Matthew 6

[struggle4progress]

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them ... And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray .. that they may be seen by others ... Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name ...

[The Blue Flower]

1. "When you see the abomination that causes desolation in the temple..."

I've been thinking about this warning ever since IL Drumpf spoke at CIA HQ. "Abomination that causes desolation" describes him perfectly.

[LakeArenal]

2. A Lot of Mathew covers it...

Matthew, Chapter 6
1 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.
2 Therefore when thou doest 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. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
5 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, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6 But 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.
7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

[Igel]

3. Many use the Bible as a cudgel.

It's their cudgel, and nobody should use it against them. I mean, there's that "judge not" line, but nobody takes that seriously when there are partisan points to be had by using the pokemon-style "bible attack".

One could argue similarly Mat. 6 says not to do alms, because somebody always knows. Just look at that hypocrite widow Jesus mentioned, with her mighty mite. Some like to cherry pick unsystematically, unless "I know what I like to cite in this situation" counts as systematic.

It also helps to know what practice was at the time the gospel accounts are set and when they'd have been written: there was private prayer and corporate prayer, both Jewish and Xian. There were nice prayer books circulating, with the congregations at the nascent synagogues or churches chanting their prayers in unison. Vain repetitions, week after week.


What's funny is that Melania was cited as unreligious because she had to read the text. Now, the only reason I know it is because we recited it meaninglessly in Scouts when I was a kid. And only the KJV version. In my native language. Any other version, from some other English translation to other languages that I'm competent enough in would be a no-go.

Slovene ain't one of them. I get some of it, written, but spoken ... and there are bits that are quite opaque. "Vpelji v skusnjavo," for instance. (And I always find "in" for "and" to be quaintly confusing to my Germanic ear, and the rhotacism in kakor ....)

Oče naš, ki si v nebesih,
posvečeno bodi tvoje ime.
Pridi tvoje kraljestvo.
Zgôdi se tvoja volja
kakor v nebesih tako na zemlji.
Daj nam danes naš vsakdanji kruh;
in odpústi nam naše dolge,
kakor smo tudi mi odpustili svojim dolžnikom;
in ne vpelji nas v skušnjavo,
temveč reši nas hudega.