Photo Credit: Rustam Mussabekov
Remember that scripture? Guard your heart.. for out of it flows the issues of life, Proverbs 4:23. I don't know about you but I am usually able to tell when my heart is not right. I literally feel sick in my heart. It starts to feel heavy, or prickly, mangled even...it generally feels very, very uncomfortable. It happens whenever I consider either an experience I wasn't happy about or remember someone who has been unpleasant or insensitive. When some act of kindness goes unnoticed or when I do not get the expected reaction, and I think of it too often...soon my heart starts to feel sick. A terrible discomfort within that is felt almost physically. Then I can't help it anymore and start to confess my sins to God. It could be the sin of unforgiveness, or of self-importance, selfishness, or... plain hypocrisy ... I repent. And I ask God to change my heart. Whenever you start to feel heart-sick of heart-sins, always remember to say this prayer - "Lord, change my heart." Examining the heart is good christian living.
Hypocrisy and worldly-mindedness
In Matthew 6, Jesus reminds us of heart sins that are highly dangerous. Seeking human approval by showing off our good works. Like giving alms to the poor and making noise about it. Jesus specifically commands that our left hand must not know what our right hand is doing. That is how sacred and discreet our giving must be. And when we pray He commands us to let our prayer be a communion between us and our Heavenly Father and not pandemonium of theatrics in the street corners. The same goes with fasting. Do not go about looking sickly and unkempt so that everyone knows you are carrying out a solemn ritual. It should be private business between you and God. Jesus calls this kind of behavior hypocrisy. Mathew Henry describes it as heart-sins.
Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18 1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matthew Henry’s Introduction to Matthew 6
Christ comes in this chapter to warn his disciples against the corrupt practices of the scribes and Pharisees, against the two sins, which the pharisees did not justify in their doctrine but were notoriously guilty of in their actions.
These were hypocrisy and worldly-mindedness, sins which, of all others, the professors of religion need most to guard against, as sins that most easily beset those who have escaped the grosser pollutions that are in the world through lust, and which are therefore highly dangerous. We are here cautioned, I. Against hypocrisy; we must not be as the hypocrites are, nor do as the hypocrites do. 1. In the giving of alms (v. 1-4). In prayer (v. 5-8). We are here taught what to pray for, and how to pray (v. 9-13); and to forgive in prayer (v. 14, v. 15). In fasting (v. 16-18). II. Against worldly-mindedness, 1. In our choice, which is the destroying sin of hypocrites (v. 19-24). In our cares, which is the disquieting sin of many good Christians (v. 25-34).
Verses 1-4 As we must do better than the scribes and Pharisees in avoiding heart-sins, heart-adultery, and heart-murder, so likewise in maintaining and keeping up heart-religion, doing what we do from an inward, vital principle, that we may be approved of God, not that we may be applauded of men; that is, we must watch against hypocrisy, which was the leaven of the Pharisees, as well as against their doctrine, Lu. 12:1 . Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, are three great Christian duties—the three foundations of the law, say the Arabians: by them we do homage and service to God with our three principal interests; by prayer with our souls, by fasting with our bodies, by alms-giving with our estates. Thus we must not only depart from evil, but do good, and do it well, and so dwell for evermore. Now in these verses we are cautioned against hypocrisy in giving alms. Take heed of it. Our being bid to take heed of it intimates that it is sin. 1. We are in great danger of; it is a subtle sin; vain-glory insinuates itself into what we do before we are aware. The disciples would be tempted to it by the power they had to do many wondrous works, and their living with some that admired them and others that despised them, both which are temptations to covet to make a fair show in the flesh. 2. It is a sin we are in great danger by. Take heed of hypocrisy, for if it reign in you, it will ruin you. It is the dead fly that spoils the whole box of precious ointment. Two things are here supposed,I. The giving of alms is a great duty, and a duty which all the disciples of Christ, according to their ability, must abound in.
Matthew 6:1 Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
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