Matthew 6:31-34 Get Your Priorities Straight

In this economy, people are worried about losing their jobs or losing pay at their jobs. I know of at least two people who had to take unpaid time off at work against their will. I would feel pretty confident in saying that most everyone knows someone that has lost a job in the past year or so. It’s safe to assume that there are people worried about their personal finances and being able to take care of themselves. However, as Christians we can have victory over this anxiety because of the promises of Christ. While He did not promise that we would be rich or even well off necessarily, He does promise God’s care and protection as we read in these verses.

Jesus summarizes the line of thought began in verse 25 in verse 31. The long and short of it is contained in the first 3 words of verse 31 where He says “Do not worry”. It’s pretty easy to sit here and type that but it hasn’t’ always been easy to do it. However, as we read the preceding verses, we see why we shouldn’t worry. God is going to take care of us. He takes care of birds. He takes care of flowers. It is therefore certainly reasonable for us to trust that He is going to take care of us. Because of that, we don’t have to make acquiring the necessities of life (food, water, clothing) our priority.

In fact, our witness to this lost and dying world demands our distinctiveness in this matter. As Matthew records in verse 32, Jesus observed that the people of the world “eagerly seek all these things”. In fact, the headlines over the past 5 or 6 years attest to the fact that some people will do just about anything to enrich themselves. Enron, Worldcom, and the Madoff scandal are prime examples of greed. We read in the paper and hear on the new about robberies and shootings all the time. The Lord Jesus says that these people aren’t just seeking material possessions casually but “eagerly”. There is intensity to their search. Christians, however, should have a different mindset. We have the promise of God’s word that our “heavenly Father knows [we] need all these things”. Therefore, because He is our heavenly Father and He knows the things we need to live, we can trust Him to provide those things we need.

Because of this knowledge, we are free to not have to worry about how we’re going to take care of ourselves and we can make serving God and living for His glory our main priority. As Jesus says in verse 33, we are to “seek first” the kingdom of our Father. Our primary priority is not getting stuff to shove in our pie holes or cover our selves with. Our primary priority is glorifying God in all we do. In doing so, we don’t display our own righteousness which is just like filthy rags anyway. We seek “His righteousness” because we recognize our moral bankruptcy. In doing so, our lives will look different. We won’t be chasing after getting stuff like the rest of the world. We won’t have to compromise our integrity to try to get ahead or just to get what we think we need. We can be contented in the fact that when we serve God as our first priority “all these things will be added to [us]”. We, therefore, have no need to worry.

Further, because we have the assurance of God’s providential care of us as His children, we should not only rest in His care today but, as Jesus tells us, “don’t worry about tomorrow”. Why? Because, beyond reasonable precautions for things that we can reasonably expect and plan ahead for (putting gas in the car the night before you go to work so you won’t run out, putting aside a little money in a “cookie jar” fund for unexpected emergencies) there are a myriad of things that we can’t anticipate. Since He takes care of us today, we can assume He will take care of us tomorrow. Each day, Jesus notes, will have things in it that we have to concern ourselves with and devote our attention to as we go along. We should focus our mind on the present (didn’t Yoda say that) and not worry about tomorrow. We have enough to handle today.

Matthew 6:26-30 Our Trust Proves Our Faith

I was laid off three times in a row not long after my daughter was born. It was a demoralizing, scary time in my life that I try not to think about very much about. My daughter, on the other hand, wasn’t the least bit worried. She didn’t know what was going on and didn’t know there was a reason to be scared. From her perspective, she just assumed she was going to be taken care of—and she was. We didn’t miss a meal, we had a roof over our heads, and we had clothes. Now, I know that my wife and I went out and worked to earn the money to provide those things but ultimately we had the jobs where we worked because God watched over us. In the same way a young child trusts in a parent to provide for them, we can trust God to provide for our needs.

Jesus draws our attention to nature in explaining God and His care for us. Jesus tells His audience to take notice that birds “do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns”. For the most part, we would say that they live “hand to mouth” as the saying goes (or would that be “wing to beak”). They don’t store food like an ant or a squirrel, and they don’t cultivate crops. In fact, birds probably couldn’t do that. God did not wire them to live communally like insects and they don’t have the appendages necessary to do that kind of work. Even with this lack of ability on their part, they are still provided for by God. Now, Jesus is not saying that we should not work but rather we should just sit around and wait for God to provide for us without needing to lift even a finger on our own. This is not an excuse for laziness on our parts. In fact, reading the last part of verse 26, we see Jesus make the point that if God provides for birds, surely He will feed us because we are more important to Him than any bird.

Furthermore, Jesus points not only to the animal kingdom but also to the plant kingdom. My wife and I went to Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile, Alabama one year around Christmas for our anniversary. It was lit up with Christmas lights and decorations which made the already beautiful flowers of the garden even more spectacular. Flowers, trees, and the like are simply awe inspiring. God shows Himself to be a Master Artist in all of creation as we observe the magnificent world He created and maintains. No artist, musician, and certainly no fashion designer has created anything to rival the beauty of this world. Now, as Jesus says, in verses 28 and 29, that flowers don’t struggle to manufacture their own clothing he also points out that the most opulent king ever to live couldn’t compare in his royal trappings to the beauty of nature. Therefore, if God creates such beautify in nature that is subject to decay and destruction (“alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace”) then we can trust Him to provide us with what we need for clothing because we are infinitely more important than grass that is burned up.

Finally, I believe the middle verse (v. 27) of this passage provides us the most important reason to trust God with our needs. Worry is a fruitless activity. We accomplish nothing good by worrying. The word translated “worry” is a Greek word that means to be divided like trying to be in two places at once. Even if we worry about something, we accomplish nothing. Now, we’re not talking about taking reasonable precautions to avoid a problem like saving money for a rainy day. We talking about anxiety about things that may or may not happen—a mysterious misty phantom of the future. When you get right down to it, while there are things we can and should do to plan for the future whatever happens is out of our hands. We can’t even “add a single hour to [our life]”. We don’t have control, but our heavenly Father does. Therefore, if He provides for the birds, and clothes the plants we can trust Him to take care of us because He is in control of the universe.

If we trust God it will be demonstrated by our obedience to His word. We won’t try to live like the rest of the world constantly worried about how we’re going to eat and what we’re going to wear. We are free to live a life totally devoted to serving our Master. Praise God for His faithfulness.

Matthew 6:25 Don’t Worry, Be Happy

People commit frauds in the workplace for a variety of reasons. Some people enjoy the thrill of doing something wrong and not getting caught—beating the system. For some people, they live beyond their means and use fraud to support their lifestyle. However, I read a letter one time by a lady who had been entrusted with the “Flower Fund” at her workplace. Employees would donate money at the beginning of a year and when someone died, was sick, or had a birth/death in the family, the office would send flowers. This lady began to steal to help make ends meet when her husband was hospitalized and subsequently lost his job. She said, in a letter she wrote, that she was so ashamed and intended to pay back what she had taken. She claimed that concern over being able to pay her bills led her to commit the theft. I can imagine how worried she must have felt. I’ve been there. The fact is while we live on this earth we’re going to have to pay bills, buy groceries, and put clothes on our backs and to do that we’re going to have to have money. However, as Christians our priorities should not be to make sure we take care of ourselves first because we know that we have a heavenly Father who takes care of us. Because of that, we should have a different mindset about money than the rest of the world.

