Matthew 6:1

Plain English Version

Jesus kept on teaching the people. He said, “If you only do good things so that people will see you and think you are good, God will not do good to you. Instead, you have to do good things and keep them secret. Then your father in heaven will do good things for you.

Cross References

Matthew 25:40

I will say to them, ‘Listen. You did all these things to help my followers. They were not important people, but they were mine, so every time you helped them, you helped me at the same time.’

Matthew 5:16

You have to be like that candle. You have to let everyone see that you are following me. They will see all the good things you do, and they will say good things about God, your father in heaven. They will say, ‘God is really great.’ ”

Matthew 5:46

You see, if you only love the people that love you, that is nothing. Even bad people do that. God will not give you anything for only loving people that love you.

Matthew 5:48

So this is what I say. You have to be properly good, just like your father in heaven is properly good.”

Matthew 6:16

Jesus kept on teaching the people. Some of those people used to stop eating for a while, so they can think about God and respect him. Jesus said, “Whenever you stop eating for a while, make sure you look the same as you always look. You know, there are some people that want everyone to think they are good, even though they are not good. Whenever they stop eating food to respect God, they want everyone to know what they are doing, so they let their faces get dirty, and they try to look sad. They want people to say, ‘That’s a good person.’ But listen, that is all those people will get. God will not give them anything good for doing that. Don’t be like them.

Matthew 6:9

So pray like this, ‘God, our father, you live in heaven. We want everyone to respect you.

Mark 8:15

Jesus talked straight to his followers. He said, “You know how we make damper. We put some baking powder into the flour to make it swell up. Well, I’m telling you this, stay away from the baking powder that comes from the Pharisee mob, that are strong for our law, and stay away from the baking powder that comes from Herod, the big boss.”

Luke 12:15

Then he said to the people, “Think carefully about this. Don’t be greedy. Don’t try to get more things than you need. You can’t get real life from the things you own, even if you are rich.”

Luke 16:15

Then Jesus told them, “You mob want everyone to think you are good, but God knows what you are really like, and he knows what you think inside your heads. You see, there are things that people reckon are important, but God thinks those things are rubbish.

John 12:43

They just wanted people to say good things about them. They didn’t worry about what God will say about them.

John 5:44

And you like other people saying good things about you, but you don’t try to live God’s way so that he will say good things about you. He is the only God, but you just care what people think about you, not what God thinks about you. That is the reason why you don’t believe in me.

Acts 3:12

Peter saw all those people and said to them, “All you Israel people, why are you surprised like this? Why are you looking at us? Do you think that we are really powerful, and that we made this man walk? Do you think that we are so good that we can do that? No. We are not.

Galatians 6:12

Some Jewish Christians are trying to force you to have that young man operation. They want the other Jews to think that you follow the Jewish law. You see, those other Jews will make trouble for anyone that believes that Jesus died on the cross to save them, and the Jewish Christians don’t want to get that trouble.