Shall reward thee openly. This turn of the sentence somewhat surprises us. It is not precisely what we expected. Making so much of giving in secret, and the Father seeing in secret, we expect to read, "shall reward thee in
secret ways." Probably the "open reward" is promised because the man who makes a show of religion does so in order to get open and public fame. (It should, however, be duly noticed that the best manuscripts and most modern editors omit the word "openly.") Plumptre thinks the addition of the word "openly" weakens and lowers the force of the truth asserted. The difficulty of dealing with the word is clearly seen in the notion of some writers that "openly" must mean "before men and angels at the resurrection of the just," about which, at the time, our Lord was neither speaking nor thinking. A good point, and one which is practically important, is this: sincere and humble piety, finding gracious expression in kindly, thoughtful, generous, and self-denying service, will be sure to gain open and public recognition. Christian goodness is no violet "born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air." Men want that Christian goodness in all the life-spheres; and they are quick enough at recognizing it when they see it.
I. CHRISTLY-TONED CHARITIES WIN MEN'S ADMIRATION. We are all keen enough to discern the differences in gifts. We qualify our admiration when we recognize giving on mere impulse; or to get credit; or to outdo others; or to bring business. We keep our highest admiration for evident cases of self-denial, simple benevolence, and Christian principle. Those who abuse Christianity admire the Christian charity which it inspires.
II. CHRISTLY-TONED CHARITIES WIN MEN'S CONFIDENCE. This is clearly shown in the very patent fact that, whenever there is a local or a national calamity, application is first made for help to the Christian people. There is a universal public confidence that, if any good work needs to be done, the Christians will be found ready for the doing. This is their open reward. Place, influence, power, in every generation comes into the hands of the sincerely good; and in this way God gives the reward which men are ever seeking, to those who do not seek it. - R.T.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
I. WHAT we are to seek.
II. How we are to seek.
1. First in time.
2. First in attention.
3. What are your desires?
4. What are your exertions? These last two will reveal the object of your search.
III. WHY WE ARE THUS TO SEEK THESE BLESSINGS.
1. Though destitute, as we naturally are, of His kingdom and righteousness, if we seek them in the manner here required, we shall obtain them.
2. Besides gaining this kingdom and righteousness, all other things shall be added unto us.Religion has a friendly influence over secular affairs; other things occupy too much of your time and attention.
1. This undue solicitude injures your spiritual welfare.
2. It is hurtful even to your temporal welfare.
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1. From the excellence of the objects which it proposes.
2. From the certainty of its rewards.
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I. The CONCLUSION" to which the Saviour arrives.
1. The carefulness forbidden.
2. The grounds on which the prohibition is founded.
(1)It is heathenish.(2)It is ungrateful.(3)Fruitless and unnecessary.(4)Unwise.II. The DUTY commanded us.
1. The objects we are to pursue — "The kingdom of God."
2. The precept given us respecting them — "Seek first."
(1)Make religion our earliest and primary object of attention.(2)Give it preference.3. The promise annexed to the pursuit.
III. THREE REFLECTIONS.
1. What a friend to man is Christianity!
2. What an enemy to our peace is a worldly spirit:
3. What a reproof does this administer to multitudes of the hearers of the gospel!
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Suppose a man should be religious for the sake of temporal advantage. Whatever a man's motive, that is the first thing. Therefore this man is not seeking first the kingdom of God, but the temporal advantages to which his religion is subservient. Do not let a poor man be tempted to think that because he is not richer, either he is not a seeker, or God is not a faithful promiser. Occasions on which we may especially urge this text: —1. Upon the young man just entering into life.
2. The man who is passing under some temptation to compromise a principle for the sake of some worldly interest — in friendship or business. Whatever be your engagements in life, remember that you have a prior one. And in whatever relation you stand to man, never forget that you have a higher one.Keep your eye on the eternal.
1. Remember that there is a kingdom within, in which the spiritual is to reign over the carnal.
2. That there is a kingdom around you, which is God's Church, which is your foremost duty to extend.
3. That there is a kingdom coming which shall put to shame all the riches of this present world.
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The word "seek" is contrasted with the same word used in the thirty-second verse: "After these things do the Gentiles seek." With what activity, zeal, are these things attended to!I. We need no argument to convince you THAT THE THINGS AFTER WHICH THE GENTILES SEEK OCCUPY A GREAT PLACE IN MEN'S MINDS. and necessarily so. Religious ordinances not merely for enjoyment, but to strengthen for the toil of life. But men postpone their salvation. This is against God's ordinance, "Seek first."
