Matthew 6:19--7:12

Lasting Treasure

6:19 “Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth ¹  and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 6:20 But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 6:21 For where your ²  treasure ³  is, there your heart will be also.

6:22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If then your eye is healthy, ⁴  your whole body will be full of light. 6:23 But if your eye is diseased, ⁵  your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate ⁶  the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise ⁷  the other. You cannot serve God and money. ⁸ 

Do Not Worry

6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry ⁹  about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? 6:26 Look at the birds in the sky: ¹⁰  They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds ¹¹  them. Aren’t you more valuable ¹²  than they are? 6:27 And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? ¹³  6:28 Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers ¹⁴  of the field grow; they do not work ¹⁵  or spin. 6:29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! 6:30 And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, ¹⁶  which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ¹⁷  won’t he clothe you even more, ¹⁸  you people of little faith? 6:31 So then, don’t worry saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 6:32 For the unconverted ¹⁹  pursue these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 6:33 But above all pursue his kingdom ²⁰  and righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 6:34 So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own. ²¹ 

Do Not Judge

7:1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. ²²  7:2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. ²³  7:3 Why ²⁴  do you see the speck ²⁵  in your brother’s eye, but fail to see ²⁶  the beam of wood ²⁷  in your own? 7:4 Or how can you say ²⁸  to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own? 7:5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 7:6 Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs; otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces. ²⁹ 

Ask, Seek, Knock

7:7 “Ask ³⁰  and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door ³¹  will be opened for you. 7:8 For everyone who asks ³²  receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 7:9 Is ³³  there anyone among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 7:10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ³⁴  7:11 If you then, although you are evil, ³⁵  know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts ³⁶  to those who ask him! 7:12 In ³⁷  everything, treat others as you would want them ³⁸  to treat you, ³⁹  for this fulfills ⁴⁰  the law and the prophets.

[6:19]  ¹ tn The term σής (shs) refers to moths in general. It is specifically the larvae of moths that destroy clothing by eating holes in it (L&N 4.49; BDAG 922 s.v.). See Jas 5:2, which mentions “moth-eaten” clothing.

[6:21]  ² tn The pronouns in this verse are singular while the pronouns in vv. 19-20 are plural. The change to singular emphasizes personal responsibility as opposed to corporate responsibility; even if others do not listen, the one who hears Jesus’ commands should obey.

[6:21]  ³ sn Seeking heavenly treasure means serving others and honoring God by doing so.

[6:22]  ⁴ tn Or “sound” (so L&N 23.132 and most scholars). A few scholars take this word to mean something like “generous” here (L&N 57.107). partly due to the immediate context concerning money, in which case the “eye” is a metonymy for the entire person (“if you are generous”).

[6:23]  ⁵ tn Or “if your eye is sick” (L&N 23.149).

[6:24]  ⁶ sn The contrast between hate and love here is rhetorical. The point is that one will choose the favorite if a choice has to be made.

[6:24]  ⁷ tn Or “and treat [the other] with contempt.”

[6:24]  ⁸ tn Grk “God and mammon.”

[6:25]  ⁹ tn Or “do not be anxious,” and so throughout the rest of this paragraph.

[6:26]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).

[6:26]  ¹¹ tn Or “God gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”

[6:26]  ¹² tn Grk “of more value.”

[6:27]  ¹³ tn Or “a cubit to his height.” A cubit (πῆχυς, phcu") can measure length (normally about 45 cm or 18 inches) or time (a small unit, “hour” is usually used [BDAG 812 s.v.] although “day” has been suggested [L&N 67.151]). The term ἡλικία (Jhlikia) is ambiguous in the same way as πῆχυς (phcus). Most scholars take the term to describe age or length of life here, although a few refer it to bodily stature (see BDAG 436 s.v. 3 for discussion). Worry about length of life seems a more natural figure than worry about height. However, the point either way is clear: Worrying adds nothing to life span or height.

