TRUE PIETY
MATTHEW 6:1-18
In a very real sense, if your relationship with God is genuine this passage will not worry you. You know Jesus is talking about someone else. If your heart is in the right place, it doesn’t matter if your prayer, or your fasting or your giving is seen by others. Because that does not matter to you. If your piety is on public display, it was probably for some other reason, and not because you wanted the credit from people around you, nor was it actually false piety.
But if you examine Jesus’ words carefully, he actually was not speaking to the hypocritical. He was speaking to the genuine and teaching them to avoid the behaviour of the hypocritical. The clue is in vv7-8, “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
“They think they will be heard because of their many words.” Hypocrites think that God is also hypocritical. God likes big numbers. Lavish words, lavish actions, lavish gestures, lavish expenditure befits God. Harsh discipline, painful sacrifices, self-denial—these are what pleases God. But we too can be caught up in this game and misjudge God. Is it not true that much of our demonstrations of piety these days are tied up with symbols: words of love, praise, dedication, humility and even contrition; acts like raising hands, kneeling, stoking of emotions; offerings of praise, clap offerings, even our gifts and tithes are symbols. As in all symbols, they are cheap (or cheaper) substitutes for the real things.
But these are not what God responds to. “If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” “Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” (and it is not from God because they pander to a very different person.) God who “owns the cattle on a thousand hills” has no need. And as Jesus said, he doesn’t even need you to tell him what you need! He knows!
The key is at the end: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
As you are kind and generous, so too God is kind and generous. As you love, so too God loves. As you are forgiving, so too God is forgiving. As you desire to draw close to God, so too God desires to draw close to you. This is what Christian piety is. And this is how our being salt and light can be so powerful, and can be such a blessing. It is not about “pleasing God” in the sense that God desires our gifts and sacrifices, our words of praise and worship, our demonstrations and expressions of love and humility; it is about giving physical expression to his image in us, so that the world will know him for who he truly is. This is when we truly honour him and worship him. And then he is pleased to reward us with his response.