Matthew 6
Matthew 6 — Commentary and Meaning
The short answer
Matthew 6 sits at the center of the Sermon on the Mount, and it asks an uncomfortable question: who is your religion for? Jesus takes the three great practices of Jewish devotion—giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting—and warns against doing any of them "to be seen by them," that is, by other people. The audience matters more than the act. Done for applause, these practices have already collected their full payment in human admiration. Done in secret, they are seen by the Father, "who sees in secret," and he "will reward you" (6:4, 6, 18).
That repeated promise of reward raises a real puzzle, and it is exactly where William Barclay begins his commentary on the chapter: if Jesus keeps promising that God rewards hidden devotion, what place does the reward motive have in the Christian life at all? Isn't seeking a reward just a subtler form of the showmanship Jesus condemns? Barclay treats the question as important enough to settle before reading the rest of the chapter—because the answer shapes how we hear everything else in it.
The chapter then widens out. The Lord's Prayer (6:9–13) models the kind of prayer that needs no audience: simple, direct, trusting. And the closing section on treasure, money, and worry (6:19–34) applies the same logic to everyday life. A person whose treasure is in heaven doesn't need to perform for others or grasp anxiously at security; "don't be anxious," Jesus says, because the Father who sees in secret also knows what you need. Whether you read Matthew 6 in the KJV or a modern translation, the through-line is the same: live your whole life before the eyes of God rather than the eyes of the crowd.
What scholars say
Barclay opens by naming the question the chapter forces on us—since Jesus three times promises that God rewards hidden service (6:4, 6, 18), what place does the reward motive have in the Christian life? Baab then shows the teaching still being lived: many of her acquaintances, she discovered, fast secretly in obedience to Jesus' words in Matthew 6:16–17 about fasting seen only by God.
“W HEN we study the opening verses of Matthew 6, we are immediately confronted with one most important question–what is the place of the reward motive in the Christian life? Three times in this section, Jesus speaks of God rewarding those who have given to him the kind of service which he desires (Matthew 6:4, 6, 18). This question is so important that we will do well to pause to examine it before we go on to study the chapter in detail.”
“The return e-mails poured in. Many more of my acquaintances fast than I had realized, and some fast quite frequently. Many of them do it secretly, seeking to obey the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:16–17 where he talks about fasting in such a way as to be seen only by God. This explains why I didn’t know they fasted.”
What it means for you
The test Matthew 6 sets is simple to state and hard to pass: would you still give, pray, or fast if no one ever found out? Lynne Baab's discovery makes the point vividly—when she asked around, she learned that many people she knew fasted regularly and secretly, precisely because Jesus taught that such devotion should be seen only by God. Their obedience was so quiet she'd never noticed it. That is what this chapter looks like in an ordinary life: generosity no one traces back to you, prayer behind a closed door, disciplines your closest friends don't know about. The reward isn't applause; it's the attention of the Father who sees in secret.
Matthew 6 in context
Matthew 6 is the middle chapter of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7). Chapter 5 raised the bar on righteousness—anger, lust, oaths, enemies—insisting on a goodness deeper than the scribes and Pharisees. Chapter 6 turns from what we do to why and for whom we do it, covering giving, prayer (including the Lord's Prayer), fasting, treasure, and anxiety. Chapter 7 will close the sermon with judging, asking, and the two builders. The hidden-devotion theme here is the hinge of the whole sermon.
Passages we cover in this chapter