““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.”
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.
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Matthew 6:1
““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.”
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.
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.