Matthew 6

1Take care not to perform your righteousness before people in order to be noticed by them. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

2So whenever you give to the poor, do not blow a trumpet ahead of yourself, the way the hypocrites do in the synagogues and the streets so that people will praise them. Truly I tell you, they have already been paid in full.

3But when you give to the poor, your left hand must not know what your right hand is doing,

4so that your giving is done in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.

5When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they are fond of praying while standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the squares, so that people will notice them. Truly I tell you, they have already been paid in full.

6But you, when you pray, go into your private room, close your door, and pray to your Father, who is present in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.

7When you pray, do not rattle on with empty words the way the Gentiles do, since they imagine that all their talking will get them heard.

8So do not imitate them, because your Father knows what you need before you even ask him.

9You, then, are to pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy.

10Let your kingdom come; let your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth.

11Give us today our daily bread.

12Forgive us our debts, just as we too have forgiven those who owe us.

13And do not lead us into temptation; rather, rescue us from the evil one.’

14For if you forgive people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well.

15But if you do not forgive people, neither will your Father forgive your offenses.

16Whenever you fast, do not put on a sullen face like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unsightly so that people will see they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have already been paid in full.

17But you, when you fast, rub oil on your head and wash your face,

18so that your fasting is noticed not by people but by your Father, who is present in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.

19Do not pile up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust ruin them and where thieves force their way in and steal.

20Instead, pile up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust ruins anything and where thieves do not force their way in or steal.

21For wherever your treasure is, that is where your heart will be too.

22The lamp of the body is the eye. So if your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light.

23But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be dark. And if the light within you is darkness, how deep that darkness is!

24Nobody can serve two masters: he will either hate one and love the other, or hold fast to one and scorn the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth.

25For this reason I tell you, do not worry about your life—what you will eat or what you will drink—or about your body—what you will wear. Does life not mean more than food, and the body more than clothing?

26Take a look at the birds in the sky. They do not plant or harvest or gather into storehouses, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth far more than they are?

27Which of you is able to lengthen your life by one cubit through worrying?

28And why be worried about clothing? Learn from the lilies of the field and how they grow: they do not labor, and they do not spin.

29But I tell you that Solomon himself, in all his glory, was not clothed like one of these.

30Now if God dresses the wild grass this way—grass that is alive today and tossed into an oven tomorrow—will he not much more dress you, you people of little faith?

31So do not worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to put on?’

32For all these are things the Gentiles strive after, and your heavenly Father knows that you need every one of them.

33Rather, make it your first aim to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you in addition.

34So do not worry about tomorrow, since tomorrow will do its own worrying. The day’s own trouble is enough for it.