Chapter 6

1Jesus said, “Be careful not to do your good deeds in front of people simply to be noticed by them. If you do, you will receive no reward from your Father in heaven.

2So whenever you give to people in need, do not have a trumpet sounded ahead of you. People who put on a religious show do that in the synagogues and streets so that others will praise them. I tell you the truth: they have already received their full reward.

3When you give to people in need, do it so quietly that your left hand does not know what your right hand is doing.

4Let your giving remain private. Then your Father, who sees what happens in private, will reward you.

5Whenever you pray, do not be like people who put on a religious show. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others will notice them. I tell you the truth: they have already received their full reward.

6When you pray, go into a private room, close the door, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees what happens in private, will reward you.

7When you pray, do not pile up meaningless phrases as non-Jews do. They think they will be heard because they use so many words.

8Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9So pray in this way: “Our Father in heaven, may your name be treated as holy.

10“May your royal rule come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

11“Give us today the bread we need for the day.

12“Forgive our debts to you, just as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.

13“Do not bring us into a time of testing, but rescue us from evil.”

14Jesus continued, “If you forgive people for the wrongs they have done, your Father in heaven will also forgive you.

15But if you do not forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongs either.

16Whenever you fast, do not look gloomy like people who put on a religious show. They make their faces look miserable so that others will notice they are fasting. I tell you the truth: they have already received their full reward.

17When you fast, put oil on your hair and wash your face as usual.

18Then other people will not notice that you are fasting, but your Father will know. Your Father, who sees what happens in private, will reward you.

19Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and decay destroy them and thieves break through walls and steal them.

20Instead, store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moths nor decay destroy them and thieves do not break in and steal them.

21Wherever your treasure is, your heart will be there too.

22The eye is the body’s lamp. If your eye is clear—if you look at others with generosity—your whole body will be full of light.

23But if your eye is evil—if you look with greed—your whole body will be full of darkness. If the light within you is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

24No one can serve two masters. You will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and look down on the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth.

25That is why I tell you not to worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?

26Look at the birds in the sky. They do not plant seeds, harvest crops, or gather food into barns, yet your Father in heaven feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are?

27Can any of you make your life even a little longer by worrying?

28Why worry about clothing? Look carefully at how the lilies in the fields grow. They do not work or spin thread for clothes.

29Yet I tell you that even King Solomon, in all his wealth and splendor, was not dressed as beautifully as one of these flowers.

30God dresses the grass of the field this way, even though it is alive today and thrown into an oven tomorrow. Won’t he do much more for you? Your trust is so small!

31So do not worry and ask, ‘What will we eat?’ ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’

32Non-Jewish people chase after all these things. Your Father in heaven already knows that you need them all.

33Instead, make God’s rule and what is right in his eyes your first concern. Then he will also provide all these things for you.

34So do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will bring its own worries. Each day already has enough trouble of its own.