(1)In point of preference.(2)In point of time.(3)In point of anxiety.II. THE ASSURANCE CONNECTED WITH THIS COMMAND. This is a positive assurance; the fulfilment depends upon the faithfulness of God.
1. He argues from the less to the greater — "Is not the life more than meat?"
2. He takes us to God's providential care over the lower creatures.
3. If men indulge in disquieting care, what benefit do they derive?
4. Disquieting care is as unnecessary as it is unprofitable. "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things." A common objection is, "How is it that so many good people are in want?" Have they been seeking God first?
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of God: —I. WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD?
1. To have the whole of one's heart in subjugation to God.
2. To extend the Church.
3. To pray for and help on the Second Advent.
II. WHAT IS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS?
1. There was the righteousness in which man was first made.
2. There is a righteousness which is a part of the character of God.
3. There is a righteousness composed of all the perfections of the life of Christ.Now this is the righteousness which every good man seeks.
1. That it will justify him before God.
2. Then something that will justify him before his own conscience.
3. The comfort of the thought that it is not to attainers, but to seekers.
4. There is one God in providence and in grace.
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I. His FIRST DUTY.1. In priority of time.
2. In excellence of value.
3. It implies diligence.
4. It implies consideration. How the unjust steward planned his conduct.
5. Seek a personal interest in the kingdom of God.
6. Seek the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom.
7. Seek the glory of the kingdom.
II. His REWARD." Godliness hath promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come." God is revealed as love; will He allow His servants to starve? He has given a positive pledge" He spared not His own Son; shall He not with Him freely give us all things?"
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I. THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE PRECEPT OF THE TEXT IS NEGLECTED.
1. By the busy, anxious, laborious class of the community.
2. By the lovers of pleasure.
3. By the lovers of worldly honours and sordid applause.
4. By the professors of religion.
II. THE DUTY OF A STRICTER REGARD TO THE PRECEPT.
1. The kingdom of God is entitled to this deference.
2. If not sought first, will never be found at all.
3. In this search, all other essential throes will be granted.
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I. WHAT ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND BY THE KINGDOM OF GOD? The reign of God, the ascendency of God. Self is the great usurper. The righteousness named is the Christian character in all the details of practical religion. To seek them, is to desire these above all other things.
II. ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU. Temporal necessities. The kingdom of God, etc.
1. It will guard a man against those vain, ostentatious habits above his real income, which bring so many into difficulties, and eventually ruin.
2. It will preserve from those lax and slovenly habits of management which bring so many into ruin.
3. It will preserve from all dishonesty.
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Jacob's blessing has the preference over Esau's. It is well to obtain first "the dew of heaven," then the fatness of the earth. Things are only of value as God blesses them; God's gifts are better than His permissions. The promises of prosperity in the New Testament are small.I. HOW FAR MAY OUR TEXT BE USED AS A MOTIVE TO GODLINESS? Suppose a family with whom everything goes wrong, their best pains useless. No religion in the family. If I could work a moral change, I feel that the only way of avoiding want. No matter what means used, so long as the man is brought to God. But we must not make secular good the motive; this would not be seeking first the kingdom.
II. WHAT RESTRICTIONS DOES OUR TEXT IMPOSE UPON HUMAN CAREFULNESS? It gives no sanction to those enthusiasts who would renounce all worldly provision. Anxiety they ought to dismiss, but not attention; lay aside distrust, but not industry. Not to seek only the kingdom, but first; this implies a second. The text gives no promise of superfluities.
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1. A fixed design and resolution to that end. Like the term and end of a man's journey, towards which the traveller is continually tending, and hath it always habitually in his intention, though he doth not always think of it every step that he takes.2. Care and diligence as to the means. That we make religion our business, and exercise ourselves in the duties of it, both in public and private. With the same seriousness and application of mind as men do in their callings and professions.
3. Zeal and earnestness in the pursuit of it. The greatness of the design, and the excellency of' what we seek after, will justify the highest degree of discreet zeal and fervour in the prosecution of
4. Patience and perseverance in our endeavours after the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Notwithstanding all the difficulties, discouragements, the opposition and persecution we may meet with, for righteousness' sake.
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I. Constantly and sincerely make use of all means such as He hath prescribed whereby to obtain and practise true grace.
