And as in the eyes of man a fair face has grace, so in the eyes of God a pure conscience has favour. Pseudo-Chrysostom: Spiritually interpreted-the face may be understood to mean the mental conscience. Saint Remigius: For it is enough for you that He who sees your conscience should be your rewarder. He fasts to God who afflicts himself for the love of God, and bestows on others what he denies himself. Glossa Ordinaria: That is, to thy heavenly Father, who is unseen, or who dwells in the heart through faith. Therefore, it follows here, But to thy Father which seeth in secret. For as we esteem it an affront if we are loved not for ourselves but for others’ sake, so ought we not to follow virtue on the account of these men, nor to obey God for men's sake but for His own. The contempt of men's praise is no small fruit, for thereby we are freed from the heavy slavery of human opinion, and become properly workers of virtue, loving it for itself and not for others. Commentary from the Church Fathers Ĭhrysostom: In almsgiving indeed, He did not say simply, ‘Do not your alms before men,’ but added, ‘to be seen of them.’ But in fasting and prayer He added nothing of this sort because alms cannot be so done as to be altogether hid, fasting and prayer can be so done. Law thus reads this verse as calling for keeping the notion private from general onlookers. Davies and Allison note William Law's comment on this verse that it is impossible to keep one's fasting completely secret disguising such an activity from one's family and friends is almost impossible. This verse closely parallels Matthew 6:4 and Matthew 6:6, and as in those verses, the message is that even if your piety is kept secret from those around you, God will still know about it and reward you. The previous verse stated that, unlike the hypocrites, Jesus' followers should present a clean and normal appearance even when fasting. So that you are not seen by men to be fasting, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. The World English Bible translates the passage as: 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. In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads: This verse concludes the discussion of fasting. Matthew 6:18 is the eighteenth verse of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament and is part of the Sermon on the Mount. James Tissot's The Lord's Prayer (1886-1896)
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