Chapter 6

Chapter 6. — On Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting. On Despising the Things of the World

¹ But I say to you, Do not swear at all; neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Since the Jews, hearing God saying, Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool, used to swear by such things. The Lord therefore, forbidding them, does not say that “Since heaven is fair and great, and the earth useful, for this reason do not swear,” but that the one is the throne of God, and the other his footstool, so that idolatry may have no place. For the elements would have been deified by those who swore by them; which indeed happened before.

² Neither shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. God alone swears by himself, as being subject to no one; but we, not having authority over ourselves, how could we swear by our head? For it is another’s possession. For if your head is yours, change, if you can, a single hair.

³ But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. Do not say, “And how then shall I be believed?” he says; If you speak the truth, and never swear. For no one is so distrusted as the man who swears readily. But whatever is more than these is of the evil one. To swear, he says, being more than the “yes” and the “no,” is of the devil. But you will say, “Then was the law of Moses, which commands swearing, evil?” Learn then that swearing was not evil at that time; but after Christ, it is evil; just as also to be circumcised, and simply to Judaize. Since to nurse at the breast, too, befits infants, but to grown men is a shame.

⁴ You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. The law, condescending, permitted retaliation in kind, so that through fear of suffering the same things, they might not wrong one another.

⁵ But I say to you, Do not resist the evil one; but whoever shall strike you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. By “the evil one” here he means the devil, who works through the man; must we then resist the devil? Yes; but not by striking back, but by enduring. For fire is not quenched by fire, but by water. And do not think that he speaks only of the blow on the cheek, but also of every other [wrong] and simply of every hardship. And to him who would go to law with you, and take your tunic, leave him your cloak also. If he drags you to a law court and troubles you, leave him your cloak also; not if he simply asks [for it]. And “tunic” properly [means] what among us is called the undershirt; and “cloak” [means] what is thrown over [it]; though indeed the names are used interchangeably. And whoever shall compel you [to go] one mile, go with him two. Why do I speak, he says, of cloaks and tunics? Rather, give your very body to him who unjustly drags [you]; and do more than he wishes. Give to him who asks you, and from him who would borrow from you do not turn away. Whether enemy, or friend, or unbeliever, whether he seeks money, or some other use. And by “loan” he does not mean that [made] with interest, but simply the use [of a thing]. Since in the law too they lent without interest.

⁶ You have heard that it was said: You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy; but I say to you: Love your enemies. He has reached the summit of the virtues; for what is greater than this? And it is not impossible; for Moses and Paul loved the Jews who raged against them, [interceding] on their behalf, and all the saints [loved] their enemies. Bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. For one must regard them as benefactors. For everyone who persecutes and tries us lightens for us the punishment for our sins. And besides, [consider] also when God gives us so great a prize. For hear:

⁷ That you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Do you see how great a good he gives you who hates you and spitefully uses you, if only you are willing to endure? And understand by “rain” and “sun” both knowledge and teaching; for God enlightens and teaches all.

⁸ For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans do the same? Let us shudder, when we are not even equal to the publicans, but even hate those who love us.

⁹ And if you greet your friends only, what do you more [than others]? Do not even the publicans do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father who is in heaven is perfect. For to love some men—those who are, of course, friends—but to hate others, is imperfect; but the perfect thing is to love all.

¹⁰ On despising the things of the world.

¹¹ Take heed that you do not do your almsgiving before men, to be seen by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Having led [them] up to love, the greatest of the virtues, he now removes vainglory also, which follows upon good deeds; and see what he says: “Take heed,” as though he were speaking about a dreadful beast—take heed lest it tear you to pieces; and even if you give alms before men, but do not do this in order to be seen, you are not condemned. But if you have vainglory as your aim, even if you do it in your storeroom, you are condemned. For God either punishes or crowns the intention.

