Often it is much easier not to read the actual words of Christ. His words are both colossal and confusing. Reading the words of pastors and teachers who can digest the words of Christ for us is often more comfortable, yet facing the challenge of reading the words of the Divine is healthy and arguably a necessary part of Christian living. A reason why: Christ’s teachings have a certain other-worldliness to them which can be invaluable at exposing worldly thinking on our part. When you confront the sayings of Christ directly, the discomfort we experience is often evidence of worldly roots in our thinking which make understanding His words and teachings unintuitive. While exegetical teaching can be extremely helpful and productive, it is also true that putting Christ’s teachings into “world-speak” so that we can understand them sometimes eliminates a certain beneficial soul-shocking effect His teachings have in their purest form. Anyway…
The passage below is taken from the Sermon on the Mount, which is a good example of the colossal and confusing nature of the words of Christ. [People often forget that Christ would have had relatively little spiritual training, making the depth of meaning in His words remarkable from a secular perspective. His disciples likewise would have been relatively spiritually untrained, making their telling of these teachings likewise remarkable.]
Matthew 6:1-4
“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.
2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Contrast the above passage with the following:
Matthew 5: 13-14
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
Christ’s teachings are often extremely nuanced. In one passage, Christ tells us not to practice good works in order to be seen by others, that we might be praised by them. In the next passage, Christ tells us to let our light shine before others, in order that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven. There is therefore a right way and a wrong way to do good works in order to be seen by others. One glorifies God, one glorifies man. The act is the same; the motivation, different.
Good works can bring either heavenly rewards or earthly rewards, depending on intentions behind the action. If you perform good works to be seen by others, then you will get the earthly reward of praise by others. You also will be acting as do the hypocrites, those actors on the stage of life. This is perplexing – why is performing good works to be recognized by others a form of acting? Because the person performing good works in order to be recognized by others is pretending to have intentions which are pure (i.e. those which are glorifying to God and thus, pure). The hypocrite cuts out the God-glorifying component of the good work. Others may still give glory to God for the performance of the good work, which seems to still be righteous. However, for the interests of the good work performer, his reward is immediate and selfish. It is not from the Father but from man.
This specific teaching is paralleled by other portions from the Sermon on the Mount. For example…
Matthew 6: 16-17
16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Once again, Christ frames His teaching in terms of what the Father rewards. Here, there is a right way and wrong way to fast – one which is rewarded by the Father, and one which is not. Those who fast to be seen by others and reckoned spiritual by them already have their earthly reward. Those fasting for the Father are rewarded by Him. Again, the intention behind the action dictates whether an earthly reward or a heavenly reward is received (and remember, earthly rewards perish).
An important message from Christ’s teachings here could be that your intentions are the true measure of the status of your heart. Furthermore, changing your intentions could be a secret to changing your heart. The thinking goes like this: Clearly, the performing of good deeds in and of itself is not sufficient to bring about heavenly rewards. Thus, there is a sort of good work-performing that is fruitless to the performer. The heart and intentions behind the good works are what store up treasure in heaven, the sort of treasure given by the Father which does not perish. This means that fruitlessness and feelings of fruitlessness can be direct results (and thus indicators) of doing what is good with the wrong intentions. To have fruitful heart-change, one must change his intentions and purposes behind his actions. Doing so may be one way to change the heart, as intentions and purposes are heart-qualities.
To elaborate on this point: There is a sort of trap we can fall into where we can live seemingly faithful lives in which we do all the right things and still live fruitlessly. Perhaps this is something personal to me, but often I feel this frustration where I feel like spiritual maturity is a lifetime away. In other words, I feel spiritually fruitless. In an age where an increasing number of people feel a sense of meaninglessness to life, it is likely that many others feel the same way – they realize that their actions, regardless of whether they are successful in bringing earthly rewards, are producing little which will be of eternal value. My thought here is that these feelings may be evidence that our intentions are off. Perhaps the current of the world has swept us along in its destructive self-centered mindset, and all the attempts at good deeds have been done in the spirit of the hypocrite. And perhaps the answer to this problem is an examination behind the intentions of our hearts in all that we do. Maybe that is one of the central ways to actually change the heart, as the good works themselves are powerless to gain us heavenly rewards. Rather, they must be paired with the right intentions and purposes to be blessed by the Father.
In other words, if life has ever felt meaningless to you, ask yourself the question, “Have I been living for myself recently?” and you will likely have your answer.
“… What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I’ll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary -property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life -don’t be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn for happiness; it is, after all, all the same: the bitter doesn’t last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don’t freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don’t claw at your insides. If your back isn’t broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart -and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it may be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted on their memory.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
Postscript: Another important aspect of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount is that they all require deep faith to be followed. All good works are to be performed specifically for the glory of God to be able to merit eternally significant rewards. The command not to be anxious likewise is predicated on God’s goodness and His sovereignty over all of life. The command to love thy enemy is predicated on the idea that God is to be emulated in His goodness to all on earth, even the evil. Thus, faith is the key which enables the Christian to be capable of following Christ’s teachings to any degree. None of Christ’s teachings are effective for the faithless individual.
Where Words Increase 