Giving items
Matthew 6:1-4 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2] Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3] But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4] that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
Matthew 6:1-4 “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. 2] When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. 3] But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. 4] Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
Matthew 6:1-4 “Be [very] careful not to do your good deeds publicly, to be seen by men; otherwise you will have no reward [prepared and awaiting you] with your Father who is in heaven. 2] “So whenever you give to the poor and do acts of kindness, do not blow a trumpet before you [to advertise it], as the hypocrites do [like actors acting out a role] in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored and recognized and praised by men. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, they [already] have their reward in full. 3] But when you give to the poor and do acts of kindness, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing [give in complete secrecy], 4] so that your charitable acts will be done in secret; and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.
The Character of Charity
Every charitable deed is done before men and rewarded before men too. This tells us that there can be no charity deed if there is no human receiver and another human giver. That is, the administration of charitable acts has been delegated to men. This Jesus meant when He said, “The poor you will always have among you.” Jesus was saying as long as this earth remains, there will always be opportunities to do charity.
The question is, are we true to the discharge of this duty? For every of our penny, how righteous are we with unrighteous Mammon? Have we, like the rich young ruler, amassed so much that we have been blindfolded by our riches to our spiritual needs? Such that thinking we are rich and needing nothing, we are miserably poor? Note that Jesus did not say do not do charitable deeds, but rather do not do them “before men to be seen by men.” Happy are you when like the man born of the Spirit, no one can discern if you have given or not, yet in God’s record, your frequency of giving surpasses other known givers so vastly.
Thus, the character of charity is that it is by man to man. And from man to man and before men by men; but it is forbidden to give with an honour-seeking motive. But rather wait to be rewarded by God. Oh, how Christ opined that charity is rightly done when you cannot get rewarded by the recipient, leaving the One who knows just recompense for every deed to recompense one.
The Confidentiality of Charity
There is an order of secrecy to be maintained when doing charity. We read in 1 Cor 13 that love does not make a show of himself and is not puffed up. Common sense tells us that a receiver is humiliated should such be handed gifts in the public glare. What is this secrecy to be maintained? Jesus enjoins us not to blow the trumpet of our charitable deeds. Not of tithe nor of offering. Not of first fruits noor of special gifts. There are two places that the trumpet of giving is largely sounded, namely the streets and the synagogues.
Now in the days of Jesus, there were both beggars on the street as around the synagogue. Blind Bathemeus and the lame man at the beautiful gate were respective examples. Since these men were helpless, rich men as well as the Pharisees, who frequented their quarters, will be looked on with high esteem when they hand down their alms.
If men sound the trumpet on my behalf, it is beyond me, and there is little to what one may do about that. The issue Christ was addressing was the desire for the attendant good reputation that came with being charitable. And, therefore, doing charity for this cause. “Do not sound your trumpet before men.” Put another way, avoid all forms of publicity when giving.
Another consideration holds for the distribution of the earth’s resources. Like the rich young ruler, God entrusts the riches of the poor in the hands of some rich. Partly because they are skilled enough to administer these bounties through job creation or funding of welfare schemes. And due to God’s trust in their supposed aptitude for fairness. But like the rich young ruler, many of these riches have been used to amass reputation for these trustees. The worst of all, the little disseminated in charity is done in pure abuse of the recipients. They maimed, and the blind, the lame and the dying being all needy, the Lord created them all. Therefore, if our charitable acts molest them, like the wealthy descendant of Abraham, we may find ourselves in hell, while their Lazarus will find himself in heaven. By heaven and hell, I mean earthly separation from and fellowship with God, respectively.
Therefore, the extent of secrecy is expressed in “do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” This might have been an adage, but there is a lesson to be learned from it. The right and the left hand depicts two distant poles: east and west. It means positions of opposite views. It, therefore, holds that men who do not share the same motives of giving as mine need not know about my giving programs. For example, a disciple in whose heart it is settled not to seek for the honour of men when giving will likewise not praise me when giving. But will serve to help secretly administer whatever is to be distributed to the poor. The left and the right arms are hinged on the heart, therefore, weigh motives out before giving with any of the arms.
