V. 1. Take heed to your alms, that ye give them not before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven.
The previous chapter shows how Christ corrected the teaching of the Pharisees and interpreted the Scriptures correctly; in this chapter he corrects the life of the Pharisees in good works and explains what true good works are. And these he divides into four parts.
V. 2-4 When you give alms, do not let the hypocrites trumpet before you.
in the schools and in the streets] that they may be praised of the people. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward there. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be hid: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
2 First, he teaches how to give alms properly, against the Pharisees, who sought not God's glory in this work, but their own.
V. 5. 6. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites, which love to stand and pray in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward there. But when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and shut thy door, and pray unto thy Father in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
3. secondly, he teaches about true prayer, against these same Pharisees, who again had honor and avarice in mind in this work.
V. 7, 8: And when you pray, do not babble much, as the Gentiles do. For they think they will be heard if they speak much. Therefore do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 1)
(4) He reproves two faults in particular in those who pray. The first concerns those who think it is prayer when they say many words in prayer (as if God were a child who first had to be taught and instructed in our matters, as if he did not know what was going on).
This error has many appearances. Under the papacy, some have invoked many saints; others have addressed special prayers to each saint. Thus, the preachers of masses have said many masses, and many prayers have been offered to many saints in one mass. Others have done the same with certain, many and various prayers, such as rosaries, psalters, crown prayers of Mary, and with a certain number of Pater noster, Ave Maria, psalms; so that not only the priests, monks and nuns have almost prayed themselves to death with the many and various prayers in the churches, but also the laity, by their un-
1) From here on, the order of the sections in this chapter is somewhat different in the Wittenberg and Jena editions, namely, the "Errors in those who pray" are placed at the very end in the Wittenberg edition. Because this disturbs the succession of the text of Scripture, we have adopted the order of the Jena edition (as did Walch's old edition).
The people have been burdened in an unbearable way by the finite prayers. All these were and are useless washers, who only pray in such a way that they make a lot of words and have a pagan idea of prayer.
The other error is in those who want to remind God through prayer as if He does not know our things, when He knows what we need before we pray.
(7) This mistake is also widespread, especially among those (among whom there are also pious people) who think that they will not be heard because what they ask is not done immediately. Therefore, they insist on it as if God does not know, while they should know that He knows and wants to do it before they pray, but does not let Himself be dictated the time, the way, and the place.
For this reason, it is necessary to emphasize here what is most important to know about prayer, namely, that it is certain that we have been heard; God also knows it and wants to do it before we pray, but we do not have to tell Him the time, the way, the person, or the place. For this is what Christ wants when he says: "Your Father knows what you need before you ask. As if he wanted to say: Do not teach him when you pray, but be sure that he knows. But this is what he does: "Wait, trust, be assured of his grace; he hears you according to his will; according to his time, not yours; according to his way, not yours. All these things submit to his will; do not measure them according to your inclination. See the history of Judith, and of all the saints who have been heard, having prescribed no time, no manner, no place, etc. according to their own will.
9 Thus we pray, not to teach God, but rather that we ourselves may be moved by our ills to feel what we lack and what we should ask. For prayer teaches me myself what I need, and moves me myself to pray and cry out. And so God takes the opportunity to have mercy on the one who cries out to Him, but He cannot have mercy on him as long as he does not feel his own affliction and does not cry out.
(10) He does not speak of the third error in prayer here, but in the 23rd chapter of Matthew, where it is reported in v. 14 that the Pharisees prayed for the sake of gain, even for the sake of honor and avarice. This error surpasses even the error of the Gentiles, who sin by making many words. The latter even make idolatry out of prayer by praying for the sake of honor and money; the pagans still prayed for the sake of their welfare. Among those who are afflicted with this vice, the papists are at the top; but above all, the Minorites, the insolent hypocrites, have the imperial rank in this, who all perform their prayers and actions for the sake of favor with others and for the sake of their belly.
V. 16. When you fast, do not look sour, as the hypocrites do; for they disguise their faces, that they may appear before men with their fasting. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward there.
(11) Thirdly, he teaches about fasting, in which they also sought honor. So they did all their works idolatrously, for their own honor; not that they might serve God or be useful to men, but that they themselves might be honored by men.
V. 19-25: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust devour, and where thieves dig up and steal.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves neither dig nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The eye is the light of the body. If the eye is simple, your whole body will be light. But if thine eye be dim, thy whole body shall be dark. But if the light that is in you is darkness, how great will the darkness itself be? No one can serve two masters: either he will hate one and love the other; or he will cling to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; neither for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than food? and the body more than clothing? etc.
(12) Fourth, he chides avarice with many words, because of which, as well as for the sake of honor, they did everything, and teaches that one should not accumulate treasures, should not serve two masters, but rely on God, who gives us everything superfluously. "If riches come to you, do not set your heart on them," Ps. 62:11, but if they do not come to us, we should not be grieved or stingy. 1)
1) Luther has not annotated the seventh chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew here, because it is very richly interpreted in the next scripture.