Matthew six is the second part of Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount. In this section, Jesus tells his listeners to watch certain areas of their lives: their giving, their praying, and their fasting.
Jesus begins this section of Matthew 6 with the phrase, “Take care,” which carries the force of, “Beware.” That immediately tells us that this is an area of our lives that we need to keep a close watch on so that we do not go astray. And, as with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn’t just deal with our actions, he deals with the motives and attitudes behind them. He gets to the root, and in the case of our giving, if the root motive isn’t right, it won’t be long before we are off course.
The next thing that is interesting is the connection between giving and righteousness. The Pharisees had several outward expressions of their righteousness, and Jesus address three of them in this chapter: the giving of charitable alms, prayer and fasting. But when they are performing the acts of righteousness for show, so that others can see how pious they are, their root motives are wrong.
But don’t misunderstand what Jesus is saying here. He is not saying that others should not see any of our righteousness, or that we must keep it hidden, he’s condemning those whose motives is to be seen by others. The fruit of our life must be displayed, so that others can see Christ in our actions, but our motive must be pleasing to God first and foremost.