Mind Your Motives!--Sermon on the Mount Series

            The ABC Network has been airing a show for the last few years called “Secret Millionaire.” In each episode, a self-made millionaire goes undercover in a needy area by hiding the fact that he or she is fabulously wealthy. After getting to know to some of the people and the organizations that are trying to help them, the millionaire gets to spring the surprise at the end that he or she is in fact very wealthy and would like to give them a financial gift.

            I’ve watched a few episodes of the show, and it is very heart-warming to see the gratitude of the people who receive those gifts. But the set-up does make you ponder the real motivations of the “secret millionaire.” Are they really “just there to help,” or is there more to it than that?

            A show like that causes us to think about how murky our motives can be when we give to those who are in need. This is a good time to talk about our motives for giving, because in the next two months, every charity that knows you’re alive will be making some kind of effort to reach out to you!

            Perhaps its divine timing, then, that we come to a passage in The Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus discusses the proper motives for giving to the needy. What is it that drives us to give to those in need? Do we give only when our name will appear on a banquet program as a “gold partner,” or are we driven by other motivations?

            As we move into Matthew 6, we also move into a different section of The Sermon on the Mount. Remember that Jesus’ main goal in this sermon is to move the people from following the Pharisees as their religious leaders to following Him. In the latter half of Matthew 5, Jesus had been criticizing aspects of the Pharisees’ teaching which had distorted God’s standards. Now in the first part of chapter 6, He is going to criticize aspects of the Pharisees’ behavior—specifically, the way that they carried out their religious acts. Let’s read Matthew 6:1-4, then we’ll take a closer look at Jesus’ message [READ 6:1-4].

The Warning: Mind Your Motives!

            The Lord begins this chapter with a warning that addresses everything through v. 18, and His warning is for us to mind our motives. He says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.” Its that last phrase that mentions the improper motive—we are not to perform our religious acts with a desire for other people to notice us performing religious acts.

            Now I mentioned a few weeks ago that this warning initially may not seem to fit with the command in 5:16 to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” As I pointed out when we studied that passage, Jesus is not talking about the same kind of activities in 5:16 as He about to address in chapter 6.

            In this chapter, Jesus will deal with activities that every Jewish person at that time would have thought of as religious activities—giving to the needy, praying, and fasting. In today’s world, the equivalent might be attending church, praying, and reading the Bible. If anyone in our society saw you doing those things, they would think of them as religious activities.

            But in 5:16, Jesus was referring to actions that people wouldn’t automatically think of as religious activities, such as meeting practical needs for people around you. If we’re helping the sick or protecting the vulnerable, we can freely let it be known that we are doing those things out of obedience to Christ, but as far as actions that are obviously religious, we don’t need to play those up to get other people to notice us. In fact, it is better if we just do them quietly.

            So if you’re helping an elderly neighbor with some yard work, you can let them know that you want to share Christ’s love through what you’re doing. But when you come to church on Sunday morning, you don’t need to honk your horn as you go down the road and wave your Bible out the window. And of course, in everything that we do, there is the question of our motive, as Jesus warns us here.

            So He warns us to mind our motives, but the reason He gives for doing so may surprise you. He doesn’t say, “Mind your motives because its just the right thing to do,” or “mind your motives because its your duty before God.” Instead, He appeals to our desire to be rewarded for our actions. Jesus states that if we do not properly mind our motives, “then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

            If you’re ever inclined to think that the whole idea of pursuing rewards from God sounds terribly selfish, then the next 18 verses might feel downright scandalous to you, because the only motivation that Jesus appeals to in this section is the motivation to receive rewards from God. But, since God does not tempt us to sin, according to James 1:13, then whatever Jesus encourages us to do cannot be sinful. Thus, the desire to be rewarded by God for our actions cannot be sinful.

            This desire actually drives us away from sin because we have to obedient in order to gain the rewards. We have to embrace God’s values in order to receive rewards from God, which will point us away from sinful behavior and toward godly behavior. All in all, the desire to be rewarded by God is a powerful motivation for good and another reminder of God’s grace. God doesn’t have to reward us at all, but He chooses to, which gives us simply one more reason to serve Him with all our might.

