NOW we come to another thing. Chapter 6 begins with what is higher even than what we have had. The various exhortations of chapter 5 brought out Christian principle, in contradistinction to what was required, or allowed, under the law. Henceforth the law is dropped: there is no longer any allusion to it expressly in our Lord’s discourse. And the first principle of all godliness comes out now in its simplest shape, namely, the having to do with our Father in secret; who, if there is not another soul that understands us, sees all that is passing within and around us — hears us and counsels us, as, indeed, He takes the deepest interest in us. Here we have what the Lord calls “your righteousness.” It is not merely exhorting the saint against the evil of his nature in every form, and exhibiting the holiness that the Lord introduces now. It was not enough to familiarize the soul with the ways of love, even in its outward dealings with the worst of men. Now it is our Father, and all takes the form of righteousness. It is the inner, divine relationship of the saint that comes out in this chapter — our spiritual bonds with God our Father, and the conduct that ought to flow from them. Hence says our Lord, “Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them.”
I take the liberty of altering the word “alms” into “righteousness” (vs. 1), which last, a few of the very best original authorities support, though there are, of course, always persons that differ here as elsewhere; but, at the same time, internal and spiritual reasons confirm the external grounds. Thus, if you use the word “alms” in the first verse, is there not a mere repetition in the next verse? On the other hand, take the word as “righteousness” (so the margin), and all is plain. The context supports it. For it will be observed, in the following verses, our Lord divides righteousness into three distinct portions: first, almsgiving; next, prayer; thirdly, fasting.
That these are the three parts of the righteousness of the saint, as viewed by our Lord in this discourse, is evident. (1.) With regard to alms, which was a very practical thing, the principle of mercy comes in as it might not in all cases of giving. It is a thing done seriously and solemnly, and the heart is drawn out. It is done in the sight of God. The universal admonition is this: “Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.” “Therefore,” founded upon this exhortation, “when thou doest thine alms,” which was one branch of this righteousness, “do not sound a trumpet before thee”; alluding to certain ways of notoriety and self-commendation then adopted by the Jews, the spirit of which belongs to men at all times. There are few things in which human vanity betrays itself more glaringly than in the desire to be known by almsgiving. And what is it that brings the true deliverance from this snare of nature? “When thou doest thine alms (observe, He now makes it entirely individual), 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. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly.” (vss. 2-4.)
Thus it is not merely that one is not to blazon abroad what is done, but not to whisper it to oneself even. Not only another’s left hand is not to know what your right hand does, but your own left hand ought not. Than the Lord’s words nothing can be more cutting to everything like self-gratulation. The main point is this: that all be done to our Father. It is not a question of duty simply; but our Father’s love has been brought out, and this is His will concerning us. He knows what is best, and we are ignorant of it. We might think to supply the greatest happiness by surrounding ourselves with what we most like; but the letting slip the means of personal enjoyment will open to us fresh sources of blessing. Besides, what we ought to desire is, that the alms may be “in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, Himself shall reward thee openly.” We shall find this repeated at every point of what is here called our “righteousness.” Room is ever made for the flesh where there is not the cultivated habit of what is done being between our Father and ourselves. Nay, more, our Lord would have us dismiss the very thought into the bosom of the Father, who will not forget it.
(2.) We have the same thing as to prayer. The allusion is, it would seem, to the practice, that every day, when a particular hour came round, people were found praying in public rather than miss the moment. It is clear that all this was, at best, most legal, and opened the door for display and hypocrisy. It utterly overlooks the grand truth which Christianity brings out so fully, that to do things for testimony, or as a law, or in any way for others to see, or for ourselves to think of, is totally wrong. We have to do with our Father, and our Father in secret. Therefore our Lord says, “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.” (vs. 6.) This is in no way denying the propriety of public prayer; but united supplication seems not referred to here, though it be “our,” “us,” “we,” and not the singular form. They were to present their present, their brethren’s wants in spirit. It was thus a transition before the common prayer of the church in the Acts of the Apostles, etc.
