Bible Reading Matthew 6

On this Episode Gary reads through Matthew Chapter 6.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

So we are moving on to Matthew 6. And it starts: Take yeah take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them. Otherwise, ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou dost thine alms, 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 dost alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. And thine alms may be sent in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Cody Bosefus says, You are crushing the podcast, though. Thank you very much, good sir. I am trying my best. If I can get through the names, I'll be a happy guy. So, all right. And that thy alms may be in secret, uh, and thy father, which seeth in secret himself, shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. So if you're doing stuff for credit, yep, you've already got your reward. So there you go. Actually, for some blasted reason, your chat is not showing up on the uh on the screen. So it ain't one thing, it's something else. I'll tell you what. So hang on here, guys, while I try to fix yet another technical thing because that's just what we're going to be doing today. Alright.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

And that did not do Jack. Oh well. Hang on here. Yup, there it is.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

So it's not that it didn't do Jack, it's just the boxes are moving around because it's OBS and OBS is Satan. So hang on here. Okay, so let me try to pull the same thing off. There we go. Yeah, it just moved the blasted boxes around for no obvious reason. I do wonder what they think the benefit is of making this stuff so inconvenient and hard to manage. You would think that, you know, if you have a chat box, they just show the chat box. Anyway, we got that fixed, so we're moving on. All right, so let's see. They have their rewards. So we are on Matthew 6, 6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to the pray to thy father, which is in secret, and thy father and thy father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathens do, for they think that they shall be heard for their be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before he ask before ye ask him. This is one of those instances where I wish we had a Catholic or somebody of another persuasion denomination-wise, because I would like to know if you've got like your repetitious prayers, like the Hail Mary and things like that, or even how they would factor in the Lord's Prayer in this. It's like, okay, how do you how do you balance like recited prayers with vain repetitions? Are they the same thing? Are they something else? I would think they'd have to be something else. I'm not sure what the vain repetitions are. Let's see if we can look that up really quick. Unfortunately, I don't have uh, let's see, what is this verse? This would actually be a good thing to look up. So we are looking at vain repetitions. Um, so this is Matthew 6, 7. Fortunately, I don't let's see, you're gonna have to just like explore this with me, guys. What does the Bible mean by vain repetitions in Matthew 6 7? And it's probably a good thing there aren't middle schoolers listening to this podcast right now. Anyway, um, so the wonderful AI is saying that vain repetitions refers to mechanical empty prayers or magical incantations. Jesus warned against this, explaining that God is a loving father who values sincere, heartfelt communication over every empty phrase and excessive word. Now, you've got this linked. Where are we going? All right, so we are this is taking us to got questions slash vein repetitions. Yeah, gotquestions.org. I use them some. Um Cody Bosefus asks, chanting? Yes, it could possibly mean chanting. Um, just yeah, I think it just is like repeating stuff blindly without really considering what it means. That's what I believe it's referring to. So let's just read what Got Questions has to say on the matter. Where on genetic? Okay, let's see here. Jesus said in the Sermon of the Mount, When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathens do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. The word vain means empty or useless, so Jesus is warning us that repeating worthless phrases in our prayers will not help them be heard by God. Our Heavenly Father is not concerned with word count, flowery expressions, or mantras. He desires truth and the inward being. Use not vain repetitions is the King James translation of Matthew 6 7. Oh, I hear my daughter right now, and all those middle scholars. Anyway, anyway, and uh other translations say do not use meaningless repetition, do not heap up empty phrases. Well, all the others are terrible. Anyway, so do not keep on babbling. That's gotta be dude. The more I hear about these, like the more I hear the distinctions between everything and like the NIV, the more I'm convinced like the NIV is just awful. Like I can see, like with the NASB, I can see meaningless repetition, empty phrases. Like that's at least in line. Hang on a minute, what are you doing? Stop. That's at least in line with like, yeah, like vain repetitions. Like I can see how all those terms mean the same thing. Keep on babbling. It's like with somebody trying to sound hip. Like, I don't even know why they, yeah. Like, I just the more I look at the NIV, the less and less impressed I am with it. But anyway, as Jesus points out, the use of repetitious words or formulaic phrases is a heathen or pagan practice and should not be part of Christian prayer. Our prayers should be more like the short, simple prayer of Elijah on Mount Carmel, and less like the prolonged, repetitious prayers of the prophets of Baal. That's true. That's true. Yeah. So that's actually a good analogy. Um let's see, you got this. Let's see. Uh, you're gonna actually give me the verse. Let's look at this really quick. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, hang on a minute, I gotta scroll up so you'll see what I'm reading. Excuse me. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, choose you one bullock for yourselves and dress it first. That's not the that's not mentioning the prayer. Why would you pull that up? And dress it first, for ye are many, and call, and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. Yeah, that's not like you're gonna have to read the whole chapter. Let's see. And they took the bullock and gave them, and they dressed it, and uh and called on the name of Baal from morning, evening until noon, saying, Oh Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar, which was made. 27. