7 Oct 2014
Matthew 6:1
Matthew 6:1: “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.”
This is pretty straightforward: don’t do your good deeds for the purpose of having other people see you do them. When you do something good, be secretive about it. Don’t make it a public spectacle, like the people who donate $10 million to cancer research and get a big article in the newspaper about it. If the reason you’re doing something is so that other people will say “Look at what a great person he is!” then you’ve already blown it. Don’t do that.
In other words, it is best if people had no idea that you did a good deed. God doesn’t want you parading your good deeds around. He doesn’t want you telling other people all about all the great things you’ve done. He doesn’t want you holding yourself up and saying “Look at what a great person I am!” That honors you; it doesn’t honor God.
Notice also the subtle implication of verse 1: there are Heavenly rewards, and some people will get them while others will not. That much is obvious: after all, the whole point of the verse is that people who are public about their good deeds do NOT get rewarded, while those that are quiet about them DO get rewarded. These Heavenly rewards matter, and we ought to focus on them far more than we actually do.