Religious practices are meant to align ourselves with the heart of God and in doing so, make all of our relationships better, but Jesus saw that religious practices of his day were sometimes doing the opposite, that people were doing religion in order to promote themselves to seek honor and status. A pursuit of doing right by God and others can actually end up being this distorted self-congratulating type of practice that is very common in religious communities, he calls this the way of hypocrisy. Hypocrite is a Greek word spelled with English letters, “hypocrites” is the Greek word, but we say hypocrite. What Jesus means by hypocrite, is not what the English word has come to mean, the do as I say, not as I do mentality.
That is not what hypocrite means in the Bible, what Jesus means is somebody who does the right thing, but for the wrong motive and for the wrong reason. In Greek, hypocrites meant stage actor or pretender. You’re taking on a role to do a certain thing, but it’s not really who you are. Pretending is different than doing one thing and then the other and what Jesus is targeting is people, who are super generous to the poor, they pray a lot and they regularly do it. They don’t say they do it and then don’t do it, they do it, but they’re pretending, but their the only person who will ever know. We can do the right things for the wrong reasons and not even know it ourselves, that’s terrifying.
Matthew 6:1-8, practice your righteousness, but religious piety, which means acts of religious devotion like generosity of the poor, prayer, fasting. Be careful that you don’t do any of your righteous devotion to God in front of people, what Jesus means is, doing it in front of people, so that they see you doing these things. For the purpose of being seen by them, in other words, there’s some little part in your heart and mind where you’re feeling really self-congratulatory, it’s about motives, this is what this whole thing is about, it’s not about you should never be seen doing good things, it’s about watch your motives, because all of a sudden, what is supposed to be an expression of doing right by God, will be you climbing the ladder of public honor and public notoriety in the eyes of other people.
If that’s what you’re going for, to be viewed by other people as a devout religious person, guess what, you’ll get your reward, people will think that you’re a devout religious person, but your Father, who is in Heaven, you won’t have any reward, who knows your heart. If your doing right by God and other people, you should expect that there will be a benefit, doing right by God and others leads to life and blessing, which is abundance and good stuff. It is right to expect that, if you live by God’s wisdom, it will generate good and benefit in the world, for yourself and others and God will be pleased with that and loves to elevate those who use his gifts well.
Paul has no qualms talking about how he is building towards a reward, how he’s run the race and he expects that crown for finishing the race well. Paul saw God’s grace gift shown to him, as obligating him to respond and to be faithful to God, to do right by God and others and to expect a reward. Do good for good’s own sake and expect that you will receive honor and benefit from God, maybe not from others, but that honor and benefit from others shouldn’t matter, that’s actually what Jesus is getting at here. Reward is essentially recompense for work that you did, wages. So what Jesus is after here, is maybe that the wage that you’re after is recognition in my community for being the kind of person who does right by God and other people, if that’s what your after, you’ll get it.
If that’s what you give to the poor for and pray to make sure you’re seen praying, congratulations, people will view you as a righteous religious person, but God knows your heart and for Jesus, real righteousness, real doing right by God and others, means seeking to honor God and honor others for their own sake and knowing that kind of relationship generates benefit and value and goodness in the world and for me, that God will reward me. Jesus is teaching within a Jewish worldview, where God’s been more generous to us than we could possibly imagine, we do right by God as a way to show that he’s been gracious to me and I’m a part of the people of God, but be careful that you don’t do it be honored by other people, but do it as you seek to honor God and know that he will honor you in return.
Don’t store up treasures for yourself on the land, so what kind of reward are you expecting, it’s in the skies, which doesn’t mean you go get it after you die, the biblical hope is for Heaven and earth to be reunited. Your treasures are in the skies, it can’t ever be affected by the changing nature of history and of people and it’s in God’s hands, your treasure and reward is in God’s hands. The imagery for this is the blessings of Eden, blessings which is of participating in new Creation and healthy relationships, abundance. Treasure is a different word than reward in Greek, treasure is what you store up for yourself, so the hypocrite who prays in public, because they want to be seen by other people, they have already received their reward, the reward here is about honor and the question is, whose honor are you really after, are you looking to be honored by people, if so, then you’ll get that reward.
Your Father who sees what you do in private and nobody ever might know what you do, he will fully reward you. The reward is specifically about honor, your public standing in the community and your reputation is everything, the cultures you and I grew up in the USA, there is still an honor, shame element to every culture, but it’s different the way you and I experienced, it is really different, the rise of this cultural value, every Disney movie in the last 20 years, the champion of expressive individualism. It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks about you, your honor isn’t conditioned by what anybody else thinks about you. Your honor and identity are unique to you and go find it and discover it, there’s a positive, an important thing there, but that idea is totally foreign to Jesus’ time and place.
Going after receiving honor from the right person, is key to Jesus in his mind, he’s going after the honor that will be bestowed on him by his Father. Honor, it’s holding up somebody and saying this person’s way of being human is right and they should receive recognition. Jesus in his own way is expressing here is, there are lots of different ways of gaining honor and authority and influence in the world and there are some ways that ultimately will lead to dishonor and it’s a destructive way to live. It’s for God to affirm to look on your life and what you were all about and look on it and say, you imaged and reflected my character and purpose in a way that is true and faithful, way to go, keep doing that in the new Creation.
