Matthew 6 1 8 commentary

MATTHEW 6 1-8 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Giving to the eedy
1 “Be careful not to practice YOUR righteousness
in front of others to be seen by them. If you do,
you will have no REWARD from your Father in
heaven.
BAR ES, "Take heed that ye do not your alms - The word “alms” here denotes
liberality to the poor and needy. In the margin, as in the best editions of the Greek it is
“righteousness;” either referring to almsgiving as eminently a righteous act, or more
probably including all that is specified in this and the following verses - almsgiving,
prayer, fasting, Mat. 6:2-18. Our Saviour here does not positively command his disciples
to aid the poor, but supposes that they would do it of course, and gives them directions
how to do it. It is the nature of religion to help those who are really needy; and a real
Christian does not wait to be “commanded” to do it, but only asks for the opportunity.
See Gal_2:10; Jam_1:27; Luk_19:8.
Before men ... - Our Lord does not require us never to give alms before people, but
only forbids our doing it “to be seen of them,” for the purposes of ostentation and to seek
their praise. To a person who is disposed to do good from a right motive, it matters little
whether it be in public or in private. The only thing that renders it even desirable that
our good deeds should be seen is that God may be glorified. See Mat_5:16.
Otherwise - If your only motive for doing it is to be seen by people, God will not reward
you. Take heed, therefore, that you do not do it to be seen, “otherwise” God will not
reward you.
CLARKE, "That ye do not your alms - ∆ικαιοσυνην υµων µη ποιειν, perform not
your acts of righteousness - such as alms-giving, fasting, and prayer, mentioned
immediately after. Instead of δικαιοσυνην, righteousness, or acts of righteousness, the
reading in the text, that which has been commonly received is ελεηµοσυνην, alms. But the
first reading has been inserted in several editions, and is supported by the Codd. Vatican
and Bezae, some others, and several versions, all the Itala except one, and the Vulgate.
The Latin fathers have justitiam, a word of the same meaning. Mr. Gregory has amply
proved, ‫צדקה‬ tsidekeh, righteousness, was a common word for alms among the Jews.
Works, 4th. p. 58, 1671. R. D. Kimchi says that ‫צדקה‬ tsidekeh, Isa_59:14, means alms-
giving; and the phrase ‫צדקה‬ ‫נתן‬ natan tsidekah, is used by the Jews to signify the giving of
alms. The following passages from Dr. Lightfoot show that it was thus commonly used
among the Jewish writers: -

“It is questioned,” says he, “whether Matthew wrote Ελεηµοσυνην, alms, or ∆ικαιοσυνην,
righteousness. I answer: -
“I. That, our Savior certainly said ‫צדקה‬ tsidekah, righteousness, (or, in Syriac ‫זדקתא‬
zidkatha), I make no doubt at all; but, that that word could not be otherwise understood
by the common people than of alms, there is as little doubt to be made. For although the
word ‫צדקה‬ tsidekah, according to the idiom of the Old Testament, signifies nothing else
than righteousness; yet now, when our Savior spoke these words, it signified nothing so
much as alms.
“II. Christ used also the same word ‫זדקתא‬ zidkatha, righteousness, in time three verses
next following, and Matthew used the word ελεηµοσυνην, alms; but by what right, I
beseech you, should he call it δικαιοσυνην, righteousness, in the first verse, and
ελεηµοσυνην, alms, in the following; when Christ every where used one and the same
word? Matthew might not change in Greek, where our Savior had not changed in Syriac:
therefore we must say that the Lord Jesus used the word ‫צדקה‬ tsidekeh or ‫זדקתא‬ zidkatha,
in these four first verses; but that, speaking in the dialect of common people, he was
understood by the common people to speak of alms. Now they called alms by the name
of righteousness, for the fathers of the traditions taught, and the common people
believed, that alms contributed very much to justification. Hear the Jewish chair in this
matter -
For one farthing given to a poor man in alms, a man is made partaker of
the beatific vision: where it renders these words, Psa_17:15, I shall behold
thy face in righteousness, after this manner, I shall behold thy face,
Because Of Alms. Bava. Bathra.
“This money goeth for alms, that my sons may live, and that I may
obtain the world to come. Bab. Rosh. Hashshanah.
“A man’s table now expiates by alms, as heretofore the altar did by sacrifice. Beracoth.
“If you afford alms out of your purse, God will keep you from all damage and harm.
Hieros. Peah.
“Monobazes the king bestowed his goods liberally upon the poor, and had these words
spoken to him by his kinsmen and friends -
‘Your ancestors increased both their own riches, and those that were
left them by their fathers; but you waste both your own and those of your
ancestors.’
To whom he answered -
‘My fathers laid up their wealth on earth: I lay up mine in heaven. As it
is written, Truth shall flourish out of the earth, but Righteousness shall
look down from heaven. My fathers laid up treasures that bear no fruit;
but I lay up such as bear fruit. As it is said, It shall be well with the just,
for they shall eat the fruit of their own works. My fathers treasured up,
when power was in their hands; but I where it is not.

As it is said, Justice and judgment is the habitation of his throne. My
fathers heaped up for others; I for myself. As it is said, And this shall be to
thee for righteousness. They scraped together for this world. I for the
world to come. As it is said, Righteousness shall deliver from death.’ Ibid.
These things are also recited in the Babylonian Talmud.
“You see plainly in what sense he understands righteousness, namely,
in the sense of alms: and that sense not so much framed in his own
imagination, as in that of the whole nation, and which the royal
catachumen had imbibed from the Pharisees his teachers.
“Behold the justifying and saving virtue of alms, from the very work
done according to the doctrine of the Pharisaical chair! And hence, the
opinion of this efficacy of alms so far prevailed with the deceived people,
that they pointed out alms by no other name (confined within one single
word) than ‫צדקה‬ tsidekah, righteousness. Perhaps those words of our
Savior are spoken in derision of this doctrine. Yea, give those things
which ye have in alms, and behold all things shall be clean to you, Luk_
11:41. With good reason indeed exhorting them to give alms; but yet
withal striking at the covetousness of the Pharisees, and confuting their
vain opinion of being clean by the washing of their hands, from their own
opinion of the efficacy of alms. As if he had said, “Ye assert that alms
justifies and saves, and therefore ye call it by the name of righteousness;
why therefore do ye affect cleanliness by the washing of hands; and not
rather by the performance of charity?” Lightfoot’s Works, vol. ii. p. 153.
Before men - Our Lord does not forbid public alms-giving, fasting, and prayer, but
simply censures those vain and hypocritical persons who do these things publicly that
they may be seen of men, and receive from them the reputation of saints, etc.
GILL, "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men,.... Some copies read,
"take heed that ye do not your righteousness", &c. which is a very good reading: but
then, by "righteousness", is not meant righteousness, as comprehending all other
righteous acts, as particularly alms, prayer, and fasting, hereafter mentioned; but alms
only; nothing being more common with the Jews than to call alms ‫,צדקה‬ "righteousness":
and whatever word Matthew made use of, there is no doubt to be made of it, but this was the
word Christ used. Now alms was so called, because it is a righteous action, which ought to be
performed; and to withhold from the poor what is meet, is to deal unrighteously: hence we read
of the "mammon of unrighteousness"; by which is meant, not money unrighteously got, but that
which is unrighteously kept from the poor: also it might be so called, because the Jews very much
placed their justifying righteousness before God in the performance of it: let us first see how,
according to them, it was to be done, and then what confidence they placed in it, and how much
they made use of it. The account Maimonides (f) gives is as follows, who observes: that

"we are bound to take heed to the commandment of alms more than all the affirmative
commands; because alms is a sign of a "righteous" man, the seed of Abraham our father; as it is
said, in Gen_18:19. Nor is the throne of Israel established, nor can the law of truth stand, but by
alms; as it is said, Pro_16:19. Nor shall Israel be redeemed, but by alms, according to Isa_1:27.
There are (says he) eight degrees in giving alms, the one above another; the highest, than which
there is none higher, is this; when one relieves an Israelite, and gives him a gift, or lends to him,
or takes him into partnership, or finds him work, so that he strengthens his hands before he
stands in need of asking; and of this it is said, and "thou shalt relieve him, a stranger and a
sojourner, that he may live with thee": which is as much as to say, relieve him before he falls, and
is brought to necessity. The next to this is, when a man gives alms to the poor, and he knows not
to whom he gives; nor does the poor man know of whom he receives; for, behold, this is doing it
for the sake of it; as the chamber of secrets, which was in the sanctuary, into which righteous men
privately put, and the poor children of good men were privately supported: and the next to this is,
when a man puts into the alms chest: and a man does not put into the alms chest except he knows
that the governor is faithful and wise, and knows how to manage as should be; such an one as R.
Chananiah ben Tradion. The next to this is, when the giver knows to whom he gives, but the poor
man does not know from whom he receives; as the great ones of the wise men, who used to go
secretly, and cast their money at the doors of the poor; and this is right to do, and a good method
it is when the governors of alms do not dispose aright. The next to this is, when the poor man
knows of whom he takes, but does not know the giver; as the great men among the wise men, who
used to bind up their money in linen cloths, and put them behind them, and the poor came and
took them, that they might not be ashamed. The next to this is, when a man puts it into his hands
before he asks. The next to this is, when he gives to him after he has asked. The next to this is,
when he gives to him less than is proper, with a pleasant countenance. The next to this is, when
he gives with grief.''
Now this work, or duty, they magnify at a very great rate: not content to say (g), that
"he that does alms, does that which is more excellent than all offerings;''
they further affirm (h), that
"giving of alms and beneficence ‫כולה‬ ‫התורה‬ ‫,כנגד‬ "are equal to the whole law";''

