08.01 | In Secret

Matthew 6:1-18

Jan 08, 2024

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 6:1

Motives radically change how we see an action.

Flattery is so different from a compliment.

A bribe is so different from a gift.

Manipulation is so different from persuasion.

Motives transform an action, because all actions, as Jesus so well knows, come from the heart. This means that seemingly harsh actions can proceed from a heart that is earnestly seeking your good—like telling a hard truth, knowing where to draw an emotional boundary, or placing someone out of their comfort zone so that they can actually grow. Likewise, seemingly good actions can proceed from a heart whose motives are warped. Even, and maybe especially, this becomes important, with actions that are viewed as particularly spiritual.

Like giving away money.

Or prayer.

Or fasting.

The fastest way to kill the life to be found in these practices is hypocrisy.

Hypocrite is a word we know. The meaning of it, in the language in which the New Testament was written (Greek), had to do with acting. With putting on a face. With dressing up with a costume or mask, and pretending to be something that you are not.

Jesus says not to let your spiritual practices be like this.

Do not give like the hypocrites.

Do not pray like the hypocrites.

Do not fast like the hypocrites.

Why?

Because hypocrisy is the corruption of motive. It makes spirituality about popularity and what was meant to be a friendship of freedom into kudos for self. It turns creatives into narcissists and friendship into performance.

In short, because hypocrisy makes spirituality about me.

Yesterday, Jesus told us that the blessed are pure in heart. And in the words of Søren Kierkegaard’s book title, purity of heart is to will one thing.

Jesus calls His apprentices to view these basic spiritual practices as a training of the heart, a place where their hearts do not atrophy in the world’s obsession with being noticed and admired, but become alive in the freedom of being satisfied in God’s love alone. He wants them to purify these activities so that they work for their wholeness rather than entangling them in further captivity. He wants them to know the unending rest and peace that comes from dropping the façade and being simple and real with your Father. He wants them to inhabit in their practices the single greatest purpose of all life:

To journey with the Father.

How do you train a motive? As always with Jesus, it is radically simple and deeply challenging.

Secrecy.

Give when no one is watching. Shut the door when you pray. Simplify your prayer language to be like a child with a parent rather than a priest with realms of liturgy. Put on your best clothes and stop whining for sympathy when you fast. Where your fearful heart wants credit for your activity, run hard in the opposite direction into the freedom of secrecy.

Reflect:
What can you do today to train your heart in this way?
Nobody watching. No views. No likes. No comments. But a heart that in secret pursues the greater treasure, and thus, day by day, becomes pure.

Pray:
Father,
My motives are slippery,
They’re hard to work out and often I find them to be pretty messed up.
Help me today,
Help my choices, to find those places where I can act beautifully but with you as my only audience.
Guard me from the fear that constantly seeks the affirmation of people,
And feels deficient without it.
And, as I make these baby steps,
Send your Spirit to purify my heart,
That I may become free from fear and comparison and the thirst for approval,
And may be truly content
In the knowledge of your Well Done.
Purify my heart,
So I may see you.
In Jesus’ Name
Amen.