Motivation Matters

Motivation Matters

Matthew 6:1-16, 16-18

“We might have just handed a 4-year-old a loaded weapon...”
--Chris Wetherell

"It feels good to put yourself out there. It then gets curtailed by this sort of attention economy
dynamic where nobody might respond or like it or engage with it, and in that way, it becomes a
competition.”
--Samira Rajabi

1) A Preliminary Principle (vs 1)

“Jesus says, ‘Beware.' He is explaining that this can trip you up; it can surprise you. It is an
ordinary temptation, not an extraordinary one. Beware of practicing your righteousness,
showcasing your wisdom, performing your faith before others where you can be seen. Because
the longer you are in faith communities, the more you learn what it looks like to be
humble—what facial expression to make, how to carry yourself, what words to say, how to be
seen without looking like you want to be seen. The longer you are a Christian, the more
believable you can be. You get good at it...Jesus is a teacher of the heart, and he’s always
getting us to think more deeply about the posture of our hearts rather than just the moral
precision of our actions. Jesus is pointing to a deeper work that teaches us to resist a
performative life altogether.”
--John Starke

2) Three Practical Examples (vss 2-6, 16-18)

Matthew 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 23:3 They preach, but do not practice.
Matthew 23:28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of
hypocrisy and lawlessness.
John 5:44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the
glory that comes from the only God?

James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and
widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (CSB)

“The kind of people who have been so transformed by their daily walk with God that good deeds
naturally flow from their character are precisely the kind of people whose left hand would not
notice what their right hand is doing—as, for example, when driving one’s own car or speaking
one’s native language. What they do they do naturally, often automatically, simply because of
what they are pervasively and internally. These are people who do not have to invest a lot of
reflection in doing good for others. Their deeds are ‘in secret’ no matter who is watching, for
they are absorbed in love of God and of those around them. They hardly notice their own deed,
and rarely remember it.”
–Dallas Willard

“Christian giving is to be marked by self-sacrifice, and self-forgetfulness, not any
self-congratulation. What we should seek when giving to the needy is neither the praise of men,
nor a ground for self-commendation, but rather the approval of God.”
--John Stott

Hebrews 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God
must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

“What he says of the hypocrites sounds fine at first: ‘They love...to pray.’ But unfortunately it is
not prayer which they love, nor the God they are supposed to be praying to. No, they love
themselves and the opportunity which public praying gives them to parade themselves.”
--John Stott

“In a single sentence Jesus revises the whole OT cultus. It is no longer the Holy of Holies that is
the special meeting place between God and the believer; it is the room with a lock.”
--Dale Bruner

“It is even more pernicious if I turn myself into a spectator of my own prayer performance...I can
lay on a very nice show for myself even in the privacy of my own room.”
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer

3) Three Pertinent Lessons
1. Jesus expects us to engage in spiritual practices; however, when it comes to them, our
motivation does matter.

2. There is a tension in the Christian life between doing good works and spiritual disciplines
publicly (5:16) and doing them privately (6:1-18).
Matthew 5:16 ...let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give
glory to your Father who is in heaven.

“We are to show when tempted to hide and hide when we are tempted to show.”
--A.B. Bruce

3. The need for recognition and approval is not a sinful desire; rather it’s a disordered desire that
can only be fulfilled and satisfied by God Himself.

“We are made to want notice. One of the most characteristic remarks of the child is ‘Watch me!’
The child’s ‘watch me’ becomes the adult’s more unspoken (but just as deep) ‘notice me.’ This
drive to be noticed is not only the result of sin but is also part of the image of God. We were
made to notice and to be noticed by God, to imagine and image his pleasure.”
--Dale Bruner