Matthew 6:6 — the shut door and what Jesus is correcting
6But you, when you pray, enter into your room, and having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.
The shut door is not a rule about where to pray: it is the simplest possible test of motive. With no one watching, the reason for praying to be watched disappears.
Short answer
Matthew 6:6 tells you to pray in a private room with the door shut. The target of the correction is not the place but the audience: the whole block of the Sermon on the Mount contrasts religion performed to be seen with religion done in secret. Jesus prays in public in other scenes, and the text does not forbid it.
- Written by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 3 min read
The verse belongs to a block of the Sermon on the Mount with three examples built the same way: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. In each one Jesus describes the manner of someone who wants to be noticed and proposes the reverse.
This is the second of the three, and the only one he follows immediately with a model prayer. The criticism just before it is aimed at people who pray standing on street corners to be seen.
The contrast is between audiences, not between locations. In the gospels Jesus prays in public in several scenes, and nothing here forbids that. What is being corrected is the reason someone chooses to be seen praying.
The closing clause says the Father will repay, and says nothing about what with. Reading a promise of material results into that adds what the text does not carry. What it asserts is more modest and stranger: someone is watching precisely when no one else is.
It works as a question before any visible religious gesture: would I still do this if nobody found out? And it works as permission for anyone without a beautiful place or a free hour — the verse asks for a door, and the door can be a parked car, a bathroom, the walk to work.
Where this verse appears
The verse belongs to a block of the Sermon on the Mount with three examples built the same way: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. In each one Jesus describes the manner of someone who wants to be noticed and proposes the reverse.
This is the second of the three, and the only one he follows immediately with a model prayer. The criticism just before it is aimed at people who pray standing on street corners to be seen.
What it says
The contrast is between audiences, not between locations. In the gospels Jesus prays in public in several scenes, and nothing here forbids that. What is being corrected is the reason someone chooses to be seen praying.
The closing clause says the Father will repay, and says nothing about what with. Reading a promise of material results into that adds what the text does not carry. What it asserts is more modest and stranger: someone is watching precisely when no one else is.
What to do with it today
It works as a question before any visible religious gesture: would I still do this if nobody found out? And it works as permission for anyone without a beautiful place or a free hour — the verse asks for a door, and the door can be a parked car, a bathroom, the walk to work.
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, take from me the wish to be seen praying. Teach me to speak with you when nobody knows, and let it be enough that you know. Amen.