Daily Devotional For Friday, October 4, 2024
Today is “Fabulous Friday.” You are hours away from a long awaited weekend. If you have been reading these devotionals, you know we are making our way through Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount found in Matthew chapters 5, 6, & 7. Yesterday, Thursday, we finished with chapter 5 and today we move into chapter 6. We are going to look at Matthew 6:1-4:
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. (2) “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. (3) But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, (4) so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you” (NASB).
Whereas Matthew 5 focused primarily on the Law – what people believe, Matthew 6 focuses on practicing the Law – what people do. We saw previously that the first section in Matthew 5:21-48 covered six different topics of understanding what God’s Law had said and originally meant. Jesus dealt with each of these separately:
- murder (5:21–26)
- adultery (5:27–30)
- divorce (5:31–32)
- oaths (5:33–37)
- retaliation (5:38–42)
- love (5:43–48)
This second section emphasizes outward formal righteousness—giving three representative illustrations of religious activity. The first has to do with giving, our religion as it acts toward others (vv. 2–4); the second with praying, our religion as it acts toward God (vv. 5–15); and the third with fasting, our religion as it acts in relation to ourselves (vv. 16–18). So, let’s start with Matthew 6:1, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven” (NASB).
Pastor and author John MacArthur tells the following story:
“The story is told of an eastern ascetic holy man who covered himself with ashes as a sign of humility and regularly sat on a prominent street corner of his city. When tourists asked permission to take his picture, the mystic would rearrange his ashes to give the best image of destitution and humility.
A great deal of religion amounts to nothing more than rearranging religious “ashes” to impress the world with one’s supposed humility and devotion. The problem, of course, is that the humility is a sham, and the devotion is to self, not to God. Such religion is nothing more than a game of pretense, a game at which the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day were masters. Because their religion was mostly an act, and a mockery of God’s true revealed way for His people, Jesus’ most blistering denunciations were reserved for them” (Source: John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 362).
We think, “What a hypocrite this man was sitting in ashes and rearranging them to make better pictures for onlookers. The truth is – everyone – all of us are hypocritical. The Bible from Genesis through Revelation records the first hypocrite starting with Cain, who thought he could fake his offering to God. God rejected it and how did he deal with it? He murdered his brother Abel, whose offering was accepted by God. God never tries to hide the hypocrisy of His people, whether they are common folks or leaders. The ultimate hypocrite in Scripture was Judas Iscariot. He betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Annas and Sapphira were hypocrites who lied about the amount of money they were giving to the Lord’s work (see Acts 5:1-10).
Hypocrites are in every venue, business, school, store, street corner, etc. No one is perfect and no one lives up to the standard they hold for others nor themselves. The Apostle Paul warned us that in the Last Day, hypocrisy would increase. Look at 1 Timothy 4:1-2, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, (2) by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron” (NASB).
We may treat hypocrisy lightly, but God never does in Scripture. Look at Amos 5:21-24:
“I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. (22) “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. (23) “Take away from Me the noise of your songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. (24) “But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (NASB).
All these acts had been commanded by God but because God’s people did them insincerely and not accompanied by righteous acts, and done for the people’s glory and not God’s glory, God rejected them. If you are a student of the Old Testament, you know that Israel’s greatest sin was idolatry. The second greatest sin of Israel was hypocrisy.
“If you have ever read Aesop’s Fables, it tells the fable of a wolf who wanted to have a sheep for his dinner and decided to disguise himself as a sheep and follow the flock into the fold. While the wolf waited until the sheep went to sleep, the shepherd decided he would have mutton for his own meal. In the dark he picked out what he thought was the largest, fattest sheep; but after he had killed the animal he discovered it was a wolf. What that shepherd did inadvertently to a wolf in sheep’s clothing, God does intentionally. The Lord judges hypocrisy.”
In Mark 6:6-7, Jesus criticized the religious leaders for their hypocrisy by quoting Isaiah 29:13, And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. (7) ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men’” (NASB). Jesus begins Matthew 6 with the word “beware.” This is the Greek New Testament word [προσέχω, prosecho]. This word means to hold, or take hold of, something and pay attention to it, especially in the sense of being on guard.
Then Jesus uses the word “to be seen” or “to be noticed.” This is the Greek New Testament word [θεάομαι, theaomai]. This is where we get our English word “theater"”. It means to “gaze upon.” Jesus warns us about displaying our righteousness in the theater of life for all to see. Such behavior is nothing more than play acting. It is all fake. If you have ever been in play or gone to one, you know that the actors are not really portraying what is in their own heart. They are putting on a show, a performance designed to make a certain impression on those who are watching.
Such false or fake righteousness Jesus says gets no reward from your Father in heaven. This goes back to what the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. (8) For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (NASB). We always reap what we sow.
Pastor and author Chuck Swindoll writes this about the opening verses in Matthew 6:
“Few things were more of a turnoff to Jesus than religion on parade. He reserved His severest criticism for religious hypocrites who liked to be seen showing off their piety in order to impress others. Jesus was a master at exposing what lay beneath the veneer of all that nonsense. And frequently He urged His followers to practice total honesty, authenticity, and simplicity” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary, “Matthew 1-15,” Vol. 1A, p. 108).
New Testament scholar R. K. Hughes begins his opening remarks on Matthew 6 this way:
“The Russian author Turgenev wrote, “I do not know what the heart of a bad man is like, but I do know what the heart of a good man is like, and it is terrible” (Source: R. K. Hughes, Preaching The Word Bible Commentary, “Matthew,” p. 145).
This is a temptation and vulnerability we all must avoid. And what is that? Doing something to get recognition. We all know that doing something to be recognized is often easier than doing something that gets no recognition. Everyone likes a pat on the back, don’t we?
Questions To Consider
- Where would you say you are most hypocritical and why?
- When you show up for your Sunday School class or community group or small group or for worship, do you consistently give God your best or do you tend to simply go through the motions? Why? Do you think God withholds blessings to you due to your attitude? Why or why not?
- Do you ever make sure people know what you did at church either in a ministry or some way to serve God? Why? How do you think God feels about that and why? In other words, have you ever acted as if the church is your theater to play or perform for others what you really want – their praise and recognition?
- Do you agree that even the good heart of a person is still terrible? Why or why not? Based on your response, what does this say about your own heart and why?
- What is so wrong about “tooting our own horn” anyway?
Scripture To Meditate On: Luke 16:15, Jesus said, “And He said to them, You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, thank You for loving me and saving me in spite of my constant hypocrisy. Lord, please help me to serve You and Your church simply for the joy of doing it, not for praise, recognition or pat on the back. Please help me only to boast about You, not dramatize what I am doing for You. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly