“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven”. . .”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 5:16; 6:1
“First notice the caution which is thus enforced by our blessed Lord. “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be
seen of them.” In the previous part of this matchless discourse, you will see that our Lord Jesus Christ gave an exhortation that appears at first sight to contravene the words of our text, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works,” whereas in the text He says, “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them.”
I say there appears to be here at first sight something like a discrepancy or contradiction; but if we dig below the surface, and examine the subject carefully, we shall see that there is no discrepancy, but the most beautiful harmony. Our Lord says, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify, not you, but glorify your Father which is in heaven.” In our text he says, “Take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them.”
What a striking antithesis there is between the two exhortations employed by our blessed Lord. The one do their good works to bring glory to God; the other do their seemingly good works to have glory from men. The exhortation and caution of our blessed Savior intimate to us this very important truth, that there is a danger in every case of our simply resting in the duty done; we may idolize the outward form, while at the same time we entirely ignore or overlook the spirit of an action.
Our Lord’s references to prayer and fasting as well as to almsgiving in this chapter, illustrate what I mean. It is quite possible we may perform all necessary duties, and yet those duties maybe marred for want of sincerity. Just as there are some insects that will imbibe poison from the sweetest flowers, so depraved, unrenewed man will derive no profit from such false acts, but on the contrary will increase his own condemnation, even while in the enjoyment of the richest means of grace.”
James Bardsley in “The Motives of Giving” as located in Money and it’s Responsibilities: A Course of Sermons on Giving for Religious and Charitable Purposes, 8-9.
Praise God! The stewardship and standards event activated a working group to draft standards and form a peer accountability group like ECFA in USA for Bangladesh.
Today we do a Stations of Generosity training. This training aims, in the words of Bardsley, to “dig below the surface” to encourage generosity flowing from joy-filled hearts.
I appreciate how Bardsley urges us to notice the caution we must take. We must light shine in a way that people see our good works and glorify God but not have the motive of seeking any glory ourselves.
I must admit, though I am half-way around the world from home, this post takes me back to the days of raising our children and playing “The Generosity Game” together.
It’s basically a kingdom-minded version of the game of LIFE that celebrates generosity rather than worldly accumulation of wealth. But there’s a twist in the game we always appreciated.
Every chance you got to make a gift, you had to draw a card to “check your motives” and only if your “attitude is right” do your treasures get stored up. That draw happened after you played.
So the twist was that you could make a large gift, but it the attitude card said your attitude was bad, that money was gone and nothing went into your eternal account.
So whether we do the fun “Stations of Generosity” or play “The Generosity Game” we move beyond the gifts to the motives behind them because that’s what matters to God. He sees our hearts.
How’s your heart today? What motivates your giving?