REFUEL - Matthew 6:1-18

REFUEL – Matthew 6:1-18

The ‘low down’ on a Bible study:
• Your role in a study is to become a DETECTIVE not a passive participant.
• It’s not KNOWING the Word of God that changes you, it’s what it does it your heart that changes you.
• Bible study is a SPIRITUAL practice like solitude, silence, prayer and fasting. They are all essential in your spiritual growth.
• Meditating and Memorizing God’s word is the BEST way to allow it to sit and soak into your soul.
• Be careful to make your knowledge of God’s word ‘ RECYCLED knowledge’.
• Always ‘test and approve’ those that teach the Word. Never ACCEPT the fact just because they taught it, it should be correct.


The 4 C’s of a Bible study

Fundamental Principle: It can’t MEAN what it never MEANT .
The scriptures weren’t written to us, they were written to another culture in another setting. In order to know what it means you must determine what it meant to them. ONLY then can you determine what it means to us.


CHARACTER : What perspective was he coming from? In other words what’s his angle?

CONTEXT :Why was he saying this? In other words it can’t mean what it never meant.

CLIMATE : What was going on during this time? In other words how did the political, spiritual and economic climate affect what was being written.
CULTURE : What do we know about the culture? In other words what was unique in that culture that defines the text.

Final way to study the scriptures:

O BSERVATION : Read it once and the question “What do I OBSERVE about what I am reading, in other words what stands out?”

I NTERPRETATION : Read it again and ask the question “What QUESTIONS do I have about the text that I need to find out. This is where the 4 C’s of Bible Study come into play.

A PPLICATION : Read it one final time and ask the question, “What is one thing I can take away from this text and APPLY into my life?”

Character: What perspective was he coming from? In other words what’s his angle?
We know that he was Jewish tax collector who became one of Jesus disciples. He was writing to PROVE that Jesus is the Messiah, the eternal King.


Climate: What was going on during this time? In other words how did the political, spiritual and economic climate affect what was being written. The initial reading of the passage will show that the basic teaching of Jesus will be to avoid the SHOW and to seek to please God. His instruction was that it is best to hide any PERSONAL acts that may lead to wrong motives and thereby ensure that they will be done for God. The three samples He gave are at the heart of personal piety (godliness): GIVING to the poor, PRAYER and FASTING .


Culture: What do we know about the culture? In other words what was unique in that culture that defines the text. Fasting, prayer and giving was MANDATORY for the Jewish people. Fasting was done once a year on the day of atonement (Leviticus 23:32) The Pharisees fasted 2x’s a week. Giving was a part of a law (Exodus 23:10) and prayer was a part of the Jewish tradition (Genesis 20:7)

Context: What’s the general overview of what the author was saying?

• This passage can be divided up into three specific parts which deal respectively with almsgiving (6:2-4), prayer (6:5-15) and fasting (6:16-18) - each of which were a necessary part of first century religious life but which needed a REDEFINING for the life of the disciple of Christ seeing as their exploitation had produced a society that was demonstrable in its outward observance of its service of God but which was running on empty most of the time. This entire passage, therefore, although dealing with just the three religious principles of almsgiving, prayer and fasting, are a good summary of the principles of PURE religion and what it means to offer false service to God.


• One word which occurs in each of these three and which warrants special dealing with is the word ‘HYPOCRITE’.

• Jesus associates this word (Strongs Greek number 5273) with all three religious duties (Mtw 6:2,5,16)

• The NT uses the word in a negative sense as meaning someone who gives a false representation of who he really is. But the nature of the word was more of a description not an accusation like a ‘ PLAY ACTOR ’ ‘It was a custom for Greek and Roman actors to speak in large masks with mechanical devices for augmenting the force of the voice’ The ‘hypocrite’ of the NT is normally a religious observer who gives a good outward show of his piety (godliness) but who, inwardly, is not the type of person that his actions would otherwise indicate.





Mtw 6:1 Introduction

Almsgiving was so essential a part of righteousness as the Jews had come to understand it, that the words had become almost
Synonymous with RIGHTEOUSNESS

Jesus says that the three religious exercises (almsgiving, prayer and fasting) are done by the ‘hypocrites’, the ‘play actors’, so that
the people who do them can be both PRAISED and seen by men and women (Mtw 6:2,5,16) and, that by
doing such things publicly, they are receiving any reward they are likely to get (Mtw 6:2,5,16).

If the disciple performs religious duties before God, he must be careful to do them solely for Him and not have, as some ulterior
motive, the desire to be seen and regarded highly by men. The Greek word translated here by ‘seen’ (Strongs Greek number
2300) conveys the concept, ‘...spectators and denotes ATTENTIVE SEEING

The Greek word for ‘reward’ which is the same one used not only in Mtw 6:1 but throughout the passage in each of the three
religious services (Strongs Greek number 3408) means, generally, ‘ WAGES , this doesn’t mean they won’t
be blessed but rather they have received their immediate payment.

All three religious duties, Jesus speaks about ‘ WHEN they are performed not ‘ IF (6:2, 6:5, 6:15), thus
indicating to any disciple of the present age that none of these have been discarded in the new order of things and that help for
the poor, prayer to God and fasting before Him are all still INTEGRAL parts of what it means to be
a follower of Christ.

