6
“Make sure you are not doing before the eyes of others your righteous deeds”
1 “Make sure ᵖyou are not doing before the eyes of others your righteous deeds, to be noticed by them. If you do, ᵖyou certainly won’t have with your Father in the heavens any reward.
2 Therefore, when ˢyou are giving to the poor, don’t draw attention to it with trumpets like the hypocrites themselves do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: They have already received their reward in full.
3 As for ˢyou, when you are giving to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 so that your act of mercy may be done in secret. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward ˢyou.
5 Likewise, when ᵖyou are praying, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they like to pray on and on while standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the main streets, in order to grab people’s attention. Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: They have already received their reward in full.
6 ˢYou, though, when you are praying, go into your inner room where there are no windows; shut your door and pray to your Father, who is present in that hidden place. And ˢyour Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
“Our Father in the heavens…”
7 “When ᵖyou are praying, moreover, don’t babble on and on with empty phrases like the Gentiles do, for they think it is because of their many words that they will be heard.
8 So ᵖyou are not to be like them, for ᵖyour Father knows what you need even before you ask him.
9 These things in mind, this is how ᵖyou are to pray:
“ ‘Our Father in the heavens,
may the holiness of your name be vindicated.+
10 May your kingdom come.
May your will be done—
just as it is in heaven, so, too, on the earth.
11 Please grant us this today: The food we need.+
12 And forgive us our sins,
just as we, too, forgive those who sin against us.
13 And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.’+
14 Indeed, if ᵖyou forgive others their offenses, your Father in heaven will forgive you, too.
15 If ᵖyou don’t forgive others, however, neither will your Father himself forgive your offenses.
“Don’t put on like the hypocrites do a gloomy face”
16 “Furthermore, when ᵖyou are fasting, don’t put on a like the hypocrites do a gloomy face. For they dirty up their faces so that their fasting will be obvious to others. Amen, I solemnly tell ᵖyou this: They have already received their reward in full.
17 As for ˢyou, when you are fasting, anoint your head and wash your face,
18 so that your fasting may be done not for the eyes of men, but for the eyes of your Father, who is present in that hidden place. And ˢyour Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
“Where your treasure is, you see, there your heart will be, too”
19 “Don’t store up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moths and insects destroy and where thieves dig through the wall and steal.
20 Rather, keep storing up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor insect destroys, and where thieves don’t dig through the wall or steal.
21 Where ˢyour treasure is, you see, there your heart will be, too.
22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If ˢyour eye is generous, therefore, your entire body will be full of light.
23 If ˢyour eye is greedy, however, and selfish, your entire body will be full of darkness. If the light that is in ˢyou, therefore, is in reality darkness, then in the case of such darkness, how deep must it be?
24 “No one can be a slave of two masters. The slave would be expected to hate the one, you see, and love the other, or to the one be loyal, and the other despise. ᵖYou cannot be slaves of both God and money.
25 That’s why I tell ᵖyou this: Don’t worry about ᵖyour life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about ᵖyour body, what you will wear. Life is far more than food, is it not, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds in the wild: They don’t sow, they don’t reap, they don’t gather into barns, and yet it is ᵖyour Father in heaven who keeps providing them with food. Well what about all of ᵖyou? You are worth so much more than the birds, are you not? Of course!
27 “Now who of ᵖyou by worrying can add to his life so much as a single hour?
28 And why should ᵖyou worry about clothing? Consider the wildflowers in the field, how they grow: They don’t toil, nor do they spin thread.
29 Nevertheless, I tell ᵖyou this: Not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these.
30 Well, if this is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today but tomorrow is put into the oven, he is even more surely going to clothe ᵖyou, isn’t he, O ᵖyou of little faith? Of course!
31 “All this in mind, don’t ever worry, fretting, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’
32 Concerning all these things, you see, it is the Gentiles who set their hearts on them, and ᵖyour Father in heaven knows that you need every one of them.
33 Instead, continually set your hearts, before all else, on his kingdom and righteousness, and these things, all of them, will be provided for ᵖyou.
34 So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough difficulty of its own.