First of all, Jesus reminds us why we should have a different perspective than the rest of the world. He says in verse 25 “For this reason, I say to you”. The “reason” He’s talking about is the ideas expressed in the proceeding verses—that we are to serve God as our number one priority. We’re not supposed to try to climb the ladder of success and serve God as His slaves. We can’t do that. We have to choose to not have a dual set of motives but rather our motive for service to God should be singular and pure. As Christians, we should use our possessions to invest in the kingdom of God rather than our own personal kingdom. It is on these previous verses that Jesus bases His next command.

The command is a simple one—“Do not be worried”. It is a present imperative with a negative which indicates that Jesus meant for them to stop doing something that they were already doing. In other words, “Stop worrying”. This divine cease and desist order makes perfect sense given the context. Why would someone have conflicting motives regarding money—trying to serve God and get all the stuff they can get? Well, I would suggest just like the lady I spoke about earlier that they are worried about being able to take care of things. Someone might cut ethical corners if they felt pressure to make sure they had the money to cover the bills. I can remember a time where I was doing payroll for a company as a staff accountant in an accounting practice. My boss probably didn’t pay me as much as she could have but I took the job knowing what she would pay me. I had a wife, a child, stacks of bills and I was in school full time doing a degree in accounting. I had access to the client’s bank account and could have created a ghost employee and sent myself money by direct deposit. I didn’t do it because the Holy Spirit convicted me of how evil that would be and the consequences of it. My point is this; worry over money can lead to making bad choices. Therefore, we should not be worried but must trust in the Lord. In fact, since Jesus commands us not to worry we need to be cognizant of the fact that worry is sin. There are no two ways around it.

Jesus says we should not worry about the things we need to sustain our lives, food and drink, or even the clothing we will wear. He tells us that our life is “more than food” and our body is “more than clothing”. Our life is not just this shell that we live in, feed, and clothe. Our life is eternal and God has promised us a home in heaven with Him forever. In comparison with that, any problems we have here on this earth related to procuring food or clothing is pretty inconsequential. Further, if God is going to take us to heaven because He loved us before the foundation of the world and sent His Son to die for our sins, would He not also take care of us while we are here on this earth?

We have a loving, kind, and gracious heavenly Father who we can trust with our very lives. Because of that, we can serve Him wholeheartedly knowing that we don’t have to look out for our own best interests. He’s already taking care of that and He never slumbers nor sleeps.

Matthew 6:24 No Moonlighting Allowed

I remember when I was a child watching some sitcom in the 70’s I remember an episode where the main character was trying to hide the fact that they were working an after hours job from the boss of their day job. They would come in to work with bags under their eyes fighting sleep the whole day and the hilarity would ensue from their mistakes resulting from sleep deprivation. I always found it funny that a boss would tell his employees they couldn’t work more than one job. Of course, we have no such issues today in our society. In fact, I would dare say we all probably know someone who works more than one job out of preference or necessity. At one point, I worked 3 jobs while going to college to finish my accounting degree. It wasn’t fun and I’m glad I don’t have to do that now but through sheer force of iron will I was able to do it. However, we need to see as Matthew records here that Jesus teaches an unswerving devotion to God and to His glory.

First of all, we should consider the context of what Jesus says here in the Sermon on the Mount. He tells us that we should invest in the kingdom of God rather than focusing on acquiring wealth simply to acquire wealth (vs 19-21). Jesus tells us that we should serve God with a pure motive instead of trying to focus on God and the things of this world (vs 22-23). He then progresses logically to a question that I’m sure someone has or will ask—why not serve God and try to acquire stuff? I mean, Solomon had a lot of stuff, didn’t he? What’s so wrong with wanting to own and enjoy things and serve the Lord.

First of all, because Jesus says it is an impossible task. He says at the beginning of the verse that “No one can serve two masters”. At the end of the verse, He says “You cannot serve God and wealth”. The fact is, the two masters He refers to are so different that to serve them would be to try to turn right AND left at the same time. To serve God involves a dying to self and a total submission to the will of God. Chasing after the things of this world, in contrast, demands that you be on the lookout for how you can better yourself and in some cases a willingness to do whatever it takes to get ahead. Brothers and sisters, this is not just a case of a sitcom character working til the wee hours of the morning and arrives at their day job looking haggard. “No one” includes everyone. When Jesus says “You cannot” He means the plural “you” not just His audience. I can’t do it. You can’t do it. No one can do it.

There is a good reason no one can do it. You see you and me, dear reader, think of this verse as describing two different jobs. Like the sitcom character, we imagine that if we could get enough caffeine in our system, we could hold down these two jobs of serving God and money for a while at least—even if we were tired. But you see, the task is impossible for someone who seeks to serve God because of the incredible responsibility that service entails. The word “serve” translates a Greek word that is related to the word for “slave” (doulos). We’re not employees who are attempting to eek out a bit of extra spending money because our day job doesn’t pay enough. We are not servants. We are slaves. That means we are property or as I’ve heard people refer to them “Shovels that can walk and talk”. A person can work two different jobs but a slave only has one master. The slave is that master’s property to do with as they please. The slave does not get a choice and, obviously, would not be able to choose to serve two masters. Therefore, from a practical standpoint it’s pretty easy to imagine the problems dual ownership would create.

In fact, I submit to you for a slave to even try to serve two masters would produce inescapable conflict. As Jesus goes on to say, one master is going to get a poor effort or the short end of the stick from this slave. Jesus says the slave will “hate” and “despise” one master. They will be antagonistic in word and deed toward this one master. They will also “think down” on them (“despise”-kataphroneo [2706] means literally to think down or think lowly of). The slave will “love” (agape—not a love of emotion but a love of choice, a sacrificial love that always seeks the best of the object of the love regardless of personal cost) and “be devoted” to the other master. The slave will demonstrate his devotion to the one master in excellent service and loyalty and neglect the other master. After all, he’s only one slave. There is no way he could totally devote 100% of his time, energy, and resources to the one master and have anything left over to give to any other master.

Friends, if you and I are going to serve Jesus Christ as Lord, He must be just that—Lord. We must realize we are His slaves and as such we must make a total commitment to Him and His purposes.

Matthew 6:22-23 “What’chu lookin’ at?”

As I wrote on my blog a month of so ago, I had some problems with my right eye. The retina had detached. For the period of about 2 weeks, I really couldn’t see anything out of that eye. It was very frustrating. If you’ve never had problems with your vision it may be hard for you to imagine but just take my word for it—I was terribly frustrated. I had many times taken my vision for granted but I now count it very precious to be able to see my wife, my children, sunrises, flowers, as well as being able to read. Jesus uses the eye in this passage not to refer to what we see physically but rather to describe our priorities with regard to money and possessions.

Jesus uses a metaphor to teach these truths in verse 23 by saying that “The eye is the lamp of the body.” Now, that makes sense because while we have other openings in our body the eye is the only one where we can perceive light coming in and it’s the only one where we can interpret what that light shows us. We should remember of course, as we begin to study this passage, that we control our eyes. I mean, what do we look at? We look at what we want to see. Someone might choose to look at their child, a flower, a TV show, or any number of things but it is very rare that we fix our eyes on something that we don’t want to look at. In fact, it is what we do with our eyes that Jesus uses to make His point in these verses.

Jesus tells us there are two “settings” for our eyes—two ways we can be viewing the world. He tells us in verse 22 that our eye can be “clear” or that our eye can be “bad”. Now, since He uses two words here and He is obviously contrasting them (“But”) we can assume they are intended to be opposite. But the opposite of bad isn’t clear—it’s good. So I’m confused. However, a look at the Greek used here might help us out some.

The word used here for “clear” is the Greek word “haplous” (573) which is the root one term used in genetics to describe a cell that instead of having pairs of chromosomes only has one of the strands of chromosomes. The word means single or simple and it is used here to describe someone who doesn’t have duplicitous or ulterior motives. Therefore, Jesus probably means the word “bad” (Greek poneros [4190]-evil in active opposition to good) to mean someone who has motives that are neither simple nor pure. Further, consider the context in which these verses appear. Jesus talked about someone who viewed money as a thing to be stored for here on earth rather than something to be used for God’s glory. In verse 24, He talks about serving one master rather than trying to serve two. When we allow our possessions to own us rather than acknowledging God’s ownership and therefore our stewardship of the possessions we have, we are no longer looking at life with a clear eye—a single purpose which is to glorify God and serve Him. We begin to have a bad eye, an eye that is trying to look at the myriad of things that our flesh lusts after rather than the only thing that should matter which is God’s glory.

In fact, if we abandon our singleness of purpose in seeking God’s glory and begin to look for the things that will bring us pleasure with a bad eye, we will find that we are no longer able to see spiritually. Jesus says in verse 22 that if our eye is clear our “whole body will be full of light”. However, if we have spiritual double vision because we are trying to look to the things of God and the things of the world we will find that our “whole body is full of darkness”. Now, when I was born I developed cataracts in my eyes. The lens of my eyes clouded up and I wasn’t able to see. I was a baby so I don’t remember much about it. I have a friend, however, that recently had that surgery. He said he could see but his vision wasn’t clear before he had the surgery. After his surgery, he could see much better. For those who have a bad eye and therefore have spiritual cataracts, the little bit of light they have is “darkness” when compared to the light of a clear eye. Therefore, as Jesus says, what should be light to these people is a “great…darkness”. They think they can see but they cannot because their eye does not give them light. Their eye does not give them light, metaphorically speaking, because their priorities are wrong. May we pray that God will help us keep our priorities in line.

Matthew 6:19-21 Sound Investing Advice

Bernie Madoff was sentenced today to 150 years in prison for defrauding investors out of billions of dollars. Now, what he did was wrong but I would say that at least some of the people he defrauded were motivated by greed—they had money and wanted a lot more money. Their avarice prompted them to ignore the sage advice given by many parents to their children “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”. The fictitious returns on the investments Madoff supposedly managed were about as plausible as a pig flying. While the people he ripped off are victims, there is something to be learned from this sad story. We can’t put our trust in our wealth. In fact, Jesus says here that our wealth shouldn’t be the focus of our lives. Rather, we should have God’s kingdom as our priority.

First of all, observe with me what Jesus tells us not to do with our money. In verse 19, Matthew records that Jesus said to His audience “Do not store up for yourselves treasures”. The sentence reads in the Greek literally “Do not be treasuring your treasures”. He indicates here that our habit, our lifestyle, should not be to hoard up money as if we’re collecting as a possession to be kept and hidden rather than as a resource to be used. The word translated “store up” carries with it the idea of something, in this case money, being stored up for safekeeping. Now, is Jesus then against the idea of saving for a rainy day? I would say not, because we are told in the book of Proverbs to take note of how the ant stores and prepares the things it needs (Proverbs 6:6). Is Jesus then saying we shouldn’t prepare to retire? Probably not, although the idea of an idle Christian is certainly not something you would get from the Bible. If someone were able to retire from full time work so they could serve their church and community or contribute in some way to a ministry (i.e. a retired accountant serving a church or ministry because old bookkeepers never die, they just get out of balance) that would be a meaningful, God honoring way to spend their later years. However, I’m not so sure that sitting around watching reruns of Matlock and Wheel of Fortune is exactly the kind of life that God called us to when He saved us assuming we are physically and mentally able to function. The idea here is that we should not hoard up wealth just to see how much we can amass.

Why, you might ask? Because everything on earth is temporary and, therefore, you “can’t take it with you”. All the stuff that we acquire is stuff that our kids will have to sort out after we’re gone. It won’t do us any good because after we die our spirit goes to be with the Savior. However, even while here on earth we shouldn’t let our possessions possess us because at any time we may find that “moth and rust” have destroyed our treasures or they’ve been stolen. Simply put, a lock only keeps an honest man out. If a crook wants in your house bad enough and wants your stuff bad enough, they can get it. Our treasures, then, are not only temporary but they are perishable. We can’t and shouldn’t hold on to them because they are fleeting. God is eternal—our stuff is not.

With this in view, Jesus tells us what we should do with the wealth and possessions that we’ve been made stewards over. He says we should “store up for [ourselves] treasures in heaven”. In other words, I believe the text tells us we should use our material possessions in a way that honors God and builds His kingdom. In the end, how much money we had, what kind of car we drove, and what kind of house we lived in won’t matter. What will matter is what we personally did to provide resources for ministries that are reaching the world for Jesus. It will matter in eternity how much sacrifice we made not only of our money but of our time and talents. In the final analysis, those are gong to be the only treasures we have stored up in heaven and they will last because in heaven “neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal”.

In verse 21, we see the point Jesus was making with this teaching. Our focus determines our priorities. If our treasure is in heaven, our heart will be there as well. We will be concerned about God’s holiness, becoming more Christlike, and sharing the gospel. We will be concerned about building His kingdom and not our kingdom. We will rightly recognize that we are steward’s who are entrusted with the management of earthly possessions and that they are not ours in the first place. Furthermore, we will be constantly reminded that we are strangers in this world and that our home, our real home, is in heaven with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Matthew 6:19-34 The Christian and Possessions-Introductory Thoughts

Dave Ramsey is one of my favorite radio personalities. I appreciate the common sense approach he has to handling money and the fact that he counsels people using a biblical worldview. As he has pointed out, the bible has quite a bit to say about money and how we should use it. In my opinion, the verses recorded at the end of Matthew chapter 6 are some of the clearest directives in scripture regarding how the people of God should view money.