In the case of what is called the Lord’s Prayer, it was the prayer of those disciples each for himself, who knew not how to pray, and who required to be instructed in the very first principles of Christianity. For this is part of what the apostle calls “the word of the beginning of Christ” when he says, “Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit.” The apostle allows that all these were very important truths; but they are only Jewish principles (i.e., they are truths that a person ought to have known before redemption was accomplished), and these did not bring in the full power of Christianity. They were quite true, and will ever remain true. There never can be anything to weaken the importance of repentance from dead works, and faith towards God. But it is not even said, faith in Christ. No doubt faith Godward always abides; but still, till Christ died and rose, there was a great deal of truth that even the disciples were not able to bear: our Lord Himself says so. Therefore the apostle tells them, “Leaving the word of the beginning of Christ” (that which Christ here below brought out, and which was perfectly suited to the then state of the disciples), “let us go on unto perfection.” There is no such thought as giving that up; but, taking it as a truth settled and that we do not always need to be repeating, assuming that as a settled truth, let us go on to the understanding of Christ as He now is, which is the meaning here of the word “perfection,” or full growth. It is not a better state of our own flesh; neither does it refer to anything that we are to be in a future life; but to the full doctrine of Christ as He now is, glorified and in heaven. It scarcely admits a doubt that it refers to the doctrine of Christ, as brought out in the epistle to the Hebrews. Christ is in heaven — there is His priesthood. He has entered in by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. It is Christ as He is now above; in Him thus and there known you have this perfection.
In the same epistle the apostle speaks of Christ as made perfect through sufferings. Christ was always perfect as a person; He never could be anything else. Had there been any flaw in Christ on earth, He must have been, like the offering that had a blemish in it, incapable of being offered for us. In the Jewish sacrifices, if the animal died of itself, it could not even be eaten. So, as to our Lord, had there been the principle of death in Him at all, if He were not the Living Stone in every sense, without the smallest tendency to death, never could He be God’s foundation, nor ours. He did, no doubt, suffer death, the willing Victim on the cross; but this was just because death had no hold on Him. Every son of Adam has mortality at work in him. The Second Man could say even here below, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Such is the truth as to Christ Himself. While it is perfectly certain that Christ was always morally perfect — perfect, too, not only in His divine nature, but in His humanity — absolutely stainless and acceptable unto God; yet, for all that, there was a mountain of sin that needed to be removed from us, and a new condition to be entered, in which Christ could associate us with Himself.
He had taken upon Him human nature (not in its liability or doom to death, because this indicates a connection with sin, but) in its capacity of death, though incapable of sin; and there is the line that separates sound doctrine, as to Christ’s person, from that which is abominable and fatal. Anything that admits the smallest thought or touch of evil does wholly destroy His person. But Christ was most truly a man, and so capable of dying for us, or redemption never could have been accomplished. It was through death that He was to annul the power of him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. It is only now a question of the will of God, and all the power of Satan will vanish into smoke; this the believer knows — at least he ought to know it. It is the wiles of Satan that we have to guard against; his power is broken to faith as far as we are concerned. The means by which Satan might seek to ensnare the soul must be watched against, but his power, we know, is null. But this was not true for any, till Christ had passed through death and resurrection; there was still that which was short of the full purpose of God. Christ was not yet in the state of resurrection according to the counsels of God. He designs for man, for the saint, a condition that death cannot touch, and we stand in it now by faith and union with Christ, as we shall enter it actually when risen or changed. What God calls salvation is not only the soul’s pardon, but the grace that sustains afterward, and the power that completes all in the resurrection state. Even Christ, though absolutely sinless, entered this state after death. He was made perfect through sufferings; He passed through this course of sufferings into the blessedness in which He stands now as the risen Head and also High Priest before God. And while all that Christ taught while here on earth is as true as it can be, because it was uttered by Him who is the truth, yet was there a great deal that the disciples were not yet able to appreciate or understand. The Lord told them so. This was one of these things. One danger afterward was, that men would go back simply to what they had heard from the Lord while He was upon earth. How subtle is the enemy, turning the pretended honor of Christ into His dishonor and the hurt of His sheep! Satan’s aim in all is to keep their thoughts still earthly, and hinder them from apprehending the heavenly calling and position.