or, it is all one as if a man performed the whole law. Moreover, they give (i) out,
"that whoever takes of his goods, and does alms with them, he shall be delivered from the
"damnation of hell".''
Yea, they reckon that this gives a right and title to eternal life (k).
"He that says, let this "sela", or "shekel", be for alms, that his children may live, and that he may be
worthy of the life of the world to come, lo! this is ‫גמור‬ ‫,צדיק‬ "a perfect righteous man".''
Or, as elsewhere (l) expressed,
"let this sela be for alms, that my son may live, and that he may be a son of the world to come; lo!
this is a perfect righteous man.''
Thus, you see, they looked upon it as their righteousness; and what made them heirs of heaven,
and gave them a title to eternal glory. Now our Lord advises them to take heed, as what would be
of bad consequence, and very detrimental to them, that they did not their alms before men,
to be seen of themto be seen of themto be seen of themto be seen of them; not but alms may be lawfully done before, or in the sight of men, and a good
end may be answered by it; namely, to stir up others to acts of liberality; but then this must not be
done with this view, to be seen of men, in order to gain their applause, and a good name among
them,
otherwise, ye have no reward of your Father, which is in heavenotherwise, ye have no reward of your Father, which is in heavenotherwise, ye have no reward of your Father, which is in heavenotherwise, ye have no reward of your Father, which is in heaven. You expect a reward, and a
very great one, for your alms; but if you do them only to raise your credit, and gain esteem among
men, you have your reward already with men: nor must you expect any from God, since you seek
not his glory, but your own. When a man's self, and not the glory of God, is the chief end of any
action, that cannot be called a good work, nor will it have any reward; whereas a good work,
which springs from a principle of grace, and is directed to the glory of God, will have a reward,
not of debt, but of grace, from whence it arises.
HE RY, "As we must do better than the scribes and Pharisees in avoiding heart-sins,
heart-adultery, and heart-murder, so likewise in maintaining and keeping up heart-

religion, doing what we do from an inward, vital principle, that we may be approved of
God, not that we may be applauded of men; that is, we must watch against hypocrisy,
which was the leaven of the Pharisees, as well as against their doctrine, Luk_12:1.
Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, are three great Christian duties - the three foundations
of the law, say the Arabians: by them we do homage and service to God with our three
principal interests; by prayer with our souls, by fasting with our bodies, by alms-giving
with our estates. Thus we must not only depart from evil, but do good, and do it well,
and so dwell for evermore.
Now in these verses we area cautioned against hypocrisy in giving alms. Take heed of it.
Our being bid to take heed of it intimates that it is sin. 1. We are in great danger of; it is
a subtle sin; vain-glory insinuates itself into what we do ere we are aware. The disciples
would be tempted to it by the power they had to do many wondrous works, and their
living with some that admired them and others that despised them, both which are
temptations to covet to make a fair show in the flesh. 2. It is a sin we are in great danger
by. Take heed of hypocrisy, for if it reign in you, it will ruin you. It is the dead fly that
spoils the whole box of precious ointment.
Two things are here supposed,
I. The giving of alms is a great duty, and a duty which all the disciples of Christ,
according to their ability, must abound in. It is prescribed by the law of nature and of
Moses, and great stress is laid upon it by the prophets. Divers ancient copies here for tēn
eleēmosunēn - your alms, read tēn dikaiosunēn - your righteousness, for alms are
righteousness, Psa_112:9; Pro_10:2. The Jews called the poor's box the box of
righteousness. That which is given to the poor is said to be their due, Pro_3:27. The duty
is not the less necessary and excellent for its being abused by hypocrites to serve their
pride. If superstitious papists have placed a merit in works of charity, that will not be an
excuse for covetous protestants that are barren in such good works. It is true, our alms-
deeds do not deserve heaven; but it is as true that we cannot go to heaven without them.
It is pure religion (Jam_1:27), and will be the test at the great day; Christ here takes it
for granted that his disciples give alms, nor will he own those that do not.
II. That it is such a duty as has a great reward attending it, which is lost if it be done in
hypocrisy. It is sometimes rewarded in temporal things with plenty (Pro_11:24, Pro_
11:25; Pro_19:17); security from want (Pro_28:27; Psa_37:21, Psa_37:25); succour in
distress (Psa_41:1, Psa_41:2); honour and a good name, which follow those most that
least covet them, Psa_112:9. However, it shall be recompensed in the resurrection of the
just (Luk_14:14), in eternal riches.
Quas dederis, solas semper habebis, opes.
The riches you impart form the only wealth you will always retain.
- Martial.
This being supposed, observe now,
1. What was the practice of the hypocrites about this duty. They did it indeed, but not
from any principle of obedience to God, or love to man, but in pride and vain-glory; not
in compassion to the poor, but purely for ostentation, that they might be extolled as
good men, and so might gain an interest in the esteem of the people, with which they
knew how to serve their own turn, and to get a great deal more than they gave. Pursuant
to this intention, they chose to give their alms in the synagogues, and in the streets,
where there was the greatest concourse of people to observe them, who applauded their
liberality because they shared in it, but were so ignorant as not to discern their

abominable pride. Probably they had collections for the poor in the synagogues, and the
common beggars haunted the streets and highways, and upon these public occasions
they chose to give their alms. Not that it is unlawful to give alms when men see us; we
may do it; but not that men may see us; we should rather choose those objects of charity
that are less observed. The hypocrites, if they gave alms to their own houses, sounded a
trumpet, under pretence of calling the poor together to be served, but really to proclaim
their charity, and to have that taken notice of and made the subject of discourse.
JAMISO , "Mat_6:1-18. Sermon on the Mount - continued. Further illustration of
the righteousness of the kingdom - Its unostentatiousness.
General caution against ostentation in religious duties.
Take heed that ye do not your alms — But the true reading seems clearly to be
“your righteousness.” The external authority for both readings is pretty nearly equal; but
internal evidence is decidedly in favor of “righteousness.” The subject of the second verse
being “almsgiving” that word - so like the other in Greek - might easily be substituted for
it by the copyist: whereas the opposite would not be so likely. But it is still more in favor
of “righteousness,” that if we so read the first verse, it then becomes a general heading
for this whole section of the discourse, inculcating unostentatiousness in all deeds of
righteousness - Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting being, in that case, but selected
examples of this righteousness; whereas, if we read, “Do not your alms,” etc., this first
verse will have no reference but to that one point. By “righteousness,” in this case, we are
to understand that same righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, whose leading features
- in opposition to traditional perversions of it - it is the great object of this discourse to
open up: that righteousness of which the Lord says, “Except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven” (Mat_5:20). To “do” this righteousness, was an old and well-
understood expression. Thus, “Blessed is he that doeth righteousness at all times” (Psa_
106:3). It refers to the actings of righteousness in the life - the outgoings of the gracious
nature - of which our Lord afterwards said to His disciples, “Herein is My Father
glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples” (Joh_15:8).
before men, to be seen of them — with the view or intention of being beheld of
them. See the same expression in Mat_5:28. True, He had required them to let their
light so shine before men that they might see their good works, and glorify their Father
which is in heaven (Mat_5:16). But this is quite consistent with not making a display of
our righteousness for self-glorification. In fact, the doing of the former necessarily
implies our not doing the latter.
otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven — When all
duty is done to God - as primarily enjoining and finally judging of it - He will take care
that it be duly recognized; but when done purely for ostentation, God cannot own it, nor
is His judgment of it even thought of - God accepts only what is done to Himself. So
much for the general principle. Now follow three illustrations of it.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "Alms before men.
Almsgiving
I. The duty to which our lord refers. The word in the first verse rendered “alms” is in
some ancient copies rendered righteousness; in the second verse it means charitable
gifts. Our duty to give of our goods. The gift of alms a deed of justice as well as of mercy;
the poor have a just claim on the abundance of the rich.
II. The evils to be avoided in its discharge,

1. We are to avoid the desire of human applause.
2. We are to avoid giving an ostentatious notoriety to deeds of beneficence. It is the
empty vessel that cannot be touched without telling it.
III. The manner in which deeds of righteousness and charity are to be performed.
1. Modesty.
2. With a cheerful respect to the Divine precepts.
3. We must aim at the advancement of the honour of God.
4. Act from Christian compassion and fellowship.
5. We must depend on Divine assistance, and ascribe the praise of all to Him who
enables us to live to His glory.
IV. The argument stated by our Lord.
1. The futility of ostentatious displays of piety.
2. The promise annexed to their right performance.
3. How jealous should we be of the principle from which we act.
4. Never presume on eternal life from the works of the law. (J. E. Good.)
Purity of motive in religion
When Mrs. Judson read the Lord’s “ Sermon on the Mount “ to the first Burman convert,
he was deeply affected. “These words,” said he, “take hold on my very heart; they make
me tremble. Here God commands us to do everything that is good in secret; not to be
seen of men. How unlike our religion is this! When Burmans make offerings they make a
great noise with drums and cymbals, that others may see how good they are. (Anecdotes
of the Aborigines.)
Secret philanthropy
Loud, ostentatious, and unprofitable, it was like the brawling, noisy, foaming, frothy
torrent, which, with a rock for its bed and barrenness on its banks, makes itself seen and
heard. How different genuine, gracious piety! Affluent in blessings but retiring from
observation, it has its symbol in the stream that pursues a silent course, and, flashing
out in the light of day but here and there, but now and then, is not known but by the
good it does-the flowers that bloom on its banks, and the evergreen verdure which it
gives to the pastures through which it winds on its quiet path. (Dr. Guthrie.)
Silent philanthropy
Alms should be like oil, which, though it swim aloft when it is fallen, yet makes no noise
in the falling; not like water, that sounds when it lights. (Hall.)
BARCLAY, "Right Things From The Wrong Motive (Matthew 6:1)
6:1 Take care not to try to demonstrate how good you are in the presence of men, in
order to be seen by them. If you do, you have no reward with your Father in heaven.

