Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Matthew 6:1-4 (NIV)
6 “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. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Last Sunday, when I taught on Jesus’ famous Parable of the Sheep and Goats (Matthew 25:31-46), I explained how important it was that the sheep didn’t know they were sheep. What this meant is that these were people who, when they fed the poor or visited the imprisoned, were not doing this in order to earn points with God. They did it because they had renewed hearts, which caused them to actually care about others. Jesus taught this principle in the middle of his Sermon on the Mount, saying ‘do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing’. This colorful phrase meant that when we serve God, we shouldn’t be thinking about how holy we are being. Instead, we should do good things for others without thinking about it, without needing to have anybody notice us. Pray for God to renew your heart so that you love others freely and spontaneously.