Matthew 6:1-4 1Take care not to do your righteousness before people in order to be seen by them; for otherwise you will not have a reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2Therefore, when you practice merciful giving, do not sound a trumpet ahead of you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3But when you practice merciful giving, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your merciful giving may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Verse 1 gives the basic principle for what Jesus will say in the next few verses: do not do your deeds of righteousness before others to get their attention and praise. The type of righteousness (dikaiosynēn) is inferred in the following verses as giving help in some way to those in need. The key word is merciful giving (eleēmossynēn), which is built on the word for “mercy.” Mercy is closely related to compassion and having pity on someone is need. Those who show mercy to others are blessed and receive God’s mercy (5:7).
Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting were the three pillars of piety for devout Jews and were ways that they showed how religious they were. Jesus takes these three practices and shows that disciples should do these three things in secret, not out in the open and on display for the whole world to see. These three practices are important spiritual disciplines to help us grow in our faith, but they can too easily become badges of spiritual maturity that we wear around for everyone to see.
The outer righteousness one shows should come as a result of one’s inner righteousness. Jesus defines further the type of lifestyle mentioned in 5:16. Our righteousness should be on display in such a way that brings glory to God and not ourselves. Jesus calls his disciples to deep commitment that begins with a longing after God and a desire to know God. This commitment grows into holy habits that come from the heart and not outward actions that hide behind the shame of a broken heart.
The best answer to human ego is to do something so no one else can see it. Jesus’ directions are not conditions, “If you do this,” but assumptions, “since you do this.” We experience righteousness through responding in faith to God wants to do in our life. Righteousness results from grace, faith, and obedience, and this order is important.
This passage challenges our motivation. What motivates us to do what we do? The word reward (misthon) occurs nine times in the Sermon on the Mount. It is a technical business term in the Greek language and means “payment in full,” particularly for the work a person does. Jesus mentions two sources for reward: either people or God. Each of these has a different result. We cannot have two audiences to our acts of mercy.
The hypocrites were pretenders who lacked sincerity. They did their acts of charity for the attention they would get from people. They would receive a little brief applause. We may think we are save hiding behind our acts of piety, thinking that our hearts are right but having the wrong with our motives. Disciples, however, seek to bring glory to God by acting like God. Giving mercy in secret is a way to be perfect in love like God (5:48). True love forgets self (left and right hands) as it gives to others. It is not self-conscious but gives out of a generous spirit. It is not self-centered but the crucified life. Christian giving is to be marked by self-sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, not by self-congratulations. Our only witness is God. When we show mercy in this way, we grow into a righteousness that naturally flows out of our relationship with God.
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