Photo Credit: Jordan Rowland
Hey! Welcome to December. Our favorite part of the year, yeah? I am truly hopeful this December of 2018. And I have loads of memories to be thankful for also. By this time last year, my husband and I were getting ready to move into our new home in Bayelsa. I was overseeing painting, carpentry work, choosing curtains, the whole works. This year, it is different. I’ve been in Lagos since November 1 for a brand new project and its been a roller coaster ride of trusting God (though in familiar terrain but..) in a new phase, new responsibilities, new dream. I will give you details soon. For now, lets chew a little more on Matthew 6:1-4.
God is not mocked
Studying Matthew 6 has really opened my eyes to some scary truths I tell you. For instance, remember the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20? Wow! You know for the longest time, I’ve tried and tried to meditate long enough to get the message in that scripture. Well, once I actually gathered this truth; that the Lord would do as He chooses with His resources. You cannot arm twist Him. He will reward according as He has purposed. You cannot manipulate Him. But this particular truth I gleaned from Matthew Henry’s commentary blew me off completely!!
It is a scary thing to think we can outsmart God. You think you can play all the right cards and be a good guy/girl for all to see; donate all your old clothes or an entire wardrobe to the welfare department, host the beggars on your street in your compound and have jolly rice and fish served to them hot, give the largest donation to the NGO catering to the poor in your community and they have your name & donation printed in a special column in their annual newsletter. Secretly, … again secretly, (as in nobody knows, just you) you revel in the attention you get, and feel good about what you have done, applauding yourself privately that God must really be proud of you!
Jesus has something to say to that kind of conceitedness. He says, “Verily I say unto you, you have your reward.” And in Matthew 20:13, He says to those who have done their good works for the sake of the applause and showoff that follows, “Didst thou not agree with me for a penny?”
Do you know what that means?
It means, did you not do all that work for vainglory, to be seen working hard, for the approval and validation of men? Well, that is your penny. That is your payment. That is what you bargained for. That is all you are going to get!
I don’t know about you but that’s scary. Like bone deep frightening.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary:
Not that it is unlawful to give alms when men see us; we may do it; but not that men may see us; we should rather choose those objects of charity that are less observed. The hypocrites, if they gave alms to their own houses, sounded a trumpet, under pretence of calling the poor together to be served, but really to proclaim their charity, and to have that taken notice of and made the subject of discourse. Now the doom that Christ passes upon this is very observable; Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. At first view this seems a promise— If they have their reward they have enough, but two words in it make it a threatening.(1.) It is a reward, but it is their reward; not the reward which God promises to them that do good, but the reward which they promise themselves, and a poor reward it is; they did it to be seen of men, and they are seen of men; they chose their own delusions with which they cheated themselves, and they shall have what they chose. Carnal professors stipulate with God for preferment, honour, wealth, and they shall have their bellies filled with those things (Ps. 17:14 ); but let them expect no more; these are their consolation (Lu. 6:24 ), their good things (Lu. 16:25 ), and they shall be put off with these. "Didst thou not agree with me for a penny? It is the bargain that thou art likely to abide by.’’ (2.) It is a reward, but it is a present reward, they have it; and there is none reserved for them in the future state. They now have all that they are likely to have from God; they have their reward here, and have none to hope for hereafter.
Selah!
Matthew 20:13 But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Did you not agree with me on one denarius?
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