³ But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: ⁴ That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

Matthew 6:3-4

Secrecy is not always used for deceptive reasons, here Jesus is teaching us our we need to be giving in secret. So secret that our left hand doesn’t even know what the right hand is doing. This continues the theme for the last two verse of this chapter, we are give charity, money, help to those in need, but we are to do it, so they don’t even know we’ve done it.

The promise of doing this is the Father who sees what we do in secret will reward up openly. That’s a promise with purpose. If we give to a need that God is showing us, he will reward us openly, which means others will see our rewards.

When memorizing this verse, I start with the But – This is the contrast from the last verse where the hypocrite would play a trumpet when he gave. “But when thou dost alms” – When we give charity, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. The KJV shows through in this verse – “thy” is an archaic form for “your”. Now I can form a mental picture of this verse, seeing my hands and imagining that they can communicate with each other, but when this action is done, they are silent.

I know for myself, but I think it’s a cultural thing, it’s a sin thing, we are narcissistic and we desire attention. So many people desire to be in the hip and woke crowd, because when they are there, they are seen. This is a paradox, because it goes against our human nature, we are to do that deed without a single person knowing.

Lord, help me to give in secret ways, that I may glorify You alone, and not bring any glory to myself. Give me insight on needs around me, that I might help, give me ability to execute so only your glory is revealed.