II. Consult and study the Word of God, wherein He hath revealed His will to you.
III. Make it daily your prayer to God, that He, for His Son's sake, will assist you with His grace and Holy Spirit in doing this.
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Take the flowers of the field. They do not reap nor plant; and yet God clothes them with beauty. Very good; the flower has to develop. There is not a single flower in all the wilderness, nor in all gardens, whether of the Orient or here on our continent, that does not work for a living. It sprouts from the seed. It sends down its roots, and every one of these roots is a purveyor hunting underground here, there, and everywhere; developing, spreading out, sucking within and sucking without, dissolving the mineral, pumping here for the juices that are to run up, and searching for water yonder. The willow finds moisture, even though you should not be able to. In darkness the long vine reaches out to the light, seeks it, and at last finds it. Every plant that lives and comes to perfect plant-life is a worker, only on the plane to which he belongs with his limited development, and with his limited organization. It works for a living; and what does it find'? What does the bird find? He finds that God so orders the affairs of this world that when ha works according to his nature he is provided for. The plant, when it works and develops itself according to the laws of its nature, finds that providence has provided for it. When a man works and develops according to his nature, he finds a providence that makes it possible for him to live and to thrive.()
Men are mistaking all the time what they are fit for. Shall a weak man go into the ring to wrestle? Shall a dell and heavy man go on the road to race? Shall an unskilled man undertake to carry on the most skilful shop? Men are all the time miscarrying and miscarrying; it is the collision between impotence and desire that is all the time putting them back; and they are worrying and fretting and anxious.()
1. Because nothing can happen to any without God's general permission.
2. Because nothing shall happen to His people without God's special direction.
3. Because in what does happen, the terms good and evil, as we are accustomed to employ them, are often misunderstood and misapplied.
4. Because sufficient will be afforded by every passing day to exercise oar powers and occupy our thoughts, without extending our views beyond.
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1. It renders us insensible to present good.2. It unfits for the activities of to-day. Anxiety depresses.
4. It gives a practical denial of the Christian creed.
5. It has a saddening influence upon others.
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Men are worn out, enfeebled, aged more by corroding care than by hard labour. Look at a housemaid; if she be bright, cheerful, high-spirited, her toil is performed efficiently and speedily, to the satisfaction of herself and her mistress. How different if she is cheerless and gloomy! "A merry heart goes all the day: a sad tires in a mile," observes our great dramatist; while the Chelsea philosopher says, "Give us, oh, give us the cheerful man that sings at his work. He will do more in the same time; he will do it better; he will persevere longer. One is scarcely sensible to fatigue when marching to music."()
A young lady once expressed to Hogarth, the great satirist, a wish to learn to draw caricature. "Alas!" said he, "it is not a faculty to be envied. Take my advice, and never draw caricature. By the long practice of it I have lost the enjoyment of beauty; I never see a face but distorted, and have never the satisfaction to behold the human face divine." So, by constantly looking at the dark side of their life, its distorted and unpleasant aspect — evils at hand and those looming in the distance — men lose the power to appreciate the blessings which are theirs, and make them an object of envy to their neighbours.()
I. Folly to be wholly taken up with the accessories, and neglect the principal.
II. TROUBLE NOT YOURSELVES ABOUT FUTURITY.
1. Do not anticipate your cares.
2. Do not add vexation to your life by forecasting and designing uncertainties.
3. Leave events to God's infinite, all-wise disposal.
4. Look after your present duty.
5. Reserve all your strength about you, to bear you up against present difficulties and temptations.
III. TOMORROW IS A NEW DAY.
1. Brings care of its own.
2. Brings new duties.
3. Fresh troubles.
4. Both its hands are full. Today has enough to do of its own; to-morrow brings its own harvest.
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I. THE EVIL OF PUNISHMENT.1. Afflictions.
2. Troubles.
3. Incumbrances and turmoils of life. Every day finds us enough to do. Every year brings us enough to suffer.
II. THE EVILS OF SIN.
1. Temptations and lapses.
2. Allurements.
3. Suggestions of Satan.
4. Enticements of the world.As if the load of cares each day lays upon our shoulders were not heavy enough, we ourselves do fetch in more grist, and heap more bags still upon ourselves, by bringing future cares upon us.
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We must regard this injunction as Christ here regards it, as flowing from faith.1. Faith may be intuitive. It springs at once from love. You have experienced hours when the Presence of a heavenly Friend seems most real; doubt was impossible. Such a faith is a defiance of life's evils, dares all futurity. The faith of love soars above all the sorrows of time, and gazes on the glory of immortality.