To the Jew there were three great cardinal works of the religious life, three great
pillars on which the good life was based--almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Jesus
would not for a moment have disputed that; what troubled him was that so often in
human life the finest things were done from the wrong motives.
It is the strange fact that these three great cardinal good works readily lend
themselves to wrong motives. It was Jesus' warning that, when these things were
done with the sole intention of bringing glory to the doer, they lost by far the most
important part of their value. A man may give alms, not really to help the person to
whom he gives, but simply to demonstrate his own generosity, and to bask in the
warmth of some one's gratitude and all men's praise. A man may pray in such a way
that his prayer is not really addressed to God, but to his fellow-men. His praying
may simply be an attempt to demonstrate his exceptional piety in such a way that no
one can fail to see it. A man may fast, not really for the good of his own soul, not
really to humble himself in the sight of God, but simply to show the world what a
splendidly self-disciplined character he is. A man may practise good works simply to
win praise from men, to increase his own prestige, and to show the world how good
he is.
As Jesus saw it, there is no doubt at all that that kind of thing does receive a certain
kind of reward. Three times Jesus uses the phrase, as the Revised Standard Version
has it: "Truly I say to you, they have their reward" (Matthew 6:2; Matthew 6:5;
Matthew 6:16). It would be better to translate it: "They have received PAYME T
in full." The word that is used in the Greek is the verb apechein (Greek #568),
which was the technical business and commercial word for receiving payment in
full. It was the word which was used on receipted ACCOU TS. For instance, one
man signs a receipt given to another man: "I have received (apecho, Greek #568)
from you the rent of the olive press which you have on hire." A tax collector gives a
receipt, saying, "I have received (apecho, Greek #568) from you the tax which is
due." A man sells a slave and gives a receipt, saying, "I have received (apecho,
Greek #568) the whole price due to me."
What Jesus is saying is this: "If you give alms to demonstrate your own generosity,
you will get the admiration of men--but that is all you will ever get. That is your
payment in full. If you pray in such a way as to flaunt your piety in the face of men,
you will gain the reputation of being an extremely devout man--but that is all you
will ever get. That is your payment in full. If you fast in such a way that all men
know that you are fasting, you will become known as an extremely abstemious and
ascetic man--but that is all you will ever get. That is your payment in full." Jesus is
saying, "If your one aim is to get yourself the world's rewards, no doubt you will get
them--but you must not look for the rewards which God alone can give." And he
would be a sadly short-sighted creature who grasped the rewards of time, and let
the rewards of eternity go.
BE SO , "Matthew 6:1. Take heed that ye do not your alms, &c. — As some copies
and very ancient versions read δικαιοσυνην, righteousness, instead of ελεηµοσυνην,
alms-deeds, and several of the fathers QUOTE the passage so, “I choose, with

Beza,” says Dr. Doddridge, “to follow that reading; because it prevents the
appearance of a tautology in the following words, and makes this verse a general
and very proper introduction to the remaining part of the section, in which the
caution is branched out into the particular heads of alms, prayer, and fasting.” The
doctor therefore reads, Take heed that ye practise not your righteousness, in which
interpretation of the clause, and for similar reasons, he is followed by Dr. Campbell.
The verse is a general caution against vain glory in any of our good works, all which
are here summed up together in the comprehensive word, righteousness. This
general caution our Lord applies, in the sequel, to the three principal branches of it,
relating to our neighbour, Matthew 6:2-4; to God, Matthew 6:5-6; and to ourselves,
Matthew 6:16-18. Before men to be seen of them — Barely the being seen, while we
are doing any of the things hereafter mentioned, is a circumstance purely
indifferent; but the doing them with a view to be seen and admired, this is what our
Lord condemns.
COKE, ". Take heed that ye do not your alms— Your righteousness. Our
translators have put alms in the text; but doubting, upon good grounds, whether
that was the true reading, they have for alms put in the margin righteousness, that is
to say, justice, as it stands in the Vulgate; a reading supported with great authority
from manuscripts, and commentaries of ancient fathers upon the place. However, if
this were a mere verbal criticism, it would less deserve to be insisted upon: but it
seems much better, and more agreeable to the sense of the Evangelist, that instead of
alms we read justice; for the proper reward, not only of alms, but of every other
virtue, will be forfeited, if a desire of worldly applause be our motive to the practice
of them; and therefore this first verse seems to be a general caution against vain-
glory in our good works, which are here summed up as usual in the comprehensive
name of righteousness or justice: this general caution our Lord applies in the sequel
to the three principal branches into which that justice is divided; namely, first,
justice to our neighbour, by acts of kindness and beneficence; for merely not to hurt
him, when we can do him good, is not doing him justice: secondly, justice to God by
devotion; and thirdly, justice to ourselves by mortification, Matthew 6:16., &c.
which three branches of justice our Lord here treats of severally. With this view
Beza, who was for restoring δικαιοσυνην, justice, into the Greek text, makes the
same remark; as does also St. Austin, who found justitia in his copy. This verse
therefore may be considered as a general introduction to what follows. The doctrine
and precepts of the disciples,—the righteousness which they preached, was to excel
the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees in the manner set forth in the
preceding chapter. Our Lord goes on to speak of the righteousness which the Jewish
teachers practiced, or pretended to practise; shewing that his disciples ought to excel
them in that respect also. The particulars which he mentions, though few, are of
great importance; namely, alms-giving, prayer, fasting, heavenly-mindedness,
walking with God, and cheerful resignation. The present chapter contains four
parts; first, the right intention and manner in giving alms, Matthew 6:1-4.; secondly,
the right intention, manner, form, and pre-requisites of prayer, Matthew 6:5-15.;
thirdly, the right intention and manner of fasting, Matthew 6:16-18.; fourthly, the
necessity of a pure intention in all things, unmixed either with a desire of riches, or
worldly care and fear of want, Matthew 6:19-34. This first verse is a general caution

against vain-glory in any of our good works. Our Saviour does not forbid us to do
works of this kind publicly; for on some occasions that cannot be avoided; but to do
them publicly, with a view and design to be seen of men, and to be applauded for
them. See Heylin, Wetstein, Bengelius, and Olearius.
GOLDE CHAI , "Gloss., non occ.: Christ having now fulfilled the Law in respect
of commandments, begins to fulfil it in respect of promises, that we may do God"s
commandments for heavenly wages, not for the earthly which the Law held out. All
earthly things are reduced to two main heads, viz. human glory, and abundance of
earthly goods, both of which seem to be promised in the Law. Concerning the first is
that spoken in Deuteronomy, "The Lord shall make thee higher than all the nations
who dwell on the face of the earth." [Deut ] And in the same place it is added of
earthly wealth, "The Lord shall make thee abound in all good things." Therefore
the Lord now forbids these two things, glory and wealth, to the attention of
believers.
Chrys., Hom. xix: Yet be it known that the desire of fame is near a kin to virtue.
Pseudo-Chrys.: For when any thing truly glorious is done, there ostentation has its
readiest occasion; so the Lord first shuts out all intention of seeking glory; as He
knows that this is of all fleshly vices the most dangerous to man. The servants of the
Devil are tormented by all kinds of vices; but it is the desire of empty glory that
torments the servants of the Lord more than the servants of the Devil.
Aug., PROSPER. Lib. Sentent. 318: How great strength the love of human glory
has, none feels, but he who has proclaimed war against it. For though it is easy for
any not to wish for praise when it is denied him, it is difficult not to be pleased with
it when it is offered.
Chrys.: Observe how He has begun as it were describing some beast hard to be
discerned, and ready to steal upon him who is not greatly on his guard against it; it
enters in secretly, and carries off insensibly all those things that are within.Pseudo-
Chrys.: And therefore he enjoins this to be more carefully avoided, "Take heed that
ye do not your righteousness before men." It is our heart we must watch, for it is an
invisible serpent that we have to guard against, which secretly enters in and
seduces; but if the heart be pure into which the enemy has succeeded in entering in,
the righteous man soon feels that he is prompted by a strange spirit; but if his heart
were full of wickedness, he does not readily perceive the suggestion of the Devil, and
therefore He first taught us, "Be not angry, Lust not," for that he who is under the
yoke of these evils cannot attend to his own heart.
But how can it be that we should not do our alms before men. Or if this may be, how
can they be so done that we should not know of it. For if a poor man come before us
in the presence of any one, how shall we be able to give him alms in secret? If we
lead him aside, it must be seen that we shall give him. Observe then that He said not
simply, "Do not before men," but added, "to be seen of them." He then who does
righteousness not from this motive, even if he does it before the eyes of men, is not to

be thought to be herein condemned; for he who does any thing for God"s sake, sees
nothing in his heart but God, for whose sake he does it; as a workman has always
before his eyes him who has entrusted him with the work to do.
Greg., Mor., viii, 48: If then we seek the fame of giving, we make even our public
deeds to be hidden in His sight; for if herein we seek our own glory, then they are
already cast out of His sight, even though there be many by whom they are yet
unknown. It belongs only to the thoroughly perfect, to suffer their deeds to be seen,
and to receive the praise of doing them in such sort that they are lifted up with no
secret exultation; whereas they that are weak, because they cannot attain to this
perfect contempt of their own fame, must needs hide those good deeds that they do.
Aug., Serm. in Mont., ii, 1: In saying only, "That ye be seen of men," without any
addition, He seems to have forbidden that we should make that the end of our
actions. For the Apostle who declared, "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the
servant of Christ;" [Gal ] says in another place, "I please all men in all things. [1
Cor 10:33] This he did not that he might please men, but God, to the love of whom
he desires to turn the hearts of men by pleasing them. As we should not think that
he spoke absurdly, who should say, In this my pains in seeking a ship, it is not the
ship I seek, but my country.
Aug., Serm. 54. 2: He says this, "that ye be seen of men," because there are some
who so do their righteousness before men that themselves may not be seen, but that
the works themselves may be seen, and their Father who is in heaven may be
glorified; for they reckon not their own righteousness, but His, in the faith of whom
they live.
Aug., Serm. in Mont.: That He adds, "Otherwise ye shall not have your reward
before your Father who is in heaven," signifies no more than that we ought to take
heed that we seek not praise of men in reward of our words.
Pseudo-Chrys.: What shall you receive from God, who have given God nothing?
What is done for God"s sake is given to God, and received by Him; but what is done
because of men is cast to the winds. But that wisdom is it, to bestow our goods, to
reap empty words, and to have despised the reward of God? ay you deceive the
very man for whose good word you look; for he thinks you do it for God"s sake,
otherwise he would rather reproach then command you.
Yet must we think him only to have done his work because of men, who does it with
his whole will and intention governed by the thought of them. But if an idle thought,
seeking to be seen of men, mount up in any one"s heart, but is resisted by the
understanding spirit, he is not thereupon to be condemned of man-pleasing; for that
the thought came to him was the passion of the flesh, what he chose was the
judgment of his soul.
LIGHTFOOT, "[Take heed, that ye do not your alms, &c.] It is questioned, whether
Matthew writ alms, or righteousness. I answer;

