Our Father in heaven: secret piety, the Lord's Prayer and the one master

Matthew 6 continues the Sermon on the Mount, which Matthew gathers into chapters 5-7 as the first of his five great discourses. (The class on Matthew 1 sets out the debates over Matthew's authorship, date, audience and sources.) The sermon is addressed first to disciples who have been called to follow Jesus (4:18-22; 5:1-2). Having said in chapter 5 that their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus now takes three of the most visible acts of Jewish devotion, giving to the poor, prayer and fasting, and shows how righteousness is to be practised before God. Jewish writings of the period often join these three. They were public acts, which is why they could be done for show.

Some of this chapter appears in Luke in other places. Luke has a shorter form of the Lord's Prayer, given in answer to a disciple's request that Jesus teach them to pray (Luke 11:1-4), and the teaching on anxiety and treasure appears in Luke 12:22-34. Scholars explain the overlap either by a shared source of sayings, which Matthew placed in his sermon, or by Jesus' teaching the same things more than once. The Lord's Prayer was soon in use as a regular prayer of the church: the Didache, an early Christian instruction manual from the late first or early second century, tells believers to pray it three times a day. Some scholars note similarities with Jewish prayers such as the Kaddish, though the date of its wording is uncertain.

The cultural setting matters. Almsgiving was a central duty of Jewish piety, prayer was said at set times in synagogues and in the temple, and fasting was practised on days such as the Day of Atonement and by devout individuals on other days. Most families lived near subsistence on farm or fishing income, so the questions of daily food and clothing were pressing, and not abstract.

Matthew 6 is instruction in the style of Jewish wisdom teaching, with parallel commands, short sayings and vivid pictures. It has a clear structure. Verses 1-18 give three examples built on the same pattern: a warning against doing the act to be seen by others, a statement that such people have 'already have their full reward', and a command to do it in secret with the promise that the Father who sees in secret will reward. Verses 19-34 move to the use of possessions and the hold of anxiety, linked by the theme of where a person's trust and treasure lie. The hinge is the repeated 'your Father', which occurs in nearly every section.

Three principles guide the reading.

• First, Jesus is not forbidding public worship or visible good deeds. In 5:16 he told the disciples to let their light shine so that others would glorify the Father. The target is the motive: the act done to be admired.
• Second, the images are vivid and not literal commands. Sounding a trumpet before giving, or washing one's face when fasting, are pictures of the difference between display and sincerity.
• Third, 'reward' is the Father's, not a payment earned, and the promises are not offers of earthly prosperity. The chapter says that God will provide what his people need, but it does not say that every believer will be free of hardship, as the rest of the Gospel makes plain.

The Lord's Prayer is the center of the chapter, and it should be read as a model of the content and order of prayer, in which concern for God's name and kingdom comes before requests for bread, forgiveness and rescue.

Verses 1–4

'Be careful not to perform your righteous acts before men to be seen by them.' The word 'hypocrite' translates hupokrites, a stage actor, one who plays a part. Those who give with a fanfare 'already have their full reward': the applause is all they will get. 'Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing' is a proverbial way to say that giving should be so unselfconscious that it is not even noted by oneself. The Father 'sees what is done in secret'.

Verses 5–8

The same pattern applies to prayer. Praying standing in the synagogue or at street corners was not wrong in itself, but doing it to be noticed is. The 'inner room' (tameion) is a storeroom or private chamber, and the point is that prayer is addressed to God, who is 'unseen'. Jesus also warns against 'babbling' like pagans, who thought a god could be moved by many words. The Father already knows what his children need. Prayer therefore does not inform God or persuade him, but is an expression of dependence.

Verses 9–13

'Our Father in heaven' addresses God with the family word, and the plural 'our' makes the prayer one that the disciples pray together. In Mark's Gospel Jesus addresses God as 'Abba' (Mark 14:36), and Paul says the Spirit enables believers to cry 'Abba, Father' (Romans 8:15). 'Hallowed be Your name' asks that God's name be treated as holy, and it can mean both that God himself will make it so and that his people will honour it. 'Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven' asks for the arrival of God's rule and for his will to be done on earth as in heaven. The three petitions are one request seen from different sides. Then come three for the disciples. 'Give us this day our daily bread' uses a rare Greek word (epiousios) that is hard to translate, and 'daily' is only one of the suggestions; others include 'for the coming day' and 'necessary for existence'. The point is the daily provision for needs. 'Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors' uses the language of debt for sin (Luke has 'sins' in his version). 'Lead us not into temptation' asks to be kept from the testing that leads to failure; the word peirasmos can mean both 'test' and 'temptation', and the line is not read as saying that God tempts anyone (James 1:13). 'Deliver us from the evil one' may mean 'from evil' in general or from the devil in particular, and the Greek allows both.

