6

In the sight of God

Jesus' teaching on giving, prayer and fasting share a common theme. Jesus says that we shouldn't do any of these things in order to impress other people and that if we do the only reward we'll get is whatever we get from other people. God will not reward us if we've done it in order to make ourselves look good. But if we do these things quietly God will see it and reward us.

Wanting to impress others is a way of boosting our ego, or to put in in biblical language, nurturing our pride. Pride is increasingly thought of as a positive thing and it is a word often used in a way that is meant to be positive but it is the chief of sins. It is worshipping ourselves, making a idol of ourself. This gets in the way of worshipping the living God who alone is the one we should worship. This explains why as far as God is concerned it makes the good act worthless. Who gave us the possessions we so generously gave? Who gave us the mind and mouth with which we pray? Who gives us the strength and stamina to go through hardships like fasting? Ultimately it all comes from God so why do we seek the credit?

Jesus also uses the word "hypocrites". If we are doing things with the motivation of getting other people's approval, what if we could get their approval by foul means? What if we could steal the credit for someone else's work? What if we make it look like we do something we don't? If other people believe it, and we get their praise we'll be happy. This is the way of the hypocrite. But God sees everything. He knows how things really are, what we really did and didn't do and why.

Doing things for God helps motivate us to do them properly, earnestly and humbly. It also helps fortify us if having done good, other people don't see it, or worse, believe we did something bad we didn't do instead. If all we have is other people's approval or disapproval this can crush us. But we can remember that God is our witness and he knows the truth.