How Matthew 6 Can Help Us Think about the Things We Do (and How We Do Them)

The world is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny God. As such, we need thinking Christian to become as natural as breathing. Welcome to the Thinking Christian Podcast. I'm Dr. James Spencer. Through calm, thoughtful, theological discussions, Thinking Christian highlights the ways God is working in the world and questions the underlying social, cultural, and political assumptions that hinder Christians from becoming more like Christ. Now, on to today's episode of Thinking Christian. Hey, everyone. Welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian. I'm Dr. James Spencer, and today is our weekly devotional. We're going to be looking at a portion of Matthew 6. Matthew 6 has become something that I've looked to as a framework or a pattern for thinking about the way that we should engage in certain practices in the world. In Matthew 6, what we're going to see is that Jesus addresses prayer and fasting and giving, but I think that this passage has some bearing in some way that it helps us understand how Christians should engage in a variety of different practices within the world today. I just finished up a bonus episode this past Friday on the Surgeon General's encouragement that social media come with a warning label similar to what you might find on a package of cigarettes. And so we have a new technological environment that we are learning to navigate and trying to understand how not just to reject all these technological tools that we have before us, including what we're doing here on this podcast and recording over the internet and distributing over the internet, can be actually really powerful and helpful, but they can also be quite detrimental if used in the wrong way. They can form and shape us into something other than the image of Christ. And so what we need to do is figure out how as Christians do we navigate this new technological environment such that we are doing it in a way that glorifies, or as I like to say, points to and glorifies the triune God. So as I look at Matthew 6, that's what I think Matthew 6 sort of offers us in some generalized form. It gives us a pattern for understanding that when there isn't a specific prohibition of a particular practice, and we all know that there are those specific prohibitions, you know, Christians should not, for instance, murder. That's sort of out of bounds for us. There are going to be practices that are incommensurate with what it means to imitate Christ and to be a disciple of Christ. And so we've got to, we stay away from those. But then there's this whole other realm of how do we go about getting along in the world? What does it look like for Christians to be distinct and to offer an alternative lifestyle to really showcase an alternative lifestyle that is informed by our relationship to Christ and ultimately drives us to point to and magnify the triune God. And so as we study Matthew 6, that's sort of where I want us to go and where I want us to be thinking. So I'm going to read certain portions of this, and then we're going to go through it sort of step-by-step and just think through what sort of pattern emerges here. Now, Jesus is going to, he's walking along with his disciples, and he's going to be teaching them about what he's doing, what he's looking at. And so there's a couple of things to understand. First, when Jesus is walking with his disciples, he's not simply talking with his disciples. He's also teaching his disciples. And so here's the way Matthew 6 starts. 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. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Now that's really interesting in my mind because one thing that's happening here is that God is, or not God, Jesus is looking out at the world, and he's saying, giving is important. He's not telling his disciples, don't give. He's going to address prayer and fasting here in a bit, and he's not going to tell them not to pray, and he's not going to tell them not to fast. What he's going to do is he's going to say, look at the way these people are giving. Don't give like that. Give like this. And so he doesn't deny the practice. He doesn't prohibit the practice. He doesn't encourage the disciples not to give to the poor. But what he's going to ask them is to give to the poor in a particular way, and it's a way that is in line with who God is, how God works, and what the disciples should really be thinking about as they give. So let's analyze this just a little bit. First, Jesus is going to say that the hypocrites give in the synagogues and in the streets so that they may be praised by others. In other words, their giving isn't necessarily, let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility, and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up, and many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian-owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free Retirement Defense Guide or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. simply motivated by a desire to help the poor. And I say simply motivated because I think that there could be mixed motives involved here, but ultimately what Jesus is pointing to is that what they're really trying to do is that they would be praised by others. In other words, they want their giving to be recognized by the society in which they live. They want to be recognized as pious, and they want this gift that they're giving to the poor to be credited to their account. They're essentially exchanging a good. We can think of it like commerce. And so they are purchasing the goodwill of people around them. They are purchasing the respect of people around them. They're purchasing the praise of people around them as they give. And Jesus doesn't want his disciples to do that. He does not want them to be giving so that they can demonstrate their piety or so that other people will see what they're doing and say, oh, those disciples are wonderful human beings. Now that may be a byproduct of what happens when we give. It may be a byproduct of generosity. And yet Jesus does not want us to aim for that. He does not want that to be the motivation for our giving. Instead, what he says is this, truly, truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. In other words, God is not going to give them any more. If they wanted praise, they have it. And that's what they're going to get. And he counsels his disciples to say, but when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Now, this is a way of saying, don't flaunt it out in public. Don't, you know, wear the button on your shirt that says I gave today kind of idea. Don't, don't put yourself out there in the public eye and be so visible about your your generosity that you now no longer receive any reward. Instead, be subtle about it. Be secretive about it. I do not think that what this passage is saying is, listen, never give in a way that anybody could ever see you. But I think what Jesus is trying to do is emphasize the opposing practice in the way that he wants his disciples to give. He does not want them to give so that others will praise. If others praise them at some point, that may be fine. But the goal is not to be, the giving is not to be motivated by the pursuit of that praise. Instead, what he wants them to do is to be as secretive about it as possible, to make it so that even the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, to do this in a subtle way that does not draw attention to the disciples, but is a true act of sacrifice, generosity, and giving. And in doing so, that the secrecy is going to be open them up to the father's reward who sees in secret and will reward them. What we see here and what we're going to see with regard to prayer and with regard to fasting is that Jesus is not prohibiting this practice. He wants the disciples to give, but he wants them to give in a particular way, because when we give in a particular way, then we are pointing to and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. We're pointing to and glorifying the triune God. When we give in another way, in the way of the hypocrites that Jesus describes, we're really glorifying ourselves. And so the practice sort of sits between these two ways of practicing it. And so we have to think about how is it that we do this practice such that we can receive a reward from our Father in heaven.

