1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 6:1 (NASB)
In this post we will look at something that all Christians need to take care to turn from, not only because not only are they “evil,” they are actually markers of a heart that is following hard after the flesh rather than God as a living sacrifice. This is, of course, hypocrisy. Our Lord gave us two good examples of this in Matthew 6:1-6 which is part of His Sermon on the Mount.
The first example is found in vv1-4 in which our Lord uses the example of charitable giving that some exploit as a means to draw attention to themselves. Here are these verses from the NASB:
1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:1-4 (NASB)