Motives determine rewards

Every one of us have experienced situations where someone was doing something that looked a certain way at one level, but we knew their real motives for doing it were for a completely different reason. And, if we’re honest about it, we will admit that we have all done the same thing ourselves – leading someone to think we were doing something for one reason when in fact it was for a very different, and often selfish reason. Although we would like to believe this kind of behavior did not exist in the church, the fact is it does. In Matthew 6 Jesus speaks addresses this very subject of veiled motives, and shows us a powerful truth about God’s view of them. Jesus begins this passage in the first verse with this statement:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them otherwise you have no reward with your father who is in heaven.”

As Christians we really need to let this verse settle into our hearts. It may help to think of it like a mathematical equation – it would read like this:

Doing something to be noticed by men = no reward from God.

Jesus then gave several examples of this principle in action. In verse 2 he referred to certain people who sounded a trumpet when they gave alms in order to get everyone’s attention. Jesus said that people who gave like this “have their reward in full” because their reward was the honor of men that they were seeking. None of us are so obvious as to literally sound a trumpet to get people’s attention, but it is not at all uncommon for people who give large amounts to want others to know about it – and Jesus made it clear that the only reward for this type of giving will be the praise of men. He also made it clear in verse 4 that it is when we give “in secret” without letting anyone know about that the father will reward us.

In verse 5 Jesus used prayer as an illustration, saying that those who pray to be seen or heard by men have their reward in full – meaning their only reward is the praise of men. If you have been in Christian circles for any length of time then you have probably heard people pray like this, and you know that it really is disgusting. Obviously it’s a lot easier to give into the temptation to do this when we are praying in a group, and we know others are watching and listening to us. For this reason Jesus taught his disciples to pray “in secret” and assured us that our father who sees what is done “in secret” would reward us.

In verse 16 Jesus used fasting as another illustration of this principle, saying that there are people who, when they are fasting, find ways to make it obvious so that other people will know they are fasting. As in the previous illustrations, Jesus says that people who fast in this way have their reward in full – meaning their only reward is the recognition of men. And he again admonishes us to fast “in secret” by keeping our appearance up.

The important truth Jesus teaches us in these passages is that if the real reason we do certain acts of righteousness is for the recognition or approval of men, then that is the only reward we will get from those acts, whether it is giving, praying, fasting, preaching sermons, writing books, or just helping others. The bottom line is that God knows our motives for doing the things we do, and these verses teach us that he will reward us not just by what we do, but by our motives.