Give In Secret

1 “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.

Rewards, Righteousness

Chapter 6 continues the call from -

Matthew 5:20 ESV

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Notice that Jesus begins chapter 6 with another reference to righteousness.

In each passage beginning “You have heard that it was said,” we saw how the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees turned out to be false-righteousness. Our only hope to enter the kingdom of heaven is to be clothed in Christ’s perfect righteousness that is given to everyone who comes to Him in faith. This is what Paul refers to as being justified by faith.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

But Jesus doesn’t only clothe us in His perfect righteousness. Everyone who He rescues from sin and death He also conforms to His righteousness. This is what Paul calls sanctification. Just as much as justification is a gift, so is sanctification. The difference is that while Christ’s righteousness on our behalf is absolutely perfect and saves us, the righteousness that He produces in us as children of the Father by faith increases as we grow in Him. But even the imperfect way we live out our righteousness is different from the false-righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Jesus starts today’s text with a warning about how we practice our righteousness.

True righteousness that springs from a desire for God to be glorified can only come from a heart that has been born again by faith in Jesus. But there’s another kind of righteousness - a false righteousness - that’s motivated by a desire for our own glory. Until our redemption is complete in heaven or at Jesus’s return, our motivations are going to be a mixed bag. And so, Jesus calls us to beware. Don’t lose the reward, he says!

STRUCTURE: vv2-18 - Jesus illustrates how subtle and deceptive this false kind of righteousness can be, using what some have called the Three Pillars of Jewish piety - giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting. EACH - “When you give… when you pray… when you fast…”, NEG example, POS example, PROMISE of reward

In verses 2-18, Jesus illustrates how subtle and deceptive this false kind of righteousness can be, using what some have called the Three Pillars of Jewish piety - giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting.

And then, in verses 19-25, Jesus gives 3 separate summaries of the teaching here in chapter 6, and each of the summaries is wrapped up in what we value.

Jesus starts today’s text with a warning about how we practice our righteousness. The difference between the righteousness God rewards and the righteousness He doesn’t reward is the motivation. True righteousness that springs from a desire for God to be glorified can only come from a heart that has been born again by faith in Jesus. But there’s another kind of righteousness - a false righteousness - that’s motivated by a desire for our own glory. Until our redemption is complete in heaven or at Jesus’s return, our motivations are going to be a mixed bag. And so, Jesus calls us to beware. Don’t lose the reward, he says! In verses 2-18, Jesus illustrates how subtle and deceptive this false kind of righteousness can be, using what some have called the Three Pillars of Jewish piety - giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting.

This week, we’re going to take a deeper look at the principle and the first of the pillars, giving to the needy.

this false kind of righteousness can deceive us and we can trick ourselves out of God’s reward, and He does it using what some have called the Three Pillars of Jewish piety - giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting.

The question that rises out of is this: How does Jesus call us to practice our righteousness?

ORG: We’ll answer the question in four major points: The principle, the problem, the practice, and the promise.

The righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes is

The Three Pillars of Righteousness - Alms, Prayer, Fasting

Q: How should Christians approach “the practice of righteousness”?

I. The Principle - Don’t Lose Your Reward! (v1)

Matthew 6:1 ESV

1 “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.

<<READ V1>>

Rewards already discussed in Beatitudes () and .

“Beware” - a warning worth keeping. Ask: Do you want to be rewarded by God, or do you want these deeds to perish with you?

Warning is stark - no reward for selfishly-performed acts of so-called righteousness

The heart is the heart of the matter - cf. last week, “love” as the fulfillment of the Law

Note connection to - “let your light shine before men...” (read)

Lloyd-Jones: “The ultimate choice is always the choice between pleasing self and pleasing God”

“In order to be seen by them” - motivation matters. Problem facing us is that we want both the praise of men and rewards from God, but we can’t have it both ways

Connects to the 3 summaries (19-25) - Where are we storing up treasures? Where are we looking for reward?

If you perform acts of righteousness in order to receive a medal or applause, that’s all you’ll get. But if you do these things with the Kingdom as your goal, you receive reward from your Father

Application:

Jesus will apply to the three examples - the three “pillars of righteousness” - but we should keep the principle in mind in other areas as well

“Beware” - a warning worth keeping. Ask: Do you want to be rewarded by God, or do you want these deeds to perish with you?

