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. Chapter 6 turns from the content of kingdom righteousness (chapter 5's antitheses) to the motive from which it is practiced. The same actions — giving, praying, fasting — can be performed either for the audience of the Father or for the audience of other people. The beware communicates that the danger is not obvious: the acts themselves are identical; the difference is entirely internal. John 12:43 describes people who loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God — the human-approval motive infects the whole range of religious practice without the external observer being able to detect it.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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