Hence the object of the epistle written to Hebrew Christians was for the purpose of leading them on from what they clung to as the full truth. They were not to give it up, but the apostle desired to lead them onward into further truth. There is the same difficulty now in the minds of many children of God. Among a large portion of them, they are not beyond what a disciple ought to have been, or to have known before the cross, save in the recognition of the facts of death, resurrection, and ascension, but without apprehension of their bearing on the soul: and perhaps they would even think it presumption to suppose that they could advance, or that there is any further unfolding of God’s grace. But why have we got other truth? We have not one word in the Bible but what is absolutely necessary; and, if “the word of the beginning of Christ” had been enough, God, with that economy that marks His dealings, would not surely have added to the bulk of the book He has graciously put into our hands: yet the Holy Ghost has largely revealed further truth, accomplishing thus the promise of our Lord, “He shall lead you into all truth.” This was to be when they were capacitated, by virtue of the Holy Ghost’s presence and indwelling, to bear and enjoy the full bringing out of the divine mind.
Upon the subject of the prayer I am going only to make a few remarks now. But again I would notice that it is entirely individual. Many might unite in saying, “Our Father”; but, although it was a soul in his own closet, still he would say “Our Father,” because he thinks of others, disciples, elsewhere. Yet it is plain that the Lord does not anticipate the use of this prayer, save in the closet and for the condition in which the disciples were. We have no hint that it was employed formally after the day of Pentecost. There were other wants and desires, other expressions of affection toward God, brought out then, into which the Holy Ghost would lead those who were passed out of the condition of nonage by having Him sent into their hearts, whereby they could cry, “Abba, Father.” Such is the key to the change, and the New Testament is perfectly clear upon it. (Compare Gal. 3:23-26; 4:1-723But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:23‑26)
1Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. 3Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Galatians 4:1‑7).)
However, let us look at the prayer itself; for nothing can be more blessed, and all the truth of it, as of every other part of the word of God, abides for us. “When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” (vs. 7.) Now it is plain that our Lord does not forbid repetition, but vain repetition. We find our Lord Himself, when He was in an agony in the garden, repeating the same words three times; on certain occasions it may be most suitable for us, and according to His mind. But vain, formal repetition, whether of words read out of a book, or sentences framed extemporarily, He does positively forbid. Again, let me press the plain fact, that our Lord is not here providing for the public wants of the church; still less do we hear that it was so understood. There is not the smallest thought of such a thing after the gift of the Holy Ghost, when the church, properly speaking, was formed and at work in this world. So that, while the Lord’s Prayer was given as the most perfect model of prayer, and was also intended to be used as it stands by the disciples previously to the death of our Lord and the gift of the Holy Ghost, yet it seems plain that afterward it was not to be so. The New Testament is, of course, the only test of this. When we come to tradition, we shall find all sorts of difficulty on this as on other subjects, but the word of God is not obscure. In no way does it leave us uncertain as to what God’s mind is: else indeed the very purpose of a revelation would be defeated. What then is the permanent use of the prayer? Why is it given in scripture? The principle always abides true. There is not a clause of that prayer, I believe, but what one might prefer now, even to “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” For it is a mistake to suppose that it puts the sinner upon the ground of prayer in order to acquire forgiveness of his sins. Our Lord speaks of the believer — the child of God. Our daily faults and shortcomings we need to spread before our God and Father, as He encourages us to do day by day. It is a question of His government who, without respect of persons, judges according to the work of each; and hence He will not own the petition of one who cherishes an unforgiving disposition towards others, even if they have done us ever so grievous wrong.
