Secret giving seen by God

Dear friend

I don't think any spoken word can compare with the Lord's Sermon on the Mount. It's simple beauty and craft, it's profundity, and it's wholly understated power makes it peerless.

It is a great source of doctrine and a dwellingplace for our minds as we attempt to discern the divine. One visually stimulating vignette from the sermon is found in the New Testament, Matthew 6:1-4.

1 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.
2 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.
3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

"Alms" means food, money or clothing given to assist the poor and needy. The word comes through Middle and Old English, from Latin too, originating in the Greek term "eleemosune". It is associated with concepts like compassion, pity, charity and mercy.

However it is done - through banking arrangements or simply placing a coin in an upturned cap - the challenge is to do it discretely. If "found out" I hear some people defending their giving, and then others defending their non-giving. This is meant to be a private matter, and clearly it works best when kept that way.

It cannot be right to let it be discovered that we give and so attract approval, then also expect to be approved again at the judgement bar; paid twice, so to speak. How wise of the Lord to ensure our gifts are given for only the highest of motives by His insistence on secrecy. Of course it's not really gift-giving since nothing is ours to give. It is fair-sharing through the pure love of Christ.

I hope we can all feel the sweet inner joy from privately helping a brother or sister. However the openly rewarded blessing from God comes, let us accept it gratefully, quietly and humbly.

Samuel.