Monday, January 12- Matthew 6:1-4

1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
-This is a pretty strong warning and very clear. One of our goals clearly is to seek rewards from our father in heaven, so to be satisfied with praise from men is falling a bit short.

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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
-Examples of what he's talking about. I suppose many people do things like this. Maybe not with trumpets, but they still call attention to themselves. There is much glory in religion. It's an interesting thing that there is glory in false humility.
-Honor from men is temporary, while honor from God is eternal.

3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
-Example of what you should do. In true giving you don't even need to pat yourself on the back. Just do it and let God sort out the reward.

4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
-It'll be neat to see all the secret works that have been done when we get to heaven.
-Good thing about secret giving like this is the motivation is good. It can make it very pure when you're not trying to gain reputation for yourself.
-When the audience your trying to please is God alone that's a good thing.