That you appear not unto men to fast, but unto your Father who is in secret: and your Father, who sees in secret, shall reward you openly.
All Commentaries on Matthew 6:18 Go To Matthew 6
John Chrysostom
AD 407
And whereas in the matter of almsgiving, He did not put it simply, but having said, Take heed not to do it before men, He added, to be seen of them; yet concerning fasting and prayer, He made no such limitation. Why could this have been? Because for almsgiving to be altogether concealed is impossible, but for prayer and fasting, it is possible.
As therefore, when He said, Let not your left hand know what your right hand does, it was not of hands that He was speaking, but of the duty of being strictly concealed from all; and as when He commanded us to enter into our closet, not there alone absolutely, nor there primarily, did He command us to pray, but He covertly intimated the same thing again; so likewise here, in commanding us to be anointed, He did not enact that we positively must anoint ourselves; for then we should all of us be found transgressors of this law; and above all, surely, they who have taken the most pains to keep it, the societies of the monks, who have taken up their dwelling on the mountains. It was not this then that He enjoined, but, forasmuch as the ancients had a custom to anoint themselves continually, when they were taking their pleasure and rejoicing (and this one may see clearly from David 2 Samuel 12:20 and from Daniel); Daniel 10:3 He said that we were to anoint ourselves, not that we should positively do this, but that by all means we might endeavor, with great strictness, to hide this our acquisition. And to convince you that so it is, He Himself, when by action exhibiting what He enjoined in words, having fasted forty days, and fasted in secret, did neither anoint nor wash Himself: nevertheless, though He did not these things, He most assuredly fulfilled the whole without vainglory. It is this then that He enjoins on us likewise, both bringing before us the hypocrites, and by a twice repeated charge dissuading the hearers.
And somewhat else He signified by this name, this of hypocrites, I mean. That is, not only by the ridiculousness of the thing, nor by its bringing an extreme penalty, but also by showing that such deceit is but for a season, does He withdraw us from that evil desire. For the actor seems glorious just so long as the audience is sitting; or rather not even then in the sight of all. For the more part of the spectators know who it is, and what part he is acting. However, when the audience is broken up, he is more clearly discovered to all. Now this, you see, the vainglorious must in all necessity undergo. For even here they are manifest to the majority, as not being that which they appear to be, but as wearing a mask only; but much more will they be detected hereafter, when all things appear naked and open.
And by another motive again He withdraws them from the hypocrites, by showing that His injunction is light. For He does not make the fast more strict, nor command us to practise more of it, but not to lose the crown thereof. So that what seems hard to bear, is common to us and to the hypocrites, for they also fast; but that which is lightest, namely, not to lose the reward after our labors, this is what I command, says He; adding nothing to our toils, but gathering our wages for us with all security, and not suffering us to go away unrewarded, as they do. Nay, they will not so much as imitate them that wrestle in the Olympic games, who although so great a multitude is sitting there, and so many princes, desire to please but one, even him who adjudges the victory among them; and this, though he be much their inferior. But you, though you have a twofold motive for displaying the victory to Him, first, that He is the person to adjudge it, and also, that He is beyond comparison superior to all that are sitting in the theatre—you are displaying it to others, who so far from profiting, do privily work you the greatest harm.
However, I do not forbid even this, says He. Only, if you are desirous to make a show to men, also, wait, and I will bestow on you this too in fuller abundance, and with great profit. For as it is, this quite breaks you off from the glory which is with me, even as to despise these things unites you closely; but then shall you enjoy all in entire security; having, even before that last, no little fruit to reap in this world also, namely, that you have trodden under foot all human glory, and art freed from the grievous bondage of men, and art become a true worker of virtue. Whereas now, as long at least as you are so disposed, if you should be in a desert, you will be deserted by all your virtue, having none to behold you. This is to act as one insulting virtue itself, if you are to pursue it not for its own sake, but with an eye to the ropemaker, and the brazier, and the common people of the baser sort, that the bad and they that are far removed from virtue may admire you. And you are calling the enemies of virtue to the display and the sight thereof, as if one were to choose to live continently, not for the excellency of continence, but that he might make a show before prostitutes. Thou also, it would seem, wouldest not choose virtue, but for the sake of virtue's enemies; whereas you ought indeed to admire her on this very ground, that she has even her enemies to praise her—yet to admire her (as is meet), not for others, but for her own sake. Since we too, when we are loved not for our own, but for others' sake, account the thing an insult. Just so I bid you reckon in the case of virtue as well, and neither to follow after her for the sake of others, nor for men's sake to obey God; but men for God's sake. Since if you do the contrary, though thou seem to follow virtue, you have provoked equally with him who follows her not. For just as he disobeyed by not doing, so thou by doing unlawfully.
