Matthew 6:16-18, Fasting and Kingdom Righteousness

Tod Kennedy, November 2, 2005

Matthew 6:11-15, The Disciples’ Prayer

1.     The Pharisees love the praise of other people. One way that they called attention to themselves was by public fasting. The Pharisees often fasted twice each week (Luke 18:12).

2.     What is fasting? Fasting is the deliberate and voluntary going without food in order to concentrate on God and prayer to God. It was recognized and practiced through out the OT world and the early part of the church age.

3.     In this passage of Matthew, the Pharisees falsely made themselves look like weary, persecuted, and suffering people in order to call attention to themselves (16). Jesus said that fasting was something that you prepare for by being clean and dressing in a respectable manner so that they would not call attention to themselves and try to gain sympathy and praise (17-18).

4.     Fasting was never forbidden to the church. Paul, in Galatians 4:10, warns the Galatians against substituting ritual days and months and seasons and years in place of the freedom in Christ, but he does not forbid biblical fasting. In fact, fasting is not mentioned in the NT outside of the gospels and Acts.

5.     Jesus warned against this public and man-pleasing fasting in Matthew 6:16-18. Paul warns against any attempt to impress and please men in 2 Corinthians 5:9, Galatians 1:10, Ephesians 5:10, Philippians 4:18, Colossians 1:10 and 3:22, and 1 Thessalonians 2:4.

6.     So What? applications from Jesus’ lesson.

a.      Fasting to please God was acceptable. It is not emphasized in the church age Scripture, but neither is there a prohibition.

b.     If you want to fast, then do it for the right reasons: as a method of worship during which you concentrate on God and prayer to God, and you do this for any number of reasons.

c.      Fasting to please men was not acceptable. Therefore if someone fasts, that person is not to call attention to himself and the fact that he is fasting.

d.     Fasting is also worship, both in formal worship in a church group setting or informal worship done moment by moment in ones life.