Matthew 6:1-18 Don't show off for others

We're continuing on in Matthew. We've been looking through the gospel together. The first in the series is here, and the last is here for anyone following along.

Here's our passage:

Matthew 6:1-18 wrote:

6 “Beware of practising your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 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. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11
Give us this day our daily bread,
12
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

In this section Jesus is moving away from the previous structure, which is it was said in the law that we should do this, I say this to you instead.

Jesus is moving from commenting about how we can exceed what was given in the law, and is moving to how we can exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees and the scribes (5:20) in terms of our heart attitudes.

Our passage is divided into three and there's a repeated theme, don't show off for others, do what you are doing in secret and your Father will see. So let's look at it in the three sections.

Don't show off when you give (6:1-4)
Attention from others is less important than our actions being rewarded by our Father (verse 1). The Christian life shouldn't be about people paying attention to us. When we give there should be no fanfare (verse 2) as the hypocrites do in order to be praised by others. That is their reward.

A key question this section and the whole passage raises is who are we doing this for? Are we doing this for God or for other people? If it is for God then do it for God and do it quietly so that He alone can reward us (verse 4).

Don't show off when you pray (6:5-15)
The structure of this passage is almost like a sandwich. Matthew is devoting more space for Jesus' comments on prayer which signifies its importance. The same structure is repeated at the start of our passage. The hypocrites love to be seen praying (verse 5), but who is prayer for or indeed to? If we like to be seen by others it is more than likely for others rather than for God. We should pray in secret to our heavenly Father (verse 6). Don't heap up lots of words to look more religious either. That doesn't mean that God is more likely to hear because He knows what we need in advance anyway (verse 7).
This passage is also interesting because it is the only passage (along with the parallel Sermon of the Plain in Luke's gospel) where we see Jesus teach us how to pray. Indeed we only see the content of Jesus' prayers two times in the gospels. The other is in John. So this is a useful learning opportunity for us.

At the start we see that Jesus teaches us to pray in adoration to God's majesty and His Kingdom and that His will would be done on earth.
We see Jesus fostering dependence by asking our Father for what we need. Our daily bread, but also forgiveness for our sins.

Note that this prayer comes with a warning in respect to forgiveness (verse 12). If we do not forgive others we will not be forgiven by God. Jesus anticipates that we will need forgiveness as much as we need our daily bread in the morning. This sets up the tension between Jesus demanding our obedience, and the anticipation that we will fall short.

Don't show off when you fast (6:16-18)
The passage also has more to say about fasting after the meat of the sandwich structure. Jesus notes that people fast in order to be noticed also. We see that they disfigure themselves to get noticed (verse 16). The notice from others is their reward. Instead we should continue looking as normal, not drawing attention to ourselves, but drawing our attention to God. The Christian life is about drawing attention to God, not drawing attention to ourselves. We saw this earlier in Matthew when He was speaking that we should be the salt of the earth, and the light of the earth (5:13-16).

Some thoughts for prayer:
Father, thank you for showing us that our devotions should be towards you. Please forgive us when we become more interested in what others think of us. Father, please help us to pray in adoration to you, please help us to come to you for what we need and please help us to be forgiving to others as you forgive us.

As always, please respond with some thoughts underneath.