be n

EXPOSITION MATTHEW 6:1 _The_ _relation of our Lord and his disciples to the religion of the day _(_continued_);_ vide _Matthew 5:17, note. (_b_) Our Lord turns from cases which could be directly deduced from the Law to those which belonged only to recognized religious duty. Of these he instances three: alms (Matthew 5:2), prayer (Matthew 5:5, Matthew 5:9), fasting (Matthew 5:16). It is, indeed, true

BE NOT YE THEREFORE LIKE UNTO THEM,..... Do not be imitators of them, and follow their ways, who have only the dim light of nature to guide them; it would be shameful in you to do as they do, when you have a divine revelation for your direction; and especially, because YOUR FATHER KNOWETH WHAT THINGS YE HAVE NEED OF BEFORE YE ASK HIM; and therefore have no need to make use of many words, or much speaking, or long prayers. The omniscience of God is a considerable argument, and a great encouragement to prayer; he knows our persons and our wants before hand; and as he is able to help us, we have reason to believe he will; especially since he stands in the relation of a Father to us....

Matthew 6:1. _Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven._ Our blessed Lord does not tell his disciples to give alms, but he takes it for granted that they do that. How could they be his disciples if they did not so? But he tells them to take care that they do not do this in order to get honour and credit from it. Oh! how much is done in this world that would be very good, but it is spoilt in the doing through the motive done to be seen of men. «Ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.» Matthew 6:2. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you. They ha

MATTHEW 6:8 o` path.r u`mw/n {A} The expanded reading o` qeo.j o` path.r u`mw/n (aa B copsa Origen) occurs nowhere else in Matthew, and is a scribal intrusion reflecting a characteristically Pauline collocation of qeo,j and path,r ( Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2;...

CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The Better Righteousness.(Matthew 6:1 .) 2. Kept in the World; Single-eyed; Trusting God.(Matthew 6:19 .)_ Our Lord said: “For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in nowise enter into the kingdom of the heavens” (Matthew 5:20). This righteousness He had taught in His confirmation and expansion of the law, but now He speaks of something higher still. He makes known the motive of this true righteousness, which the heir of the kingdom is not alone to possess but also to practice. The motive is in all to act in the presence of the Father. The first eighteen verses of the sixth chapter shows this in a threefold relation. First, in rel

THE FULFILLED LAW IN RELATION TO THE LIFE OF THE PHARISEES. Mt. only, though the digression on Prayer (Matthew 6:7) has parallels in Lk. MATTHEW 6:1 is a general warning; three aspects of the mechanical righteousness that is done are given in detail in the following verses. Beneath the apparent contrast with Matthew 5:16 is an underlying unity. MATTHEW 6:2. ALMSGIVING. This practice was not enjoined in the Law; it was a work of supererogation earning special merit (Tob_12:9; Tob_14:11). Trumpets were sounded at public fastings in time of drought; services were held in the streets (_cf._...