- Your “work” can perish with you

3 types of rewards

Jesus wants us to know that we will receive rewards in heaven for faithfulness (or else He wouldn’t have focused on it so often)

Parable of the talents ()

Parable of the sheep and goats ()

1. To see God (the ultimate blessing)

2. To experience God’s pleasure and open statement of “well-done”

3. To

3 subtle types of self-righteousness - “practicing before others in order to be seen by them”

If you do something good without recognition, how do you feel afterwards? Is there a portion of your heart that gets frustrated that no one noticed? Do you say things like, “I didn’t do it for the applause, but a thank you note would have been nice”?

Do you feel slighted when you do the same thing that another person does, but they get recognized and you don’t? Or what if someone gets the credit for your good deeds?

What if you put time and effort into a project, and someone else

If you desire to do good works and for God to get the glory, but feel the subtle temptation to long for applause for men and women, remind yourself that God’s rewards are always better, and tell that rebellious streak to keep God’s glory at the forefront

Combining and -

“A city set on a hill cannot be hidden… let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven”

“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”

First, the best way to “let your light shine” is to do so in a way that cannot get glory for yourself - The goal is not for our deeds to be secret, but (as often as possible) for our role to be secret.

Secrecy in - if you give to the poor in secret, the poor will still know. If you pray and send an anonymous note, the person you prayed for will know.

The goal is not for our deeds to be secret, but (as often as possible) for our role to be secret.

Second, we will “let our light shine” best if we aim to do everything with an eye to glorifying God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

The person who wants to be singularly-focused on living a life that is pleasing to God and glorifies Him will long for God’s glory to shine through all the time. This is one of the major aims of our sanctification - as we grow in our faith - as Jesus makes us more and more like Himself through the power of His Holy Spirit - we will be more preoccupied by giving God glory than seeking it for ourselves.

If we are singularly-focused on living a life that is pleasing to God and glorifies Him,

As John the Baptist said,

John 3:30 ESV

30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

And as Jesus says in the third summary of this section, v24, “No one can serve two masters.” I cannot serve God’s glory and my own at the same time.

Hearts that have been renewed by the New Birth of salvation in Jesus Christ are no longer slaves to the old desires to gain glory for ourselves, but we’re still weighed down by the temptations and remaining sin within us. So we should pray for our hearts, and for one another, that we would be more obsessed with God’s glory every day.

Philippians 1:9–11 ESV

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Third, we can deflect praise to God. When you do something for God’s glory, and someone wants to call you out, thank them and gently point them to God as the one who animated your service:

Philippians 2:13 ESV

13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

II. The Problem - Selfish Generosity (v2)

Matthew 6:2 ESV

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.

<<READ v2>>

Presumes we will give to the needy (cf. ) -

EXPLAIN:

Carson: “The person is likely deceiving himself as well as others.”

EXPLAIN:

OT - tithe for the needy (sojourner etc.), gleaning laws, compassion for widows etc. Application of - love your neighbor

3 “pillars” of Jewish piety - giving to the needy, prayer, and fasting. Idea was that you could tell a faithful Jew from an unfaithful one by whether they did these three things. So naturally, people who want to appear pious would not want these things to go unnoticed.

“Sound no trumpet” - Don’t draw attention to your giving.

“Sound no trumpet” - Don’t draw attention to your giving. Typical to give to the needy on fasting days, and the fasts began with the sounding of the trumpet. Also, instead of offering plates, in Temple collection chests w/ horn-shaped opening like a toll booth bucket - made to look like the opening of a shofar horn.

“Hypocrites” sound a trumpet when they give - draw attention to their act of righteousness

Jesus says they trumpet their righteousness for a reason - praise from others. And He says we should not be like them, because they have received their reward.

Alfred Plummer: “They receive their pay then and there, and they receive it in full… God owes them nothing. They were not giving, but buying. They wanted the praise of men, they paid for it, and they have got it. The transaction is ended and they can claim nothing more.”

The problem at work here is a paradox: Selfish generosity. Jesus uses the word “hypocrites” for a good reason. The word “hypocrite” originally referred to the actors in ancient Greek drama. They were playing a role, wearing a mask that looks like Godliness, but springs from a heart that doesn’t know God or care about His glory.

The

Note Jesus’ warning: Don’t do it - in other words, even people who are born again can fall into the trap / temptation of hypocritical righteousness.

Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest theologians in Christian history, writing around 420AD, taught that humanity experiences four distinct stages. In the first stage, in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were able to sin, but they were also able not to sin. Their choice to rebel against God began the second stage, the one all of us were born into - the stage where we were able to sin, and unable not to sin.

Paul says:

When we were lost and dead in sin, it was impossible for us to please God. Everything we did, even the so-called good deeds we did, were carried out in rebellion because they weren’t done in faith and they weren’t done to the glory of God.

But as saved people in the here-and-now, believers in Jesus have been given new life, new hearts, and the Holy Spirit - God’s own Spirit dwells within the believer. We are no longer slaves to sin. But we are still able to fall to temptation. So Peter says

1 Peter 2:24 ESV

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

And Paul says,

Romans 6:17–19 ESV

17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

rom 6.17-

So if we are going to take Jesus’s words seriously in verse 1, we should face the very real truth: If you are a Christian, you are no longer a slave to sin, so don’t act like you are. You have been freed from death in order to walk in newness of life, so beware the temptation to do as a Christian what you used to do as a lost person by nature.

What is at stake for the Christian who gives to the needy in order to be praised or recognized by others? Do they lose their salvation? Absolutely not. You are saved by the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. But you will lose something important. You will lose your reward with your Father. We will come back to that

Apply:

<<INSTEAD>>...

III. The Practice - Secret Generosity (v3)

Matthew 6:3 ESV

3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

Matthew 6:3–4 ESV

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.

<<READ v3>>

Explain:

Verse 3 and the beginning of verse 4 gives us the practice. Secret generosity. Jesus says, “When you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret.”

This is how you practice your righteousness in a way that your Father will reward.

Secret generosity helps us give in ways that motivate others to glorify God rather than ourselves.

ILLUST: Seminary Visa Gift Cards - You know what? God got the glory.

If the hypocrites are the ones who trumpet their generosity in order to receive praise from men, Kingdom People practice secret generosity in order to let their light shine and God gets the glory.

When He says, “Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” the word picture is pretty fun. Imagine how easy it is for you to give to the needy without Jeff Bezos knowing. Unless you have an Amazon Echo or something.

Ok, but it’s a little harder to give without your neighbor knowing. And it’s a little harder still to give without your best friend knowing. And it takes effort to keep such a secret from your closest friends.

Now, imagine giving that’s so open-hearted and God-centered that your

Now, if your own two hands don’t share the secret, we’re talking about intentional, intimate, secret generosity.

I see several ways this word picture inspires us to give with God’s glory at the center.

It’s intimate and secret at the same time. My own two hands don’t share the secret. It’s the kind of giving that becomes so second-nature that you pat your pockets and say, “Where was that $20? I must have given it to somebody.”

KEEP FOR POINT IV? One of the reasons we struggle to practice this kind of righteousness is that we fall into the trap, the lie, that we’re going to feel so good when others applaud us for our generosity. And it’s true - it feels good to get praise from others. But it’s actually much more fulfilling, much more joyful, to give in ways that completely short-circuit our ability to be applauded.

Apply:

Here are a couple of ideas for secret giving.

Benevolence Fund: Bethel sets aside special funds for Benevolence, and the Elders disburse those funds when needs arise. If you give money specified for the Benevolence fund, no one who receives those funds will ever know who gave them.

You could also plan in your budget for a Benevolence fund of your own. It doesn’t even have to be much - you could set a goal, maybe $20, or $100 or more if you’re able, and when you hit your goal, cash it out, put it in an envelope, and send it to someone you know is in need, with a brief note - "I’m praying for you, love, a brother in Christ.”

Personal Benevolence Fund: You could also plan in your budget for a Benevolence fund of your own. It doesn’t even have to be much - you could set a goal, maybe $20, or $100 or more if you’re able, and when you hit your goal, cash it out, put it in an envelope, and send it to someone you know is in need, with a brief note - "I’m praying for you, love, a brother in Christ.”

Contribute to the Food Bank or another aid organization: It’s not hard to give to a Food Pantry without getting credit.

Call an aid organization and ask what they need most, then have it delivered. Unexpected care packages can be amazing things, especially when you don’t know who they’re from.

Jackson Elementary??

Diagnosing our hearts:

Do you feel slighted when you do the same thing that another person does, but they get recognized and you don’t? Or what if someone gets the credit for your good deeds?