¹² When therefore you do almsgiving, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be glorified by men. The hypocrites did not have trumpets, but he here mocks their mind, because they wished their almsgiving to be trumpeted. And hypocrites are those who are one thing, but appear another; and these indeed appear prosperous, but are other [than they seem]. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. For being praised, they received in full from men.

¹³ But when you do almsgiving, let not your left hand know what your right hand does. This he said hyperbolically; that, If it be possible, hide [it] even from yourself. Or also in another way: the left hand [is] vainglory; the right hand [is] almsgiving; let not vainglory, then, know the almsgiving.

¹⁴ That your almsgiving may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret, he will reward you openly. When? When all things are presented bare and open, and then I shall be glorified the more.

¹⁵ And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. These too he names hypocrites, as seeming to attend to God, but [in fact] attending to men; from whom they have [it] in full, that is, they receive their reward.

¹⁶ But you, when you pray, enter into your storeroom, and shutting your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. What then? Shall I not pray in church? Indeed [you may], very much; but with a right intention, and so as not to make a display; since the place does not harm, but the manner and the aim. Many, at any rate, praying in secret, do this for the pleasing of men.

¹⁷ And when you pray, do not babble, as the heathen [do]. Babbling is idle chatter; for instance, to ask for some earthly thing, glory, wealth, victory. And barbarism is inarticulate speech, like that of little children; do not you, then, be a babbler. For they think that in their many words they shall be heard. But one ought not to make long prayers, but short ones, [yet] frequent, and, uttering few [words], to be pierced with compunction in prayer.

¹⁸ Do not therefore be like them; for your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask him. For we do not ask in order to instruct [him], but that, occupying ourselves apart from the things of [daily] life, we may be benefited by calling upon him.

¹⁹ In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father who is in heaven. A vow is one thing, and prayer another; for a vow is a promise to God—as when someone promises to abstain from wine or from something else; but prayer is the asking for good things. And by saying “Father,” he shows you of what good things you have been deemed worthy, having become a son of God; and by saying “in heaven,” he showed you your homeland and your father’s [house]; for if you wish to have God as Father, look toward the heavens, and not toward the earth. And you do not say, “My Father,” but, “Our Father,” so that you may have brethren too, of one Father.

²⁰ Hallowed be your name. That is, Make us holy, that through us you also may be glorified; for just as God is blasphemed through me, so also he is hallowed through me, that is, he is glorified as he ought to be.

²¹ Your kingdom come. That is, the Second Coming; for he who has a conscience [made] confident prays for the resurrection and the judgment to come. Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Just as, he says, the angels do your will, so grant us also to do it.

²² Give us this day our daily bread. By “daily” [bread] he means that which is sufficient for our nature and constitution, he says; and he removes anxiety about the morrow. And the body of Christ too is daily bread, of which we pray to partake without condemnation.

²³ And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Since even after baptism we sin, we entreat that he forgive us; and he will forgive in such manner as we also [forgive]. For if we bear malice, he will not forgive us; for God has me as his example; and what I do to another, he does to me.

²⁴ And lead us not into temptation. We men are weak, and therefore we ought not to cast ourselves into temptations; but, having fallen [into them], to pray not to be swallowed up by the temptation. For he who is dragged down and overcome, that man has been brought into the pit of temptation, but not he who has fallen in, yet conquered. But deliver us from the evil one. He did not say, “from evil men”; for it is not they who wrong us, but the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory unto the ages. Amen. Here he gives us courage. For if the Father is king, and powerful, and glorious, then surely we too shall conquer the evil one, and afterward be rewarded.

²⁵ For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Again he teaches us to be free of malice. And he reminds us of the Father, that we may reverence him, and not become savage, being children of such a One.

²⁶ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Nothing does the meek God so hate as cruelty.

²⁷ And when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, gloomy; for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear to men to be fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. Disfigurement of the face is the pallor, when someone appears not such as he [really] is, but feigns a gloomy look.

