Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 6:1

When we look at this verse, we see a few archaic words not used in the common language: heed – pay attention, note, consider are a few synonyms. The beauty of memorizing the KJV is these words, many of which were created just for the translation. This phrase Take heed should make us pause, it’s important, it’s telling us consider everything.

“Take heed that ye do not your alms…”

Next we go on to the action or the verb of the verse, “alms”. What is an alm? well synonyms are: gifts, charity, endowments, subsidy. This is money given to people who have need. For those who God has blessed and they have extra, it is duty to give alms of the excess.

To give alms is different then: paying taxes, because this is when money is taken by force and part of the money is given to the poor, we don’t have a choice. The motivation for alms is thanksgiving, giving back to God as he has blessed us. But there is a qualifier to the verb, “before men”

“Alms before men”

Jesus has qualified this verb – alms, as giving alms or giving charity to poor people before men. Which men? This men is a generic anybody (doesn’t matter the sex). next another modifier on the verb, more of a clarification of alms before men -> “to be seen of them”. So we are to be careful when giving charity that people don’t see us doing it.

But why? Jesus answers “otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. ” This is huge! When we give money, resources, anything to someone in need. We need to do it with out being seen by them? Yes exactly! We need to give this gift of thanksgiving to God, who does see us, to people who don’t see us.

The last part of this verse is the response: rewards from your father. You see this is a promise, we give in secret, we give to those in need in secret, and God will give to us. We don’t give to get, but we give so God will be seen.

I’m reminded of a story of a man in what is today turkey, about 300 AD, he was a Christian who took this very seriously. When he would see needs in his community he would secretly help people in need. There was one case where a man had three daughters, he had lost all of his money in bad business deals, but without wealth, his daughters had no dowry or home starting money given by the father, traditional in that day to get married and start a family. This was so serious for that culture, that the result of not having the money would mean the girls would be sold into prostitution and never marry.

The story is this man, we will call him Nick, who was giving the money, did it secretly, throwing the bags of gold in the window, one bag each night. One night Nick was caught by the father of the girls, who began to thank him. Nick begged the father not to thank him, and asked that God be given the glory. His intention was to do it secretly, not before the eyes of men. Nick was being used of God to save this family. I’m sure he received his reward in Heaven, but we’ve dragged his name through the mud here in this fallen earth.

Today this man is almost worshiped and commercialized for his acts of virtue, but they should have been kept secret! Too often we miss the point, Secret Santa means, we give gifts that nobody really needs, and we are found out in the end. I’m sure God allowed this father to catch Nick throwing the money, but it was to be a lesson for us on how we should give. It wasn’t about Nick, it was God who had given him the money, and motivated his heart with compassion to give it.

God has blessed me over and over again in my life by people blessing me with secret gifts. I know the God of the universe who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, his wealth is endless, and he has lavished it upon me in times of need. When our family was going through major problems as my son was having brain surgery, some saint blessed us with a brand new suburban. That vehicle has been such a blessing, I still have no idea who gave it to us, but I do know God received the Glory.

I think of a great man Plano, who now turns out to have been a guardian angel for so many while he was alive, secretly giving resources to help our veterans who were so badly injured by war. He made it clear, his rewards were in heaven, he even swore a governor to silence until his trip to heaven.

We must think eternally, when we are blessed, we need to give that glory to God! And when God gives us abundance we must give that in secret to those in need. Our reward is from God who is in heaven! God can give some mighty fine rewards, we just need to trust him.

Lord, you know my heart. I wish to be used by you, may I reflect all glory to you alone Lord who is the only one worthy of praise. Give me opportunity to secretly give resources to those in need. Lord you know the pressures that I’m dealing with, and I surrender those to you. You know about our well breaking down, please give us the knowledge and strength to fix it, and the resources to repair it. Lord, you alone know the damages in my family, please take hold of me and show me my sins, point out my flaws, so I can work through the process of fixing those broken things. In all things I want to honor you!

verse breakdown:

T H T Y D N Y A B M, T B S O T: O Y H N R O Y F W I I H.