But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face<\/em>” (Matthew 6:17), means to your normal daily toiletry: wash your face perfume your hair with oil. Fasting wasn’t for show or to make yourself look haggard. You don’t do it to get other people’s sympathy or to have people think you are religious. Thus, the anointing in this passage was not a religious practice — doing it would not make you stand out as religious.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: Hi, I am a member of the church in Indiana. This morning, I was studying fasting, and like always, I drifted off into another topic (I’m sure this happens to you and many Christians). That’s one reason why God’s Word is so good: You can never have enough. As I stated, I was studying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[127,1061,545,76],"class_list":["post-41728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-about-this-site","tag-anointing","tag-fasting","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18082,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-kind-of-oil-should-be-used-for-anointing-during-fasts\/","url_meta":{"origin":41728,"position":0},"title":"What kind of oil should be used for anointing during fasts?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Would you please explain Matthew 6:17? It says \"But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face\" but many people say something like do not take this verse literally, anointing one's head is not really important, what really matters is his\/her attitude towards God. But I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28265,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/have-you-heard-of-self-anointing\/","url_meta":{"origin":41728,"position":1},"title":"Have you heard of “self-anointing?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like to know the Church Of Christ views on \"Anointing yourself Daily.\" I had not heard of this practice. You are called to die, just like Jesus. You may not be called to die for your faith physically, but you are called to die to yourself so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19481,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-was-the-significance-of-anointing-aaron-as-high-priest\/","url_meta":{"origin":41728,"position":2},"title":"What was the significance of anointing Aaron as high priest?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What was the significance of anointing Aaron as high priest? Answer: Anointing was a representation of setting something or someone apart for a special purpose. Thus, the altar was anointed before offerings were placed on them to God. \"And you shall offer a bull every day as a sin\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35396,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-you-chose-to-fast-how-do-you-not-let-family-members-know\/","url_meta":{"origin":41728,"position":3},"title":"If you chose to fast, how do you not let family members know?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I'm a little confused about the practice of fasting. From what I understand, we, Christians, have the freedom to do fasting and that it should be done privately. At the present time, families mostly stay at home and it is unavoidable to notice everyone's actions inside the house.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11030,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-significance-of-fasting-for-twenty-one-days\/","url_meta":{"origin":41728,"position":4},"title":"What is the significance of fasting for twenty-one days?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the significance of 21 days of fasting? Four of us are fasting and praying for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, our families' salvation and for our friends nearby. I saw on your web site about the importance of 40 days and thought of asking you. Answer:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9216,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-prophet-objected-to-anointing-a-wicked-man-as-king-but-was-told-to-do-it-anyway\/","url_meta":{"origin":41728,"position":5},"title":"What prophet objected to anointing a wicked man as king but was told to do it anyway?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day. Can you please give me the name of the prophet who cried to the Lord not to let him anoint a man king because he was a wicked man but the Lord instructed him to do it anyway. Please let me have the book, chapter and verse\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}