I. That our Saviour certainly said righteousness...I make no doubt at all; but that
that word could not be otherwise understood by the common people than of alms,
there is as little doubt to be made. For although the word righteousness, according
to the idiom of the Old Testament, signifies nothing else than righteousness; yet
now, when our Saviour spoke those words, it signified nothing so much as alms.
II. Christ used also the same word righteousness in the three verses next following,
and Matthew used the word alms: but by what right, I beseech you, should he call it
righteousness, in the first verse, and alms in the following,--when Christ every
where used one and the same word? Matthew might not change in Greek, where our
Saviour had not changed in Syriac.
Therefore we must say, that the Lord Jesus used the word righteousness in these
four first verses: but that, speaking in the dialect of common people, he was
understood by the common people to speak of alms.
ow they called alms by the name of righteousness, in that the Fathers of the
Traditions taught, and the common people believed, that alms conferred very much
to justification. Hear the Jewish chair in this matter:
"For one farthing, given to a poor man in alms, a man is made partaker of the
beatifical vision." Where it renders these words [Psa 17:15] 'I shall behold thy face
in righteousness,' after this manner; 'I shall behold thy face because of alms.'
One saith, "This money goes for alms, that my sons may live, and that I may obtain
the world to come."
"A man's table now expiates by alms, as heretofore the altar did by sacrifice."
"If you afford alms out of your purse, God will keep you from all damage and
harm."
"Monobazes the king bestowed his goods liberally upon the poor, and had these
words spoke to him by his kinsmen and friends, 'Your ancestors increased both
their own riches and those that were left them by their fathers; but you waste both
your own and those of your ancestors.' To whom he answered, 'My fathers laid up
their wealth on earth; I lay up mine in heaven; as it is written, Truth shall flourish
out of the earth, but righteousness shall look down from heaven. My fathers laid up
treasure that bears no fruit; but I lay up such as bear fruit; as it is said, It shall be
well with the just, for they shall be at the fruit of their works. My fathers treasured
up where power was in their hands; but I where it is not; as it is said, Justice and
judgment is the habitation of his throne. My fathers heaped up for others; I for
myself; as it is said, And this shall be to thee for righteousness. They scraped
together for this world; I for the world to come; as it is said, Righteousness shall
deliver from death.'" These things are also recited in the Babylonian Talmud.

You see plainly in what sense he understands righteousness, namely, in the sense of
alms: and that sense not so much framed in his own imagination, as in that of the
whole nation, and which the royal catechumen had imbibed from the Pharisees his
teachers.
Behold the justifying and saving virtue of alms from the very work done, according
to the doctrine of the Pharisaical chair. And hence the opinion of this efficacy of
alms so far prevailed with the deceived people, that they pointed out alms by no
other name (confined within one single word) than righteousness. Perhaps those
words of our Saviour are spoken in derision of this doctrine; "Yea, give those things
which ye have in alms, and behold all things shall be clean to you," Luke 11:41.
With good reason, indeed, exhorting them to give alms, but yet withal striking at the
covetousness of the Pharisees, and confuting their vain opinion of being clean by the
washing of their hands, from their own opinion of the efficacy of alms. As if he had
said, "Ye assert that alms justifies and saves; and therefore ye call it by the name of
righteousness: why, therefore, do ye affect cleanness by the washing of hands, and
not rather by the performance of charity?" See the praises of alms, somewhat too
high for it, in the Talmud.
"R. Jannai saw one giving money openly to a poor man; to whom he said, It is better
you had not given at all, than so to have given."
[Otherwise ye have no reward.] He therefore seems the rather to speak of a reward,
because they expected a reward for their alms-doing without all doubt; and that, as
we said, for the mere work done.
"R. Lazar was the almoner of the synagogue. One day going into his house, he said,
'What news?' They answered, 'Some came hither, and ate and drank, and made
prayers for thee.' 'Then,' saith he, 'there is no good reward.' Another time going
into his house, he said, 'What news?' It was answered, 'Some others came, and ate
and drank, and railed upon you.' ' ow,' saith he, 'there will be a good reward.'"
ELLICOTT, "(1) From the protest against the casuistry which tampered with and
distorted the great primary commandments, the Sermon on the Mount passes to the
defects of character and action which vitiated the religion of Pharisaism even where
it was at its best. Its excellence had been that it laid stress, as the religion of Islam
did afterwards, on the three great duties of the religious life, almsgiving, fasting, and
prayer, rather than on sacrifices and offerings. Verbally, Pharisaism accepted on
this point the widest and most spiritual teaching of the prophets, and so its home
was in the Synagogue rather than the Temple, and it gained a hold on the minds of
the people which the priests never gained. But a subtle evil found its way even here.
Love of praise and power, rather than spontaneous love, and self-denial, and
adoration, was the mainspring of their action, and so that which is the essence of all
religion was absent even from the acts in which the purest and highest form of
religion naturally shows itself.
Your alms.—The better MSS. give righteousness, and obviously with a far truer

meaning, as the wider word which branches off afterwards into the three heads of
alms, fasting, prayer. In Rabbinic language the whole was often used for the part,
and “righteousness” was identified with “mercifulness,” and that with giving
money. The Greek version of the LXX. often renders the Hebrew word for
righteousness by “alms.” In the ew Testament, however, there is no such
narrowing of its meaning, and here the full significance of the word is fixed by its
use in Matthew 5:20. The reading “alms” probably arose from a misconception of
the real meaning of the passage, and the consequent assumption that it simply
introduced the rule given in Matthew 6:2-3.
To be seen of them.—It is the motive, and not the fact of publicity, that vitiates the
action. The high ideal of the disciple of Christ is to let his light shine “before men”
(the self-same words are used in Matthew 5:16 as here), and yet to be indifferent to
their praise or even their opinion. In most religious men there is probably a
mingling of the two motives, and we dare not say at what precise stage the presence
of the lower overpowers the higher. It is enough to remember that it is the little
speck which may taint the whole character till it loses all its life.
Of your Father which is in heaven.—More accurately, with your Father, as
meaning, “in His estimate.” The act is not done to and for Him, and therefore
(speaking after the manner of men) He looks on it as having no claim to PAYME T.
CALVI , "1.Beware In this passage, Christ exhorts his people to devote themselves
sincerely to good works; that is, to endeavor, with simplicity, to do what is right
before God, and not to make a parade before men. (424) A very necessary
admonition; for in all virtues the entrance of ambition is to be dreaded, and there is
no work so laudable, as not to be in many instances corrupted and polluted by it.
Under one class he lays down, by a synecdoche, a general doctrine: for he speaks of
alms only, as he speaks shortly afterwards about prayers: though some copies,
instead of ἐλεηµοσύνην, alms, read δικαιοσύνην , righteousness, which is also the
rendering of the old translator. But the difference is of little moment: for in either
way there is no room to doubt, that the design is, to correct the disease of ambition,
when, in doing what is right, we seek glory from men.
COFFMA , "The prohibition in this verse is against a false motive for
righteousness, namely, "to be seen." Secrecy is not here enjoined in any absolute
sense; because Christ also said, "Let your light so shine ..." (Matthew 5:16).
However, secrecy is by far the best, where possible, as a test of one's personal motive
for deeds of righteousness.
PULPIT, "Take heed; προσέχετε [ δέ] (Westcott and Hort). If "but" is genuine, as is
on the whole more probable, our Lord places this warning in close relation to the
preceding charge. Aim at "perfection," but beware of mere show. Rather you must
consider the estimate that will be formed of you by YOUR Father which is in
heaven. That ye do not your alms; Revised Version, your righteousness (so the
manuscripts). Although one of the Hebrew words for "righteousness" ( ‫הקרץ‬ ) was
used especially for the righteousness of almsgiving (cf. Deuteronomy 6:25, LXX.; and
'Psalms of Solomon,' 9.6, where see Professor Ryle's and Mr. James's note), yet it is

improbable that τὴν δικαιοσύνην should here be rendered "alms,"
WHEDO , "1. Take heed — Mark well this point of danger. Do alms — The Greek
word for alms, according to the best manuscripts, is a different word from alms in
Matthew 6:2. The word literally signifies righteousness. According to the Jewish
usage, the word included the three righteous external acts — alms, prayer, and
fasting; alms to thy neighbour, prayer to God, fasting to thyself. The precept in this
verse, including all these three, requires that they should be done with an eye to God
alone, and not to man. To be seen of men — But are we not commanded to let our
light shine? We are so; but the object and end, even then, are not to be seen of men;
but the being seen of men is a mere means of inducing others to do likewise, and
SECURI G glory for God. The one terminates motive in man and his applause; the
other terminates in God and his cause. And this answers the common cavils against
the operations of public societies who publish their benefactions. o reward of your
Father — You serve the eyes of men, and from men must be all your reward. Act for
God’s eye, and God will reward you. Human approbation is a good; a desire for it
has its proper place. But it is not its right to fill the place of God’s approbation.
PULPIT, "As to the duty of giving alms.
The matter of the discourse of our Lord PROCEEDS from his illustration of the
hitherto unpractised and unnoticed spiritual significance, depth, and far-
reachingness of the Law, to admonitions which must ever be so sure to be needed—
of simplicity of motive and purity of heart in our works of "righteousness," or, as
perhaps we should more naturally describe them in modern phrase, of religion. It
must be noted that the Received Version reads mistakenly, in Matthew 6:1, "alms"
instead of "righteousness." This last word, recalling our thought to Matthew 6:20,
easily keeps for us unbroken the thread of Christ's discourse. The more specific of
these admonitions as to our religious actions are three in number, and concern the
duty of giving alms (Matthew 6:1-4), of praying (Matthew 6:5-15), and of lasting
(Matthew 6:16-18). otice—
I. THAT THE PRI CIPLE CO TAI ED I THE I JU CTIO CHRIST HERE
UTTERS IS OT THAT HIS DISCIPLES SHOULD ARTIFICIALLY A D
U ATURALLY SMOTHER A D COVER UP I DARK ESS EVERY ACT OF
CHARITY.
1. This would be to the derogation of a previous and important injunction of this
very discourse, that they should "so let their light shine before men that," as a
consequence, "they might see their good works, and glorify their Father in heaven."
2. The present injunction is explicitly worded to the effect that such good works as
almsgiving are not to be done for the purpose of being seen of men, and thereby
winning a most superficial glory of them.
II. THE I JU CTIO IS THAT THE WORKS OF CHARITY SHOULD
TRAVEL SO DIRECT FROM THE HEART TO THE OBJECT OF THEM THAT