2. Faith arises from reflection on the revelation of God. The belief springing from love does not always live; it is fitful. In nature we find a Fatherly care extending to the least of God's creatures. Is it possible that faith in this Father can exist with anxious care for the morrow?
3. Faith rises from the conscious feebleness of man. The more we are conscious of our own ignorance and powerlessness, the more utterly can we leave the future in God's hands.
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The past belongs to gratitude and regret; the present to contentment and work; the future to hope and trust.()
1. This meeting trouble half way is both a sin and an act of folly. God watches over us as individuals. We are doubting God's love and care for us.2. This habit of looking out for sorrows makes us forget our past and present blessings.
3. It is a sin to meet sorrow half way, because our present troubles are sufficient without seeking for others.
4. It is a sin because it is a want of faith in God.
5. It makes us melancholy, suspicious, and unfit for duty.
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A man once planted two rose trees, one on either side of his house. The trees were equally strong and healthy, but after a time the one grew and prospered, the other withered and died. Then the man discovered that the living rose tree was on the sunny side of the house. Brethren, we must have the sunshine of faith and hope on our lives, or we cannot live. I have read of a little child who was often observed playing by itself, and laughing and singing with delight. They asked the child what it was playing with, and the little one answered, "I am playing with sunbeams." It would be better for some of us who are too apt to look on the dark side to imitate that happy child. If we allow ourselves to be always haunted by the shadow of fancied misfortune, we shall lose faith in prayer, since the black shadow will have eclipsed the face of God.()
Will you shudder at winter's snow whilst the flowers of summer are growing around you?()
Your feet will become so tender from treading on imaginary thorns, that they will not endure the true thorny path, and there is such a path for all to tread.()
John Newton says: "Sometimes I compare the troubles we have to undergo in the course of a year to a great bundle of fagots, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry to-day, and then another, which we are to carry to-morrow, and so on. This we might easily manage if we would only take the burden appointed for us each day; but we choose to increase our trouble by carrying yesterday's stick over again to-day, and adding to-morrow's burden to our load before we are required to bear it." "Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."I. ITS NATURE. It is a painful, growing, contagious, discouraging habit.II. The CAUSES of this unhappy disposition. Constitutional. Bad health. Lack of faith in God.
III. The REMEDY for this evil habit or disposition of mind. If the result of physical causes must be treated accordingly. If the result of constitutional melancholy must be borne patiently, etc. If from defective faith can only be remedied by an increase of faith.
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We may consider the year before us as a desk containing 365 letters addressed to us; one for every day, announcing its trials and prescribing its employments, with an order to open daily no letter but the letter for the day. Now, we may be strongly tempted to unseal, beforehand, some of the remainder. This, however, would serve only to embarrass us, while we should violate the rule which our Owner and Master has laid down for us.()
People
Jesus,
SolomonPlaces
GalileeTopics
Alms, Charities, Deeds, Giving, Kindness, Manifestly, Merciful, Openly, Recompense, Render, Reward, Secret, Seeing, SeesOutline
1. Giving to the Needy5. The Lord's Prayer16. Proper Fasting19. Store up Treasures in Heaven25. Do Not Worry33. but seek God's kingdom.Dictionary of Bible Themes
Matthew 6:1-4 5556 stewardship
8242 ethics, personal
8436 giving, of possessions
Matthew 6:1-6
5941 secrecy
Matthew 6:1-8
8332 reputation
Matthew 6:1-18
5909 motives, importance
Matthew 6:1-21
1660 Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 6:2-4
7912 collections
Matthew 6:3-4
5414 money, stewardship
Library
The Distracted Mind
Eversley. 1871. Matthew vi. 34. "Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Scholars will tell you that the words "take no thought" do not exactly express our Lord's meaning in this text. That they should rather stand, "Be not anxious about to-morrow." And doubtless they are right on the whole. But the truth is, that we have no word in English which exactly expresses the Greek word which St Matthew …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other SermonsThe Lord's Prayer
Windsor Castle, 1867. Chester Cathedral, 1870. Matthew vi. 9, 10. "After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Let us think for a while on these great words. Let us remember that some day or other they will certainly be fulfilled. Let us remember that Christ would not have bidden us use them, unless He intended that they should be fulfilled. And let us remember, likewise, that …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons
June 16. "Ye Cannot Serve God and Mammon" (Matt. vi. 24).
