Chapter 33
Good Monday Morning to this week 33 of 2021
Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.
Matthew 6.1
Some people misread the Sermon on the Mount by interpreting the whole thing as a sustained warning to those who would presume they can achieve the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven by their own effort. Not so. Read on its own terms, the Sermon resounds with words of promise, beginning with Jesus’ opening about the poor in spirit. Our passage repeatedly assures that God sees and blesses our genuine service and worship. Jesus promises that people enjoy magnificent access to God, even — or especially — through the most simple and understated expressions of devotion.
Does Jesus deconstruct the religion of the Pharisaism with the Sermon on the Mount? Interesting how Islam took on the three great duties of the religious life, almsgiving, fasting, and prayer, rather than the part of sacrifices and offerings.
Jesus changes the perspective of almsgiving and the righteousness of the time. He is introducing the ways of the Kingdom of Heaven. The two words righteousness and almsgiving were nearly synonymous with the Jews, partly because the poor had a right to share in the produce of the land; partly because almsgiving was the most natural and obvious external work of righteousness. In the same way agapé (love), a leading Christian virtue, has lost its original breadth of meaning and had been reduced to the modern and restricted sense of charity.
The design of the whole discourse was to teach true righteousness. It’s about how we give to the poor, acknowledging the expectation that we do have an obligation to care for the poor. The metaphor with the blowing of trumpets to add a very vivid picture with the warning he gives concerning the applause. The “blowing of the horn” is to illustrate to advertising your own piety, seeking the applause of man. The second part of this verse is saying if you crave public applause for your deeds, that applause is all the reward that you will get. To simply put it, seeking credit from others does not equal receiving credit from God, but the spontaneous giving to the poor reflects someone who is truly righteous in the eyes of the Lord.
This passage shows that we can never gain enough favor in the eyes of our peers for God to accept us. He is also an all-knowing and loving God who will reward us for your actions which stem from your love for God. This passage reveals that we will always feel the need to be noticed and that we want instant gratification for our actions, a reward we can see. This passage shows that we have a personal relationship with God. He is not just someone we know of, but someone who is with us and notices all that we do. God is aware of our actions and wants us to want to grow our discipleship and relationship with him.
Never futile is the work (for the poor) for it is a product not of the mind of man but of the sovereign grace of God. W. Hendriksen
Wishing you a good start to this week!
Philemon