THEY SHOULD I O WISE CO TEMPLATE A Y OUTER OBSERVATIO ,
A D SHOULD, SO FAR FROM THIS, EVE ELUDE THAT OF THE LEFT
HA D WHE DO E BY THE RIGHT HA D.
III. THAT A YTHI G SHORT OF THIS, A Y ADMIXTURE OF SECRET,
U SAFE, U HEALTHY, CRAVI G FOR HUMA OTICE A D PRAISE, IS
OF A DISE ABLI G SORT, A D PRECLUDES THE CO TI UAL DEW OF
THE DIVI E APPROVAL A D REWARD.
IV. THAT EVERTHELESS OUR WORKS OF CHARITY ARE FREE A D
OPE — AY, RATHER, ARE EVE TO BE E COURAGED TO SUBMIT
THEMSELVES—TO THE I SPECTIO OF THE O E CLEAR, CALM,
U ERRI G, A D U HARMI G GAZE OF THE DIVI E EYE, A D THERE
HAVE THEIR REWARD.—B.
TRAPP, "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.
Ver. 1. Take heed that ye do not your alms] Your justice, saith the Syriac. For first,
we do the poor but right when we relieve them; for they have an interest in our
goods, by virtue of the communion of saints, whereupon Solomon, "Withhold not,"
saith he, "good from the owners thereof," i.e. thy poor brethren. God, the great
author and owner of all, hath intrusted the rich (as his stewards, as his almoners)
with the wealth of this world. He hath intrusted them, I say, not lent it them (to
speak properly, for that which is lent is our own, at least for a time), but put it into
their hands only, for this end, that their abundance may be a supply for others’
wants, 2 Corinthians 8:9, that their full cups may overflow into others’ lesser
vessels, &c., which if it be not done, they can bring in no good bills of ACCOU T.
{a} It is but justice then that we do the poor, and it is but rapine or robbery (saith St
Chrysostom) not to relieve them. {b} Secondly, alms is called justice, to teach that
alms should be given of things well gotten. In the reign of King Henry VIII there
was one accused (but very unjustly) of heresy for saying that alms should not be
given until it did sweat in a man’s hand. The Jews called their alms box, Kupha shel
tsedacha, the chest of justice (Buxtorf, Syn.); and upon it they wrote this abbreviate,
‫מכיא‬ "A gift in secret pacifieth wrath," Proverbs 21:14. Selymus the Great Turk, as he lay
languishing (his incurable disease still increasing), leaning his head in the lap of Pyrrhus
the Bassa, whom of all others he most loved, "I see," said he, "O Pyrrhus, I must shortly
die without remedy." Whereupon the great Bassa took occasion to discourse with him of
many matters; and among others, that it would please him to give order for the well
bestowing of the great wealth taken from the Persian merchants in various places of his
empire, persuading him to bestow the same upon some notable hospital for relief of the
poor. To whom Selymus replied: "Wouldst thou, Pyrrhus, that I should bestow other
men’s goods, wrongfully taken from them, upon works of charity and devotion, for mine
own vainglory and praise? Assuredly I will never do it. Nay, rather, see they be again

restored to the right owners;" which was forthwith done accordingly; to the great shame
of many Christians, who minding nothing less than restitution, but making ex rapina
holocaustum, do out of a world of evil gotten goods cull out some small FRAGMENTS,
to build some poor hospitals or mend some blind way: a slender testimony of their hot
charity.
Before men, to be seen of them] As those are that act their part on a stage, and
would please the spectators, that they may be applauded. "He that giveth," saith St
Paul, "let him do it with simplicity," with ingenuity, ACCOU TI G it enough that
he hath God the witness of his heart, Romans 12:8; not but that men may see our
good works, and their praise be sought, modo tibi non quaeras, sed Christo, saith
Aretius, so that you seek not yourselves therein, but set up Christ. Let your end be,
that the light may be seen, not yourselves seen, Matthew 5:16. A fool hath no delight
in understanding, saith Solomon, but that his heart may discover itself, i.e. that he
may have the CREDIT of it: but he takes a wrong course. {c} For honour (as a
shadow) followeth them that seek it not, {d} as the Hittites told Abraham, he was "a
prince of God among them;" when himself had said a little before, "I am a stranger
and a sojourner with you," &c. Genesis 23:4-5.
Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father, &c.] Ye take up your wages all
beforehand. Fruit by the wayside seldom resteth till it be ripe. The cackling hen
loseth her eggs, so doth the vainglorious hypocrite his REWARD. He layeth up his
treasure, his wages, in the eyes and ears of men; which is a chest that hath neither
lock nor key to keep it.
PULPIT, "Ostentatious religion.
Having spoken of the duties of everyday social life, our Lord now passes on to deal
with specifically religious actions—almsgiving, prayer, fasting. One thing he
condemns in regard to all of these actions, viz. ostentation. His great requirement is
sincerity, and, with this, simplicity and humility.
I. THE CHARACTER OF OSTE TATIOUS RELIGIO . It is a theatrical
performance, carried through before the eyes of men and in order to SECURE their
admiration. In so far as it is ostentatious it does not aim at the service of God at all
Attention is not given to his will and approval. The lower sphere is all that is
thought of.
1. Ostentatious CHARITY. This was largely practised in the days of Christ, so that
the very word "righteousness" came to be narrowed down to the meaning of
almsgiving. But it is still prevalent. A person gives not to help the needy or to
honour God, but to gain a reputation for generosity. His name must figure in the
subscription list. If he were to have no public acknowledgment of his charity, he
would WITHDRAW his contributions. Why is it that some people will give more
when they "subscribe" than when they put an offering in a "collection" for the very
same object?

2. Ostentatious payer. We do not observe the Oriental practice of praying out in the
streets. But great attention to public services with neglect of private devotion is of
the same character. Or if when at church there is the utmost decorum of behaviour
with bent knee and bowed head, while the mind is not in the worship but wandering
after idle fancies, this is a show and a sham.
3. Ostentatious self-denial. There are numerous OPPORTU ITIES for self-denial
in ways invisible to man. It, therefore, a person passes these by and studies his own
comfort in private, while he makes a show of fasting in public, he proclaims himself
an "actor;" he is but playing a part. His self-denial is self display, for his own glory,
and therefore no real self-denial at all.
II. THE FAILURE OF OSTE TATIOUS RELIGIO .
1. Its inutility. It has its REWARD in the admiration of beholders. The hypocrite is
praised—till he is found out. evertheless, he really fails. For if religion means
anything, it means the soul's relations with God. But if in all this foolish display the
thought of God is lost, the supposed worshipper is not worshipping. Praying so as to
be seen of men, he forgets the one Being whom it is his supreme duty to please.
2. Its positive wickedness. The conduct of the ostentatious worshipper is odious in
the sight of God.
PULPIT, "The third part of the sermon: the danger of unreality.
I. THE FIRST EXAMPLE: ALMSGIVI G.
1. The spiritual estimate of actions. The Christian's righteousness must exceed that
of the scribes and Pharisees. They did their righteousness, their good works, before
men, to be seen of them. It must not be so with us. I DEED, we are bidden to let our
light shine before men. A holy life hath a persuasive eloquence, more persuasive far
than holy words; it must not be hidden; its influence is far too precious to be lost.
Men must see the fair deeds which spring from holiness, and so be led to glorify the
most holy God, from whose grace and presence all holiness comes. Good works must
sometimes be done before men. This is not the thing condemned, but the unworthy
motive, "to be seen of them." As Chrysostom says, "You may do good deeds before
men, and yet seek not human praise; you may do them in secret, and yet in YOUR
heart wish that they may become known to gain that praise." This earthly motive
poisons the life of the soul; it destroys all the beauty of good deeds. ay, good deeds
are not good when they are done for the sake of display; their goodness is only
outside show; it has no depth, no reality. For every moral action has its two parts,
the outward and the inward. We see the outward only. That may seem to be good;
but it is a mere falsehood unless it springs from worthy motives. The real action is
the inward part, the inner choice of the will. It is the motive that gives colour,
character, spiritual meaning to the act, that determines the spiritual value of the

action. If the motive is holy, the act is holy and beautiful in the sight of God, though
it may be the gift of two mites, which make a farthing. If the motive is low and
selfish, the outward action, though to men it may seem magnificent, heroic, is
spiritually worthless; it hath no REWARD of our Father which is in heaven.
2. The false motive. Unreality is hypocrisy; it is acting. The hypocrite acts a part
before men; he assumes a character which is not really his. He gives alms in the
streets; he wishes to be seen. He does not in his heart pity the afflicted; he is not
merciful; he does not really care to do good. His one desire is to win the praise of
men; he forgets that God seeth the heart. In the synagogue, in the church, he gives
for the poor, for the work of the Church; but even there, in the house of God, he
forgets the presence of the all-seeing God; he thinks only of the many eyes that see
his outward act, not of the One that sees its inward meaning and estimates its TRUE
VALUE. Such men have their REWARD, the Saviour says; they have it to the full,
they have it all in this world. What they looked for was the praise of men. They do
not always get it; even men sometimes see through the hypocrite, and feel the
hollowness of his life. But if they get it, it is all they get. God has no reward for
them; they did not care for that praise which cometh only from him; they sought it
not, and they have it not.
3. The true motive. The glory of God. The Christian gives out of love—love to God
and love to man; he seeks not glory of men. He gives in all simplicity, in the
singleness of his heart. He does not dwell in self-complacency on his good deeds, his
self-denials; he rather hides them, as far as may be, from the sight of men. For he
lives in faith, and faith is the evidence of things not seen; he lives in the presence of
the unseen God; he seeks above all things to be well pleasing to him. Our Father
seeth in secret; it is an awful thought. He sees the real meaning of our life, of all our
words and deeds. It is vain to act a part before him. The hypocrite's mask will not
conceal the littleness, the meanness of his soul. God seeth in secret; he will reward
those who live in the faith of that unseen presence, and try in secret, in the secret
thoughts and motives of the heart, to live as he would have them to live, in holy love,
in deep humility, in quiet obedience. He will reward them openly. The word
"openly" may be of doubtful authority here; but we know that the reward will be
conferred in the sight of men and nations. All nations will be gathered before the
King when he cometh in his glory, and all his holy angels with him. He will reward
them. Eternal life is a gift—the gift of God; it comes from his free and generous
bounty, unearned and undeserved. It is wholly incommensurate in its exceeding
blessedness with the poor unworthy services which the best of men can render to the
Lord. But in his love and. condescension he accepts them as done unto himself, and
calls his gracious gift—that gift which is above price, passing all that heart can
conceive—a reward for our mean and humble offerings.
II. THE SECO D EXAMPLE: PRAYER.
1. The false prayer. The prayer of the hypocrite is no true prayer; it is only acting; it
goes no deeper than the lips. Men may hear it; it reaches not the ear of God. The
sound of many voices goes up from the crowded church; they are alike in the

