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6:1-4
Sincere giving
Now I must explain something to you about motives. These are what lie
behind everything you do, and there is no way you can hide them from God's
all-seeing eyes. Your heavenly Father always knows why you do things, so there
is no point in pretending you are one thing when you are really another. You may
pretend to be kind, or generous, or caring, but God will know if you are sincere
or not. There is no room for hypocrisy.
So when you do some charitable deed, do it for God, not for people, that
is, don't go looking for praise or rewards from people for what you do. I know
this can be very difficult, because you have been brought up to expect praise
from people, but Christians are not like that. They must forget about chasing
the world's praise, and do things with God's praise in mind.
Which means of course that you don't even have to be seen doing good
deeds. Do them in secret. Do them with as little display as possible. Keep your
head down and stay out of sight.
On the other hand, you might be desperate for praise, in which case you
will have to be a hypocrite, like some of those people who turn up in the
streets and at the synagogues. They blow trumpets to draw attention to
themselves! They shout. They talk loudly. They boast about their deeds. They
make sure people see them when they are being helpful or generous.
But there's a wonderful thing to consider - if you refuse to make a
display of yourself when you are doing good deeds, your heavenly Father will
come up with some suitable reward for you. He loves sincerity and obedience, and
He will not miss anything you do for Him. One day you will receive an
appropriate reward, and then you will be glad you didn't act like the hypocrites
- who, by the way, have already receive everything they deserve.
6:5-14
Sincere praying
Now that you understand how important it is to have the right motives
behind everything you do, let us apply the same principle to prayer. A sincere
prayer comes from the heart. It is no good if it is simply read from a book, or
recited from memory, or used as some sort of religious display to impress other
people. In the same was that doing good deeds in public for praise is a waste of
time, so prayers made to impress other people are also a waste of time.
A Christian, when he prays, ought to ask himself why he is praying. Is it
because he wants to reach God? Is it because he needs to talk things over with
his heavenly Father? If so, then the prayers come from a properly motivated
heart. God loves sincere prayer, and He will always do something when He sees
sincerity.
So don't repeat religious phrases over and over, as if God will hear you
if you wear Him down with pestering, or with a display of determined, prolonged,
repetitious effort. Non-Christians do enough of this sort of thing already!
Prayer wheels, Masses, Service Books and so on - it gets these people nowhere .
. . God is not impressed by architecture, carvings, clothes, physical
deprivation, self-immolation and so on. What He wants to see is a sincere,
trusting heart, like that of a child, open to and dependent on Him.
So as an example of a prayer on which you may build your own personal
conversations with God, here is a general outline of the things you should
include :
Address your prayers to God your Father. This is the correct thing to do
because He is the Sovereign Authority over the whole universe.
Give honour and worship to your Father, because he is the source of all
other authorities.
Ask God to bring into force on His earth the wonderful righteousness and
obedience which already exists in His heaven.
Ask God to give to you each day a little more understanding of His Word.
(And to provide for your other needs)
Ask God to forgive you your sins - thoughts, words and deeds - because
you are, after all, not perfect yet. And as you acknowledge that you are still
sinners, forgive other people for what they do, because you and they are all the
same - you all need to be forgiven.
Ask God to help you through the trials of each day. You will not have the
strength or wisdom in yourselves to survive these testing times which come to
you (often simply because you are Christians,) but God can either make you
strong enough to get through them, or show you a way to avoid them. (James 1:3,
1Pet.4:12,1Cor.10:13)
Ask God to help you in the battle against Satan, who attacks from time to
time, and in many different ways.
Finish your prayers by remembering that, despite what the world may say,
and despite how things may appear, God's kingdom is the only one which really
matters. It will not crumble and fall, like so many others have already done
(Assyria, Medo-Persia, Elam, Greece, Rome, etc) and the power of God will
continue long after all others have failed. This is what makes God's kingdom
rule so glorious!
Now, a little note about forgiveness - your motivation when you forgive
people should be that of sincerity. Like I said before, if you are not sincere,
then you are indulging in hypocrisy. If you say you forgive someone, but in your
heart you are just as bitter and unforgiving as ever, then how can God possibly
forgive you your sins? Hypocrites have no place in God's family.
6:16-18
Sincere fasting
A third main area in which sincerity is essential is that of fasting.
Giving, praying, loving, doing good deeds, giving, worshipping, helping . . .
they are all the same : you must be sincere in everything you do, and not
pretend to be something you are not.
