Word of Salvation – Vol. 22 No.46 – August 1976

 

The Object Of Piety

 

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma, Th. Grad on Matt.6:1-4

Scripture Reading: Matt.6:1-18

Psalter Hymnal: 183; 392; 226; 490

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Till we understand the heart of a matter there are often aspects which seem to be contradictory.

So it is with the things which our Lord teaches us in the Sermon on the Mount.

If we compare the first verse of our text, “Be careful that you do not do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them”, with the sixteenth verse of chapter 5, “Let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven”, then on the surface at least there may appear to be a conflict between these two statements of Jesus.

And taken by themselves it is not surprising that in the history of the church there have been those who have opted for one text or the other.  There have been and are people who have by all means tried to make sure that their deeds will be seen by men.  While others have gone out of their way to withdraw themselves from society, to live and work in the seclusion of a monastery or other secret spot.

That Jesus might be speaking of two different aspects of the one matter is all too easily overlooked.  In chapter 6 our Lord is speaking about living our Christian life in the world.  In the verses 1-18 special attention is given to acts of righteousness.

The first verse sums up the GENERAL PRINCIPLE.  This is followed by three examples of what this principle means in practice in the areas of almsgiving, prayer and fasting.

Let us first then give attention to the general principle which is, that we should NOT do our acts of righteousness, our godly deeds, TO BE SEEN BY MEN.  (The King James Version has ‘alms’ but that is more specifically dealt with in verses 2-4.  The better reading in verse 1 is ‘acts of righteousness’, i.e. deeds which are the result of a right relationship with God).  We are not to do them to be seen by men.  For, said Jesus, if you do you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  Now, Jesus did NOT say that we should not do righteous acts at all.  Nor did He say that if we did them we should make sure that no one sees us doing them.

What He DID say is that we must not do them for the PURPOSE of being seen by men.

Positively, what our Lord is saying here is that we should do them – we should do our acts of piety, our godly exercises, our deeds of trust and obedience – to PLEASE GOD.  We should do them out of love for and in obedience to God.  THAT IS THE HEART OF THE MATTER.  That’s the purpose we should have in doing them; to express our love to God.  And that purpose is completely different from that of doing them to be seen by men.  For if we are doing our pious deeds to be seen by men, we are drawing attention to ourselves.

Yes to ourselves.

For what Jesus shows us is that the choice is not so much between God and men as between God and SELF.

If we do good works to be seen by men the real reason for doing them is that people might take notice of us.  They might honour us by saying something like, “Look at this particular Christian, how good he is.”  That of course, is the subtle temptation which is always lurking about.  Somehow we are very much inclined to seek our own glory, the praise of men.  Whereas our Lord teaches us to deny ourselves and seek the glory of God.  THE OBJECT OF OUR PIETY MUST BE GOD HIMSELF.  That is what our Lord is stressing in this chapter which someone has called the most painful in Scripture.  Because none of us escapes a reprimand, a telling off.  None of us is yet so completely dedicated to pleasing God, so self-denying that we do nothing from vanity.  All of us have done things to draw attention to ourselves, and are constantly doing it.

How is it, otherwise, that the church can go downhill as far as its piety is concerned?  Is it not because we are generally inclined to take far more notice of the opinions of men than of the Word and glory of God?  When men no longer praise certain doctrines and activities; when men no longer frown on false ideas and worldly activities, then many church people just go wild, they do not care anymore.  They played only to men and men are now calling a different tune.

If we really seek to please God then the customs and opinions of men will not greatly affect us.  Even if the whole world would turn against us, like it turned against Jesus, we would still, like Jesus, persist in doing our task to please God.

Whom do we take more notice of, God or men?

If we do things to be praised by men we will have no reward from our Father in heaven.

It is not wrong to seek recognition for our labours.  But to whom do we look for our reward?  Jesus said it must be to God it must be His, “well done good and faithful servant”.  When that is our reward it means our activities have been to God’s honour and according to His will.

If we however, look for the praise of men, that is all we will get.  The praise of men.

God certainly can’t approve of those things by which we draw more attention to ourself than to Him.  This is underlined in the first example of what this principle means in practice.

To give to the needy is a command of God.  In itself it is a good thing which Christians ought to practise.  But what have proud and selfish people done?  They have made a show of Charity.  They blow their own trumpet while humiliating the needy.

Instead of caring in love for the poor and concentrating on helping them, proud hypocrites have made a practice of drawing attention to themselves.  “Look at our generosity!”  Some Bible students think that trumpets may have been used to call the needy out of their houses to the street corners where the handouts were given.  We cannot be sure about this.  Not that it matters very much.  The practice is not foreign to us.

How many there are who give to the needy and have reporters and photographers at hand to record their generosity.  They have their reward!

And if that is too bold for some, they have their own way of letting others know the ‘good’ they have done, even if they say something along the lines: – of course I don’t mean to say how good I am.  By which they only emphasise what they really want to make known.  Jesus goes to the heart of the matter again when he says, when you give to the needy don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.

We should not see this as a law but as an illustration of the principle that we should do all things to please God only.  In other words, we should not draw attention of others to our acts of charity.  But going even further, we must not even praise ourselves.  We should not keep track of our good deeds.  We should not keep a record.  God will keep the records.  We should deny ourselves.  We should not concern ourselves with our merits or good marks.  Genuine love does not think about self.  We should have such a love for God that we have no time to think of ourselves.

We shall never get rid of self by concentrating on self.  The only hope is to be so consumed by love that we have no time to think about ourselves.  So occupied in and concentrating on pleasing God under whose loving and watchful eyes we live every moment of our life, that we have no self-consciousness.  So full of love for the neighbour that we don’t worry about what others might say of what we do.

The question therefore is,
Do we do things because men expect them of us
or
do we do them because we are convinced
that this is what God wants us to do?

Perhaps we should put it stronger still:
Do we do them because we feel we HAVE to
or
because our heart is so full of the love of God
and so full of concern for our neighbour
that we could not do anything else.

Just a little illustration:
A man sees a child drowning.
Does such a man tell himself:  people will expect me to rescue this child
or
will that man, out of concern for the child just dive into the water and haul it out?

Does he act by thinking of himself or act according to the need of his neighbour?

When our Lord spoke of the judgement day when the books will be opened, he said that the faithful will be surprised to be told that they had fed and clothed and visited Him.

They did not remember.  They had not done it to draw attention to themselves.  They had simply acted on the needs of the hungry, the naked and lonely.

Forgetting themselves they had acted in the Spirit of Christ who out of love for God and for helpless sinners gave Himself completely even to the extent of death on the Cross.

It is the self-denying, this God-pleasing work, which God richly rewards when He says:
“Well done, good and faithful servant
Enter into the Joy of your Lord.”

Amen.