But thou, when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does;
Here Jesus warns against doing good deeds so that other people will watch. Giving to the needy is His first example, and one hand kept in the dark about the other raises the question of the whole passage: who is meant to see?
Jesus treats giving as a form of righteousness. One writer explains why it makes such a showy display:
Almsgiving is chosen to express what is "righteousness" toward men. So it is distinctly called, and indeed was by the Rabbis also. So we can see how the Lord, in correcting a righteousness done before men, takes this up as a most showy form of it... Giving costs the giver so little. Yet it meets needs so varied and so obvious, and it looks so much like kindness, that it seems like cynicism to question whether the spirit is there.
Jesus uses a picture that sounds impossible, and one writer draws out the comparison inside it:
Everyone is called to see how and where he may help. The Lord does not command the giving of alms. But if we do give alms, we should do it in secret and unnoticed. For this the Lord Jesus uses words that sound impossible for anyone: "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." If my left hand is not to know what my right hand does, how much less should my brothers and the people around me know it!
Both hands belong to one person, so the hiding starts inside. Writers press the point: the one to be shut out is not only the crowd but the giver.
It is not only from others but from ourselves that such doings should be hidden. Self is a subtler evil than men. The action of grace is defiled and becomes a poison to me and a dishonour to God when I think of it with satisfaction. If we did it rightly, it went to our Father for Him to remember, not us.
Another writer draws the same conclusion from the nature of faith, and adds that Jesus assumes the good works are there:
We are never called to display our good works, or even to be aware of them. The Lord's lesson about almsgiving is a perfect picture of the rule for all such things... He takes for granted that there will indeed be good works. True faith in Him will surely have its fruit. But faith is the very opposite of being taken up with self, and certainly of self-satisfaction.
The danger is not limited to frauds. One writer finds it in a good man — Job, who knew his own kindness only too well:
Here lay Job's failure. Satan's blows never touched it, nor the lack of sympathy from his friends, nor even their suspicion. He was a most gracious man, but he thought about it, instead of thinking only of God who worked in him... Part of the lesson was that his left hand should not know what his right hand did. On the contrary, right to the end of his appeal (Job 31), he knew it only too well. But everything changed when he stopped looking at the fruits of grace in himself. He saw God, in true faithfulness, drying up all self-satisfaction.
One writer answers by asking who gets the glory:
This is not contradicted by the earlier words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 5:16: "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." There He was speaking to His disciples. They were to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. If people saw their good works, they would glorify God, not men. In our paragraph in Matthew 6 the result is just the opposite.
Giving up human applause costs nothing in the end. One writer describes a second hiding place, beyond the closed door of verse 6:
Happy are those who are set free from mere appearances, and from the value that other people may put on their works. They value only the approval of Him who sees in secret. Their reward is certain, a reward that will not perish with man and his world, but will last for ever... There is a secret room we may enter and shut the door (verse 6). There is also a secret place in our souls where we hide the record of such gracious acts. Then none but the Father who sees in secret may know it and reward us openly.
- Secret giving: giving is a showy form of righteousness, so Jesus makes it His first test of a hidden life.
- Secret from men: if one hand does not know, the people around you need not know either. Give, and say nothing.
- Secret from self: the harder hiding is inward. Looking back on our own kindness with satisfaction spoils it.
- Secret and still shining: good works done for our own credit are the opposite of light that makes people glorify the Father.
- Secret and rewarded: the record we leave with the Father, not with ourselves, is the one that lasts for ever.
so that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father who sees in secret will render [it] to thee.
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