“Matthew 6:1-18”

Friday, May 22, 2020

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. 8 So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’ For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

---End of Scripture Verses---

Jesus tell us that when we give, pray, and fast, we are not to do so like a hypocrite. A hypocrite is an actor. He is pretending to do something that he really isn’t doing, and it is his motivations that really make his actions dishonest. The religious hypocrite tries to put on a show for all to see when pretending to practice his piety. Jesus says that a person like that actually does receive a reward when he behaves that way. The payoff is the attention and approval of people, and that’s really all the hypocrite was seeking in the first place.

Giving, praying and fasting have great spiritual benefits when done for the right reasons and in the right ways. The right motivations for doing good works is simply because they are the right things to do and that God wants us to do them. The manner in which we should do them is “in secret”. That is to say, not to put our good works on public display merely for others to see. That’s not to say that it’s always wrong to do good works publicly, otherwise other people would never be able to see our light shine in such a way that we glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16). But the only attention we should be seeking to draw is attention to and from God.

Jesus says our Father sees in secret. That is to say that God sees everything that we do, whether publicly or privately. Even if no other single human being knows we have done a blessed deed, God always knows. And, Jesus shows us that God “rewards” good deeds, private prayer, and self-denial. The spiritual return for spending private time with God and doing His charitable works on earth is the kind of reward that you just can’t put a price tag on. Please read Ephesians 3:14-21. This is what Paul wrote in verses 20-21: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

God knows what we have need of before we ever ask Him (verse 8). But He wants us to pray anyway. When we live a prayerful life we express to God our utter dependence upon Him for all of the spiritual and physical needs that we have. We let Him know that we love Him, we need Him and we are willing to obey Him and accept His will for us. God rewards us when we humbly submit ourselves to His rule and His will.

Jesus gave us a pattern to model our prayers after in verses 9-13. Notice that a prayer doesn’t have to be lengthy in order to be affective and acceptable. But there is design and intention in this model prayer. Here are the parts of Jesus’ example prayer: praise to God (verse 9); acceptance of His will (verse 10), petition for daily needs (verse 11); request for His forgiveness (verse 12); appeal for protection (verse 13). That is not to say that every prayer must be structured this way, but this is a trustworthy pattern given by the Lord Himself. When His disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, the same pattern with a very minor difference in wording was given (Luke 11:1-4).

Final note: Sometimes our prayers can be said in vain. If we refuse to forgive people who have sinned against us, God will not forgive us when we ask Him to either (verses 14-15).

Please read Matthew 6:19-24 for tomorrow – Sermon on the Mount – Lasting treasure.

Have a blessed day!

-Louie Taylor

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