perception of men. God can distinguish them; he knows which is meant for his ear
only, and which, though the sacred ame is used, is addressed really to the
congregation, and not to God. The hypocrites have their REWARD. They sought to
be heard of men; they are heard. They sought not to be heard of God; God heareth
them not.
2. The true prayer.
III. THE LORD'S PRAYER. The Lord Jesus gives us a model for our prayers—a
prayer very different from the vain repetitions, the much speaking, against which he
has been warning us; but, though short and simple, comprehensive and complete. It
expresses every possible desire of the instructed Christian; all that we need to ask,
whether for the greater glory of God, for ourselves, or for others. He has taught us
what we should pray for; we know it, we learned it long ago; we have said it daily
from our childhood. It is easy to learn the sacred words, but, alas! hard to pray
them. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities; he maketh intercession for us, with us, m
us. He is the great Teacher; he, only he, can teach the great, holy, blessed, difficult
art of true acceptable prayer. May he teach us, of his infinite mercy!
1. The ADDRESS.
2. The first petition. "Hallowed be thy ame." As yet we ask nothing for ourselves;
we think only of God. Prayer lifts us out of self, out of the narrow range of selfish
thoughts, feelings, hopes, into that communion with God which is the very life of the
soul. God will be "all in all" in the regeneration; the highest end of prayer is to raise
us nearer and nearer to that blessed consummation, that he may become even now
"all in all" to us. This petition, "Hallowed be thy ame," stands first in the Lord's
Prayer, as if to teach us that we must come before God with reverence and godly
fear. There can be no true prayer without reverence, without a deep sense of God's
awful holiness and our utter unworthiness. Therefore we BEGI by asking God to
give us grace to feel the holiness of his great ame, that we may never fall into the
sin of taking his ame in vain, but may always regard it as most sacred, and
pronounce it with solemn reverence. The ame of God in Scripture language means
all that can be known of God—God as he has revealed himself to us (comp. John
17:6, "I have manifested thy ame unto the men which thou gavest me"). We see
him not yet face to face, as he is. o man hath seen God at any time; the only
begotten Son hath declared all that we can know of him, all that we need to know
for our salvation. "Hallowed be thy ame." The seraphim cry, "Holy, holy, holy!"
The four living creatures in heaven rest not day and night, saying, "Holy, holy,
holy!" Christ bids his Church on earth to take up the angels'song. In the striking
words of Stier, "The 'Holy, holy, holy!' of 'the highest heavens fills not yet all lands
and all hearts." We pray that it may be so. We pray that his great ame may be
hallowed in ourselves; that we may walk before him always in lowly obedience, that
we may come before him in prayer with solemn, awful reverence, and yet with
childlike love. We pray that it may be hallowed not in ourselves only, but in the
hearts of others also. May all men feel the power of the holiness of the Lord God of
hosts, and so be led to worship him in spirit and in truth! It is only by sanctifying

the Lord God in our hearts (1 Peter 3:15) that we can pray that prayer aright, that
we can learn that "Holy, holy, holy!" which we hope one day to chant in heaven.
3. The second petition. "Thy kingdom come." The kingdom of God is:
4. The third petition.
(a) "This is the will of God, even YOUR sanctification." We pray that God's will
may be done within us; that we may have grace and power to work out our own
salvation, by his Spirit working in us both to will and to do. God's will is that we
should be holy. "Be ye holy, for! am holy." We pray that that gracious will of God
may have its full range, its perfect work; that our wills, rebellious and wayward as
they are, may be subdued and chastened into conformity with the holy will of God.
(b) May God's will be done by us as we walk before him in the path of holy
obedience. He has given us each a work to do; let us see that we do it. Faith without
works is dead; the life of sanctification within the heart must bring forth the fruits
of holy living.
(c) God's will is better than our will; he knows better than we what is for our real
good. We must pray the prayer of resignation, "Thy will be done." It is very hard
sometimes to pray that prayer when troubles come thick upon us, when we are
afflicted with pain and sickness, when those whom we have very dearly loved are
taken from us. In those times of great sorrow we must think of the Lord as he knelt
that awful night in the garden, when his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood
failing down to the ground. We may ask, as he did, for relief: "If it be possible, let
this cup pass from me." But, if we have learned of him, we shall always add those
holy words of his, " evertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." There is no peace
like the great peace of entire resignation.
5. The fourth petition. Hitherto we have spoken only of God, now we speak of our
own wants. The prayers already uttered are three, and yet one. The first lifts our
thoughts to the heavenly Father; the second, to the kingdom which is given to the
eternal Son; the third, to the Holy Spirit, by whose help alone we sinful men can do
the holy will of God. The prayers are three, and yet one; all meet in the first clause
of the angelic hymn, "Glory be to God on high." ow for the first time we speak of
ourselves, of our own daily needs. "Give us this day our daily BREAD." It is a
prayer of faith, of trustfulness, of contentment. He is the Lord of the harvest; the
increase of the earth cometh from him; it rests with him to give or to withhold; we
own it in our daily prayer. We trust him; he is our Father; he knows that we have
need of these things; his blessed Son bids us ask. We ask for the supply of our
earthly needs in trustfulness, but in submission, remembering the last petition, "Thy
will be done." He encourages us to ask, but only for what is needful—our daily
bread. We ask for it each day as it passes; it is enough for us; we learn contentment
from our prayers. Our daily bread, we say; we pray for others, not only for
ourselves; our prayer binds us to feed the hungry. But man doth not live by bread
alone. We ask not only for common food when we say the prayer which Christ

himself hath taught us. We ask, if we are his I DEED, for the living Bread—
himself, the Food of the soul, which if a man receive he shall never hunger. We need
that Food every day, every hour; without it the spiritual life must pine away and die.
6. The fifth petition.
7. The sixth petition. "Lead us not into temptation." God, we believe, so putteth
away the sins of those who truly repent that he remembereth them no more. He
cleanseth from all unrighteousness those who confess their sins. We have made our
confession now; we have asked for forgiveness; we have pledged ourselves to lead a
life of Christian love, to forgive those who have offended us. But still the Lord bids
us pray," Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil." The strife with sin will
not be ended while we remain in the flesh. We need the grace of God every day, we
shall need it to the end. God tempteth no man; he solicits no man to sinful
compliance; that is the work of Satan. But God doth prove us; he cloth suffer his
people to be disciplined with many trials for the more CO FIRMATIO of their
faith. His providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; we ask him so to
order the circumstances of our lives as not to suffer us to be tempted above that we
are able. It is a prayer of humility. We know our weakness; we mistrust ourselves;
we fear the power of the tempter. This prayer should teach us never to expose
ourselves to temptations unnecessarily. We must not run into that danger against
which we pray. It should teach us not to judge our brethren hastily; God only knows
the power of the temptations which beset them.
8. The seventh petition. It is deeper, more wide-reaching than the sixth. Temptations
from without would not endanger us if there were not evil in our hearts. We ask to
be delivered from it. "Draw us away from the evil," we say (as the words literally
mean), quite away from it; away from evil of every kind, away from the power of
the evil one, away from the defiling contact with evil in the world, away from the
snares of those sins which do so easily beset us. Evil is all around us. The evil one is
always alluring us with his accursed temptations. The world is very evil; it lieth in
wickedness—perhaps, rather, in the evil one, in the sphere of his ACTIVITY, his
influence (1 John 5:19). Our own heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked; our will is weak and corrupted. There is need of a power greater than our
own to draw us away from the dominion of the strong man armed; there is need of a
mighty counteracting attraction to draw us away from the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eye, and the pride of life. That power is the grace of God; his is the
kingdom and the power. That attraction is the love of Christ, the constraining
influence of the cross. "Draw me, we will run after thee." This prayer pledges us to
follow the drawing of God, to E TER into the Lord's battle against the devil, the
world, and the flesh. We pray daily to be delivered from evil; we must strive against
it, fighting the good fight of faith; or the words of prayer, though they are the holy
words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, will not avail to help us.
9. The doxology. We may be compelled by the stern laws of criticism to omit it from
the text; but we shall never omit it from our prayers. If it is a liturgical addition, it
was made by holy men, men full of the Holy Ghost. It is a precious ending to a

precious prayer. The ADDRESS and the doxology bind the seven petitions together
into one perfect prayer. All flow out of the address. He is our Father; he will hear
the cry of his children. All rise in faith to the doxology. His is the kingdom and the
power and the glory. The kingdom is his. He is King of kings. His kingdom wilt
come in his own good time; then shall his ame be hallowed, and his will be done in
earth as it is now in heaven. His is the power. He can give us what is needful for our
bodies; he can feed us with the BREAD of life; he can take away our sins and give us
the victory over temptation, and save us from every form of evil. His is the glory.
Here is our hope of glory, Christ in us; for he saith, "The glory which thou gavest
me I have given them." In the last words of the Lord's Prayer we echo the first
words of the angelic anthem with which his birth was hailed. His is the kingdom and
the power and the glory, and that for ever. Here is our hope of everlasting life. His
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. His saints shall
reign with him. We say our "Amen;" it is *,he response of the believer. May God the
Holy Ghost make that "amen" the true expression of the inner assent of our hearts,
teaching us to pray this holy prayer in the full assurance of faith!
IV. THE THIRD EXAMPLE: FASTI G.
1. The fast which the Lord hath chosen. The Pharisee in the parable pleads his
fasting twice in the week as a merit before God. The hypocrites made a show of their
self-denials. What they really sought was the reputation of righteousness, the praise
of men. They might possibly gain it; it was all that they could gain.
2. The true fast. The Lord classes fasting, as a religious exercise, with almsgiving
and prayer. He gives similar rules for its due observance; he promises the like
REWARD. What is necessary is reality; everything that savours of affectation must
be banished. Our Father seeth in secret. The whole of our religious, life must be
referred to him; our business is with him, with him only. What men think of us
matters little; his judgment is of momentous importance. The Christian rule is,
"Live unto the Lord, seeking only to please him, referring the whole life of thought
and action only to him. He will reward those who give, who pray, who fast, as in his
sight, thinking only of him who seeth in secret.
LESSO S.
1. Above all things be real. "All things are naked and OPE ED to the eyes of him
with whom we have to do."
2. Learn of the Lord the sacred words of prayer. Meditate upon them; make them
YOUR own—words to take with you.
3. Pray to God the Holy Ghost to teach you to pray them, making them the voice of
your heart.
4. DE Y yourselves. There is a blessing for those who fast in faith and in simplicity.