So the question that Jesus challenges us with is this…

What Kind of Reward Do You Want to Receive?

            a. To receive a temporary reward, make a big show out of your giving.

            If your motive is to receive a temporary reward like praise from other people, then by all means, draw lots of attention to yourself when you give. Don’t give a penny unless your name is slapped on a building somewhere; create a TV show to broadcast your giving; walk into church on Sunday morning and ask the usher, “Will your church accept large bills?” Make a big production out of it to get all the praise you can, because according to Jesus, that is all the reward you will ever get.

            The Lord mentioned some pretenders in His day who sought to bring attention to their giving. In v. 2, He says, “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.” That word “hypocrites” came into English directly from Greek; it is simply the Greek word ὑποκριτής. That was the term for an actor in ancient Greece; if you were an actor by profession, you were called a ὑποκριτής. There wasn’t a negative connotation to the word until Jesus began to use it metaphorically to refer to people like this—people whose supposed concern for the poor was nothing but an act. They simply wanted to be praised by other people, and in that culture at that time, giving to the poor was a way to get that praise. If there had been a better way, they probably would have done that instead.

            Jesus closes v. 2 by saying, “Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.” The New American Standard and the NIV are a little better here; they read, “they have their reward in full.” The Greek behind that phrase was a business term that was written on receipts to indicate “paid in full.” The debt was settled, the account was closed, and that’s exactly what Jesus is telling us. If our giving is simply an act, if our motive is to receive praise from others, then when we receive it, we have been paid in full. We had better enjoy that praise for all its worth, because we will receive nothing more from God.

But then Jesus gives us another option…

            b. To receive a lasting reward, be discreet about your giving.

            In vv. 3-4, the Lord states, “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. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” What a memorable picture Jesus paints—to give so quietly with your right hand that your left hand has to say, “Hey, what’s going on over there?” To give in this way reveals a proper motive that pleases God. You’re not giving simply to draw attention to yourself but rather to extend love to a person in need, and thus display the heart of Christ.

            And for that, Jesus states that our Heavenly Father will take note of what we have done and will reward us for it. The Lord may reward us in this life with resources from which we can continue to give. That is the point of 2 Corinthians 9:7-11—“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work…You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.” We might say this is God’s idea of compound interest! If God gets a good return of generosity from the money He entrusts to you, He may just keep entrusting money to you so that you can continue to be generous.        Notice what the true reward is—it’s the opportunity to continue serving God in a special way. And whether or not we receive any tangible reward in this life, we will certainly receive the reward of praise and honor from God in Heaven and the opportunity to serve Him in a special way in that place. So long after this world is gone, long after the praise of men which other people coveted has died out, long after the curtain has closed on the actors, the ὑποκριτής of this life, your reward from God will remain. Is it not obvious which reward we should pursue?

            My friends, let us allow this offer to sink deeply into our hearts. God offers us eternal rewards for helping those around us who are in need. How can we help but turn our attention toward such an endeavor? For centuries after the church was born, the calling card of Christian people everywhere was compassion for the poor, the sick, and the dying. When unwanted infants were left to die of exposure in the Roman Empire, it was Christians who adopted them and who cried out against this practice. When the poor in the great cities lay dying because they could not afford physicians, it was Christians who personally took them in and cared for them. When plagues swept through the Empire, even though some emperors tried to make Christians the scapegoats for them, it was Christians who went out with no fear of death to care for the sick and bury the dead.

            Why do we find asylums for the mentally ill in our world today? Why do we find sanitary, livable conditions inside of prisons? Why do so many hospitals have names like St. Catherines and Via Christi? Why is the debate in our country today NOT about whether the sick should receive care but simply how to go about it? Its because of Christianity!

            In our country today, we have many government programs that are meant to help the needy, but we must ask ourselves—do we really think the task is complete? Is there nothing for the church to do? It is not hard to envision a day for our nation when those programs no longer exist, and if that happens, who will step into the gap? If history teaches us anything about the care of the needy, it teaches us that Christians will answer the call.

            The only question that remains is, “What part are you playing?” What part am I playing? Are you only playing a part? Does your heart only open to others when the lights are bright and the cameras are rolling and the live studio audience is there to applaud your every move?

            “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”—James 1:27.