Doing Righteousness

by L.A. Hickling | Category: General | Apr 1991

The Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples about doing righteousness, and this is a very necessary practice in our Christian lives. We must be quite clear though that however many righteous acts we do they can never merit salvation.

Salvation from sin is the free gift of God, purchased by the Lord Jesus, and accepted by faith and not in any way dependent on what we do: salvation is not of works. Having accepted God's gift we become one of His children and then it is expected that the doing of righteous acts will have a prominent place in our lives.

The Lord Jesus gave some very important teaching to His disciples as to how these acts were to be done. He warned them:

Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father which is in heaven (Mat. 6:1).

He referred particularly to three acts of righteousness considered important in the lives of the Jews almsgiving, prayer and fasting. It seems evident that such exercises were expected in the lives of disciples because the Lord said when you give to the needy, when you pray, when you fast, not if you do these things. But He emphasized the way in which they should be done:

When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee (Mat. 6:2).

And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites: for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men (Mat. 6:5).

When ye fast, be not ... of a sad countenance ... seen of men (Mat. 6:16).

That was how the Scribes and Pharisees acted. They gave alms and they liked to make a show of it; they prayed where they could be seen; they fasted and took care that their physical appearance showed it. In short, they liked others to see their righteous acts. So they had their reward as men passed favourable comment on their piety - a reward there and then, rather than a reward hidden in heaven. Their motive was wrong, and the Lord warned against this attitude; a warning that is timely still. Some acts of righteousness may be done completely in private, but it is inevitable that some, by their very nature, will be seen by men (Mat. 5:16). We need to take care, however, that this is not our reason for doing them. We do not need to advertise our munificence, nor the time spent in prayer and fasting. So the Lord said:

But when thou doest alms, let not thy let hand know what thy right hand doeth ... when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret ... when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father which is in secret (Mat. 6:3,6,17,18).

Our Father in heaven sees these things. The day will come when they will be revealed.

L.A. Hickling | Apr 1991
General