The Compensation for Charity
Jesus had promised that whenever anyone gives, one can expect good measure, shaken together and running over shall men give to ours. More so, the multiplicity of receiving is in the proportion of giving. Thus, within men, giving propels receiving. But Jesus ups the ante here. Just as men give to men in response to give, God seeks to be the One who rewards people. If men give in pressed down, shaken together, and running over the measure, how much more God in heaven, owning material riches that surpass all collective possessive imaginations!
God will give according to the bounty of a king. And necessarily must be exceedingly beyond all we could ask or think. We can estimate, underestimate, or exaggerate the riches of men. But with God’s wealth, the best the most spiritual estimators have come close to is His worth’s underestimation. Then if we must outdo rewards from men to be admitted into the realm of compensation from God for charity, an extra clause exists. That is, add secrecy to the act of giving. Do not do it to be seen by men. If not, the attendant reputation is one’s deserved reward for doing charity.
For all charitable deeds, all compensations, by men or by God, are made publicly. How great will it be if it is God that rewards me for my charitable deeds! What glory attends if God makes a public presentation of me! What a reward! What detachment that will do my soul from bondage to men-pleasing! Jesus said on His return during the filtering of the sheep from the goat, the sheep would be spotted by their ability to give and totally forget about it. So much that they would be asking Jesus, “Where did we see you to fit shoes on You? Or to shelter You from the cold? How did we give our time to you in prison?” Alas! It will be a day of public reward. May you be numbered among these “careless” givers.
No man could estimate the extent of charity Jesus had done in His father’s carpentry shop that made God reward Him publicly with the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. No one could estimate how sacrificial He was for catering for James, Judas, Josses, Mary, and his other sisters. We do not know because He had practised the secrecy of giving before preaching the same. But the Holy Spirit in us can only testify to its possibility.
Giving time
Matthew 6:5-8 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6] But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7] And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.8] “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
Matthew 6:5-8 “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6] But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. 7] “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. 8] Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
Matthew 6:5-8 “Also, when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to pray [publicly] standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets so that they may be seen by men. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, they [already] have their reward in full. 6] But when you pray, go into your most private room, close the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you. 7] “And when you pray, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8] So do not be like them [praying as they do]; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
As we know, God cannot pray to Himself; He lacks nothing that He cannot provide for himself. Thus, prayer is another form of charity because we give our time. We invest time to commune either God. Friendliness with God is expressed in fellowship with Him. Yet, like charity, Jesus teaches us the most sublime approach to offer this sacrifice of time. We will, therefore, discuss the following under the headings: the motive of prayer, the position of prayer and the pitch of prayer.
The Purpose of Prayer
Obviously, the answer to prayer matters to the hypocrites less than being marked out as prayer warriors. It does not count if God does not hear as far as they are numbered in the attendance. Just like their acts of charity, the same goal drives their prayer – reputation. Sure, these men are the older brothers of many Christians today, tending to care for prayer meeting attendance than detailing if their prayers are being answered. Why? The reputation earned from other attendees for attendance is far weightier than answered prayer. O, what were the Pharisees praying for?
History has it that they fasted twice a week and that the content of their parallel prayers was for the Messiah to come and save Israel. No wonder the Messiah was before their nose, and they could not spot Him. They were carried away by seeking public applause and recognition in their prayers, and when the answer had come, they treated him like an unwanted Guest. It could happen to any Christian. How many times have we prayed, and God appeared to answer in an unseemly way that we may depend on Him for confirmation, but we have let whisked off the answers as impossible due to the contradiction between our expectation in prayer and God’s response to prayers!
Alas! We do not see our signs of God’s presence and divine encounter in our congregational prayer meetings again, and no one is perturbed. No one dear asks why the Ichabod. Since we have pitched our Ebenezers at mount self-gratification!
