The chapter — King James Version
Christ teaches on the mountain. Six teachings: alms, the Lord's Prayer, forgiveness, fasting, treasures in heaven, and the freedom from anxiety.
Alms (verses 1-4)
1. Take heed that ye do not 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 himself shall reward thee openly.
Prayer (verses 5-15)
5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11. Give us this day our daily bread.
12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
14. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Fasting (verses 16-18)
16. 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.
Treasures in heaven (verses 19-24)
19. 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, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Do not be anxious (verses 25-34)
25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26. 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?
27. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28. And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31. Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Who wrote it
The gospel of Matthew is traditionally attributed to the apostle Matthew (Levi), the tax-collector-turned-disciple named at Matthew 9:9. Early Church tradition — Papias in the second century, Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius — is unanimous that Matthew was the author. Modern scholarship dates the gospel between AD 65 and AD 85, most likely written in a Syrian setting for a Jewish-Christian audience. Matthew's gospel arranges Christ's teaching in five long discourses; the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7) is the first and most famous of them. Chapter 6 sits at the heart of the discourse — the middle of the mountain teaching.
Historical and geographical context
The setting is a hillside above the Sea of Galilee, traditionally the low hill called the Mount of Beatitudes, near Tabgha and Capernaum. The audience is a mixed crowd — Galilean fishermen, farmers, women, children — with the twelve disciples closest to Christ. The teaching addresses first-century Jewish piety (alms, prayer, and fasting were the three central acts of pious observance) and reframes them all around a common critique: not the practices themselves but the audience for whom they are performed. The Greek word Christ uses for "hypocrites" (hypokritai) originally meant "stage actors" — those who perform for an audience. Christ contrasts the human audience with the Father who sees in secret.
The chapter's structure
Matthew 6 has a clear tripartite architecture. The first block (verses 1-18) is the "in secret" section: three parallel teachings on alms, prayer, and fasting, each with the same rhythm — "when thou doest / when thou prayest / when thou fastest… not to be seen of men… thy Father which is in secret." The three teachings are strung on the same refrain like beads on a cord. The Lord's Prayer sits at the centre of this first block, an interior chamber inside the interior chamber.
The second block (verses 19-24) is the "treasure" section: three sayings on where the heart is invested — the moth-and-rust saying, the single-eye saying, the two-masters saying — all making the same argument in three different pictures.
The third block (verses 25-34) is the "do not be anxious" section: a sustained meditation on trust in the Father who feeds the birds and clothes the lilies, culminating in the imperative of verse 33: seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.
Christ-centred reading
The chapter is, unusually, Christ speaking directly. It is not a parable read allegorically for its Christological content; it is Christ's own voice teaching his disciples how to live under his kingdom. The Christ-centred reading, therefore, is receptive rather than typological: to read Matthew 6 is to sit on the mountain and listen to Christ set out the whole architecture of Christian household life — how the household gives, how the household prays, how the household fasts, how the household relates to money, how the household stops being afraid.
The Lord's Prayer itself (verses 9-13) is Christ's gift to the household. Every Christian home has some version of it. Every Christian child learns it before they learn to read. It is the prayer the Church has always regarded as the pattern of prayer — its shape, its order, its priorities, taught by Christ himself.
In Christian tradition
Matthew 6 is quoted more than almost any other chapter in the whole Christian tradition. Verse 6 ("enter into thy closet") founded Christian solitary prayer and the entire monastic movement. Verses 9-13 (the Lord's Prayer) are recited daily in every Christian tradition — East and West, ancient and modern. Verse 21 ("where your treasure is, there will your heart be also") is quoted in every generation's stewardship teaching. Verse 24 ("Ye cannot serve God and mammon") gave the English language the word "mammon" as a name for money-as-god. Verse 33 ("seek ye first the kingdom of God") appears on the church signs of every continent.
Among the Fathers, Tertullian's De Oratione and Cyprian's De Dominica Oratione both give line-by-line commentary on the Lord's Prayer as the pattern of Christian prayer. Augustine's Sermon on the Mount covers Matthew 6 verse by verse across two volumes; Chrysostom preaches on the chapter as the constitution of the Christian polity. In the medieval West, Aquinas's Summa Theologiae uses Matthew 6 as the anchor for the entire treatise on prayer.
The Reformation returned to Matthew 6 as evidence for the invisibility of true worship. Luther's Small Catechism explains the Lord's Prayer petition by petition. Calvin's Institutes devotes almost fifty pages to the Lord's Prayer alone. The Puritan household's morning-and-evening rhythm of prayer took Matthew 6 as its blueprint — the closet, the door, the Father in secret.
Iconography and setting
The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most-depicted scenes in Christian art. Fra Angelico's fresco at the convent of San Marco in Florence, Cosimo Rosselli's contribution to the Sistine Chapel walls, and Carl Bloch's celebrated 19th-century oil painting all show Christ teaching seated on the hillside with the crowd gathered below. The specific verses of Matthew 6 have their own iconography: the closet of prayer (verse 6) illustrated by countless medieval Books of Hours; the birds of the air and the lilies of the field (verses 26, 28) as one of the most frequent Christian symbols in stained glass; the two-masters saying (verse 24) as an emblem-book subject from the 17th century onward.
Household application
Pray the Lord's Prayer aloud together at least once a day. Not as a formula. As the household's shared voice.
When the household gives — to a person in need, to the church, to a stranger — do it privately. Let the left hand not know what the right hand did. This is not shyness; it is Christ's discipline.
Choose one "closet" in the household — a chair, a corner, a room — where morning prayer happens. Not a shrine. A place. Christ's own instruction in verse 6.
When the household is anxious about money, food, or clothing, read verses 25-34 aloud. Read them slowly. Let Christ's own voice interrupt the anxiety.
Related Scripture
- Luke 11:1-4 (KJV) Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer, given at a different moment.
- Isaiah 58:6-8 (KJV) Isaiah's teaching on true fasting — the pattern Christ inherits.
- James 4:13-15 (KJV) James's echo of Christ's "no thought for the morrow."
- Philippians 4:6-7 (KJV) Paul's summary of Matthew 6:25-34 in one sentence.
- 1 Timothy 6:6-10 (KJV) "The love of money is the root of all evil" — Paul on Matthew 6:24.
Related rooms
- PRAY · The Chapel — the household's prayer room.
- The Lord's Prayer · 25 languages — the prayer of Matthew 6:9-13 across the household of nations.
- A Library of Prayers — the household prayer book.
- READ · The Study — the household's Scripture desk.
Elsewhere in the Atlas
- Psalm 46 — "Be still, and know that I am God." The stillness Christ commends.
- Psalm 119 — the longest meditation on the word Christ came to fulfil.
- Jerusalem — the city Christ approached after this sermon.
- Return to the atrium.