“That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.”
Matthew 6:4 — Greek Interlinear
Church Fathers on Matthew 6:4
Above the Lord had spoken of righteousness in general. He now pursues it through its different parts.
He opposes three chief virtues, alms, prayer, and fasting, to three evil things against which the Lord undertook the war of temptation. For He fought for us in the wilderness against gluttony; against covetousness on the mount; against false glory on the temple. It is alms that scatter abroad against covetousness which heaps up; fasting against gluttony which is its contrary; prayer against false glory, seeing that all other evil things come out of evil, this alone comes out…
He who sounds a trumpet before him when he does alms is a hypocrite. Whence he adds, 'as the hypocrites do.'