Take heed not to do your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward with your Father who is in the heavens.
Matthew 6 opens with a warning that changes the audience for everything a disciple does. The eye that matters is not the crowd's, but the Father's. Three questions follow. What is this "righteousness"? Why does display cancel the reward? And what about the earlier call to shine as light?
Older English versions read "alms" in this verse. Which word belongs here shapes the whole passage.
I take the liberty of altering the word "alms" into "righteousness" (v. 1), which a few of the very best authorities support. There are those that differ here as elsewhere, but at the same time internal and spiritual reasons confirm the external grounds. If you use the word "alms" in the first verse, is there not a mere repetition in the next verse? On the other hand, take the word as "righteousness" (so the margin), and all is plain. The context supports it. Notice how in the following verses our Lord divides righteousness into three distinct parts: first, almsgiving; next, prayer; then fasting.
So verse 1 works as a heading. The three examples that follow are not random. They cover the whole field of a life:
This principle then shows itself in three areas — toward others, toward God, and toward ourselves: almsgiving, prayer and fasting. Each of these is, of course, only an illustration of the principle. But divine wisdom chose each illustration, so each one must fit in a special way.
These words do not target obvious sinners. They target the religious performance of the most respected teachers of the day. They follow the Lord's demand that a disciple's righteousness must go beyond theirs.
In Matthew 6 the Lord sets His disciples before the Father in acts of kindness and in devotion. They were to do it all before Him who knows the heart. How completely His words must have swept the ground from under the recognised teachers of the day! He had said, "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (5:20). The body of chapter 5 showed the hollowness of their teaching; what comes out in chapter 6 exposes their practice.
An objection comes up. The hungry are fed whether or not anyone watched. But the verse does not measure the outcome of the deed.
But one might say, "If someone does good to others the results will remain, even if everybody sees it!" Nobody can deny this, but it is not in question here at all. The Lord Jesus speaks of men who pretend to do something for God. In reality they look for recognition and glory from men as their reward for their alms. So the Lord Jesus says that if men admire them for it, they do have their reward. They shall not receive any reward from God. God does not primarily honour the results — even if they are most blessed — but the motives of our actions. He so much desires our love for Him (and for our needy fellow-men) to be the motive for our deeds.
Kelly puts the same point as a question about dignity: display in almsgiving is treated as a kind of acting.
He lays the utmost stress on the manner and the motive with which the act is done. Display in the doing of alms He compares to sounding a trumpet before the doer... Can anything be conceived baser than a son of God playing a part to win the notice and approval of men?
Those who win the praise of men already have their reward in full. The word "have" carries a force the English hides:
"Have" is compounded with a preposition, which gives it the force of having all they have to expect; they have the whole of it already... This is very solemn. It teaches that if we are tempted to seek the admiration, the honour, or the praise of men, we may be allowed to gain it. But then we have nothing more to expect, since we cannot then have God's favour and blessing.
The alternative is not a smaller reward but a later one.
Their reward is the approval and praise of their fellow men. This they have. It is all in the present, and there is nothing more to come. The one who gives or prays or fasts unknown to men but known to God will receive his reward openly in the day to come.
Earlier in the same sermon the Lord called His disciples the light of the world. The two passages aim at opposite results.
There He was speaking to His disciples who ought to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. If their good works were seen, God would be glorified by them, and not men. In our paragraph in Matthew 6 the result is just the reverse.
- Righteousness — Verse 1 is the heading. Almsgiving, prayer and fasting are its three branches: others, God, ourselves.
- Audience — The question is not who sees the good deed. It is who it is done for — men, or the Father.
- Motive — God does not primarily honour results, however good, but the motive behind the act.
- Reward — Praise from men is a reward paid in full on the spot; nothing more is coming.
- Light — Disciples are still the light of the world. When good works show, God gets the glory, not the doer.
When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may have glory from men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Jesus has just warned against doing righteousness to be seen; His first test case is giving to the needy, announced with a trumpet blast. The question is not what a person gives but why — and what he keeps when applause is the aim.
The word translated "alms" carries more weight than a coin dropped in a beggar's cup. One writer traces it back to the word for mercy, and points to two examples of alms in Scripture:
The word "alms" comes from the biblical-Greek word eleemosyne. That word comes from the word for "mercy." The New Testament uses it only to mean a good deed or a deed of mercy. In Scripture it never has the lesser meaning of a small gift to a beggar as it has in today's language. Scripture mentions Dorcas' alms-deeds along with her good works (Acts 9:36). And the many alms which the Roman officer Cornelius gave to the poor of the Jews came up as a memorial before God (Acts 10:2, 4).
Jesus places this giving under "righteousness," which strips away any idea that generosity is a bonus:
Here the Lord Himself classes alms-giving as a form of righteousness. That is a significant witness to us. Mercy is not something extra; the ministry of love is itself a debt — a due. A man who withholds from another what he could give him for his need is not even righteous. This also removes the thought of merit from the mercy shown.
The trumpet gives the giver away. It shows he wanted an audience:
If their hearts had been right they would not have drawn attention to what they did. That is what "sounding a trumpet" before them means. It is a fatal thing to seek glory from men.
Notice where the trumpet sounds — in the place of worship and out on the street:
He puts the greatest stress on the manner and the motive behind the act. He compares showing off in giving to sounding a trumpet in front of the giver. He condemns it as what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets — inside and outside, wherever people meet and pass. Can anything be lower than a son of God playing a part to win the notice and approval of men?
Jesus does not call these givers proud or vain. He picks a harder word:
Those who sound a trumpet before them (v. 2) to get glory from men — the Lord Jesus calls them hypocrites. This is a severe word. It shows how detestable such insincerity is.
They did get paid. That is the sting:
Three times over the Lord says of the mere formalist, "They have received their reward." Their reward is the approval and praise of the people around them. This they have. It is all in the present, and there is nothing more to come. The one who gives or prays or fasts unknown to men but known to God will have an open reward in the day to come.
But look at what is missing from that payment:
It is possible to make a great religious profession with the object of gaining the applause of men. Of such the Lord can say, "They have received their reward." But it is not Christ's reward. It is a reward without Christ, for the Lord says, "My reward is with Me." To enjoy Christ's reward we must wait for Christ's return.
Someone may object: the hungry person eats either way, so why does publicity spoil the gift?
Nobody can deny that, but that is not what is in question here at all. The Lord Jesus speaks of men who pretend to do something for God. In reality they look for recognition and glory from men, as their reward, for their alms... God does not honour the results first — even if they are most blessed — but the motives of our actions.
- Debt, not bonus. Jesus classes giving to the needy as righteousness. Mercy is owed, so it leaves no room for merit.
- Trumpet. The blast exposes the heart. A right heart "would not have drawn attention to what they did."
- Hypocrite. A severe word for a son of God "playing a part to win the notice and approval of men."
- Paid in full. The applause is the wage — "it is all in the present, and there is nothing more to come."
- Reward without Christ. The tragedy is not that they got nothing. What they got has no Christ in it. His reward waits for His return.