Matthew 6 is Jesus’s teaching on the Sermon on the Mount about the inner life of faith: giving, praying and fasting done for God rather than for an audience, the Lord’s Prayer, the choice between serving God and money, and the call to trust the Father instead of being consumed by worry. These questions are for a small group, a Sunday class, or personal study. Each section moves from what the text says, to what it means, to how to live it.
Matthew 6 at a Glance
The chapter opens with three practices of devotion (giving, praying and fasting) and a warning against doing them to be seen. Jesus then gives the model prayer, followed by a short teaching on forgiveness. The second half turns to the heart: where treasure is stored, whether the eye is sound, and why one cannot serve both God and money.
It closes with an extended call not to be anxious about food, clothing or tomorrow, anchored in the Father’s care and the instruction to seek God’s kingdom first. Leaders can move through the sections in order or pick the questions that fit their group’s time.
Observation Questions
Use this set to slow the group down and let the text speak before anyone offers an opinion. Ask people to find the answer in the verses themselves, and to read the passage aloud once before starting.
Matthew 6:9-13
9 Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10 Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. 13 Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
(WEB)
Read the Lord’s Prayer slowly as a group, so everyone hears its order and its requests. It gives the group a shared language to end the session and anchors the study in prayer.
Matthew 6:19-21
19 “Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(WEB)
This passage sets the central contrast of earthly and heavenly treasure. Reading it aloud helps the group hear the link between what we store and where our hearts rest.
Matthew 6:24
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.
(WEB)
This short, direct verse names the choice every believer faces between two masters. Its brevity makes it memorable and invites a clear conversation about competing loyalties.
Matthew 6:25-27
25 Therefore I tell you, don’t be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they? 27 “Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?
(WEB)
These verses give the group concrete images of the Father’s care through the birds and the question about life being more than food. Reading them together helps shift the room from anxiety toward trust.
Matthew 6:33-34
33 But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.
(WEB)
Ending the chapter’s teaching on worry with these verses leaves the group with a clear priority and a daily focus. Read them last to send people out with a single, practical instruction.
Memory Verse for Matthew 6
Matthew 6:33
But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.
(WEB)
This verse summarizes the chapter’s call to put God’s kingdom first. Memorizing it gives people a short phrase to return to whenever worry or divided loyalty begins to press in during the week.
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come before you as people who want our giving, our praying and our fasting to be for you alone. Search our hearts where we have looked for the approval of others, and teach us to treasure what is eternal. Help us to forgive as we have been forgiven, and to bring our daily needs to you without wearing ourselves out with worry. Make us people who seek your kingdom first, trusting that you know what we need before we ask. Keep us in your care this week, and draw our hearts toward you. Amen.