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them and said, Uh, Cry aloud, for he for he is a god, either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awakened. And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner, which with knives and lancets until the blood gushed out upon them. And what does Elijah say here? And it came to pass when midday and it came to pass when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me, and all the people came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jac of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels of water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And he said, Do it a second, do it the second time, and they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time, and they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar, and he filled the trench also with the water. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord, and that thou hast turned their heart, as hast turned their heart back again. And the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. So, point of all that, that was um, I believe we started in 17, so that was Genesis Genesis first Kings chapter 18, verses 17 through 38. And the idea being that Elijah's prayer was simple, whereas the prophets of Baal were chanting and it was uh all for show, that kind of thing. So that is the context for which they're talking about. So I guess the idea here would be you know prayers that are mainly for the purpose of demonstration. Uh I don't think it's necessarily rebuking or getting or getting mad about phrases or repeating like certain chants or something like that. Not chance, like repeating certain prayers. I don't think it that's what it's talking about. I think it's just not really thinking about what you're saying and um kind of praying as a kind of performance, like a performance art. That's what I think it's referring to. That would be my guess. I just wanted to look it up and check because it's one of those things you assume, and then you kind of go, okay, well, wait, how do I know that? But that would be that would be my opinion on it. Um, they're not really saying why they think it's vain, vain repetitions just means repeating the same words. But uh I would imagine the reason being is, you know, as has been the case with all of chapter five and chapter six, the reason that you know the whole theme of the sermon has been your heart, your mind. It's important to um, it's important to make sure your heart's right and you're thinking about the right things as you're praying. So it's you know, you shouldn't be praying on autopilot is the idea, whether you're uh reciting a prayer or just kind of saying in Jesus' name or something like that automatically. That would be my guess. So, okay, we've hung on that for a while. Let me get back to where I was and we will move on. I've got to find my Bible gateway, though, because I have a million tabs. All right, here we go. So we were on vain repetitions. This is Matthew 6.7. We are moving on to Matthew 6, 8. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. All right, excuse me. And after this manner, therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. So, yeah, I guess it wouldn't just be like reciting, because now he's giving us kind of a model for prayer. Interesting. Okay, so we we kind of answered our own question a little further down. All right, interesting. Okay, so uh so be not ye therefore like unto him, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. And after this manner, after this manner, therefore, pray ye, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will forgive will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their press their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. So I think this is very important. Forgiveness is one of the most important things you can do. And we'll kind of keep going, but that is something I would like to spend a little more time on at some point, because I think Yeah, I think forgiveness is one of the most important aspects, like it's pivotal in Christianity to understand, and it's not talked about, in my opinion, nearly enough. It's uh it's how you break generational curses, and it's just and uh yeah, bad family cycles, I guess would be a better way to put it. But yeah, uh, it's very important. I need to exp I want to at some point spend a lot of time on the subject of forgiveness, but we'll we'll move on for now. Um by the way, uh this is not a verse saying you can lose your salvation, just for the record, it's not saying you're gonna go to hell. Just to be clear, uh, this is like earthly consequences, like God does actually punish you while you're alive. So uh I can proof of this being a concept in the sermon is a little further up here. Where was yeah, it says he shall reward thee openly. Well, that means in public. I mean, the I the there's a juxtaposition up here at the beginning of six where he's talking about, okay, you know, if you get your praise and celebration or whatever because you're openly doing like uh what's it doing? Giving publicly or whatever, then you've already got your reward. Um, but if you give in secret, God will like raise you up openly in public in a different circumstance. So that's something that needs to be mentioned is that you know, not all of this is just oh, it's gonna happen in heaven. We are also talking about like earthly consequences. God will providentially lift you up in some fashion, or he will providentially punish you on earth in some fashion. So just wanted to point that out. So anyway, let's see 16. Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, 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 is in secret, shall reward thee openly. So there you go. Same idea. Let's see. Uh unfortunately, I don't fast. Like, I mean, I guess I interminute fast, but I don't really count that because I'm not like reading the Bible or anything. I'm just not eating, so it's not really the same thing. But anyway, um lay not up for yourselves. Hang on a minute, make sure I'm right. Yeah, uh, verse 19 Lay not up for yourselves treasure treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thou and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither okay, but oh my gosh. Apologies, guys. So we're going to start back up at 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through the s 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. And where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Now I don't know what this means. The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thy eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light.