and do it with a pure sense of generosity and desire to please the Lord as opposed to doing it so that we can enhance our social standing by appearing generous. Now, as we move to prayer, we're gonna see, like I said, a very similar dynamic. He says this, and when you pray, you must not pray like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Again, we see this interest in performing apparently spiritual practices like prayer before others so that our social standing is enhanced. And we wanna avoid that. Again, I don't think that what Jesus is saying here is never pray in public. That's not what I think is going on. This is about a heart orientation and a general motivation of why you would engage in prayer in the first place. And so he tells the disciples that, again, if these people want to be seen by others, if they want to be esteemed for the prayers that they're offering, truly I say to you, they have received their reward. And then he's gonna turn in verse six, and he says, but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Again, keep this out of the public eye. Don't pray to other people. Pray to God. And this practice of prayer, which is really interesting and I think really important for us to grasp is, notice that it isn't about the practice. Prayer is a positive practice. We often view it as something that we should be doing and probably should be doing more of. And so this practice, though, as sort of pristine as prayer may be, it can still be deformed. We can still misdirect prayer and use the practice for our own ends, as opposed to glorifying God and really seeking out the Lord. And so this practice that we have, prayer, is something that we need to exercise in a more faithful manner in a particular way so that prayer does not become deformed, but can do what it is supposed to do. Now, he also goes into and gives another example in verse seven. He says, And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Now, this is an interesting one, because what I think is happening here is that the Gentiles don't really know who their gods are, and so what they would do is they would talk just a lot. They'd throw out all these different things and say all these different words, hoping that something would stick. It's almost like, you know, throwing spaghetti against the refrigerator and seeing what sticks, throwing all of it there, and hopefully just that one strand will be cooked and it'll stick on the refrigerator. That's the idea. And so Jesus is counseling the disciples not to do this either because this does not demonstrate their knowledge of God. It suggests that their God is also unknown, and that's not the case. And so in verse 8 he says, Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. In other words, these unknown gods the Gentiles are begging for help from, that is not your God. Your God knows what you need. You know that he knows what you need, and so your prayer should look different. And he goes on and he's going to tell them to pray like this, and then he gives them what is commonly known as the Lord's Prayer. I'm not going to read through that whole thing. I think that's a different study and a different devotional for a different day. But the important part of the Lord's Prayer is that it is brief. It's short. It calls forth that God would be recognized as holy on earth as he is in heaven, that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, that God would give us what we need on a daily basis and not more, that he would forgive our debts and that we would forgive our debtors, and that he would lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And so we have this very short, very terse sort of prayer, and recognizing that God knows what we need and is prepared to give it to us. And so we're praying in alignment with the character of God that we know is already there. And then we move into this last little section, fasting. And Jesus again looks out. He sees how the hypocrites are fasting, and he tells the disciples, don't do it like that. So what are the hypocrites doing? It says this in verse 16. When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you that they have received their reward. Again, fasting is becoming this source of piety before men. Everybody wants, you know, oh, I'm fasting today, and they're announcing it, and they're trying to gain this sort of sense of piety that accrues to them because they are now making this sacrifice. They're disciplining their bodies, and they want everyone to know that they're doing it. But Jesus says that's not the way to do fasting. That's not the right thing to do. It's not that you shouldn't fast. It's that you just shouldn't do it like that. And so in verse 17, he says, but when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret, and your Father who is in secret will reward you. The whole idea behind these injunctions is really interesting because it suggests that we should not be drawing attention to ourselves, but that we should be doing these practices. And as we do these practices, it's likely that people will notice that we're doing them. It's likely that people might notice that you're not eating, for instance. It's likely that people may see you praying or going off to pray. Jesus, we know, you know, he would depart from his disciples, move away from the crowds, go off by himself and pray. And so let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian-owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free retirement defense guide or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. Not as if God is telling the disciples, hey, never let anyone know what you're doing. Keep your whole lifestyle a secret. That's not what's going on here. What's going on is Jesus is telling his disciples, don't do these things for other people. Certainly don't do them to advance your own standing with other people. That's not what these practices are about. These practices are about an expression of who we are in Christ. And so let's do them like that. Now, how does all that potentially apply to some of the practices that we might look at today? Does it transfer away from spiritual practices like prayer and fasting and giving to something like how would we use technology or, you know, what might it look like for us to engage in journalism and media and, you know, putting out content, distributing content? These are things that I've thought about an awful lot. And I think there is something here for us. I think it's not necessarily straightforward, but I think the important thing is, and it's something I thought of an awful lot, as we engage with technology, for instance, technology, and you often hear this, technology in and of itself is not evil. And that's true. But technology can be forming us in ways that we don't necessarily understand. Again, if you go back and listen to my conversations on technology in past podcasts or even the bonus episode that I did this Friday, you'll hear a little bit about that. And so as Christians, we have to recognize that even in using the technology, there are inherent risks that we need to be aware of so that we don't allow the technology to revert back and shape us into something that we don't actually want to be shaped as. I'll give you a clear example. You know, I think and often talk about the potential for technology to rob us of the rewards of effort. I used to be a personal trainer. I talk about my my physical fitness background an awful lot. And one of the things I've said is I never had a client who came in for a workout and I said, OK, here's what you're going to do today. You're going to sit in the corner and I'm going to lift the weights for you. That does them no good. There's no benefit for me, for them to sit and watch me lift weights. Just like there's now no benefit for us, really, you know, no physical benefit, at least of us sitting at home on the couch.

