Polishing Our Halos

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Do you know anyone whose favorite pastime seems to be polishing their own halo?  I can think of one or two such religious hypocrites that I’ve known in my lifetime. Jesus ran across plenty of these people during His ministry, and in our passage today He addresses the issue of religious hypocrisy, and how we should counter that in our lives.  Let’s take a look at our Savior’s words.

The type of hypocrites that Jesus was addressing here in His Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, are those people who do good deeds for appearances only.  Their actions may be good, but their motives are empty. Some people like to appear “holy” to get attention. They desire that other people think they are especially devout and pious, and try to show this by drawing attention to their giving, their prayers, and fasting.  God sees through that self-righteousness. If we pray only where others see and hear us, our audience is not God, but only to be seen and praised by people.

As Jesus teaches, these people perform their pious acts out of greatly desiring the approval and praise of other people, not out of sincere devotion to God.  Jesus said that their reward will only be that people saw them, nothing more. The empty acts they perform will be their only reward. God does not reward hypocrisy or self-righteousness.  God will reward those who are sincere in their faith. We should not boast or advertise our good deeds or acts of piety. God’s reward is the only one that matters.

Jesus is teaching in verses 1 - 6 of this Scripture passage that our motives for giving to God and others, for helping them, for praying and fasting, should be pure motives.  None of these should be done just to gain the applause of others. Don’t give with the hope and desire to be praised. Jesus says our good deeds should be done quietly or in secret, with no thought of any reward.  Acts of generosity, prayer, and fasting should not be self-centered, but God-centered. They should not be done to make ourselves look good, but rather so that God looks good. God doesn’t give rewards to those who seek them.

Fasting is going without food in order to spend time in more concentrated prayer.  People fast when they pray (Ezra 8:21-23), when they repent of sin (Nehemiah 1:4-7), when they ask for God’s blessing (Acts 13:2-3), and as an act of worship (Luke 2:36-38).  Fasting is not dieting. It is not trying to earn any rewards from God. Fasting doesn’t serve to change God’s mind, to speed up His answer, or manipulate His will. It helps us focus our attention on God alone, in order to hear Him clearly.  Fasting should be done to honor God and help us focus as we enter His presence.

Jesus is not condemning fasting in verses 16 - 18, only condemning hypocrisy.  Are we fasting in order to get public praise and pats on the back? Are we doing it to impress others with our supposed holiness?  Fasting should be done quietly and sincerely. It should be private between one’s self and God. He will give us any reward we might receive.

As our Scripture passage winds up, Jesus teaches us about where we should be storing up treasures (vs. 19 - 21).  Just like the empty praise we receive if we do our good deeds for men, if our treasures are only earthly things, they will quickly crumble and fade away to nothing.  We need to store our treasures in heaven because this life is but a breath. Storing up treasure in heaven is done by all of our acts of obedience to God. Believers should loosen their grip on earthly things.  We should have the same perspective that King David had about everything he owned. He knew that everything he had came from God (I Chronicles 29:14).

Acts of giving, prayer, and fasting are to be worship given to God, not displays of self-righteousness to gain admiration from others.  To do acts of piety for the wrong reason will not receive God’s blessings. The reason for which we act is critical.