Fasting - Matthew 6:16

Matthew shared how Jesus told His disciples, “After this manner therefore pray you: Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your 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 yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen”. Jesus continued, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”, and in chapter six and verse sixteen of his book, Matthew shared how Jesus told His disciples, “when you fast, be not, as the hypocrites” where we read:

Moreover when you 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.

The verse reads, “Moreover when you fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance:” Matthew began with the word, “moreover” which means “but, now and also” “when you fast” or “at the time and moment the disciples abstained as a religious exercise from food and drink either entirely or from customary choice nourishment if it continued several days”, “be not” which means “do not exist”, “as the hypocrites” which refers to “like or similar to an actor, stage player, dissembler and pretender”, “of a sad countenance” or “who bears a gloomy, mournful and angry visage”. Jesus instructed His disciples not to act like the “actors and pretenders” when they “fasted” who portended a “gloomy and mournful” face.

The verse continues, “for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.” Matthew added the word, “for” or “because, since and on account that”“they disfigure” which means “the hypocrites who fast deprive of luster and render unsightly” “their faces” or “the hypocrites countenances and looks”, “that they may appear” which means “so they may bring forth, shine, be bright and resplendent” “unto men” or “toward people” “to fast” which means “to abstained as a religious exercise from food and drink either entirely or from customary choice nourishment if it continued several days”. “Verily” or “faithfully, truly and surely” “I say” which means “Jesus utters, proclaims and declares” “unto you” or “to the disciples”, “they have their reward” or “the hypocrites who disfigure their faces have obtained their dues, wages, hire and fruit naturally resulting from toils and endeavors paid for work”. Jesus declared the people who “put on gloomy and mournful faces” when they “fast” have already been “paid” for their acting.

When we think through Matthew's words in this verse, we see how Jesus “presumed” “fasting” by the disciples, and He explained there was a way to “fast” and a way not to “fast”. There were “hypocrites” who made themselves “mournful and gloomy - looking” and project they were “spiritual” in their “fasting”. Jesus told His disciples not to be like them because the fact that people look upon them and think them “spiritual” was all the “reward” they would ever receive. God desires a true and humble relationship with people through His Son Jesus, and when they fast, they were not to be like these “hypocrites”.

Next time Jesus shares with His disciples how to be, “when” they “fasted”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

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