Lesson One • Giving to Those in Need
Devotion 2: To Be Seen
Pastor John Carter
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 6:1
If you have kids, or even young nieces or nephews, you can probably relate to the idea of how excited they get when they want to share something amazing they have done. It might be that they colored between the lines for the first time, so they are bringing a picture for you to see. They may want to show you they were able to achieve a new Karate move in their Karate class, so they demonstrate it for you. If you spend just a short period of time with children, it will be inevitable that in some form or fashion the child will want to show you something to receive your praise or recognition. Kids are always looking for the opportunity to get the approval of their parents, so they continually bring things to us as parents that they think we will be proud of or pleased with. Similar to kids, we (as adults) like people to know the good things or the amazing things we do in order to be recognized. In other words, we like to be seen.
We see this idea of being seen played out in many different factors of our adult lives. As young adults, we like to recognize the best and brightest students. We have bumper stickers put on the back of cars that talk about how smart our kids are. In the workplace, we strive to be recognized for our good work, and maybe our good ideas that help the place of employment we are at. More than anywhere else, we really see this idea of being seen on social media outlets. Sometimes as you are scrolling through these social media platforms, you see people’s good posts and it gives you warm and fuzzy feel-good emotions. Ultimately, we all want to be seen and recognized for the things we do or the amazing accomplishments we participate in.
So, why does Jesus warn us when it comes to the practicing of our righteousness (which is an amazing accomplishment) to not do it to be seen by others? Should we not be an example for the world? The major aspect of this text and the best way to understand it is in the title, “To Be Seen.”
Is our motive in being seen pointing the people to see us, or is it pointing them to Someone else? This is the battle of humanity since the beginning. We are such a prideful and boastful creation. We like the spotlight on us so we are often looking for that recognition because we want the pride of self to shine bright. We are often willing to substitute the light of ourselves to shine brighter than the glory of God.
As we walk through this week and examine some of the things Jesus is teaching us in Matthew 6:1-4, we should start by examining our own self, our motive in doing good, or practicing righteousness. Is it an authentic motive to show people about Jesus? Is it to show others His goodness? Are we wanting to share with others His rich blessings? Can you be honest with yourself and confess that maybe there have been times you have been motivated by the temporary good feeling of being seen by others? If your reward is to be seen by others, then Jesus tells us there is no reward from the Father in Heaven. If you ask me, I would much rather have an eternal reward from the Father in Heaven than a temporary reward that only lasts for the short moments of recognition.