Before we move on, here’s one practical piece of Biblical wisdom. How do I know if I’m giving to the needy with proper motives? The heart is deceitful above all things, after all. Most of the time, I expect my motives are more mixed and less God-centered than I’d like them to be.

Diagnosing our hearts:

Do you feel slighted when you do the same thing that another person does, but they get recognized and you don’t? Or what if someone gets the credit for your good deeds?

The secrecy of giving helps us here. If your left hand is ignorant of your right hand, your left hand can’t pat you on the back.

Taking steps to avoid a tempting situation helps build our desire for the better thing that Christ is calling us to. If you give, and it’s intentionally done in secret, and you remind yourself why - you say to yourself, “I want my light to shine so that people give glory to my Father, not to me,” and then you sit back and wait, you’ll find that the heart that Jesus has given you - the new heart that beats for Him and His righteousness - A heart that loves Jesus, and sees Jesus magnified, responds with joy.

The practice of secret generosity is God’s means for you to grow in a desire for His glory.

Secret Generosity & Taxes etc.

Now, it wouldn’t be very practical for us to talk about giving in secret without mentioning the fact that if you give all your charitable giving in complete anonymity, you’re going to miss out on the ability to receive your tax deduction.

We really need to talk about that, right?

Do you lose your heavenly reward if you take your tax deduction?

Once again, it comes back to motivation. The “hypocrite” gives for his own benefit, not for God’s glory. Your charitable giving deduction isn’t a reward for giving or a pat on the back. It’s just a reduction in what the government assesses as your income.

Once again, it comes back to motivation. The “hypocrite” gives for his own benefit, not for God’s glory. Let’s get really honest here. Your charitable giving deduction isn’t a reward for giving or a pat on the back. It’s really just a reduction in what the government assesses as your income.

For the vast majority of us, we give more because we can give more, because of the deduction.

Now, if you report your giving because you want your accountant to be amazed, or because you want some random IRS employee to be surprised, then you’re definitely doing the hypocrite thing. But I don’t think that’s the motivation.

So what about the Church? Do you lose your reward because your name is on the check? Again, it’s a question, I think, of motivation. Jesus doesn’t say “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people PERIOD.” He says “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.”

And He says, “LET your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

And sometimes, the best solution is “as secret as you can.” As much as possible, we minimize who sees names on checks. We’ve had gifts come in to help people in need, and the donors want it kept anonymous, so the recipient gets a gift, and they glorify God, and maybe I’m the left hand that knows the gift went out, but I don’t know who it came from. One of my favorite things is to give a gift to those in need, and being able to say “I don’t know who this is from, but you are loved.”

It’s not an incentive, not really. From the government’s perspective, your giving reduces what

Now, as we move to our final point in verse 4, one of the reasons we struggle to practice this kind of righteousness is that we fall into the trap, the lie, that we’re going to feel so good when others applaud us for our generosity. And it’s true - it feels good to get praise from others. But it’s actually much more fulfilling to give in ways that completely short-circuit our ability to be applauded.

Think of it like this:

Because when we give in order to receive praise from others, we’re settling for something so much less wonderful than what God has in store.

You receive a pay check from your employer, or you receive income from clients. That money, in that moment, is entirely yours. It’s a wage. You have a choice to use it in ways that match your values. Your charitable giving - not just to the church but to any other charitable organization - the government doesn’t give you a tax deduction as a pat on the back or a reward. Your charitable giving reduces what the government considers your income.

From the government’s perspective, taxes aren’t the government’s wage.

IV. The Promise - A Better Reward (v4)

We’ve looked at the Principle, the Problem, and the Practice. Here’s the Promise. The reward:

Matthew 6:4 ESV

4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Rewards are a common theme in Jesus’s teaching. In the Beatitudes, in the beginning of chapter 5, we already saw some of the ways Jesus talks about what it means to be blessed - to inherit the Kingdom of heaven; to be comforted; to inherit the earth; to be satisfied; to receive mercy; to see God; to be called sons & daughters of God.

The idea of giving to the needy

Rewards are a common theme in Jesus’s teaching. When Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow Him, He gives us a very, very good reason to do so. Because the reward is eternal life. In the Beatitudes, in the beginning of chapter 5, we already saw some of the ways Jesus talks about what it means to be blessed - to inherit the Kingdom of heaven; to be comforted; to inherit the earth; to be satisfied; to receive mercy; to see God; to be called sons & daughters of God.

