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rom the beginning of the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus has been telling
us what a true Christian is like. He has described the inward attitude
of a true Christian. He corrected the false teachings of the Jewish leaders
who had changed the meaning of scripture to accommodate their self-centeredness.
God was not really the authority of their lives. Does this sound like
some today? He showed them that they really did not love their neighbor.
Now Jesus is going to show them they really do not love God.
Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. . . . (NASB) Matthew 6:1-4 Looking in the Mirror. It is amazing how
often we find ourselves talking with a person who appears to want us
to know he/she is either a child of missionaries, a missionary, a son
or daughter of a pastor, a deacon or elder of the church, the adult Sunday
School teacher or participating in a ministry at the jail. But they are
not alone. All of us want others to think well of us. Sometimes the church
is just like the work place. There are those who want to run the church
and want others to know it. It is not uncommon for Christians to hint
that they are doing something spiritual. There are some who want to look
good by avoiding failure. They are afraid to be involved for fear of
making a mistake and “looking bad.”
Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus encouraged us
to let others see our life - our righteousness,
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (NASB) Matt. 5:16 But many Christians are too afraid to be light - to let the world know
and see them as Christians. Yet, in the church some of us are eager “to
be light” - to show other Christians how righteous we are. We want
to display what God has done in our lives as something we have accomplished
on our own. We want to impress others with what God has done through
us.
Some teachers have forgotten that the real teacher is the
Holy Spirit,
. . . not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. (NASB) 1 Cor. 2:13 The teacher must yield himself to the Holy Spirit for anyone
to learn; and if anyone does learn, it is not the teacher who did a “great
job” - it is the Holy Spirit. The same is true for anyone else
who serves in the church. It is God who is bringing the fruit in His
ministry. It is easy to forget that . . . If we look in the mirror, we
do not see God. When is the last time you were upset that someone in
the church did not recognize the work that God was doing through you?
Beware. All of us at sometime have been
like the Jewish leaders. These leaders displayed their “righteousness.” They
wanted everyone to know how spiritual they were. So Jesus warns His audience
not to “practice their righteousness” before men so that
they could receive praise . . .
The Greek word Jesus uses is the present active imperative
of PROSECHO. It means to “be continually guarding against.” It
has the idea of continually watching yourself. Jesus also uses a fascinating
Greek word when He says “to be noticed.” The word is THEAOMI.
It means “to be viewed by onlookers.” They were showing their “righteousness” to
the crowd. Jesus paints a picture where the religious leaders are like
professional sports players and the people are spectators watching them
play the game of “righteousness.” |
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| Sermon on the Mount | |||||