Matthew 6:1-4

Matthew 6:1-4

Be on your guard to not do your righteousness before mankind in order to be seen by them.  And indeed surely not, for you do not have a reward from your Father who is in heaven.  Therefore, whenever you should do an act of charity, you should not sound a trumpet in front of you as the hypocrites do in the synagogue and the streets in order that they should be glorified by mankind.  Amen I say to you all: they receive their reward.  But while you do an act of charity, do not let your left know what your right does in order that your act of charity should not be publically known.  And your Father, who sees into that which is not publically known, will reward you.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

I’ve always been amazed at how many Christian churches have plaques, donation stickers in the front of books, or even “memorial books” that keep all the records of who has given what in honor of memory of whom.  I personally have always thought it is ridiculous.  And I’ve also always thought it was proof that Christians are absolutely unfamiliar with these verses.  Jesus advocates against all of those things.  When I donate to a church and get a little “This hymnal was made possible by the generous donation of Mr John Hancock” sticker that has my name on it – then I’ve received my reward!  Why on earth would I want to receive that reward at all!  I honestly believe that most of the charitable giving done in religious institutions and religious charities is done in absolute ignorance of these verses.  We make a big deal out of people’s donations because we want them to feel appreciated so that they’ll give more.  We don’t realize that what we should want people to be doing is giving with an eye on the eternal.  We should be training people to be obedient to God for an eternal reward.

Do you ever give for earthly recognition?  Have you ever refused recognition when it was offered?

Second Thought:

I would like to make one thing clear in this passage, though.  Jesus is not saying that we cannot let anyone know about our giving.  That’s just foolish, too.  It is okay to let those who may be spiritual mentors know about our gifts.  In fact, they might even be a help in the discerning process!  It is okay to even let the recipient know so long as they understand that we don’t want any recognition.  Jesus isn’t making a prohibition here against letting anyone know.  What Jesus does say here is that we should be careful about it being known to the general public.  The Greek phrase here is “en to krupto” (ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ) and it literally means “in the hidden.”  But it is an idiom that means outside of public knowledge.  But it does not exclude a small subset of people from being privy to details.  Jesus’s point is that He doesn’t want us to do it for the show.  It’s okay that some people know.  After all, if nobody knew what we did for Christ and in His name, how on earth would people ever be able to learn from our example and imitate genuinely godly behavior?  Jesus’ prohibition is against doing it for the praise and raise in social standing that usually comes when the general public is made aware of our gift.

Have you ever heard this passage used to indicate that we should always give anonymously?  Do you read this passage any differently knowing that Jesus’ prohibition is against public recognition and that it doesn’t prohibit anyone from knowing who has a legitimate reason to know?

Third Thought:

Again, I’d like to return to this idea of reward.  I began to stress this in my first point, but I wanted to make sure it truly gets brought out here.  If I have to compare between being rewarded in this lifetime by human beings or to be rewarded in the next lifetime by God – the choice is clear.  There is nothing in this world that can be better than God’s reward.  So why do we as godly people think that our reward can in any way compare to God’s reward?  Shouldn’t we want them to have God’s reward?  Now, I’m not saying that we cannot do nice things for people – even people who have done nice things for us.  But let’s not do it for show or even for “payback.”  Because when we do that we deprive them of a more godly reward.  In doing that we also deprive ourselves of a godly reward.  If we desire to do something nice for another person, rather than doing it for show or to return a favor we should do it as a display of God’s love.  Then we will receive a reward from our Father who is in heaven.

Do you tend to be a person who “returns a good gesture in like kind?”  How can we learn to say thank you – and even display God’s love to people – without having it actually be a repayment of generosity provided?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 6:5-6