First of all, as we study this section of scripture, we will observe that how we use money is indicative of our heart attitude. We are told in verse 21 that where our heart will be where our treasure is located. Our trust should be in God, but we can sinfully allow our hearts to trust in money to take care of our daily needs (vs 25-34) or we can actually make money a god unto itself (v 24). Secondly, we are challenged to trust God rather than money. Jesus does not make suggestions as we read these verses—in fact, they are commandments. The result of having a right heart attitude toward money and placing our faith in God rather than worldly riches is that we are able to use money to glorify God. We can make decisions that honor and exalt Him because we know that, ultimately, we are not responsible for ourselves but we can trust in the fact that God truly is our Shepherd and will meet our needs.

In the end, having a right view of material possessions gives us opportunities to minister to folks. When we find out about needs (i.e. someone comes to us and tells us there are going to be out of work for a short time) we can help meet those needs rather than passing the buck to someone else. When we know about missionaries and ministries that need help, we can share our resources so that God’s kingdom is advanced. Recognizing that we are simply stewards of these resources, we should invest in the kingdom of God. However, we will only make that investment when we have the right attitude toward the money that God has entrusted to us.

Matthew 6:16-18 Fasting for whom?

Hearing God say “Well done, good and faithful servant” should be the goal of all disciples of Jesus Christ. What we should not seek after, however, is the accolades of other people as we serve our God. The Pharisees wanted people to recognize their devotion to God in their giving, their praying, and in their fasting. Jesus, in this chapter, denounced their religious pretentiousness and explained what our true motivations should be as we worship and serve the Lord.

Matthew records what Jesus taught here about fasting. First of all, observe with me that Jesus appears to assume that His audience was in the habit of fasting regularly. The Lord doesn’t say “If you fast” but rather “Whenever you fast”. I must confess that I have no personal experience with fasting. The idea is to abstain from food so as to devote yourself to prayer and worship. In my country, we live in a culture that takes practically everything to excess so the idea of denying oneself food or anything is odd. However, I think the idea of disciplining ourselves and bringing our desires under control is healthy. Certainly, if someone decided to fast for a period of time they should do it as a personal choice without feeling compelled and they certainly should take precautions for their health.

The Lord then commands us how we should not fast. He tells us that we should not attempt to draw attention to ourselves so that people notice that we’re fasting by putting on “gloomy faces”. When I was a freshman in college I was a saxophone major. Branford Marsallis was playing a free concert in Auburn, Alabama and I wanted to go but I had to work the next day. Now, I shouldn’t have done this but I went to work at my part time job and pretended to be sick so I could call in the next day. I put on a “gloomy face” so that people would see how sick I was. In much the same way, these Pharisees wanted people to say “Look at ol’ Levi. Boy, that dude is fasting hardcore.” They wanted people to think of them as being religious and holy.

There are people in church today who do the same thing. Anything that we do can be a religious activity if we do it out of the wrong heart attitude. The question to ask ourselves is “Who do I want to impress here?” Do we want men to admire us or do we want to serve our Lord. Instead of making it obvious to people that we are fasting, we should “anoint [our] head and wash [our] face”. In other words, we should do whatever we would normally do in preparing for our day. Our goal is to not draw attention to ourselves but rather to make this act of devotion noticeable only to God.

We can overcome our prideful, self-centered desires to gain the acclaim of people by concentrating on what should be our true motivation—serving God from a humble heart. When we fast or worship the Lord in any other way, we should devote ourselves to the only thing that should truly matter to a disciple of Jesus—the glory of God. When we do that, our “Father who sees what is done in secret will reward” us.

Matthew 6:13 A New Heart=A New Desire

Several times a week, my wife and kids will come into town to have lunch with me at work. We often take and park the car at the Farmers Market on Rosa Parks Drive and eat our lunch there. Sometimes on the way back to the office, Patricia will ask me “Why don’t we just kidnap you and take you home?” I always reply “You can’t kidnap the willing”. It would not take a gun to my head for me to go home with them rather than back to work. However, I don’t think my boss would buy my story that I was kidnapped. In much the same way, even after we have been saved we live in flesh that still loves to sin. Left to our own devices we would get ourselves into nothing but trouble even though we desire to follow our Lord. Jesus demonstrates our need to pray for God’s help so that we can live our lives consistent with our faith.

In Matthew 6:13, Jesus gives both a negative and positive request that we should make to God the Father. First of all, in the negative sense, we should pray for where we do not want to go. Jesus says “Do not lead us into temptation”. Now the word temptation can be used not only of sin but also of any time of testing. God never tempts anyone to sin but He does send trials our way to refine us and test the genuineness of our faith. Obviously, since scripture is replete with encouragements to endure suffering and hardship we know Jesus can’t be telling us we should ask God to lead us away from those—especially since they are for our ultimate benefit. Therefore, He must be saying that we should ask God to help us avoid sin. While God never tempts someone to sin Satan certainly does. However, God always provides a way for us to escape (I Corinthians 10:13). Ultimately, though, our use of that escape route is dependant on our choosing to use it. We have to decide to deny our sinful desires, however attractive they might be, and choose to serve our Lord and Savior. We must have a new heart given to us by God to even make that choice. In fact, to even pray for God to help us overcome sin as we read here, there must first be a desire to serve God and honor Him. In many ways, it’s like the man who begged Jesus “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).

Jesus also gives a positive request that we should make of God in our prayer. As much as some Christian denominations would like to portray otherwise, Satan is a powerful adversary. In fact, in 1 Peter he is portrayed as a roaring lion on the prowl for some bar-b-que Christian to much on. We are not empowered to defeat him—only Christ has done that. Martin Luther may have said it best in his hymn when he wrote “Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing. Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing.” Because Satan is the one who tempts us to sin in addition to asking God to help us overcome sin we should also pray that He will “deliver us from evil”. In the Greek, the word “evil” is proceeded by the definite article “the”. In other words, we’re not to pray for God to deliver us from just ANY evil but rather from THE evil—Satan. Satan cannot harm us spiritually once we’ve been save, we can’t lose our salvation. We can, however, become contaminated by sin and lose our effectiveness. We can damage our witness and bring reproach to the name of our Lord when we succumb to Satan’s snares. As we pray, we should remember that it is only by God’s strength that we can overcome sin and enjoy victory. Thankfully, we serve a God who is sovereign and in control of everything and we can be truly say “Yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.”

Note: The doxology at the end of the prayer ("Yours is the kingdom...") in most modern translations of the Bible is bracketed with a footnote telling the reader that the phrase is lacking in most early Greek manuscripts. Now, if you’ve been following this blog for a while you know I’m not much of a textual scholar, but if you’re new to the blog let me just say “I’m not much of a textual scholar”. However, I am a geek so I’ve read some on the subject of textual variations in the New Testament manuscripts. My gut from what I’ve read is that the critical text based on the older manuscripts is probably closer to the original. However, other people have reached different conclusions and love the Lord as much as I do. If you’re interested, there are numerous books and websites on the subject. If you’re not, and I figure that would include most normal human beings, just rest assured that the textual variants account for probably less than 5% of the test, some are as simple as spelling differences, and I can’t think of one that affects any major doctrine of Christianity. The text we have is reliable due to the providence of Almighty God.