MARCUS DODS 1-18, "After indicating the righteousness which admits to the
kingdom of heaven, our Lord PROCEEDS to warn against a flaw that vitiates the
goodness of many religious people, and to illustrate it in connection with three chief
characteristics of the religious life of those days—alms-giving, prayer, and fasting.
I. ALMSGIVI G has been recognized as one of the first duties by most religions.
Under the Jewish Law the poor were well provided for. It was probably in
connection with the receptacles for alms in the women's court of the temple that
ostentatious liberality was most frequently indulged in. "Sounding a trumpet" is not
to be taken literally, but is only a figure implying that when you do a charity you are
not to make a noise about it, but do it so quietly that YOUR own left hand may not
know what your right hand is doing, not even letting it dwell much before your own
mind, much less craving for acknowledgment from others. We are not beyond the
danger of giving, either that we may not be outdone by others, or because our love
of applause is stronger than our love of money, and we think it a good use of it if by
giving it away we can purchase the good will of our acquaintances.
II. I CO ECTIO WITH PRAYER THERE WAS MUCH ROOM FOR
OSTE TATIO I THE JEWISH RELIGIO . AS the Mohammedan of the
present day spreads his prayer-carpet wherever the hour of prayer overtakes him,
so the Jew was called on three times a day to pray towards the temple. In every town
the synagogues were open at the hour of prayer, and there were also places of
prayer, chiefly on the BA KS of the rivers, that the necessary ablutions might be
made on the spot. The Pharisee often allowed himself to be surprised by the hour of
prayer in the public square. Ostentation implies insincerity, and insincerity begets
vain repetition. Our Lord sets this down as a specially heathen trait, and it is one
which abundantly characterizes their practice to this day. But his warning against
long prayers and vain repetitions applies to all affectation of continuance in prayer
merely because it is the custom and is expected; and to that which arises from
indifference and from a want of some clear definite object of desire which we can
ask for in plain, simple terms.
For the CORRECTIO of these faults our Lord gives us an example of simple brief
prayer, and also adds the assurance that no elaborate explanations are required,
because before we pray our heavenly Father knoweth the things we have need of. He
does not shape his answer with only our petition for his guidance, but, knowing
before we do what we have need of, he gives us that good GIFT which we only
vaguely conceive. This may suggest the thought—Why pray at all? Does not even
the earthly parent consider and seek his child's good without waiting to be asked? Is
it otherwise with God? But we are commanded to pray, and this of itself is sufficient
justification. Also it is natural—the great mass of men having prayed without
command. This, if not a justification of the practice, shows we should see clearly
before refusing to fall in with it. Moreover, it is by coming in practical contact with
his father's ideas that a child learns to know his father and himself; and the father
often keeps back a gift till the uttered request of the child shows he is ripe for it. So

by measuring our desires at each step of our life with the will of God, we learn to
know him and ourselves, and through the things of this life are brought into true
relation with things eternal. The form of prayer which our Lord here gives, he gives
chiefly as a model To argue from it that he meant us to use forms of prayer is
inconsequent. They have their uses—in private to suggest and stimulate; in public to
provide for uniformity and seemliness of worship. But when they are used to the
extinction or discouragement of unwritten prayer they do harm in private and in
public. The practice of private prayer here inculcated is one of the most difficult
duties we have to attempt in life. It is often at this point the battle is lost or won.
one of the deeper elements of character can grow without much prayer and
converse with God. There are some virtues which can be produced by strength of
will, but those which spring from the deeper root of reverence, penitence, tender
and solemn feeling, can only grow in the retired and peaceful atmosphere of God's
presence. Prayer is the door opened for God into the whole life of man, and to shut
him out here is to shut him out wholly. Our Lord himself could not sustain his life
without prayer; it is vain, therefore, for us to expect to do so. But, though all this is
recognized, private prayer decays. If we can use in the world only that power for
good which we receive from God, and if prayer is the gauge of this power, it will
REGISTER an almost infinitesimal strength. We grudge to our intercourse with
God either the time or the consideration we give to any communication that
concerns our business or our friendship. And this means that duties that are seen of
men we do, but such as are only seen of our Father, who "seeth in secret," we
neglect. It means that we are practically atheists, and do not believe there is a Father
who sees in secret. The general scope of the passage is a warning against hypocrisy.
The hypocrite who is so intentionally is rare. The hypocrisy which is common is that
which is unconscious, and in which the hypocrite is himself deceived. He seeks the
praise of men more than the praise of God; but he is not himself aware of it. This
makes it a fault most difficult to eradicate. But to such men there can be no religion;
human judgment is the highest they seek to be approved by. It is their supreme.
Even in the religious world men are liable to put the expectations of their co-
religionists above the judgment of God. They fear to rebel lest they be considered as
falling away from religion. Such persons, as our Lord says, have their reward. They
earn the reputation of sanctity by sacrificing the real possession of it. Is it another
reward that awaits you? Are you conscious that God, who sees in secret, has laid up
in his remembrance many true prayers, many holy desires, many earnest
SEARCHI GS of heart that he has seen in you? othing but learning to live in his
presence will deliver us from falseness and self-deceit and from courting the favour
of men.—D.
BARCLAY, "THE REWARD MOTIVE I THE CHRISTIA LIFE (Matthew 6:1-
18)
When we study the opening verses of Matthew 6:1-34 , we are immediately
confronted with one most important question-- What is the place of the reward
motive in the Christian life? Three times in this section Jesus speaks of God
rewarding those who have given to him the kind of service which he desires
(Matthew 6:4,; Matthew 6:18). This question is so important that we will do well to

pause to examine it before we go on to study the chapter in detail.
It is very often stated that the reward motive has no place whatsoever in the
Christian life. It is held that we must be good for the sake of being good, that virtue
is its own reward, and that the whole conception of reward must be banished from
the Christian life. There was an old saint who used to say that he would wish to
quench all the fires of hell with water, and to bum up all the joys of heaven with fire,
in order that men seek for goodness nor nothing but goodness' sake, and in order
that the idea of reward and punishment might be totally eliminated from life.
On the face of it that point of view is very fine and noble; but it is not the point of
view which Jesus held. We have already seen that three times in this passage Jesus
speaks about reward. The right kind of almsgiving, the right kind of prayer, and the
right kind of fasting will all have their reward.
or is this an isolated instance of the idea of reward in the teaching of Jesus. He
says of those who loyally bear persecution, who suffer insult without bitterness, that
their reward will be great in heaven (Matthew 5:12). He says that whoever gives to
one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple will not lose his
reward (Matthew 10:42). At least part of the teaching of the parable of the talents is
that faithful service will receive its reward (Matthew 25:14-30). In the parable of the
last judgment the plain teaching is that there is reward and punishment in
accordance with our reaction to the needs of our fellow-men (Matthew 25:31-46). It
is abundantly clear that Jesus did not hesitate to speak in terms of rewards and
punishments. And it may well be that we ought to be careful that we do not try to be
more spiritual than Jesus was in our thinking about this matter of reward. There
are certain obvious facts which we must note.
(i) It is an obvious rule of life that any action which achieves nothing is futile and
meaningless. A goodness which achieves no end would be a meaningless goodness.
As has been very truly said: "Unless a thing is good for something, it is good for
nothing." Unless the Christian life has an aim and a goal which it is a joy to obtain,
it becomes largely without meaning. He who believes in the Christian way and the
Christian promise cannot believe that goodness can have no result beyond itself
(ii) To banish all rewards and punishments from the idea of religion is in effect to
say that injustice has the last word. It cannot reasonably be held that the end of the
good man and the end of the bad man are one and the same. That would simply
mean that God does not care whether men are good or not. It would mean, to put it
crudely and bluntly, that there is no point in being good, and no special reason why
a man should live one kind of life instead of another. To eliminate all rewards and
punishments is really to say that in God there is neither justice nor love.
Rewards and punishments are necessary in order to make sense of life. A. E.
Housman wrote:
Yonder, on the morning blink,

The sun is up, and so must 1,
To wash and dress and eat and drink
And look at things and talk and think
And work, and God knows why.
And often have I washed and dressed,
And what's to show for all my pain?
Let me lie abed and rest;
Ten thousand times I've done my best,
And all's to do again."
If there are no rewards and no punishments, then that poem's view of life is true.
Action is meaningless and all effort goes unavailingly whistling down the wind.
(i) The Christian Idea Of Reward
But having gone this length with the idea of reward in the Christian life, there are
certain things about which we must be clear.
(i) When Jesus spoke of reward, he was very definitely not thinking in terms of
material reward. It is quite true that in the Old Testament the idea of goodness and
PROSPERITY are closely connected. If a man prospered, if his fields were fertile
and his harvest great, if his children were many and his fortune large, it was taken
as a proof that he was a good man.
That is precisely the problem at the back of the Book of Job. Job is in misfortune;
his friends come to him to argue that that misfortune must be the result of his own
sin; and Job most vehemently denies that charge. "Think now," said Eliphaz, "who
that was innocent ever perished?" (Job 4:7) "If you are pure and upright," said
Bildad, "surely then he would rouse himself for you and reward you with a rightful
habitation" (Job 8:6). "For you say, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in God's
eyes," said Zophar, "but oh that God would speak and open his lips to you" (Job
11:4). The very idea that the Book of Job was written to contradict is that goodness
and material PROSPERITY go hand in hand.
"I have been young, and now am old," said the Psalmist, "yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken, or his children begging BREAD" (Psalms 37:25). "A thousand
may fall at your side," said the Psalmist, "and ten thousand at your right hand; but
it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense
of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your