"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon" (Matt. vi. 24). He does not say ye cannot very well serve God and mammon, but ye cannot serve two masters at all. Ye shall be sure to end by serving one. The man who thinks he is serving God a little is deceived; he is not serving God. God will not have his service. The devil will monopolize him before he gets through. A divided heart loses both worlds. Saul tried it. Balaam tried it. Judas tried it, and they all made a desperate failure. Mary had but one choice. …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth
August 27. "Take no Thought for Your Life" (Matt. vi. 25).
"Take no thought for your life" (Matt. vi. 25). Still the Lord is using the things that are despised. The very names of Nazarene and Christian were once epithets of contempt. No man can have God's highest thought and be popular with his immediate generation. The most abused men are often most used. There are far greater calamities than to be unpopular and misunderstood. There are far worse things than to be found in the minority. Many of God's greatest blessings are lying behind the devil's scarecrows …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth
November 21. "Consider the Lilies How they Grow" (Matt. vi. 28).
"Consider the lilies how they grow" (Matt. vi. 28). It is said that a little fellow was found one day by his mother, standing by a tall sunflower, with his feet stuck in the ground. When asked by her, "What in the world are you doing there?" he naively answered, "Why, I am trying to grow to be a man." His mother laughed heartily at the idea of his getting planted in the ground in order to grow, like the sunflower, and then, patting him gently on the head, "Why, Harry, that is not the way to grow. …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth
June 10. "Your Heavenly Father Knoweth Ye have Need" (Matt. vi. 32).
"Your heavenly Father knoweth ye have need" (Matt. vi. 32). Christ makes no less of our trust for temporal things than He does for spiritual things. He places a good deal of emphasis upon it. Why? Simply because it is harder to trust God for them. In spiritual matters we can fool ourselves, and think that we are trusting when we are not; but we cannot do so about rent and food, and the needs of our body. They must come or our faith fails. It is easy to say that we trust Him in things that are a long …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth
February 12. "But Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, and all These Things Shall be Added unto You" (Matt. vi. 33).
"But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. vi. 33). For every heart that is seeking anything from the Lord this is a good watchword. That very thing, or the desire for it, may unconsciously separate you from the Lord, or at least from the singleness of your purpose unto Him. The thing we desire may be a right thing, but we may desire it in a distrusting and selfish spirit. Let us commit it to Him, and not cease to believe for …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth
Consider the Lilies of the Field
(Preached on Easter Day, 1867.) MATTHEW vi. 26, 28, 29. Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? . . . And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. What has this text to do with Easter-day? Let us think …
Charles Kingsley—Discipline and Other Sermons
'Thy Kingdom Come'
'Thy kingdom come.--MATT. vi. 10. 'The Lord reigneth, let the earth be glad'; 'The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble,' was the burden of Jewish psalmist and prophet from the first to the last. They have no doubt of His present dominion. Neither man's forgetfulness and man's rebellion, nor all the dark crosses and woes of the world, can disturb their conviction that He is then and for ever the sole Lord. The kingdom is come, then. Yet John the Baptist broke the slumbers of that degenerate people …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
'Thy Will be Done'
'Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.'--MATT. vi. 10. It makes all the difference whether the thought of the name, or that of the will, of God be the prominent one. If men begin with the will, then their religion will be slavish, a dull, sullen resignation, or a painful, weary round of unwelcome duties and reluctant abstainings. The will of an unknown God will be in their thoughts a dark and tyrannous necessity, a mysterious, inscrutable force, which rules by virtue of being stronger, and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
The Cry for Bread
'Give us this day our daily bread.'--MATT. vi. 11. What a contrast there is between the two consecutive petitions, Thy will be done, and Give us this day! The one is so comprehensive, the other so narrow; the one loses self in the wide prospect of an obedient world, the other is engrossed with personal wants; the one rises to such a lofty, ideal height, the other is dragged down to the lowest animal wants. And yet this apparent bathos is apparent only, and the fact that so narrow and earthly a petition …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
'Forgive us Our Debts'
'Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.'--MATT. vi. 12. The sequence of the petitions in the second half of the Lord's Prayer suggests that every man who needs to pray for daily bread needs also to pray for daily forgiveness. The supplication for the supply of our bodily needs precedes the others, because it deals with a need which is fundamental indeed, but of less importance than those which prompt the subsequent petitions. God made us to need bread, we have made ourselves to need pardon. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
'Lead us not into Temptation'