The reward for every prayer is the presence of God. For with assurance of God’s presence comes the guarantee of heard cries, which then sets in motion the needed answers. Which reward satisfies your soul? Attendance of men where you are only a mere digit being counted among the number? Or that heavenly precious, presence far costlier than ruby which no earthly noble, nor wise, nor wealthy could command?
Peter once prayed in the synagogue and in a public place, and God attended the public prayer meeting with John and himself. Is this a contradiction? No! It is God honouring their motives. Though they were in a public sphere, their heart’s desire was for God to be glorified, not for their fame to spread in sundry. I am saying it is the motive of prayer that rubbishes the position taken in prayer.
The Position for Prayer
Jesus said, “go into your room, shut your door, and then pray.” Jesus could probably not have made a room a compulsory prayer place. He prayed on the mountains and in gardens where there were neither doors to shut nor aisles leading to any room. Owning a special prayer room was too expensive for Jesus as it is for many today. But the heart is a room everyone has, can afford, and can maintain; whose door can be banged and shut at will; whose gate can be guarded with all diligence. This room has many compartments. It has chambers for melody, Psalms, worship, praises, meditation, and memorization. It can also hide instructions. So wide is the length and breadth of this room that Jeremiah exclaimed, “Who can know it!” I dare say no man!
This room can be shut to the din of the world, it can be bolted against all disparaging voices, it can be locked against the past achievements so that in anticipation for an unknown future, it agonizes for a cleft in the Saviour which he could hide. This room can provide a conducive or hostile environment for prayer. When one’s heart is unkempt and littered with unconfessed sin, the room needs to be cleaned and doors shut. Otherwise, when clean, O what glorious moment is it to kneel in it in prayer with your God and commune as friend with Friend.
This room contrary to all other rooms. It is mobile. The heart can move with the moving and the moved. It can go anywhere and therefore, provided its doors are shot against sin, it can be entered into and prayer can be made anywhere and at any time by all and for all men. If moved, you can pray immediately for “grace like a fetter” to bind your wandering heart to Him, and if moving you can pray that by “His good pleasure you may safely arrive at home.”
The Pitch of Prayer
8] “therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.
We are to shut our door and pray to our Father. I do not imagine talking to my Father – biological and spiritual – and shouting when He is so nearby. The heathen can pray to a God so far away, so they yell. Look in faith to the author of faith, and there exists no better show of faith in His nearness than speaking to Him in reverential silence – hearing what He has to say to you and being cautious of what you have to say to Him in response.
“God is near to all who call upon Him,” says the Psalmist, but to avoid ambiguity of those who call, he further complemented them to who God is nearby. He says further, “To them that call on Him in truth.” Observe that it did not say, “to the holy people,” but that God is close to sincere people. Otherwise, the cry of the sinner for ransom would never have been heard by God. If that God is so near to the sincere, how much more will He be close to a disciple following the footsteps of Jesus!
If we perhaps shout, we allow the enemy to take a swipe on us and consequently God in vengeance for what happened on Mount Carmel. When you screech repetitively to the ears of God on the streets, it might be Satan whispering some mockery sound into your ears: “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.”
It is God who fashioned the ears, and so has the best of all. He formed the eyes and must have the clearest of ones. Reverential awe is a show of acknowledgement of His possession of these qualities.
A repetition made too often usually makes the speaker sound like a stammerer. I do not know how many can put up with stammering aged. Other things could be done with this time: praises are good! Worship is beautiful. Making melodies at heart even when circumstance prove God hasn’t listened to your prayer is simply telling Satan, “Our God is in heaven and He does as He pleases – silent or speaking as much as He chooses. His pleasure is my highest answer to a prayer!” This, doing, one would have scored a laudable point in our wrestle against the host of darkness, who seek to darken our hopes for a bright future and expectations to be met by Jesus.