Matthew 6:12 & 14-15 God is our example

I am committed to verse by verse bible exposition. However, as I studied this section of scripture, I had a hard time separating verse 12 from verse 14 and 15. Now, that’s not to say that God made a mistake when He inspired Matthew to write these verses or that Matthew made a mistake and put t hem out of order. Rather, the trouble is more that I can’t seem to understand them apart from one another. As we look at these verses, we see that God shows us by example how we should deal with those who have wronged us. Because we like the servant in Matthew 18, have been forgiven of so much, we should be willing to forgive someone who’s debt to us is infinitesimal in comparison.

First of all, we notice in verse 12 a request made to God. Jesus tells us we should ask God to “forgive us our debts”. Now, the word debts in Greek means the same thing it does in English—to owe something to someone. Sin is, therefore, pictured in this verse as a debt, something that we owe God. Because all believers are justified before God positionally when they repent of their sins and place their faith in Christ, they stand before God righteous. However, practically all of us sin everyday. That sin removes fellowship with God, hinders our prayers, and is pictured as a debt here. We cannot experience the joy and peace of God without daily confession of our sins whether they are sins of omission or commission. We must go to God and implore His forgiveness when we sin. We need that debt removed from out account.

However, our forgiveness creates a responsibility for us to also be forgiving. Just as, in Matthew 18, the servant who was forgiven much would not forgive the one who owed him was punished, our unwillingness to forgive has consequences. In fact, Jesus says here that our forgiveness from God will be comparable to our forgiveness of those who have wronged us. Jesus says to pray that God will forgive us “as we forgive our debtors”. In other words, if we are praying to God for forgiveness for being unkind to someone and we have a grudge against someone who was unkind to us and have not forgiven them we should not expect to be absolved of our sin while we are withholding forgiveness from someone else. Our lack of willingness to forgive is a symptom that there is something wrong with our attitude. We are important enough that God should hear our pleas and equally important enough that we can ignore someone else as they plead for us to forgive them.

Jesus further clarifies this responsibility to forgive in verses 14 and 15. He doesn’t just imply that our unforgivness of others is a sin, He outright says so. Whether we forgive people determines whether God will forgive us when we come to Him for cleansing of our sin. Again, this is the daily forgiveness that we are to seek for our sins not the forgiveness being associated with being born again. However, I submit to you that if you are unwilling to forgive someone after having been forgiven yourself you have some serious spiritual issues that you need to get taken care of quickly—in fact, you may not be saved at all. Jesus uses the same word for sins in both verses. He calls them “transgressions”. In verse 12, sin is pictured as a debt to be paid. Here it is described as a metaphorical line that we have crossed. God has set the standard for righteousness and revealed that standard in the Bible or at bare minimum in our own conscience. We have all crossed that line. We’re all guilty of transgressing the commandments of God. He has positionally made us right with Him through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus. However, even after being saved we still cross the line and sin. If we expect to have a right relationship with God and be forgiven when we need it, we must forgive others. To fail to do so impairs our relationship with God and our witness to the world.

Is this forgiveness a once for all act. In some ways yes and in some ways no, I think. I have forgiven people for things that they have done that I felt wronged me in the past. However, sometimes I still remember what they did. I can’t erase the memories. For that matter, I can’t erase the pain. So what I have to do is every time I remember that event or those words I choose again to forgive. I would love to say that I never remember what happened. However, I’m not going to lie. I can’t change what happened but I can choose to forgive because I have been forgiven.

Matthew 6:11 God is Our Provider

I can remember growing up wanting some things that I never got. In particular, I remember a Batmobile pedal car that I saw in the Sears Christmas catalogue. I could see myself hoping in that sucker with a bedsheet tied around my neck peddling out of the driveway to the hill right behind our house and speeding down that hill chasing after the Joker or the Penguin. Of course, that road also dead ended into a ditch that was pretty deep from what I remember so on second thought it was a good thing I never got that. However, as much as I longed for that car it’s probably one of only the few things that I didn’t get. In fact, I probably got most of what I asked for and I know I got a lot more than some people. But in the area of things I needed I never lacked anything. Mom and Dad always made sure we were taken care of and that we had the food, clothes, shelter, and medical care we needed. Now my parents are not perfect and they provided for me. If they were human and made mistakes but still took good care of their kids, how much more can we depend on our heavenly Father to provide for our needs.

As we read in Matthew 6:11, Jesus says “Give us this day our daily bread”. I think there are several things that we can observe from that verse. First of all, we notice dependence—specifically our dependence on God. We live in a culture that is obsessed with the idea of being a self-made man or woman. Charlie Daniels once crooned in a popular song of his “I don’t need nothing from nobody if I can’t get it on my own”. We take pride in being self reliant and not depending on other people. In some ways that is good. I mean, we need to work and earn our own living rather than waiting for someone to just drop it into our lap. However, we as children of God need to realize that our survival is ultimately dependant on God. God is the one who provides for our needs. Certainly I have to go to work, but it is God who provided the job. Further, if something was to happen and I had to find another job, God would provide for me and my family. No matter what, I know from experience that I can trust God to take care of me. I can depend on Him and I can go to Him in prayer and ask Him for what I need. He loves me and it is His joy to provide for His children.

Secondly, observe that we don’t just depend on God when the going gets tough but rather, as Jesus says, we depend on Him “daily”. God is not a cosmic waiter who stands behind some pearly white counter and asks us “Would you like fries with that?” while wearing some paper hate and a goofy plastic name tag. He’s not there to wait on us and answer when we need Him. We are in a relationship with God. He is our Savior. He is our Father. If you are in a relationship with someone and you don’t continuously nurture that relationship, it dies. We are in a daily walk with our Father who provides for us. That is why He hears us when we pray. Not because of anything in us that makes us worthy—rather it is because He adopted us and we are dear to His heart.

Finally, notice what we depend on Him for daily. Jesus says we should pray for God to give us “our daily bread”. Now, from everything I’ve studied, the Greek here is a little confusing and there are differences of opinions as to exactly what Jesus meant here. I submit to you, and this may be due to my limited mental capacity, that the English rendering gives a good sense of what we should ask for—our daily bread. Give us what we need to get through today. We’re not looking to lay up treasure here on Earth, as Matthew records a few verses from now. We need to look at today and worry about today and be cognizant of the opportunities we are presented today. Give us what we need, our daily bread, so that we can be busy serving You and glorifying You today. As we noticed in the previous three petitions (Hallowed be Your name, You kingdom come, You will be done) we should have as our first priority the glory of God. It would make sense, then, that we request Him to provide for us what we need to be able to serve Him today. Then we can trust Him to give us what we need and praise Him for it.

Many people are scared in the US and the world today due to the economy. I submit to you that God has provided for His children and He will continue to provide. We can trust Him because He has been faithful and He will continue to be faithful. Give thanks to Him today for providing for you.

