Sermon on the Mount - Part 13

 Today I want to look at verses 1-4 of chapter 6, once again focusing on who Jesus was speaking to, and on the context of the entire message. 

Matthew 6:1-4

(1)“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

 (2)“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  (3)But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,  (4)so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

A couple of things up front:

• The chapter divisions are not in the original text. Although I do believe that this is as good a place as any to start a new chapter, it does not mean that Jesus is now entering a new train of thought.
• I don't think that Jesus was interested in giving a 3 point sermon. He was teaching, setting forth the main tenants of His ministry. I believe that there is a flow in this sermon, and this section continues His overall message of restoring the true relationship between God and man.

At the end of chapter 5, Jesus speaks of our being perfect, as God is perfect. I think this deserves some more thought, as it leads into these verses. Can we be perfect? I believe that Scripture teaches that our actions will never be completely perfect. So does experience for that matter. However, we can be seen as perfect if washed in the blood of Christ. This is not a license to do whatever we want, and if you are understanding this sermon, you will see that, but it does cover our flaws. So when Jesus says "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them," He is making sure that we understand that we do not do righteous deeds for the approval of God or others, we do them because seeing the love, grace, and mercy of God has brought about an internal change  that we often refer to as repentance. He goes on to say that if we do righteous deeds to be seen by others, they have lost all value before God.

The Jewish leaders were experts at giving, as well as letting others know of such actions. In fact, most everything they did was for public display rather than out of the desire to honor God. For whatever reason, they had lost the concept of a personal relationship with God. According to Jesus, it appears that there would be no other reward for their efforts. But for the crowd He warns, when you do such actions, do not seek the approval of others. Not even your closest friends or brothers, lest you also fall into the temptation to do such actions for their approval. Shhh! Do it in secret, so that not even your left hand might know what the right hand has done. That is, provided you didn't have to cut off one of you hands to keep from sinning!

Edited 2/7/2022