SPEAKER_00 19:57

Okay, so I think this is very deep. I want to look at this. I don't want to just gloss over this.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Hang on a minute, where are we at? Alright, we are five minutes to go. I kinda wanna pause here. I don't remember this. So let's see. If but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? Okay. So let's see if we can look something up to give us an indicator of what Matthew six twenty-two is about. That's very interesting. Matthew six twenty-two. Alright. Hang on here, okay, boys and girls. What is the meaning of Matthew six twenty-two? Um, let's just go back to uh got questions and see if that that seemed pretty relevant last time, so we'll go back to them. I I typically like got questions. They usually do a pretty good job answering something if I need to look up something quick. So we'll do that. Sorry, I gotta adjust, you know, windows because OBS is just OBS is just the bee's knees. Anyway, okay, hang on here. There we go. What did Jesus mean when he said the eye is the lamp of the body? Matthew 6 22. Uh which translation is that? That doesn't matter, we'll just move on. Uh Jesus said the eye. Lamp the body, if your eyes are good, their whole body be full of light. That's ESV. Hang on a minute. We might have a problem here. So the is that it doesn't say lamp in the King James. It says the light of the body. So maybe that's what they mean. The light of the body is the eye. So lamp, light of the body. Okay. Moving on. Okay. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. Okay, so if you have good eyes, if you're looking in the right direction, the eye is the lamp of the body. Okay, if your eyes are good, your body will be full of light. So what does the King James say instead of good? Does it say good? Alright, let's see. Is light of the body of the eye? If therefore thy eye be single, no, it says single. Interesting. Interesting. So if therefore thine eye be single. Why are they calling it good in one second and single in the other? We may have to go to strongs here, boys and girls. Hang on a minute. Alrighty. Okay, let's see. Strongs. Are you gonna actually show me strongs today, Google? Strongs, Matthew 6, 22. Here we go. Give me the strong's concordance. Don't be don't you do it. Don't start trying to make me.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yeah, it's gonna fight me. Hang on a minute. We want KJB. We want strongs.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Yeah, I apologize. Google would rather light itself on fire than actually like, you know, give you what you want. It wants you to like lean wholly on AI, which is really annoying. But there's just some things AIs can't can't fix.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

So if you take E that you it's saying Strong's is here, but that's not it. Yeah, it's not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

We had trouble with this last time. Hang on, I gotta I gotta go use a completely different server because Google won't show up Strong's. Or another search engine Yandex. Okay, strong's concordance. Matthew six twenty-two. There we go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Yeah my goodness. Okay. We're wanting the keyword.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Matthew six twenty-two.

SPEAKER_00 25:04

Okay. Okay, so it's using the Greek here, so it's not using single, but what's it claiming means good? Here. Um, so let's see here.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

It's saying the word hapless, which means clear. Uh Amy McLennan um says, single, like focused only on one thing, that being God. I think you're right. It's yeah, because you're seeing the strong's is using the word hapless. Let's look that up. Um yeah, I is single, thy whole, and the King James.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

What'd you do? Where'd you take me? It says two occurrences.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Now normally the way this thing lays out is it usually gives you like, here we go. This is what I was looking for. It just took me somewhere I didn't want to go. Okay, yeah, translation hapl haploose or haploose.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Uh clear.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Probably, yeah, it says Strong's is calling it single, probably from a as a particle of union and the base of Pelco, probably folded together. Yeah. Conjugate without folds, undivided, focus, yeah. So clear, focus. I would imagine you're right, Amy. It's uh like staying focused on God. That seems to be that seems to be the idea. Yep. I think that is right. Yeah, so the antonym would be double, so that would be like divided.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Maybe. Yeah, single, undivided, focus, i.e.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

without double agenda. Okay, we're gonna go with that. So, alright. Apologize for the ADD moment, but I hadn't I kind of just glossed over that last time I read Matthew, so I wanted to zero in. Okay, so let's see, the light of the body is the eye, if therefore thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. So saying interesting here. Light of the body is in the eye, but if thine eye be okay, so there's the parallelism. Okay, thy whole body shall be full of darkness, and if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? No man can serve. Here we go. I think this is the clarifier. So we're on Matthew 24. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Ye 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, nor yet for your body and what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment. All right, so we are gonna start, we're gonna stop there. Uh, we are at an hour four, so let's see. Next time we will be going to 626. Actually, no, let's just go on because we're pretty close to being done now that I see this. Okay, so let's just go on. Now let's just finish it. We're almost to the end. Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which it which today, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not do shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or with where or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, or the for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. So that's interesting. Like you hear all these verses, it's usually just kind of a syllable for ah, don't worry, man. God's got it. But that's not exactly what's being talked about here. If you look up at um 20, uh, where if you look back up at uh 22, you'll see that it's talking about being solely focused on God. It's not saying don't worry about anything necessarily, it's saying keep focused on God, make God your priority, and everything else will fall into place. So, yeah, that this is a good example here of why you shouldn't just quote mine, because everything is following the thought that's begun in 22. That's interesting. Okay. I think that's a good high note to end on, guys. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Faith Fiction and Folklore. If you did, we would love it if you would subscribe to us on YouTube or follow us on Rumble. We can also be found on X, Instagram, and Facebook. And we are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio. Thank you again very much for listening, and we'll see you next time.