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Text: Matt. 6:3-4
“But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”
What is in your heart? What is it that motivates you to want to give or be generous to people? Is it for them to become indebted to you, so that you can manipulate them to do your bidding? Is it in order to receive praise and recognition from men? Or is it an act of service to God prompted by the love of Christ?
Society is apt to take notice whenever the wealthy establish a foundation for the sake of charitable giving. Such persons are lauded for their generosity and good works and good work in giving to those in need. More often than not these people seek this publicity in order to secure the praise of men and to advance one selfish ambition or the other.
The world pursues the accolades of men, but as God’s children we must not do the same. In fact if we practice generosity for the sake of obtaining the praise of men, Jesus says that we have no reward from our Father in heaven (Matt. 6: 1). Jesus warns clearly against drawing attention to ourselves when we give, not allowing our left hand to know what our right hand is doing when we give is a metaphoric way of explaining to us that our giving if possible should not even attract our own attention how much more the attention of others, His point is very clear which is: Do not give in order to receive praise from men. If our giving is motivated by love for God and is to be an act of service to God, then it must be done in private. I see some strange practice in some churches today where people are encouraged to show just how much they intend to give as offering when prayers are to be made on the offering. They do this to discourage people from raising up empty offering envelopes and also to discourage people from giving offering that they consider to be ridiculously low. Such churches may want to reconsider their approach to giving in the light of this scripture.
As Matthew Henry notes in his commentary, Jesus does not teach that it is always unlawful to give alms when men see us, sometime the only way we can help others is in front of other people. Just as under the old Covenant (Deut. 15: 11), Jesus assumes that we will give to the poor, and this must be done in the hope of a reward from God, and not from others (Matt. 6: 4b). Let us therefore do all we can to give our alms and offerings with the aim of caring so little for the praise of men that we are ourselves scarcely aware of our own generosity.
Keeping track of our giving is not inconsistent with the Lord’s admonition that we do not let our right hand know what the left one is doing. Yet we are not to keep track so that we may show others just how good or generous we are. As you give to the poor therefore what is your motivation? Is it the praise of men you desire or the commendation from God? Shalom
1. Thank you for your blessings upon me and upon the works of my hands which has placed me in the enviable position of being to give to others
2. Father please forgive me for those occasion when I gave either to the church or to individuals for selfish reasons
3. Father henceforth let my giving be motivated by a sense of gratitude to you and the love of Jesus in my heart in Jesus name
4. Father, please help me never to glory in my giving or to look down on those that I am privileged to give to in Jesus name.
5. Father in all my acts of generosity, please let me bring glory to you, so that my reward from you will not be lost in Jesus name.
Giving is something that is born, if we have the possibility to help do it, as long as it is not so that people praise you for your actions, it is not necessary to tell anyone what you did, the only one who should know is God in your communion with him.