6 “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.

² “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Self-Righteousness. The father of all sin

Most of this chapter is about being prideful and self-righteous. He is warning us about desiring to be seen doing good works. The sin that God (in Jesus) was rebuking the most was exactly this. He preached against sexual immorality and self-righteousness and pride more than anything else. 

So, when you do good, don’t proclaim it and resist the temptation to tell others about it unless you think it will help encourage someone else, but when you do such a thing make sure you give the glory to God and not yourself. Humility and shifting praise to God alone is how our hearts are to be positioned.

Those who practice their righteousness for praise from others are not saved. Those who are born again in Christ have a new disposition which makes us desire to serve others and to show the light of Christ to the world. If you only do good things when others can see you do them, you should examine your heart immediately. You may not have the saving faith you need in Jesus and have not been born again.

Proper Prayer

⁵ “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.’

¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

The prayer here is not a prescription but a description of how we are to pray. We don’t have to only use this prayer word for word for everything. That is a very generic prayer and isn’t the only prayer Jesus uses or anyone else in the bible. We see David praying many different prayers that are completely unrelated to this. So, God is showing us here that there are certain things we should value and desire more than others:

• God’s will being done on earth.
• God’s provision for our needs.
• God’s forgiveness.
• God’s protection.

He also uses this moment to show the necessity of forgiving others and to resist temptation. Ironically, here God warns against using mantras and repetitive prayers. This is ironic since part of the repetitive prayers Catholics do is the prayer Jesus gives here. Here is a direct passage on not praying things like the “our father” and “hail Mary” using something like the rosary.

God also here talks about how we shouldn’t think our ability to form eloquent, lengthy prayers is anything special. The child who can only use 15 words yet uses those words to praise God is much greater praise in God’s eyes than an hour-long prayer from the pope or some self-righteous preacher. Use the words you need and praise God in spirit. God knows what you need. Have a heart after him, not a brain after your own ego.

Do not make yourself look like you are suffering

¹⁶ “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Do all good things without expectation of reward or praise or attention. Go out of your way to avoid receiving such things. God will provide all that we need. This also goes both ways. Do not be so meek that you can’t even accept the blessings God has for you. There is the famous example of the person stuck on the roof during a hurricane refusing all the help they were given waiting for God to save them. They die then complain to God about it. Then God says “well you didn’t take the car, the boat, or the helicopter that I sent for you. Don’t reject blessings in order to be meek and don’t seek praise for being meek.

Serve God faithfully and your heart will naturally produce fruit and be in the right condition for both salvation and serving His kingdom.

Treasures in Heaven

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. ²³ But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

²⁴ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

God here tells us to work for the kingdom instead of ourselves. You can’t serve God and money. That doesn’t mean God can’t/won’t bless you financially, but it means that shouldn’t be our sole focus in this life. Money makes a terrible master but a great servant. If your master is God and you can make money a servant both for your family and the kingdom, then God will bless you with it. If you are faithful, he is faithful.

If your desire is wealth, then wealth is your master, and you will lose everything. If God is your desire, then you will be blessed with the greatest riches of all. Everlasting life. This life is fleeting and will vanish but the works we do for the kingdom are eternal. Plus, we appear to be at the end of the age so how much does it matter that you gain wealth if Jesus is coming back soon.

Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

God will provide all that we need just as he does the birds. So do not worry about food, clothes, water, or housing. God will take care of you and allow you to serve him in the way he made you to. I did not have more than 200 dollars in my bank account for the first 6 years of adulthood. I never once worried about money as I knew God would take care of me. When I got married the first lesson, I taught my wife was patience and trusting God.

How did I accomplish this? We drained our bank account to less than 1,000 for the first 2 years of our marriage living paycheck to paycheck and on credit to pay bills. Yet, God provided for us in such a supernatural way. We would just miraculously get the money we needed when we needed it for over a year. The same has happened with the home we are in now. We moved 4 times in 5 years. She eventually stopped checking the bank account all together and we have been exceedingly blessed by God. Now she has a much stronger faith and trusts in God in a way that she never would have unless she walked by faith and not by sight.

Would you be willing to have someone blindfold you and take steps by their direction? That is what the Holy Spirit calls us to do. We take steps in the dark without even knowing if there is ground beneath us when we do. That is what it means to have faith and trust in God to walk with him and serve his kingdom. Knowing that he has worked everything out for our good (Romans 8:28).