[6:28]  ¹⁴ tn Traditionally, “lilies.” According to L&N 3.32, “Though traditionally κρίνον has been regarded as a type of lily, scholars have suggested several other possible types of flowers, including an anemone, a poppy, a gladiolus, and a rather inconspicuous type of daisy.” In view of the uncertainty, the more generic “flowers” has been used in the translation.

[6:28]  ¹⁵ tn Or, traditionally, “toil.” Although it might be argued that “work hard” would be a more precise translation of κοπιάω (kopiaw) here, the line in English reads better in terms of cadence with a single syllable.

[6:30]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “grass of the field.”

[6:30]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “into the oven.” The expanded translation “into the fire to heat the oven” has been used to avoid misunderstanding; most items put into modern ovens are put there to be baked, not burned.

[6:30]  ¹⁸ sn The phrase even more is a typical form of rabbinic argumentation, from the lesser to the greater. If God cares for the little things, surely he will care for the more important things.

[6:32]  ¹⁹ tn Or “unbelievers”; Grk “Gentiles.”

[6:33]  ²⁰ tc ‡ Most mss (L W Θ 0233 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat sy mae) read τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην αὐτοῦ (thn basileian tou qeou kai thn dikaiosunhn aujtou, “the kingdom of God and his righteousness”) here, but the words “of God” are lacking in א B pc sa bo Eus. On the one hand, there is the possibility of accidental omission on the part of these Alexandrian witnesses, but it seems unlikely that the scribe’s eye would skip over both words (especially since τοῦ θεοῦ is bracketed by first declension nouns). Intrinsically, the author generally has a genitive modifier with βασιλεία – especially θεοῦ or οὐρανῶν (ouranwn) – but this argument cuts both ways: Although he might be expected to use such an adjunct here, scribes might also be familiar with his practice and would thus naturally insert it if it were missing in their copy of Matthew. Although a decision is difficult, the omission of τοῦ θεοῦ is considered most likely to be original. NA²⁷ includes the words in brackets, indicating doubt as to their authenticity.

[6:34]  ²¹ tn Grk “Sufficient for the day is its evil.”

[7:1]  ²² sn The point of the statement do not judge so that you will not be judged is that the standards we apply to others God applies to us. The passive verbs in this verse look to God’s action.

[7:2]  ²³ tn Grk “by [the measure] with which you measure it will be measured to you.”

[7:3]  ²⁴ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[7:3]  ²⁵ sn The term translated speck refers to a small piece of wood, chaff, or straw; see L&N 3.66.

[7:3]  ²⁶ tn Or “do not notice.”

[7:3]  ²⁷ sn The term beam of wood refers to a very big piece of wood, the main beam of a building, in contrast to the speck in the other’s eye (L&N 7.78).

[7:4]  ²⁸ tn Grk “how will you say?”

[7:6]  ²⁹ tn Or “otherwise the latter will trample them under their feet and the former will turn around and tear you to pieces.” This verse is sometimes understood as a chiasm of the pattern a-b-b-a, in which the first and last clauses belong together (“dogs…turn around and tear you to pieces”) and the second and third clauses belong together (“pigs…trample them under their feet”).

[7:7]  ³⁰ sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

[7:7]  ³¹ tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation here and in v. 8 for clarity.

[7:8]  ³² sn The actions of asking, seeking, and knocking are repeated here from v. 7 with the encouragement that God does respond.

[7:9]  ³³ tn Grk “Or is there.”

[7:10]  ³⁴ sn The two questions of vv. 9-10 expect the answer, “No parent would do this!”

[7:11]  ³⁵ tn The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated concessively.

[7:11]  ³⁶ sn The provision of the good gifts is probably a reference to the wisdom and guidance supplied in response to repeated requests. The teaching as a whole stresses not that we get everything we want, but that God gives the good that we need.

[7:12]  ³⁷ tn Grk “Therefore in.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[7:12]  ³⁸ tn This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), referring to both males and females.

[7:12]  ³⁹ sn Jesus’ teaching as reflected in the phrase treat others as you would want them to treat you, known generally as the Golden Rule, is not completely unique in the ancient world, but here it is stated in its most emphatic, selfless form.

[7:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “is.”