habitation, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent" (Psalms 91:7-
10). These are things that Jesus could never have said. It was certainly not material
PROSPERITY which Jesus promised his disciples. He in fact promised them trial
and tribulation, suffering, persecution and death. Quite certainly Jesus did not
think in terms of material rewards.
(ii) The second thing which it is necessary to remember is that the highest reward
never comes to him who is seeking it. If a man is always seeking reward, always
reckoning up that which he believes himself to be earning, then he will in fact miss
the reward for which he is seeking. And he will miss it because he is looking at God
and looking at life in the wrong way. A man who is always calculating his reward is
thinking of God in terms of a judge or an ACCOU TA T, and above all he is
thinking of life in terms of law. He is thinking of doing so much and earning so
much. He is thinking of life in terms of a credit and debit balance sheet. He is
thinking of presenting an account to God and of saying, "I have done so much. ow
I claim my reward."
The basic mistake of this point of view is that it thinks of life in terms of law, instead
of love. If we love a person deeply and passionately, humbly and selflessly, we will
be quite sure that if we give that person all we have to give, we will still be in
default, that if we give that person the sun, the moon and the stars, we will still be in
debt. He who is in love is always in debt; the last thing that enters his mind is that he
has earned a reward. If a man has a legal view of life, he may think constantly in
terms of reward that he has won; if a man has a loving view of life, the idea of
reward will never enter his mind.
The great paradox of Christian reward is this--the person who looks for reward,
and who calculates that it is due to him, does not receive it; the person whose only
motive is love, and who never thinks that he has deserved any reward, does. in fact,
receive it. The strange fact is that reward is at one and the same time the by-product
and the ultimate end of the Christian life.
(ii) The Christian Reward
We must now go on to ask: What are the rewards of the Christian life?
(i) We begin by noting one basic and general truth. We have already seen that Jesus
Christ does not think in terms of material reward at all. The rewards of the
Christian life are rewards only to a spiritually minded person. To the materially
minded person they would not be rewards at all. The Christian rewards are rewards
only to a Christian.
(ii) The first of the Christian rewards is satisfaction. The doing of the right thing,
obedience to Jesus Christ, the taking of his way, whatever else it may or may not
bring, always brings satisfaction. It may well be that, if a man does the right thing,
and obeys Jesus Christ, he may lose his fortune and his position, he may end in gaol
or on the scaffold, he may finish up in unpopularity, loneliness and disrepute, but he
will still possess that inner satisfaction, which is greater than all the rest put

together. o price-ticket can be put upon this; this is not to be evaluated in terms of
earthly currency, but there is nothing like it in all the world. It brings that
contentment which is the crown of life.
The poet George Herbert was a member of a little group of friends who used to meet
to play their musical instruments together like a little orchestra. Once he was on his
way to a meeting of this group, when he passed a carter whose cart was stuck in the
mud of the ditch. George Herbert laid aside his instrument and went to the help of
the man. It was a long job to get the cart out, and lie finished covered with mud.
When he arrived at the house of his friends, it was too late for music. He told them
what had detained him on the way. One said: "You have missed all the music."
George Herbert smiled. "Yes," he said. "but I will have songs at midnight." He had
the satisfaction of having done the Christlike thing.
Godfrey Winn tells of a man who was the greatest plastic surgeon in Britain. During
the war, he gave up a private practice, which brought him in 10,000 British pounds
per year, to devote all his time to remoulding the faces and the bodies of airmen who
had been burned and mutilated in battle. Godfrey Winn said to him, "What's your
ambition, Mac?" Back came the answer, "I want to be a good craftsman." The
10,000 British pounds per year was nothing compared with the satisfaction of a
selfless job well done.
Once a woman stopped Dale of Birmingham on the street. "God bless you, Dr.
Dale," she said. She absolutely refused to give her name. She only thanked him and
blessed him and passed on. Dale at the moment had been much depressed. " But,"
he said, "the mist broke, the sunlight came; I breathed the free air of the mountains
of God." In material things he was not one penny the richer, but in the deep
satisfaction, which comes to the preacher who discovers he has helped someone, he
had gained wealth untold.
The first Christian reward is the satisfaction which no money on earth can buy.
(iii) The second reward of the Christian life is still more work to do. It is the
paradox of the Christian idea of reward that a task well done does not bring rest
and comfort and ease; it brings still greater demands and still more strenuous
endeavours. In the parable of the talents the reward of the faithful servants was still
greater responsibility (Matthew 25:14-30). When a teacher gets a really brilliant and
able scholar, he does not exempt him from work; he gives him harder work than is
given to anyone else. The brilliant young musician is given, not easier, but harder
music to master. The lad who has played well in the second eleven is not put into the
third eleven, where he could walk through the game without breaking sweat; he is
put into the first eleven where he has to play his heart out. The Jews had a curious
saying. They said that a wise teacher will treat the pupil "like a young heifer whose
burden is increased daily." The Christian reward is the reverse of the world's
reward. The world's reward would be an easier time; the reward of the Christian is
that God lays still more and more upon a man to do for him and for his fellow-men.
The harder the work we are given to do, the greater the reward.

(iv) The third, and the final, Christian reward is what men all through the ages have
called the vision of God. For the worldly man, who has never given a thought to
God, to be confronted with God will be a terror and not a joy. If a man takes his
own way, he drifts farther and farther from God; the gulf between him and God
becomes ever wider, until in the end God becomes a grim stranger, whom he only
wishes to avoid. But, if a man all his life has sought to walk with God, if he has
sought to obey his Lord, if goodness has been his quest through all his days, then all
his life he has been growing closer and closer to God, until in the end he passes into
God's nearer presence, without fear and with radiant joy--and that is the greatest
reward of all.
SBC, "Running through this chapter are two lines of thought that become one in the
deep underlying truth:—
I. The Father’s claim. Born of God, we are bound to Him in the deepest, closest, most
abiding relationship. This great love of our Father has its claim upon us. His love would
have us come close to Him, not as suppliants who knock at the outer door, not as
strangers who tarry in the hall and stately courts of the king, but as His children who
come right into the inner chamber of the Father’s presence (Mat_6:6). By these claims
let us test ourselves and all the conditions of our life. We are the sons of God, and we
have no business anywhere or in anything that conflicts with the will of our heavenly
Father. Because we are sons of God we are to find in this relationship a power strong
enough to order all our life’s places for the service and pleasure of our Father. Surely it is
not too much to demand that such a relationship, with all its glorious possibilities,
should be able to inspire us with a purpose as steady and resolute as that which the
student finds in learning, or the merchant in money-making.
II. The soul’s supply. Thus our Lord bids us beware of what we may call a natural
religious life—a religious life that is born of self and sustained of self, that has no higher
source and no other aim. It prays and gives alms and fasts; but all that is only the price it
pays for the good opinion of others. It gives its gold to buy men’s admiration, and has it;
that is its reward. Very different, in all its course, is the life of holiness. It is born of God;
we can only receive this life from Him, and we can only retain it by continually
receiving—of Him, for Him, to Him, is its ceaseless round. To all life as we know it,
derived and dependent, there are the same wants, in plant and in animal, in body and
soul—air, warmth, exercise, food, light, society, sleep. There may be a kind of existence
without some one or two of these; but the abundant life is only for him who will secure
each. And these are the conditions of that healthy spiritual life which is holiness.
M. G. Pearse, Thoughts on Holiness, p. 89.
Reference: Mat_6:1.—J. Oswald Dykes, The Laws of the Kingdom, p. 135.
Matthew 6:1-4
The Law kept by Sincerity.
I. It was the custom for great personages—princes and governors and such like—when
making high procession through some favoured province, to sound a trumpet before

them, and scatter largess of gold and silver, whereby they gained the good will of the
poor. Our Lord likens the almsgiving of the Pharisees to this kind of lordly display of
munificence. Their alms were never distributed without their taking good care, one way
or other, to let the good deed be known, so that they might get honour among men.
II. Note that the guilt of this conduct lay entirely in the spirit which actuated them. Jesus
detected that spirit. It was not the publicity of their conduct in itself which He blamed,
but the ungodly motive which led to that publicity; and I think it is necessary to bear that
in mind, lest we may get in the way of judging others, and judging them unjustly, by the
mere external appearance. The really compassionate and liberal man is often put into the
front, and obtains a prominence from which he would otherwise gladly shrink; and he
gets this position, not with the view of exalting him, but in order that his example may
stimulate and encourage others. The difficulty is to reconcile these two things: to avoid
all ostentation, and yet at the same time to get all the advantage of generous Christian
example.
III. The phrase, "Let not the left hand know what the right hand doeth," is a proverbial
expression, implying that our charity is not to be done ostentatiously so as to be seen of
men, nor yet self-righteously so that we may pride ourselves upon it. That almsgiving is,
and always will be, a duty is plainly involved here. The charity which does not let its left
hand know what its right hand doeth is manifestly a spirit of meekness and simplicity,
which neither courts the observation of others, nor cares to dwell on its own excellence,
but drops its beneficence like dews, in the silence and darkness, so that its presence is
known only by the blessing which it leaves behind. But the man who gives an alms, and
then settles down in the pride and contentment of his own deed, hath therein his reward.
He has taken all the beauty from his work. It has lost its Divine character as a deed of
true pity, and become an act of merest vanity.
MEYER, " SECRET GIVING AND SECRET PRAYING
Mat_6:1-8
First we have the general proposition that righteousness, that is, one’s religious duties,
should not be done for the sake of display; and that principle is then applied to alms,
prayer, and fasting-the three departments into which the Jews divided personal religion.
The words take heed in Mat_6:1 are very searching! We are all likely to put better goods
in the window than we have anywhere on our shelves; and to show fairer samples than
we can supply in bulk. The Greek word for hypocrite means stage actor. “We are
tempted to assume on Sunday a religious attire which we certainly do not wear in the
home or in business.
In her account of the first Burman convert, Mrs. Judson says: “A few days ago, I was
reading with him Mat_6:1-34. He was deeply impressed and solemn. ‘These words,’ said
he, ‘take hold of my very heart. They make me tremble. When our people visit the
pagodas, they make a great noise with trumpets. But this religion makes the mind fear
God.’”
EBC 1-18, " Illustrations from Religious Duty (Mat_6:1-18).
The righteousness of the kingdom is still the great subject; for the reading of the Revised
Version in the first verse of the chapter is evidently the correct one. The illustrations of
the preceding passage have all come under the head of what we call morality as

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