'And lead us not into temptation.'--MATT. vi. 13. The petition of the previous clause has to do with the past, this with the future; the one is the confession of sin, the other the supplication which comes from the consciousness of weakness. The best man needs both. Forgiveness does not break the bonds of evil by which we are held. But forgiveness increases our consciousness of weakness, and in the new desire which comes from it to walk in holiness, we are first rightly aware of the strength and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
'Deliver us from Evil'
'But deliver us from evil.'--MATT. vi. 13. The two halves of this prayer are like a calm sky with stars shining silently in its steadfast blue, and a troubled earth beneath, where storms sweep, and changes come, and tears are ever being shed. The one is so tranquil, the other so full of woe and want. What a dark picture of human conditions lies beneath the petitions of this second half! Hunger and sin and temptation, and wider still, that tragic word which includes them all--evil. Forgiveness and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
'Thine is the Kingdom'
'Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.' MATT. vi. 13. There is no reason to suppose that this doxology was spoken by Christ. It does not occur in any of the oldest and most authoritative manuscripts of Matthew's Gospel. It does not seem to have been known to the earliest Christian writers. Long association has for us intertwined the words inextricably with our Lord's Prayer, and it is a wound to reverential feeling to strike out what so many generations have used in …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Hearts and Treasures
'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'--MATT. vi. 21. 'Your treasure' is probably not the same as your neighbour's. It is yours, whether you possess it or not, because you love it. For what our Lord means here by 'treasure' is not merely money, or material good, but whatever each man thinks best, that which he most eagerly strives to attain, that which he most dreads to lose, that which, if he has, he thinks he will be blessed, that which, if he has it not, he knows he is discontented. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Solitary Prayer
'Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret,'--MATT. vi. 6. An old heathen who had come to a certain extent under the influence of Christ, called prayer 'the flight of the solitary to the Solitary.' There is a deep truth in that, though not all the truth. Prayer is not only the most intensely individual act that a man can perform, but it is also the highest social act. Christ came not to carry solitary souls by a solitary pathway to heaven, but …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
The Structure of the Lord's Prayer
'After this manner therefore pray ye.'--MATT. vi. 9. 'After this manner' may or may not imply that Christ meant this prayer to be a form, but He certainly meant it for a model. And they who drink in its spirit, and pray, seeking God's glory before their own satisfaction, and, while trustfully asking from His hand their daily bread, rise quickly to implore the supply of their spiritual hunger, do pray after this manner,' whether they use these words or no. All begins with the recognition of the Fatherhood …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
'Our Father'
'Our Father which art in heaven.'--Matt. vi. 9. The words of Christ, like the works of God, are inexhaustible. Their depth is concealed beneath an apparent simplicity which the child and the savage can understand. But as we gaze upon them and try to fathom all their meaning, they open as the skies above us do when we look steadily into their blue chambers, or as the sea at our feet does when we bend over to pierce its clear obscure. The poorest and weakest learns from them the lesson of divine love …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
'Hallowed be Thy Name'
'Hallowed be Thy name.'--Matt. vi. 9. Name is character so far as revealed. I. What is meaning of Petition? Hallowed means to make holy; or to show as holy; or to regard as holy. The second of these is God's hallowing of His Name. The third is men's. The prayer asks that God would so act as to show the holiness of His character, and that men, one and all, may see the holiness of His character. i.e. Hallowed by divine self-revelation. Hallowed by human recognition. Hallowed by human adoration and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Trumpets and Street Corners
'Take heed that ye do nob your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 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 have their reward. 3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; 4. That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Fasting
'Moreover, when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.'--MATT. vi. 16-18. Fasting has gone out of fashion now, but in Christ's time it went along …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Two Kinds of Treasure
'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.'--MATT. vi. 19-20. The connection with the previous part is twofold. The warning against hypocritical fastings and formalism leads to the warning against worldly-mindedness and avarice. For what worldly-mindedness is greater than that which prostitutes even religious acts to worldly advantage, and is laying up treasure of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
Anxious Care
'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. 25. Therefore I say unto you. Take no thought for your life.'--Matt. vi. 24-25. Foresight and foreboding are two very different things. It is not that the one is the exaggeration of the other, but the one is opposed to the other. The more a man looks forward in the exercise of foresight, the less he does so in the exercise of foreboding. And the more he is tortured by anxious thoughts about a possible future, the less clear vision has he of a likely future, and the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture
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