This habit of self-searching and confessing to our Father is a very important one in Christian experience; so that this clause I believe to be as true and applicable at the present time as it was to the disciples then. When the poor publican said, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” there we have another thing as appropriate in his case, as this was to the child that lisped “Our Father.” Again, when the Holy Ghost was given, and the child was able to draw near to the Father in the name of Christ, you have something different still. The Lord’s Prayer, so called, does not clothe the believer with the name of Christ. What is meant by asking the Father in that name? Can it be merely saying “in His name” at the end of a prayer? When Christ died and rose again, He gave the believer His own standing before God; and then to ask the Father in the name of Christ, is to ask in the consciousness that my Father loves me as He loves Christ; that my Father has. given me the acceptance of Christ Himself before Him, having completely blotted out all my evil, so as to be made the righteousness of God in Christ. To pray in the value of this is asking in His name. (Comp. John 16) When the soul draws near, consciously brought nigh to God, it may be said to ask in His name.
Is there a soul using the Lord’s prayer as a form, that has a real understanding of what it is to ask the Father in the name of Christ? I believe that they have never entered into that great truth. Hence perhaps in their very next petition they take the place of miserable sinners, deprecating the wrath of God, and still under law. Is it possible for a soul that knows what it is to stand before God as Christ is, to be thus systematically in doubt and uncertainty? It was the case with the Jew; but if I am anything at all now, I am a Christian; and, as such, my place, is in Christ, and there is no condemnation: otherwise there cannot be the Spirit of adoption, or the exercised function of priests to God. We are made priests to God by virtue of this blessed standing; and it is on earth that the testing time comes in. The conscience is brought to this — you cannot walk with Christ and with the world. Thus the question of heaven or the world is raised. Now the Christian is properly a man who enters into heavenly thoughts and relationships while he is walking through this world. This is the vocation wherewith we are called, as God’s dwelling and Christ’s body. Whether Christians know and do it, or not, nothing less does Christ look for from them “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” This is true from the time that we know we are in Christ. From that moment we owe it to Christ, if we would be true soldiers of His, to take our place as those who are not of the world, even as He is not.
This will suffice to show that, while the Lord’s prayer always remains inestimably precious, yet was it given to meet the individual wants of the disciples, and that the further revelation of divine truth modified their condition, and would thus lead into another strain of desires, which, in fact, were not then given expression to. It seems to me a happy reflection that it is our Lord Himself who tells us this. “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name.” What do I gather from this? That one may use the Lord’s prayer every day, and never have asked anything in the name of Christ. “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.... At that day ye shall ask in my name.” What day does this mean? A future time? No, but the present; the day that the Holy Ghost brought in when He came down from heaven. It is this which is connected with that full revelation of truth which is so essential to Christian joy and blessedness, and to the unworldly and heavenly walk of the children of God; and where the one is not entered into, the other cannot be. There may be vigor of faith, and personal love to Christ; but for all that a soul will be found to savor of the world in spirit and religious position, till he has entered into this blessed place that the Holy Ghost now gives us of drawing near to God in the name of Christ.
I must now pass on to one of the most important practical exhortations which our Saviour gives us in connection with prayer — the spirit of forgiveness. He has known little of prayer who does not know the hindrances which austerity of spirit brings with it. This was one of the things that our Lord had specially in view. “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (vss. 14, 15.) He does not mean that the disciples would not have their sins forgiven in the day of judgment, but speaks of forgiving trespasses as a matter of the daily care and training of God. I may have a child guilty of something that is wrong, but does it therefore lose its relationship? It is my child still, but I do not speak to it in the same way that I would, had it been walking in obedience. The father waits till the child feels its sin. In the case of earthly parents, we sometimes do not take sufficient notice of what is wrong, at other times, we may deal with things only as they touch ourselves. We may correct, as it is said in Hebrews, after our own pleasure. but God corrects for our profit. Our Father always keeps His eye upon what is most blessed for us, but for this very reason He does betimes chasten us. “What son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?” If we were not sons, we might perhaps get off; but as surely as we are, the Father’s rod comes upon us for our wrongs, though we may think them little: but though painful for the present, if it be His will, we may be assured that He will make the things that may seem most against us to be unquestionably for us. To maintain the spirit of love, and specially of love towards those that wrong us, costs somewhat; but blessing will be ours in the end, and indeed also by the way.
