What Are Our Obligations to the Poor? Part 16
July 26, 2010
Dear Friends,
5. How do we balance the commandments to “take heed that ye do not your alms before men” with the admonition to “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works?”
This question hit me several years ago when I was trying to put together an outreach project. A local brother had a plot of land in a rough, intercity neighborhood that he didn’t want any more. The lot was a trash-covered, blight and he was stuck paying the property taxes. He said he would give it to anyone that wanted it. I came up with the idea of taking this overgrown vacant lot and turning it into a playground for the local children. We would put in some playground equipment, maybe a basketball court and some park benches. We could put up a sign in the park saying something like “This park was donated by the Christadelphians.” We could have a grand opening and possible get some local media to cover it. The benefit to this poor community was that a local eyesore would be turned into something useful. The benefit to us would be that we could get some name recognition in our city. The benefit to God would be that His love would be shown and His name magnified in this poor community.
The project never happened. The problem was that some people felt that this was self promoting and thus violated Matthew 6:1-4 which reads:
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
It seemed to me at the time (and still does) that this was not the lesson of these verses. These people were doing things so that they would be glorified rather than God while the playground project was solely to glorify God and help poor people. It seemed to me that the verse that best described this project was another verse in Matthew.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Mt 5:16)
The difference between these two verses as I see it is to whom goes the glory. If I do it so that men will praise me, Matthew 6 is applicable. If I do it so that God is glorified, then Matthew 5 is applicable.
Now, if we aren’t sure what the motives of everyone is, I think we need to step back and ask ourselves the question “should the work cease because everyone’s motives aren’t 100% pure?” Neither of these verses condemns the doers of the good deed. What these verses say is that one gets their reward now and one gets their reward in the coming Kingdom. Both motives are rewarded. I think we have taken this Matthew 6 verses as being condemnatory of self-promotion. Sure, the better objective is to glorify God, but it shouldn’t have stopped our project.
I hope this helps us move forward and takes one more excuse for inactivity out of the way.
Have a great week,
