Do Good to Please God

Matthew 6:3

But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

Matthew 5:16
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

            How do you reconcile these two verses together?

Are we supposed to not let anyone know when we do good? The second passage says that the world needs to see our good works but my right hand should not know what my left-hand is doing

If you notice in the first verse only our father needs to see what we do. We are not to try to impress others in our giving. That is always and only between the Christian and is God.

But the world, however, needs to know that the Christian cares for others and looks for ways to do good. The world today thinks only government can help the needy. That is not so!

Throughout all of history government and people in power have neglected the hungry and the weak. Many religions speak of alms and seem to care but they do it to earn credit in the eyes of people and whatever God they serve not so the Christian. We do it for two reasons, because we care about people and because we are commanded by our Heavenly Father to do so.

Our good works should lead those who know about them to “glorify God”. By this we learn that it is not just our good works because of our goodness but because of our good God. Our testimony must accompany our good works.

Should we need to help someone with their rent and they want to pay us back we need to tell them that they cannot repay us for it is God’s money and a need to give him by helping others with the money. Thus our good works will help them to look beyond us and to see our great God.

Our offerings in church are nobody’s business but God’s. The good works are everybody’s business and they need to know when we do it, why we do it, so that they can glorify God. – Dr. George Van Sandt is a Christian counselor and Pastor

Daily Bible Reading: Genesis 36-38; Romans 12

Quote of the day:  You can often help others more by correcting your own faults than theirs. Remember, and you should, because of your own experience, that allowing God to correct your faults is not easy. Be patient with people, wait for God to work with them as He wills. Francois Fenelon

Bible Memory: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. Psalm 119:9