Mtw 6:2-4 Alms (Giving)

The word, which is derived from another Greek word meaning ‘ MERCIFUL ’ (and is used, for instance, in Mtw 5:7
in the beatitude mentioning the ‘merciful’ - Strongs Greek word 1655) is defined by Vines as meaning ‘mercy, pity’ and then, as a
natural PROGESSION from this feeling of compassion, the giving of certain gifts to the less well off,
presumably based upon one’s feeling of pity directed at those who receive the charitable act.

Almsgiving is any act of giving to the LESS well off that is based on a feeling of compassion, pity or mercy in the
bestower of the gift.

Deut 15:11 - which gives the summation of all almsgiving - states that ‘For the poor will never cease out of the land;
therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land’ and the
provision of the Law in, for instance, the legislation of the sabbatical (seventh) years (Ex 23:10-11) was a demonstration of the
nation’s commitment to help their poorer brethren to be able to maintain themselves based upon a command of God that, once
prosperous, they should not overlook those among them who were struggling to live adequately. The Law also commanded
annual provision for the poor from the extra yield of the fields that the farmers were forbidden to collect (Lev 23:22), giving
them over rather to the hard work of those who obtained their livelihood from such omissions of the harvest.


Throughout the Law, abundant provision was made by God to command the Jews to look after their OWN , not
only on a yearly and sabbatical basis but by the command, previously quoted, that the Israelite was forbidden to turn a blind
eye to those among them who were materially poor.

Righteousness was also considered to be IMPARTER to the almsgiver in one specific act of giving where the
garment of clothing was to be restored to the Israelite before the sun went down if it had been taken as a pledge (Deut 24:13).

Therefore, in their seeking out justification of their existence on earth from God, Judaism appears to have turned to certain
practices, amongst them almsgiving, that SELF SAVED themselves in the sight of God and which
prompted the Lord (like some cause and effect relationship) to have to look down from heaven and to both REDEEM and
save those who bestowed such acts of kindness on the poor. Salvation, therefore, became not based upon the mercy of God but
on the KINDNESS of mankind, and almsgiving became uprooted from a reliance upon the necessary emotions of pity and
mercy and, rather, was seen to reside in a religious duty that was beneficial and a source of immediate return to the person who
performed it. ‘Righteousness and almsgiving came to regarded as synonymous terms.

In first century Judaism, there was both a ‘ POOR FUND ’ and a ‘pauper’s dish’ which appear to have been corporately collected purses that were used to bestow money on the needy wherever they were but there were strict rules set out as to who could benefit from such a fund. But, above all, although almsgiving was something that was expected of His followers (notice that Mtw 6:2 states ‘when you give alms’ not ‘if you give alms’), it was still a matter of personal commitment and of allowing God to direct individual hearts as He so chose to do.

The early Church saw almsgiving as a RESPONSE to the love of God and not as a meritorious act which won the love of God for themselves. Therefore the disciple should ‘sound no trumpet’ before them and such a phrase more rightly means that the disciple should be concerned not to draw attention to himself whenever (not ‘if’) he performs charitable acts towards the poor.

The word for ‘streets’ here (Strongs Greek number 4505) also points towards a place where almsgiving can be seen and displayed in the sight of men and women. It is better rendered ‘ NARROW STREET ’ or ‘alleyway’ that is shut in by buildings on either side, thus restricting human traffic to a narrow corridor of people where all can witness such charitable acts.

Mtw 6:5-8 - Praying

Both the place of almsgiving and of praying teach the same principles of NOT being seen by men and women

‘The attitude to be observed during prayer is very accurately defined by the Rabbis. The worshipper was to stand, turning towards the Holy Place; he was to compose his body and his clothes, to draw his feet close together, to cast down his eyes at least at the beginning of his prayer, to cross his hands over his breast and to “stand as a servant before his master with all reverence and fear”’


Such a physical attitude while prayer was being OFFERED to God could not, therefore, have gone unnoticed by the populace who passed by the petitioners going about their daily duties and the response.

Mtw 6:9-13 is solely as a RESPONSE to the negativity of the Gentile way of praying and, therefore, can be seen to contrast with their approach.

Mtw 6:16-18 - Fasting

Fasting in Isaiah’s day, just before the exile, had become - just like the NT - a matter of SHOW which was used to try and twist God’s hand into hearing and doing what the petitioner was praying. But perhaps the most frightening aspect of fasting is the way it developed in the life of the Church of the first two centuries and how it seems to have become a LITURGICAL rite which was laid as a mandate instead of an individual disciple to decide for himself when it was necessary.

‘Do not keep the same fast days as the hypocrites [this could refer to the Christians who followed the Jewish fasting calendar or the Jews themselves. Mondays and Thursdays are their days for fasting so yours should be WEDNESDAY and Fridays’

‘Private fasts would, of course, depend on individuals but the strict Pharisees were expected to fast every Monday and Thursday (because on a Thursday Moses had gone up to Mount Sinai and came down on a Monday.

Jesus proposes an alternative way of fasting, one that is not outwardly discernible to those who come into contact with the disciple throughout the day. Instead of demonstrating one’s piety by a facial expression, the disciple of Christ is to present himself to the world as he would do on a normal day when he wasn’t fasting. The anointing of the head. Olive oil was used as a FACIAL cosmetic like a lotion.