²⁸ But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face, that you may not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. The ancients had as a sign of joy the anointing with oil after the bath; do you too, then, appear thus rejoicing. And by “oil” is also understood almsgiving. And our head is Christ, whom we must anoint with our almsgiving; but the face, that is, the senses, [we must] wash through tears.

²⁹ Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Since he cast out the disease of vainglory, he now speaks about possessing nothing. For since men acquire more out of vainglory, he shows the unprofitableness of the treasure upon the earth; that moth and rust consume foods and garments, and thieves [consume] gold and silver. Then, lest someone say to him that “But not all [men] are robbed,” he says: Even if none of these [befall], yet this very thing—your being nailed to anxiety about wealth—how is it not wretched? Therefore he says:

³⁰ The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye be single, your whole body is full of light; but if your eye be evil, your whole body will be full of darkness; if therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! This he says, that, If you nail your mind to anxiety about money, you have quenched the lamp, you have darkened your soul. For just as the eye, being single—that is, healthy—gives light to the body, but if it be evil—that is, diseased—darkens [it], so also the mind is blinded by anxiety. And if the mind be darkened, the soul becomes darkness, and much more the body.

³¹ No one can serve two masters. By “two masters” he means those who command contrary things, such as God and Mammon. And we make the devil our master, just as [we make] the belly a god; but truly the Lord is God, while Mammon is unrighteousness. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Do you see that it is not possible to serve wealth, which is also unrighteous, and God [together]? For the love of money casts him out from God.

³² Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your soul, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; nor for your body, what you shall put on. “Therefore”—because of what? Because of being cast out from God by riches. It is not the soul that is fed, for it is incorporeal, but he said this according to common usage. For the soul seems not to endure being in the body, unless the flesh be fed. He does not cast out working, but [forbids] this: the giving of ourselves wholly to anxieties, and neglecting God. Since one must indeed farm, but also care for the soul. Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than clothing? That is, He who [made] the greater, having formed the soul and the body, will he not also give both food and clothing?

³³ Look at the birds of heaven, that they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Though able to bring forward as an example Elijah, [or] John, he makes mention of the birds, that he may shame us, [showing] that we are even more unreasoning than these. And God feeds them, having put into them a natural knowledge for gathering food.

³⁴ Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his stature? This he says, that, Even if you are anxious, you do nothing, unless God wills [it]. Why then do you needlessly wear yourself to pieces?

³⁵ And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they do not toil, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. Not only from the unreasoning birds does he shame us, but also from the lilies that wither away. For if God so adorned those, though there was no need [of it], how much more will he supply the need of our clothing? And he shows that, even if you are very anxious, you will not be able to be adorned like the lilies; seeing that Solomon, the most prudent and most luxurious [of men], through all his kingdom was not able to array himself in anything such.

³⁶ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, [will he] not much more [clothe] you, O you of little faith? We learn from this that one ought not to be anxious about adornment. For this belongs to the flowers, which last [but] a season. So that everyone who adorns himself is grass. And by “you” he meant the rational [creatures], for whom he formed soul and body; and “of little faith” [are] all who are anxious. For if they had perfect faith in God, they would not be so unyieldingly anxious.

³⁷ Therefore do not be anxious, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or with what shall we be clothed? For after all these things the nations seek. Eating he does not forbid. But the saying, “What shall we eat?”—this he forbids. [It is] what the rich say from the evening before: “What shall we eat tomorrow?” Do you see that he forbids luxury and wanton excess?

³⁸ For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek first his kingdom, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. The kingdom of God [is] the enjoyment of good things; and this comes through righteousness. Whoever therefore seeks the spiritual things, to him are added also the bodily things, according to the bountifulness of God.

³⁹ Therefore do not be anxious for the morrow; for the morrow will be anxious for its own things; sufficient to the day is its own evil. By the “evil” of the day he means its affliction and hardship; for instance, It is sufficient for you to be afflicted for today; but if you are anxious also for the morrow, when will you have leisure for God, always wearing yourself down over bodily things?