people lift weights on YouTube or something. You actually have to put in the effort if you want the results. There's something about that effort, the tension, the pain of lifting something, the pain of movement, the sort of resilience it builds that is actually important. And so could we develop a machine that would lift the same weights that I'm lifting? Certainly. But what we can't create is a machine that would allow me to experience the effort that cultivates growth. And so we have to be careful as we're looking at technology and think through if technology is not evil, and if we are to be engaging with it and using it, what is the appropriate way for us to do that? In other words, just as Jesus said, you can see how everyone else is using technology. We can look out at the world and say, look, this is how the world is using technology. Technology can be used. We just can't use it like that. We've got to use it in a way that is reflective of how we understand who God is and reflective of our desire to imitate Christ and to point to and glorify God, not point to and glorify ourselves. That's quite challenging. And so we've got to kind of wrestle that down to the ground, but I would argue that this passage gives us some sort of a framework for understanding these practices so that we don't just have to say, should we or should we not use technology? That really isn't always a helpful question. In some cases it can be. In other cases, not so much. What we want to be asking ourselves is, okay, I see what people are doing with this. I see what people are doing with technology. How should I, as a Christian, be using this technology? How should we, as a community of faith, be using this technology? And so that's the practical way that I think this applies. And so as you're walking through your life today, just start asking yourself that question. It's not so much about what I'm practicing all the time. Again, there are those practices that we should not be doing. But at the same time, we do need to ask ourselves, does this practice, is the way that I'm exercising, the way that I'm engaging in this practice, is the way that I'm engaging in this practice reflective of what I believe about God, about who God is, and about what my ultimate aim is here, which is to be and make disciples for Jesus Christ so that more people come to live under the authority of Jesus Christ. Am I really advancing that cause or am I advancing some other cause? And so I think we can evaluate these practices in that way. Throughout Matthew 6, Jesus talks about this in terms of rewards. And I think that's an appropriate way to handle it because of the practices he's looking at and the mistakes that those who are doing these practices wrong, the hypocrites and the Gentiles, are trying to gain. They're really trying to gain reward of some sort. We may not always have that exact rationale, but I think the pattern of what we need to look at here in Matthew 6 is just this, that when a practice is allowable, we still have to be thinking through how, in this allowable practice, does this practice reflect our desire to point to and glorify the triune God? Hey, thanks, everybody. Come on back next week. Check out the episodes and interviews that we have launching this week on Thinking Christian. You can find out more about me or follow me with articles and different things like that at thinkingchristianpodcast.com or usefultogod.com. And I hope you enjoyed this brief devotional. Let's close in prayer, and then we'll close out the episode. Lord, we ask that as we think about our practices, as we look at what it is that we're doing in the world today, that we would understand how to do those practices, how to engage in the things that we engage in every day so that we are not seeking our own praise, so that we are not desiring that others would notice how hard we work or how important we are or how pious, how, you know, whatever characteristic we might want to highlight. But help us to take a backseat. Help us to step away from those desires to be seen and to be recognized and to simply follow after you so that we receive our rewards from you and not from others. Lord, we desire to have our reward from you. We desire to point to and glorify you in all that we do. And we pray that you would guide us as we think about our practices and help us to use the pattern that you've given us in Scripture to say, yes, do these things, but do them in a way that points to me. Amen. Thanks, everybody, for being here, and we'll catch you on the next episode of Thinking Christian. I just want to take a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the Thinking Christian podcast. If you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more. Are you concerned about tensions in the Middle East? Do you wonder where we're currently at in the biblical timeline? Are we really in the last days? Hi, everyone. I'm Dr. Carl Muller with the Inside the Epicenter podcast. Every week, my co-host, bestselling author Joel Rosenberg and I answer those questions and more. You'll hear inside knowledge of our meetings with leaders at the highest levels of government in the U.S., Israel, and the Middle East, equipping you to filter the news with biblically sound insights. Find Inside the Epicenter on your favorite podcast app or go to joshuafund.com to listen and subscribe.