But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Matthew 6:3-4
“The left hand of the spirit is material greed, the right hand of the spirit is spiritual love. So if, when you give alms, you mix in some greed for temporal advantages, hoping to gain some such thing from that good work, you are mixing the left hand’s knowledge with the right hand’s works. But if you come to a person’s help out of simple charity and with a pure conscience before God, with an eye on nothing else but to please the one who enjoins such acts, then your left hand does not know what your right is doing.”
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) in Sermon 149.15 “On Four Questions: First on Peter’s Vision in Acts 10 and then on Three Questions Arising from the Sermon on the Mount” in Essential Sermons, translated by Edmund Hill, edited by Daniel Doyle (New York: New City Press, 2007) 214.
If I could recommend only one book of sermons from the early church fathers, it would be this book. Each sermon provides priceless perspective on texts, and many of them bring social and cultural realities from antiquity into view that are difficult for us to understand as we read the Bible in modernity.
For example, consider today’s Scripture which references the right and left hand. In the Middle East in both biblical times and present day perceptions, the left hand is viewed as devilish or dirty while the right hand is thought of as clean for eating and greeting. So what might Jesus be saying that we may be missing?
Augustine suggests that our giving must be pure and free from any dirty motives. Undoubtedly, if we look at literary and inscription evidence, the top impure motive linked to giving was “love of glory” or recognition. So, the idea of not letting your left hand know about your giving is to avoid giving selfishly to gain glory.
As you give alms this Lent, do it in secret with pure motives with your right hand! What do I mean? Do it in a manner that avoids recognition or acclaim for you in public, but instead, in a manner that is private, because you are really giving before God and to God. He sees and will reward you.
This morning I fly to Orlando, Florida, to see my parents and my brother’s family for a few days to observe my father’s 80th birthday and then to speak at a conference. I’d appreciate your prayers for safe and uneventful travel, continued good health, and Spirit-filled teaching to receptive hearts. Thanks.