Verses 14–15

Jesus returns to the one petition he explains. Forgiveness from the Father is bound up with forgiving others. This is not a bargain by which people earn forgiveness. It says that a person who has received mercy and refuses to give it shows that he has not understood what he has received. The parable of the unforgiving servant makes the same point (18:21-35).

Verses 16–18

Fasting is treated in the same way. Hypocrites 'disfigure their faces' to be seen, while the disciple anoints his head and washes his face so that the fast is known only to the Father.

Verses 19–24

Treasure on earth decays or is stolen, but treasure in heaven is secure, 'for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also'. The saying about the eye as 'the lamp of the body' is obscure. A 'good' eye (haplous, single or sound) is likely a Jewish idiom for generosity, and a 'bad' eye for stinginess, so that the saying connects to the surrounding talk of money. The statement 'You cannot serve both God and money' makes the issue plain: both claim a master's loyalty.

Verses 25–34

The argument against worry runs from the lesser to the greater. The Father feeds the birds, and the disciples are worth more. He clothes the lilies in splendour greater than Solomon's, and the disciples are people of 'little faith' (oligopistoi) who forget it. Worry cannot add an hour to life. 'The Gentiles strive after all these things', but disciples have a Father who knows. The command is 'seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness', and the promise is that 'all these things will be added unto you'. The final line, that tomorrow will worry about itself, is not a rule against planning but a limit on carrying tomorrow's trouble.

The chapter's central teaching is the Fatherhood of God. The Father sees what is done in secret, knows what his children need, feeds the birds and clothes the grass, and gives good things to those who ask. This is the foundation of Christian prayer and trust. The Old Testament speaks of God as Father of Israel (Deuteronomy 32:6; Isaiah 63:16), but Jesus teaches his disciples to address God with the intimate family word as their own Father, a standing that the rest of the New Testament says comes through the Son (Galatians 4:4-7).

It also teaches the right order of prayer and life. God's name, kingdom and will come first; daily needs, forgiveness and rescue come next. In the same way, the instruction to seek first the kingdom and his righteousness places God's rule above every other concern. The doctrine of providence is stated in the pictures of birds and lilies: God cares for his creatures and provides for his people. This does not remove work, as the birds are fed and not idle, and it does not promise freedom from suffering, but it says that anxiety does not take the Father into account.

A third teaching is that the heart belongs to one master. Money is a rival master, and devotion to it is a form of idolatry, a point that Paul makes when he calls greed idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Forgiving others is bound up with being forgiven, in line with the warnings of the whole Gospel about a heart that has received mercy and will not show it.

This chapter does not quote a prophecy, and its Christological connection is Jesus' own authority and relationship with the Father. He teaches the disciples to say 'Our Father', drawing them into the relationship he has with God. Elsewhere in the Gospel he calls God 'My Father' (for example, 7:21; 11:27) and says that no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him (11:27). Paul says the Spirit leads believers to cry 'Abba, Father' (Romans 8:15), and Galatians 4:4-6 says God sent his Son so that we might receive adoption. The prayer therefore reflects a privilege that Christ shares.

As an echo, the argument 'how much more' (6:26, 30) finds its fullest form in Paul's reasoning in Romans 8:32: if God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also give us all things with him? The chapter's trust in the Father's provision rests ultimately on the cross.

The prayer for daily bread has been connected in Christian tradition to Christ as the bread of life (John 6:35), though Matthew does not make the link. The same applies to the petition for forgiveness. Matthew has said that Jesus will save his people from their sins (1:21), and the prayer for forgiveness is made possible by that work. These are connections made later in the New Testament and in the church's reading, and they are offered here as echoes. In the chapter itself, Jesus is shown as the teacher who knows the Father and speaks with authority about what the Father wants.