In the last Beatitude, Jesus said

But what if

Matthew 5:10–12 ESV

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

What are the rewards that Jesus is talking about?

Remember I referred to verses 19-24 as “three summaries” for this section of ? Look at the first summary:

Matthew 6:19–21 ESV

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Imagine with me the nature of the earthly reward we get when we give to the needy in order to be seen. Who does it come from? What is it? How much is it worth?

The slap on the back, the admiration of others. How long does it last? Eventually, the person whose admiration you bought with generosity will forget you. The shine will wear off. Your reputation can rust. Worse, someone else can steal that admiration. They can swoop in and take credit, or discredit you, or just capture attention you used to command. It happens all the time.

Double Dare - Mark Summers - Who is the highest-grossing actor of 1987? Heather and I didn’t remember - it was Eddie Murphy. But 1988 happened, then 1989, and so on - that’s how time works - and one day nobody is going to remember or care who the big stars of 2020 are. The people that are Twitter famous today will be gone and forgotten eventually. And famous people will tell you that keeping peoples’ admiration is very, very hard work. And you’re trying to earn and keep the admiration of people, most of whom you probably wouldn’t really like.

The good feeling that comes from selfish generosity is temporary, too.

But Jesus says that if we let our light shine before men so they see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven, if we give in secret for example, then our Father will reward us. And the reward that He wants us to seek is eternal and unfading.

In , in the parable of the Narrow Door, Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God as sitting at table with God Himself and with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets. In , He refers to it as a great banquet.

In , in the Parable of the Talents, the ones who were faithful with His gifts in this life are given even more, and

Matthew 25:23 ESV

23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

The reward is referred to there in as an abundance.

In , on the night of the Last Supper, Jesus says that in the Father’s house are many rooms, and that at His ascension, He returned to His Father’s side to prepare a place for us.

mat 25.34

Matthew 25:34 ESV

34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

And the parable

Matthew 25:46 ESV

46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

And in , Paul says of us

1 Corinthians 3:9 ESV

9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Peter, Paul, and James all refer to the reward of the faithful as an eternal crown of glory - and when Jesus says to His children, “well done, good and faithful servant,” they receive the eternal smile of the King of Glory, and a symbol of His pleasure. The crown is a sign of victory as much as kingship. And the crown does exactly what our good deeds are meant to do - the crown will be our chance to reflect God’s glory and joy forever.

And Peter takes up the same metaphor in

1 cor 3.12-1

1 Corinthians 3:12–15 ESV

12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

And Peter takes up the same metaphor in

From and , we discover that God is working through us to build a building of gold, silver, and precious stones - and the stones are the people of God themselves - and the building is a symbol of the eternal dwelling place of God with us.

1 Peter 2:4–6 ESV

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

1 Peter 2:4–5 ESV

The picture of the building tells us that the labor we do for God’s glory will remain in some way forever, and the clearest way it will do that is in the people we have served. We might ask, How many of the “living stones” will be people I helped place there? Imagine the joy of celebrating eternity with people you loved in this life, remembering how Jesus used you to bless them.

In , on the night of the Last Supper, Jesus says that in the Father’s house are many rooms, and that at His ascension, He returned to His Father’s side to prepare a place for us.

And even though every Christian will be there, in the joy of our savior, we will receive different rewards. And so, he says, when you give, give so that God gets the glory, and store up treasures in heaven.

Jesus says not to squander what He’s entrusted to us.

lk 16.8-9

Luke 16:8–9 ESV

8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

When we put all the pieces together, the reward includes all of the following:

If we

A place with God forever, abiding in the very joy of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

A crown that proclaims that God is pleased with us - and it never fades or rusts for eternity.

Fellowship with God in and one another, celebrating how God worked in us to build each other up.

A feast with God’s people, enjoying the presence and life of God forever.

refers to our inheritance as “more precious than gold” and says that it results in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Now, we turn to the meal Jesus gave us as a foretaste of that great feast - the banquet with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Today we share in the bread and the cup with one another, but in that day the feast will be abundant, and the company will be unbeatable.

The difference between the one who lets their light shine for God’s glory and the one who lives for the praise that comes from others is pretty clear - every time we rob God of glory, we trade an eternal reward for a pretty shallow one.