Matthew 6:9-10 God’s Glory-Our Priority

Because God is the only One worthy of our praise and worship, we should make praising and worshipping Him our highest priority. Our lives should reflect the love and reverence we have for our great Savior. When the world sees us, they should see the difference that God makes in our lives. As Matthew records here in chapter 6, this distinction that the world notices should come because of our attitude toward God and His lordship over us.

Observe first of all that Jesus says we should pray to God “Hallowed be Your name”. Now, the word “hallowed” means “to consider holy”. We don’t use the word holy very often in our culture today unless of course it’s used as profanity. The idea behind calling something holy is to consider it special or set apart. Obviously, God is certainly special and set apart. As Ravi Zacharias once said, God is the only being in existence who is the cause for His own existence. He is righteous, perfect in everything He does, just, loving, and gracious. To hallow God’s name is to consider God’s character as being holy or special. How, do we hallow God’s name or demonstrate that we consider Him to be holy and set apart? I submit to you that we demonstrate this when we “walk worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called” (Ephesians 4:1). If we truly consider God to be holy and we claim that He is our Lord our lives should reflect that.

I read a story about a man who had slowed while he was driving after seeing a yellow light up ahead and then stopped once the light had turned red. He could have made it through the yellow but was a cautious driver and decided to not chance it. However, the woman behind him didn’t appreciate it. She blew her horn, made a few obscene gestures and called him a few names which would’ve made a sailor blush. A police officer who was walking along the sidewalk came to her window and asked her to step outside of the car. Her arrested her, took her to the police station and booked her. A few minutes later, he came and said “It looks like we made a mistake. You see, I saw the way you were acting and saw the ‘Follow me to Sunday School’ and ‘Jesus Loves You’ bumper stickers on your car and I figured you must have stolen the car”. Quite obviously, this woman was not hallowing the name of God when she was “acting the fool” because the man stopped in front of her. Our wish should be to see God’s named hallowed throughout the entire world. However, we can hardly expect sinners to show God respect when Christians don’t live in a way that hallows God’s name.

Jesus also says that we should pray “Your kingdom come”. The word translated “kingdom” (basileia-932) doesn’t mean the physical boundaries on a map that would identify the land where the king ruled but it rather has the idea of the authority the king has. You might translate the phrase as “Your reign come”. The desire of the Christian should be to see the authority of God recognized over all the earth. We should pray for men and women everywhere to repent and submit themselves to the authority of God thereby expanding His kingdom. We should look forward with great anticipation to the Millennium described in the book of Revelation where we are told that Christ will rule on this earth for 1,000 years after He returns prior to the creation of a new heaven and new earth. However, while we look forward to that, we should seek to be ambassadors for His kingdom, calling people to faith in the Lord Jesus and living in such a way that people can see God’s reign in our lives.

Finally, we see Jesus tell us that we should pray for God’s will to be done on earth. We recognize that His will is carried out in heaven and that all the angels praise and serve Him constantly. Not so here on earth , obviously. People thumb their noses at the word of God which reveals His will. They mock it, ignore it, and question its authority and reliability. When we pray for God’s will to be done we are essentially saying we want to see God’s laws obeyed as revealed in holy scripture. Certainly, as we will see later in the Sermon on the Mount, the majority of people are not going to go to heaven. Jesus says that narrow is the road to eternal life and only a few find it. Regardless of that, I would say that if people do not do His will it is at least sometimes due to the fact that they don’t know it. There are people who don’t know who Jesus is or anything about the Bible. Friends, it is our job to tell people what the will of God is by sharing what the word of God says. Missionaries go to the farthest ends of the globe, some risking their lives, to tell people about Jesus and the Bible. We are also commissioned to go and tell and it is our responsibility and privilege to do so. We should also see to it that His will is done in our churches by standing up for what the bible says. You would think “That’s unnecessary, Joe. I mean, we’re talking about the church. They should already be standing on the word of God.” Sadly, such is not the case sometimes. I know of a Southern Baptist Church, Broadway Baptist in Texas, that welcomes and affirms openly homosexual members. I know of another SBC church that has invited the author of The Shack to preach the gospel in their church on a Sunday morning knowing full well that the man denies the penal substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. In other words, God didn’t punish Christ for our sins. God is too loving to punish sin. We should pray for God’s will to be done and stand against such nonsense in our church.

God’s glory should be our highest priority. We demonstrate our concern for God’s glory by living lives consistent with scripture and by living in such a way that people see the lordship of God in our lives. By doing so, we make our lives a living witness calling all men and women to the Gospel.

Matthew 6:9 The Model Prayer Part I

I have had numerous jobs in my adult life. I have taught school, sold cars (ok, I’ve sold A car), and I now work as an auditor. For about a year or so prior to going back to school for accounting, I managed a pizza restaurant. One of my responsibilities was training new crew members and training old crew members to do new things. When I would teach someone how to make a pizza including how to properly stretch the dough the first thing I would do is demonstrate how to do the job properly. Giving someone an example of how to do something is a pretty common method that is used to teach someone how to do something. Often times, it can be effective. Jesus, in these next verses, gives believers a model for how to pray to God. We can learn much as we study the words of Christ and examine the principals He gives us as we try to relate to God the Father.

First of all, we should remember the immediate context of these verses as we attempt to determine not only their interpretation but also their application. Jesus, in chapters 5-7, is teaching His disciples. Therefore, the example of how to pray that He gives is likewise directed to believers. Secondly, remember that Jesus had just taught that we are not to pray as the Gentiles who would babble on in long and wordy prayers without really saying a thing. For us to think that this prayer is to be prayed verbatim as it is recorded here is in my mind somewhat silly. I wouldn’t say that someone can’t pray this prayer from their heart but it can easily be exactly what Jesus preached against just a few verses prior—a meaningless repetition. A better use of this prayer would be for you and I to apply the principals of how to pray rather than trying to repeat the specific words or phrases.

In fact, I would submit that Jesus indicated just that when He said in verse 9 “Pray, then, in this way”. He does not say “Pray these words”. The phrase “in this way” translates a single Greek word “ houto” (3779) which is used to indicate “in this manner”. We should use this prayer as a pattern of how we should talk to God not as a script to be memorized and mindlessly regurgitated.

Observe, first of all, that the prayer begins with the recognition of God’s identity. Jesus says “Our Father”. He doesn’t just identify God as the Sovereign of creation—the Lord of hosts. While God is both Sovereign over all creation and the Lord of hosts, He is also our Father. I remember reading an article David Robinson wrote about when the San Antonio Spurs had won the NBA championship. He described being in the locker room after the game and having reporters crowding around him to get an interview. At the same time, he son came up to him and his dad was trying to help tie his shoes. I thought that was a pretty stark contrast. None of the reporters could approach him and garner his attention the way his child could. They didn’t have the relationship with him that his son had. In the same way, we can approach God and know that He listens to us because He is our Abba Father (Romans 8:15).

