Real Righteousness - Giving
Matthew 6: 1-4
Introduction
When we think about righteousness, most people think about religion people doing religious things like Mother Teresa in Calcutta helping poor, However, sometimes when people, people who themselves aren’t religious they are inclined to think that religious people are more inclined to be self-righteousness that than just righteous. And beyond that many of us I am sure, think we know some people who claim to be religious and are really just hypocrite. All of which leads me to ask the question, what is real righteousness.
So, what is the difference between being really righteous on the one hand and being self-righteous on the other. What is the difference between real virtue and some kind of phony or false attempt to display virtue. This is a subject that needs some exploration because we need to determine what is real righteousness to know how to live the type of life that I think we all in our hearts know that God wants us to live .
Well, it just so happens that’s the subject of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is talking about righteousness. You’ve heard me say it before but this is the entire main theme of the entire whole three chapters of his teaching summed up for us by Him in His introduction in chapter five verse 20 where he says,
“Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees you shall in no way entering to the Kingdom of heaven”. (Matthew 5: 20)
What he does next is talk about different kinds of righteousness and he examined what the Pharisees said about their righteousness versus his precept of real righteousness really should look like. As a matter of fact, the rest of Matthew chapter 5 has a number of illustrations, six in all in which he says something about most of the 10 commandments and contrasts that real righteousness with the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. That, in fact, is the whole point of the Sermon on the Mount.
When we get to chapter six, he starts talking about different religious practices. You might say that in chapter 5 he's dealing with principles and in chapter 6 he's dealing with practices. Some have gone so far as to suggest that chapter 5 is the righteousness of the scribes, and chapter 6 is the righteousness of the Pharisees. Be that as it may Jesus is clearly describing a real righteousness versus a false righteousness. So, with that in mind would you turn with me to Matthew chapter 6 and let’s see what he has to say about at least one religious’ practice, the concept of giving where in Matthew chapter 6 verse one he begins by saying.
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6: 1-4)
Giving with false motives (Virtue Signalling).
Now as I mentioned Jesus is going to talk about several religious practices the first one is giving to the needy. Next, he will discusses praying and that he does rather extensively we’ll look at that in a few episodes and then after that he looks at the religious practice of fasting.
These were the three most prominent religious practices in the Judaism of Jesus day, and they were clearly considered to be the most important. Jesus takes them on one by one and uses them as illustrations of real righteousness versus phoning righteousness or a false righteousness. What we’re going to do today is look at just the first one, that of what we would today call charitable giving. So lets revisit the text and remind ourselves he said in verse one.
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. (Matthew 6: 1)
Now obviously he’s now talking about the wrong way to do this sort of thing and in a minute, he will talk about the right way, but we’re going to start by talking about the wrong way because that is what Jesus did.
The first thing you need to know about this ‘wrong way’ is that he is assuming that you are giving, in the first place. Perhaps I should pause and talk about the difference in giving and not giving, but that’s not the point of this passage, but I’ll just say that Jesus is assuming in this passage that his audience is giving in this way because this was considered one of ir most sacred religious duties. You were expected to give money to poor people at that time. In the epistles Paul talks about giving and the right way to do it, for example he took an offering for what he called, ‘the poor Saints at Jerusalem’ , furthermore in first Corinthians he said this.
“Now concerning the collection for the Saints as I haven’t given orders for the churches of Galatia. So, you must do also on the first day of the week let each one of you lay aside something storing up as he may prosper. (I Corinthians 16: 1)
In first Corinthians Paul is saying that you ought to give proportionately as you have been prospered. So take a portion of what you have and give it in this case to the poor.
Paul also wrote a second letter to the Corinthians and in second Corinthians Chapter 9 he says, “so let each one of you give as he purposes in his heart not grudgingly or of necessity for God loves a cheerful giver”. So, Paul saying in first Corinthians you ought to give proportionately and he’s saying in second Corinthians you ought to give cheerful.
Now here the illustration Jesus is using to talk about real versus false righteousness is the illustration of giving and he’s already assuming that anyone listening to what he says is already giving or a least believes in giving if they are able to. What he’s saying here is that you people are doing but some are doing it with wrong motivations. Here says some give before men, in other words in such a way as to be seen by other people and that’s the key the reason this was wrong. It is because they were doing it with the wrong motives their motive was to be seen by people and bask in the warmth of the praise of the people. Their financial donations where for the purpose of virtue signalling, we would call it to day.
