A GENEROUS HEART

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 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. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  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.”  (Matthew 6:1-4 NIV)

Jesus obviously expected His disciples to be generous givers. His words condemn the “selfish stinginess of many,” as one author put it.

Generosity is not enough, however. Our Lord is concerned throughout this Sermon on the Mount with motivation, with the hidden thoughts of the heart. In His exposition of the sixth and seventh commandments He indicated that both murder and adultery can be committed in our heart, unwarranted anger being a kind of heart-murder and lustful looks a kind of heart-adultery. In the matter of giving He has the same concern about secret thoughts. The question is not so much what the hand is doing (handing over some cash or a check) but what the heart is thinking while the hand is doing it. There are three possibilities. Either we are seeking the praise of men, or we preserve our anonymity but are quietly congratulating ourselves, or we are desirous of the approval of our divine Father alone. 

– Adapted from John R. W. Stott in “The Message of the Sermon on the Mount”

#5363