Next, notice that Jesus not only talks about who God is but also where God is. He says we should direct our prayers to “Our Father, who is in heaven”. We don’t pray to a fallible human being here in this earth but we pray to the King of glory who is on His throne far above anything here on this earth. We pray to the God who created everything that exists out of nothing by simply speaking it into existence. He has perfect perspective on everything and knows not only what is best for us but also is working all things for the good of those of us who are His children (Romans 8:28). He is in control of everything whether it be people or circumstances and nothing that He decrees will fail to come to pass. Because of His location, we can know that He is God and that we can trust Him to do what is best for us.

God is able to work His perfect will in the earth because He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. However, while we should respect and revere His as God we should remember that He is our Father and we can approach Him in prayer because He loves us as his little children.

Matthew 6:7-8 Don’t be like the Energizer Bunny

I remember the commercials for Energizer batteries about 10 years or so ago. The commercial would start out as a parody of another product and right before the commercial would end, the Energizer Bunny would come across the screen with his bass drum and the narrator would interrupt to tell us that the Energizer kept going and going and going. The joke wore thin after a while but the first 4 or 5 of those commercials were really funny. However, when we pray our goal is not to see how long we can keep our mouths moving or how much we can say. Our goal should always be to communicate to our Father in heaven.

In, fact, Jesus commands us “do not use meaningless repetitions”. Now, this doesn’t mean that we should never repeat ourselves in a prayer. In fact, Jesus Himself prayed 3 times in the garden “Not as I will, but as You will” when asking God the Father to let the cup of God’s wrath pass. The idea is not that we should never repeat ourselves but rather that the repetition should not be “meaningless”. The Greek word translated “meaningless repetition” is “battoloego” (945) and it basically mean to babble or prattle senselessly. In other words, we’re not to just say things to God as a prayer with no rhyme or reason.

In fact, Jesus further qualifies this command by saying we’re not to babble “as the Gentiles”. As noted in Robertson’s Word Pictures, pagan’s would repeat themselves often to see if they could annoy the gods they worshipped and get the gods to give them what they wanted to the worshippers would hush. As a parent with two small children, I can see why someone might think that would work. I’ve given in to my little tricycle motors on more than one occasion trying to buy myself some peace and quiet.

However, God is not a human father who has imperfections such as impatience but is a perfect heavenly Father who desires the highest and best good for us in His perfect time. In contrast to having the attitude that the Gentiles had that “they will be heard for their many words” we can have the confidence of David as expressed in Psalm 23. We can say “The Lord is my Shepherd” and trust Him to respond to our prayers not based on their wordiness but based on our relationship with Him. God knows that we depend on Him. In fact, as Jesus observes, the Father ‘knows what you need before you ask Him”.

We can praise Him and thank Him for being so loving and gracious. We can pray to Him with an attitude of humbleness and trust because we know that He cares for us.

Matthew 6:5-6 Jesus on Prayer Part I

One of my favorite cartoon’s in the 1980’s had a tag line that they would add at the end of every “educational segment” (all cartoons got to where they had to have educational segments during the 80’s) where someone would say “Now we know” and another character would add “And knowing is half the battle”. This always, to me, begged the question “Ok, what’s the other half?” Anyway, there is tremendous power in knowledge. Knowing how not to do something is almost just as important as knowing how to do something. In these verses and the two that follow them, Jesus gives both positive and negative examples of prayer and more specifically the attitudes behind those examples.

First of all, notice that Jesus assumes that the people He is preaching to will be praying. He doesn’t say “If you pray” but rather “When you pray”. “Pray” translates a Greek word “proseuchomai” (4336) which means “to supplicate, to worship, to pray”. The idea is that the person making petition is earnestly seeking favor with God. I read somewhere this week that a life marked by a lack of prayer is rooted in a feeling of self sufficiency. I have to admit that when I read that, it stung. I don’t pray as often or as earnestly as I ought to from day to day. As I’ve studied this passage, I have also felt convicted. We should go to God with our needs because He loves us. We are His children. We are His sheep and He wants to take care of us.

As Jesus assumes that we will pray, He exhorts us to not follow the example of the “hypocrites” or those who just play a game with religion. While you or I might not be able to tell it by just looking at them, they may have activity but they can’t fool God. Jesus points out that their religious activity of praying is only external. First of all, notice how they pray”. They “love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners.” Now, this wasn’t just a case of public prayer but rather these guys had certain times of the day they were expected to pray. So, let’s say Mathais was a devout Jew and he was on the street walking from the market in the most crowded part of the day and the time came to pray, he would stop right there in the middle of everybody, strike a pose, and pray. People would look at him and think “Wow, that dude is hard core about his faith in God”. However, as Jesus points out, his sincerity is not genuine. In fact, the reaction our hypothetical Mathais got from the by-standers is exactly what he was going for and in reality is the only thing he’s going to get out of it. As we saw in chapter 5, God knows the heart of man and He knows that Mathais is just playing a part—a hypocrite through and through. He pretense of piety impresses other people, maybe, but not God.

Now, in contrast to this put-on display of religiousity (Is that a real word?), Jesus commands true followers of Christ to have a different atmosphere about their prayer life. Matthew records in verse 7 that Jesus says that we should “go into your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret”. Now, I don’t think that Jesus literally means that we should never pray in public because He Himself prayed in public on several occasions and acknowledged that He knew people were listening. Certainly we should not pray in public with the attitude of the hypocrites, but it is not forbidden from the passage to pray in public. I believe Jesus is contrasting the attitude of true faith with the attitude of the hypocrite. Even if we can’t isolate ourselves so that our focus is only on God we should have the attitude and intent in our heart to focus only on God when we pray. God knows the difference, too. He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts and because of that when we pray with a proper, humble attitude with our focus on God He will know that and “will reward [us]”.

We should pray to God because we love God and recognize that He loves us. We wouldn’t think of not communicating in any earthly relationship and have expectations for that relationship to grow and develop. In like manner, if we’re not talking (praying) to God and listening to Him (studying His word), we can’t expect to grow in our relationship with God. Let us be humble to seek His face in prayer every day.

Matthew 6:2-4 Shh, it’s a secret

At one of the churches I served as a minister of music, there was a lady who took it upon herself to make sure the flowers on the church sanctuary were always changed out. She did these lovely arrangements without pomp or recognition. In fact, only a few people at the church realized who did the work of putting these flowers in church. Once, when we were having a community revival, Ms. Duncan took the initiative to make sure the stage of the gym were decorated every night. Again, not many people recognized that she was the one doing this service. I made a point the night our church led worship to acknowledge her publically. She was a little embarrassed and probably would have just as soon gone unnoticed. Based on these verses in Matthew that we’re going to be looking at, I would exhort all of us to try to develop the attitude of humility that seemed to come so easily to Ms. Duncan. While Jesus is talking about giving to the poor and not acts of service in the church, the principal of doing our good works for God’s glory and not for ours is still applicable.