One commentator explains that during the synagogue services offerings were taken for the poor and there were the Pharisees had taken great care to create a way so that others should see how much they gave. I’ve read in one commentary that there was a thing in the synagogue that looked like the big end of a horn and that sometimes they would come by and give by throwing coins in this thing so that it would make a sound and this is the way they let everybody know I’m giving. Bing, as they throw it in the collection pot, and Jesus says they do it in the synagogues.
In other words, he was doing it before people with a sort of a theatrical goodness on display so that it gets the approval and the admiration and the applause of people. Does this strike you as having a problem with something he said earlier.
If you’ve been following closely as we’ve looked at the sermon on the mount do you remember earlier Jesus said, “let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven” so what’s wrong with letting your good works be seen Jesus actually commanded it so how do you reconcile Matthew 5:16 with Matthew 6:1 and the answer is in 6:2
“So, when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. (Matthew 6: 2)
What Jesus is getting at it's not that others shouldn’t see what you do it’s that you don’t do it to be seen. So, the issue again is the motive, it’s always about the motive. It’s always about internal righteousness, against an external show for the benefit of others, an outer righteousness. If you do these things for the approval of other people well frankly this passage tells us you will have no reward from your father in heaven. Jesus said if you give the wrong way which is using the wrong motives then you gain no reward from your father God. It shouldn’t mean anything to garner the praise of other people instead of the praises of God.
That great Victoria British preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “there is no reward from God to those who seek it from men”. Jesus says in verse two when you do a charitable work or deeds including giving do not sound the trumpet before you as the hypocrites do. So, here’s Jesus’ conclusion he says don’t do it like the hypocrites. The Greek word translated hypocrite actually started out being a perfectly good word it meant to play a part and was used of being an actor. However, eventually over time it came to be used in the bad sense of playing a part to cover up a bad motive, and that’s the way Jesus is using it here. He’s talking about being a hypocrite because they are doing something that looks like they’re good when really inside they’re doing it with bad motives.
I think there is something I need to be clarified at this point. Just because somebody falls, or fails, or sins doesn’t mean they’re a hypocrite. I think we sometimes think people think that anytime a Christian sin or falls they’re being hypocritical, that is not always the case. I came upon a statement that says this very well. I quote[i].
A hypocrite is not a person who falls short of his own high standards or who occasionally sins, because all of us experience these failures. A hypocrite deliberately uses religion to cover his sins and promote his own gains.
So, Jesus is talking about hypocrites not just because they failed but because they deliberately were using their religious deeds to cover up their rotten insides.
Notice what he says he calls them hypocrites and he says, “do not sound the trumpet as the hypocrites do in the synagogues or in the streets”. What does it mean to sound the trumpet, some take this figuratively to mean nothing more than doing something ostentatious to get the attention of people, but it seems to be that Jesus is using it literally because he says they do it in the synagogues and they do it in the streets. So that these hypocrites deliberately went out of their way to do something in frount of people to get their attention their approval and their applause I also read that during a time of drought they blew the horn and assembled the people in the square so they could pray for rain and then of course all the hypocrites would carry their own trumpet and blow it before praying thus ensuring people would come out and see them pray. We talk today about somebody blowing their own horn I wonder if that came from this, at any rate Jesus is saying here’s.
Here’s my conclusion on what Jesus is saying here, don’t do it like the hypocrites do it, because they’re doing it to be seen by people and his illustration is that of tooting your own horn. Celebrities nowadays show off by publicly demonstrating how much they give. Just giving pages publicly display the amount of everybody’s contribution and how they compare to each other. I’m going to read you a statement that was written in 1909 at the dawn of the 20th century. A a scholar in England lamented something which in these days of social media has become so much worse. It says, I quote.
In this advertising age a man hardly needs to sound his own trumpet because there are so many who are already sounding it for him for payment.
The essence of false righteousness is virtue signalling, that’s the point of these opening verses, So let me repeat it, wrong righteousness, false righteousness, fake righteousness is doing things maybe even good and right things with the wrong motives and the main wrong motive is to be seen by others.
Alright if that’s the case, what is the right way to do this or what’s right righteousness or real righteousness, but I am sure you can anticipate that; s what I’m going to be talking about next…. But we will look at that next time.
[i] Essay – The Two Types of Hypocrites (www.pursuegod.org)