(3.) We now come to the subject of fasting. I believe there is a real value in fasting that few of us know much about. If, on particular occasions which call for special individual prayer, one were to unite fasting with it, I have no doubt the blessing of it would be felt. Here there is humbling of spirit expressed. There are prayers which are most suitably accompanied by standing, others by kneeling. Fasting is one of those things in which the body shows its sympathy with what the spirit is passing through; it is a means of expressing our desire to be low before God, and in the attitude of humiliation. But lest the flesh should take advantage of even what is for the mortifying of the body, the Lord enjoins that there should be means taken rather not to appear unto men to fast than to permit any display, for although a true Christian would shrink from putting on false appearances, the devil would cheat him into doing it unless he is very jealous in self-watchfulness before God. “Thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 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.” (vss. 17, 18.)
Then follow the exhortations with regard to the things of this life. And, first of all, as to the laying up of treasures upon earth, the Lord brings in a principle, not of natural interest, but of spiritual wisdom and freedom from care, which the soul enjoys that does not want anything here below. Supposing there is something that one very much values upon earth, there is proportionate fear lest the thief, or some corroding thing, should spoil our treasure. Very different is that which the Lord enjoins that we should seek: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal” (vss. 19-20) — a most solemn test for examining ourselves by. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (vs. 21.) We may detect where we are by that which our thoughts chiefly rest upon. If they are heavenward, blessed are we; but if earth-ward, we shall find that those very things upon which our hearts are set will prove a sorrow one day or another.
The Lord traces all this to one grand root — you cannot serve two masters. You have not got two hearts, but one; and your heart will be with that which you value most. Everything is thus followed up to its source: God on the one hand, and mammon on the other. Mammon is what sums up the lusts of the heart of man as to all things here. It may manifest itself in different forms; but this is the root — covetousness. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought [be not anxious] for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.” The great point is indifference to present things, or, rather, a peaceful trust about them; not because we do not value the mercies of God, but because we have confidence in our Father’s love and care about us.
So the Apostle Paul shows us the most beautiful expression of this when he says, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” He had known changes of circumstances — what it was to have nothing, and what it was to have abundance; but the great point was his thorough content with God’s portion for him. This was not a thing that he passed through lightly, but he had learned it. It was a matter of attainment — of judging of things in the light of God’s presence and love. The blessing is, to be looking onward with this thought — our Father deals with us now with a view to glory; as the apostle adds, “My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” How sweet that is “My God” — the God that I have proved, whose affection I have tasted. I can count upon Him for you as well as for me; and He “shall supply all your need,” not merely according to the, riches of His grace, but “according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” He has taken you as Christians from this world: He is going to have you the companions of His Son above; and He deals with you now according to your place and position then. Whatever is suitable to this great plan of His glory and love, the Lord will give us to prove the consequence of that.
May the Lord strengthen us, that we may accept this with thankful hearts, knowing that we are not our own masters! The Lord will preserve us from the dangers, the snares, the pains, which haste, or willfulness, on our part as to outward things brings with it. He shows us in this chapter the exceeding folly of it, even as to the body. He takes an instance from the outward world, as to the utter uselessness of it; and shows how God may be confided in to accomplish His own purposes best. And more than that: He reminds us that these outward things, on which we are tempted to lay such great stress, are only the objects that the Gentiles seek after. A Gentile was a term used in speaking of a man without God, in contrast with a Jew who had God in an outward manner in this world. A Christian is a man who has God as Father in heaven. “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” Therefore, as our Father knows this, why should we doubt Him? We do not distrust our earthly father; much less then should we doubt our heavenly Father.
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” It is not that we are to seek them — to seek first the kingdom of God, and then thee things; but seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the rest will come. There is no seeking about it, except of what pertains to God and to His righteousness. “Take, therefore, no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” That is, He prepares us for this, that the anxiety which dreads an evil thing on the morrow is nothing but unbelief. When the morrow comes, the evil may not be there; if it comes, God will be there, too. He may allow us to taste what it is to indulge in our own wills; but if our souls are subject to Him, how often the evil that is dreaded never appears! When the heart bows to the will of God about some sorrow that we dread, how often the sorrow is taken away, and the Lord meets us with unexpected kindness and goodness! He is able to make even the sorrow to be all blessing. Whatever be His will, it is good. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”