First of all, notice that we are commanded to have a different approach to giving to the poor. Jesus calls us to not imitate the “hypocrites” (those who put on an act) who give with an atmosphere of pomp and circumstance. Using picturesque language, He describes them as “sounding a trumpet” as they give. One can almost picture in their mind a Pharisee with his chest puffed out and his head held high strutting down the aisle to give a charitable gift. They look as much like a peacock as they do a human. Furthermore, notice that they do this “in the synagogues and the streets”. Doing good for them is a public spectator sport with other people being the spectators. They take this approach to giving because they are motivated by their desire to be “honored by men”. The word “honored” translates a Greek word that could be understood to mean having a good reputation. They want people to think they’re good, honorable, religious men. Well, let us further notice that if that’s what these people have in mind and that is their goal then, as Jesus says, “they have their reward in full”. They have nothing more to look forward to than the praise of other men which passes away. People typically have short attention spans when it comes to things that make them go “Wow”. Ever hear the phrase “15 minutes of fame”? This kind of behavior might buy you about that much recognition.

That’s a cheap imitation for what the Father wants to give us. Instead of following the example of the hypocrites, Jesus calls us to “not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing”. In symbolic language, Jesus is calling us to be sneaky in our giving. Instead of drawing attention to ourselves, we should be so stealthy that not even our other hand notices what we’re doing, like a magician fooling you with a slight of hand trick. If our one hand doesn’t notice what we’re doing, imagine how unnoticeable our actions will be to other people. The goal, when giving to the poor, should be to meet the need not to meet OUR need for recognition. It is nice to be patted on the back. It is more important, however, for us to follow the command of Christ.

In fact, as Christ observes in verse 4, when our giving is done in this manner, it is done “in secret” (kruptos-2927 root word of our English word cryptic). However, just because we don’t get a standing ovation from people does not mean that our deeds go unnoticed. God is omniscient. He sees and knows everything even, things that are done out of the sight of men. Jesus says our Father in heaven “will reward you”. The God that judges perfectly, in whom there is no shifting shadow, will reward us out of His love and His infinite resources. If we think that men can reward us, how much more can our God reward us?

Of course, ultimately we should give to demonstrate the love of God and be faithful stewards of what He has entrusted us with. Still, we can be encouraged to give as the Lord has given us knowing that God will reward our faithfulness.

Matthew 6:1 Why do you do what you do?

The past week, a quarterback for the New England Patriots, Matt Cassell, was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs for a 2nd round draft pick. People all over the internet have been questioning the motivation behind the trade because the coach of the Patriots, Bill Belichick, is not exactly known for being generous or friendly. In fact, as a writer on Yahoo .com notes “This is Bill Belichick we’re talking about here. He’d cheat in a game of Connect Four with a poor orphan child. He didn’t become the coach he is by doing people ‘favors’.” In short, some people think he made this trade with improper motives. You or I will probably never make decisions of the magnitude of an NFL trade involving millions of dollars, but the motivation we have to serve Jesus Christ as ministers should come from a desire to please God, no to draw attention away from Him to ourselves.

Jesus must have had this idea in mind when He spoke to the crowd and told them to “Beware”. There is nothing in the Bible that I would ever say is unimportant but there are some things that are more significant than others. If Jesus gives a warning, I’d say that would be a good thing for you and I to listen to and make a point of remembering. We should examine our motives to make sure our service to the Lord comes as a result of our love for our Savior and our thankfulness for what He has done for us.
Our motivation should never be to be noticed by people. When we serve God and do good works it should never be in order that we will “be noticed by them”. Frankly, it is a temptation that many Christians fall prey to as they minister. It is easy for preachers or singers to hear the praise of people and bask in the limelight. Everyone likes to be noticed and recognized and certainly there is nothing wrong with us telling someone how much their song blessed us or thanking a man for faithfully proclaiming God’s word. However, when we serve we must guard against having a goal of pleasing people. Rather, our prayer should be that they “see [our] good works and glorify [our] Father who is in heaven.”

In fact, being motivated by the recognition of other people in the end cheats us out of a true blessing. We are robbing ourselves of the joy of being rewarded by God. I’m not sure if you ever did this when you were a kid, but I can remember trying to convince my parents to let us open Christmas presents early. Most of the time, it didn’t work. However, a few times they gave in just to get some peace and quiet. We would excitedly open presents. When Christmas morning rolled around, though, we realized we had robbed ourselves of the excitement of opening ALL of our presents that morning. In much the same we, we rob ourselves of being rewarded by our loving, gracious heavenly Father when we choose a cheap substitute of praise from other people. They can give us recognition and a pat on the back. However, that recognition quickly grows faint and the pat on the back fades from our memory. They give praise out of their limited resources. In contrast, our Father in heaven gives lavishly out of His infinite supply of goodness. Dwelling in His presence forever, the sound of “Well done” will never fade as we praise Him forever for saving us.

Instead of settling for a cheap substitute of praise from people, let us always be motivated to serve God with the goal of pleasing Him with our service.

Matthew 6:1-18 Introductory Thoughts

The Sermon on the Mount is a complex section of Scripture. As I’ve been studying it, I recalled something a friend of mine, Alan Knox, said on his blog a few years ago. As one reads this text (chs 5-7) it’s pretty easy not to see the forest for all the trees. While I was preparing to begin chapter 6, I thought it might be helpful if we took at look at this first section from a “bird’s eye view” to give us a bit of perspective on the territory we’re about to enter in this marvelous section of God’s word.

I think one theme that is clear in these verses is motivation. I have often said that people do things for a reason. I get up and got to work because I want to get paid. I eat because I’m hungry. I read God’s word because I am able to draw closer to Him as I come to understand Him better through scripture. As actors often ask “What’s my motivation” we should keep the question of motivation in mind as we study these verses.

For instance, Jesus says three times in the text “They (the religious hypocrites) have their reward in full”. Those people against whom Jesus was preaching, it would appear, were motivated by the reward of being recognized by people as being religious. They loved the spotlight. Honestly, that’s a temptation for everyone from time to time. Who doesn’t love to be the center of attention at some point or another? While there is nothing wrong with wanting to excel at an activity or to pursue excellence the roar of the crowd should not be the motivation that causes us to serve God. In fact, such a motivation sounds suspiciously like Lucifer’s proclamation in Isaiah 14:13-14.

Rather, our motivation should not be to attract the attention of men but to attract the attention of God. In fact, those two mindsets are diametrically opposed—mutually exclusive even. Just as Matthew records Jesus repeating His statement about their reward three times, our Lord also says three times by obeying Him and not following their example our Father will reward us. He sees what is done “in secret”. Some people may not notice our lives when we live for the Lord and try to do what He wants but God sees everything. Just as we can’t hide the bad things we do and the sins we commit the honor and glory we give Him by living out our faith is evident as well.

Those who want to play church do just that—they put on an act and hope people will notice them. In these verses, Jesus seems to be contrasting that kind of life with an authentic Christian life where we live as we are called because we love the One who bought us with His precious blood. That is why we serve. That, my friends, is our motivation.