So if you decide to abstain from food, or anything else, in order to aid
your Christian life, don't make a show of it. For example, if you abstain from
food, don't go around looking hungry. If you deny yourself some other pleasure,
don't draw attention to it by telling people. If you really want to earn God's
approval, seek Him with a sincere heart, and the result will be a very real
response.
6:19-21
Treasures in heaven
Now I must give you the Christian perspective in regard to material
possessions. There are people who hoard, and gather, and store material things,
because they think that the more they own, the more secure they will be. They
base their confidence on their bank balance, and they measure their value by the
wealth they have.
But you know, the more you own, the more you have available to decay.
Insects, rats, rust, mould, bacteria, fungi and all the natural elements
gradually destroy everything. Inflation eats at money. Sunlight and moisture
reduce a car or a computer to scrap. Old age and sickness bring the healthiest
people to the grave. World trends can make or break a business over-night. There
is no place on earth where thieves cannot get at, and no process which can
reverse the downward movement of disintegration built into the present universe.
So what should you set your heart on - the material things of this
world, or the everlasting things of the coming kingdom of God?
6:22-23
Spiritual understanding
Do you see what I am saying? Is your eye acting like a bright light,
illuminating your reasoning, or are you refusing to listen to me?
If you take what I am saying as true, and accept all the things I have
been talking about into your life, you will be secure in your Christian walk.
You will not hoard material things, or parade your good works in front of
people, or act like a 'holy' person when you are not, or pray meaningless
prayers, or love only the loveable people . . . but if you refuse to take to
heart all these things, you will be like someone who is full of darkness.
6:24
Only one Master
So now you have a clear choice. You can either go the way of the world,
or my way. If you decide to be a whole-hearted Christian, and follow me, you
will have to draw a clear line between yourself and the world, but if you decide
the other way, you will have to draw a line between yourself and Christianity.
Its really simple - like black and white. You cannot be worldy-minded, gathering
material things for security, and still expect to be acceptable by God. Either
God is your Master, or Money is. And conversely, you cannot be a
spiritual-minded Christian, and still expect to be acceptable to the world.
6:25-34
The Christian lifestyle
So how should you live? Laid-back. Relaxed. Care-free. Like little
children, who don't have a problem in the world, because the food is always
there on the table, and there's always plenty of hot water for baths, and
there's always clean clothes, and a nice warm bed at night. They don't worry
about bills, and stock-markets, and inflation, and job-security, and mortgages,
and interest, and environmental degradation do they? They simply trust their
parents and enjoy each day as it comes.
Children don't worry about the future either. They are like little birds,
which go out each day and find enough food to eat just growing around them. They
don't think about depletion of stocks, or long-range weather forecasts, or
planting for next year's provisions . . . not that these things aren't important
for humans . . . its just that their attitude is that of oblivious unconcern.
Can worrying change anything? Yes, but only for the worse. Worrying is
not only a lack of faith in God's care, but it also has a detrimental effect on
your health. Worrying cannot make you more attractive either.
Take a lesson from the flowers : do they worry about how they look? Not a
bit. God made them beautiful, or not so beautiful as He saw fit. In the same
way, God made all the people in the world, making some more attractive than
others. So it is not useful or productive to go about trying to alter what God
has designed. Solomon himself, dressed in all his royal clothes, was nowhere
near as good-looking as some of the flowers here on this hillside!
So what should you do about the essential things of life? Trust God and
work hard, (2Thess.3:10) and put Me first in your life. If you do this God
promises to make sure you never lack anything you need. That is His contract
with you.
But the world would not agree with Me on this. The people of this world
like to be self-reliant, and independent of God. They spend most of their lives
thinking, and worrying about their bank balance, their latest house, their label
clothing, their figure, their complexion, their new car, their position in
society, their 'image' compared to others, and their diet.
But let me put it to you - what might happen if you carried on like the
people of this world? All your time and energy would be spent on providing for
future needs, and you would never be free to work for Me. The trouble with the
world's way is that people never know when the next market collapse, or rise in
inflation, or catastrophe, or prolonged illness, or paralysing accident or
unforeseen event may occur, so they never have enough saved or accumulated to
ward off these possible events.
So don't worry about the future. Live one day at a time and trust God for
all the necessities of life - and work hard. Tomorrow never comes, so there's
little point in imagining what might happen in it. Today is the only time you
have.