God has given us life in existence as a gift and then ask us to represent him, I’m going to try and do right by him and I’m looking for him to say at some point, you did a great job. That’s one part of the reward and then with the you did a great job, also comes along with it, go do more of it, I invite you to go do this thing, it’s a dense concept, which is why you can refer to it as reward or treasure, but the main thing is that doing right by other people, because you believe it’s a way of doing right by God and God will honor me and congratulate me and say, that was the right thing to do for the right reason, that’s a good thing to hope for in Jesus’ way of viewing.
That is not what hypocrite means in the Bible, what Jesus means is somebody who does the right thing, but for the wrong motive and for the wrong reason. In Greek, hypocrites meant stage actor or pretender. You’re taking on a role to do a certain thing, but it’s not really who you are. Pretending is different than doing one thing and then the other and what Jesus is targeting is people, who are super generous to the poor, they pray a lot and they regularly do it. They don’t say they do it and then don’t do it, they do it, but they’re pretending, but their the only person who will ever know. We can do the right things for the wrong reasons and not even know it ourselves, that’s terrifying.
Matthew 6:1-8, practice your righteousness, but religious piety, which means acts of religious devotion like generosity of the poor, prayer, fasting. Be careful that you don’t do any of your righteous devotion to God in front of people, what Jesus means is, doing it in front of people, so that they see you doing these things. For the purpose of being seen by them, in other words, there’s some little part in your heart and mind where you’re feeling really self-congratulatory, it’s about motives, this is what this whole thing is about, it’s not about you should never be seen doing good things, it’s about watch your motives, because all of a sudden, what is supposed to be an expression of doing right by God, will be you climbing the ladder of public honor and public notoriety in the eyes of other people.
If that’s what you’re going for, to be viewed by other people as a devout religious person, guess what, you’ll get your reward, people will think that you’re a devout religious person, but your Father, who is in Heaven, you won’t have any reward, who knows your heart. If your doing right by God and other people, you should expect that there will be a benefit, doing right by God and others leads to life and blessing, which is abundance and good stuff. It is right to expect that, if you live by God’s wisdom, it will generate good and benefit in the world, for yourself and others and God will be pleased with that and loves to elevate those who use his gifts well.
Paul has no qualms talking about how he is building towards a reward, how he’s run the race and he expects that crown for finishing the race well. Paul saw God’s grace gift shown to him, as obligating him to respond and to be faithful to God, to do right by God and others and to expect a reward. Do good for good’s own sake and expect that you will receive honor and benefit from God, maybe not from others, but that honor and benefit from others shouldn’t matter, that’s actually what Jesus is getting at here. Reward is essentially recompense for work that you did, wages. So what Jesus is after here, is maybe that the wage that you’re after is recognition in my community for being the kind of person who does right by God and other people, if that’s what your after, you’ll get it.
If that’s what you give to the poor for and pray to make sure you’re seen praying, congratulations, people will view you as a righteous religious person, but God knows your heart and for Jesus, real righteousness, real doing right by God and others, means seeking to honor God and honor others for their own sake and knowing that kind of relationship generates benefit and value and goodness in the world and for me, that God will reward me. Jesus is teaching within a Jewish worldview, where God’s been more generous to us than we could possibly imagine, we do right by God as a way to show that he’s been gracious to me and I’m a part of the people of God, but be careful that you don’t do it be honored by other people, but do it as you seek to honor God and know that he will honor you in return.
Don’t store up treasures for yourself on the land, so what kind of reward are you expecting, it’s in the skies, which doesn’t mean you go get it after you die, the biblical hope is for Heaven and earth to be reunited. Your treasures are in the skies, it can’t ever be affected by the changing nature of history and of people and it’s in God’s hands, your treasure and reward is in God’s hands. The imagery for this is the blessings of Eden, blessings which is of participating in new Creation and healthy relationships, abundance. Treasure is a different word than reward in Greek, treasure is what you store up for yourself, so the hypocrite who prays in public, because they want to be seen by other people, they have already received their reward, the reward here is about honor and the question is, whose honor are you really after, are you looking to be honored by people, if so, then you’ll get that reward.
Your Father who sees what you do in private and nobody ever might know what you do, he will fully reward you. The reward is specifically about honor, your public standing in the community and your reputation is everything, the cultures you and I grew up in the USA, there is still an honor, shame element to every culture, but it’s different the way you and I experienced, it is really different, the rise of this cultural value, every Disney movie in the last 20 years, the champion of expressive individualism. It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks about you, your honor isn’t conditioned by what anybody else thinks about you. Your honor and identity are unique to you and go find it and discover it, there’s a positive, an important thing there, but that idea is totally foreign to Jesus’ time and place.
Going after receiving honor from the right person, is key to Jesus in his mind, he’s going after the honor that will be bestowed on him by his Father. Honor, it’s holding up somebody and saying this person’s way of being human is right and they should receive recognition. Jesus in his own way is expressing here is, there are lots of different ways of gaining honor and authority and influence in the world and there are some ways that ultimately will lead to dishonor and it’s a destructive way to live. It’s for God to affirm to look on your life and what you were all about and look on it and say, you imaged and reflected my character and purpose in a way that is true and faithful, way to go, keep doing that in the new Creation.
God has given us life in existence as a gift and then ask us to represent him, I’m going to try and do right by him and I’m looking for him to say at some point, you did a great job. That’s one part of the reward and then with the you did a great job, also comes along with it, go do more of it, I invite you to go do this thing, it’s a dense concept, which is why you can refer to it as reward or treasure, but the main thing is that doing right by other people, because you believe it’s a way of doing right by God and God will honor me and congratulate me and say, that was the right thing to do for the right reason, that’s a good thing to hope for in Jesus’ way of viewing.