1 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.

This commandment has a purifying effect. It forbids the disclosure of our almsgiving to human knowledge. Many things are done for the sake of human opinion, as with the Pharisees, who like all mankind at the present day,

"loved the praise of men more than the praise of God."

This is a corrupt source of well-doing. In fact, deeds emanating from such a motive are defiled, and not reckoned as well-doing.

"Let thine alms be in secret" says Jesus; "and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall Himself reward thee openly."

The tendency of this precept is to make us frame our purposes and do our deeds without reference to man, and in view only of Him whose eyes are in every place beholding the evil and the good. Thus our works become

"wrought in God."

The Christadelphian, Dec 1875

Nothing is more natural than for men to seek honour and deference among their fellow men. It is the universal habit, of society "to receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only" (John v, 44). Men everywhere "love the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John xii, 43). It is considered the right thing to nurse "ambition" - to indulge the desire for "fame" - which is the same thing in modern times. Jesus condemns it without qualification. He forbids men to aim at human approbation.

It is his express commandment in almsgiving, for example, to "let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth" (Matt. vi, 3); and in prayer, to "pray to thy Father which is in secret" (verse 6), and in the exercises of divine sorrow, "to appear not unto men to fast" (verse 18). The object is that "thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." For the same reason, he forbids us to accept honourable titles and honourable places, and enjoins us to take a low and serving place.

In illustration of his meaning, he himself washed the feet of his disciples, remarking, "I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you" (John xiii, 15). He expressly said, "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased" (Luke xiv, 11). His command by the apostles is, "All of you be clothed with humility "; put away pride: "mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate" (Rom. xii, 3, 16; Phil. ii, 3; 1 Pet. v, 56).

The object of these commandments must be apparent to every reflecting mind that realises Christ's object in the preaching of the gospel. It is to "purify unto himself a peculiar people" (Tit. ii, 14), to show forth "the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light" (1 Pet. ii, 9).

The celebration of this praise is not finally and effectually rendered until the summons comes forth from the throne, to the immortal multitude of the saints in the day of His appearing: "praise our God all ye His servants" (Rev. xix, 5); who respond to the thrilling mandate in a tempest of enthusiastic acclamation, "as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thunderings" (verse 6). How could a people be prepared for such a part except by the command to crucify the propensity that seeks the honour of men in this evil age?

The acceptance of that honour necessarily engenders self-absorption, and unfits the heart for that self-abasement which is the first ingredient of true glory to God. We can see what the cultivation of ambition does for its poor worshippers. Take the elegant crowd at a levee - the haughty, quick-glancing, susceptible sons and daughters of fashion: how would they be qualified to praise God in the heart-felt way required?

It is the praise of men that fills and controls them - visible in their arrogance, and impatience and pride. They are eaten up with it as with a fever. The commandments of Christ have no acceptability to them. Their motto is "Who is Lord over us?" When the commandments of Christ obtain an entrance, they allay this fever, and bring the mind into a frame in harmony with true reason in the ennobling recognition that all things are derived, and that the glory and credit of everything is ultimately due to God alone, and not safe to be accepted, in however small a measure, at the hands of man in the present age of godlessness.

Christendom Astray L 18.

3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

We have come to see that the public habit of contributing openly to purposes and institutions of philanthropy is inconsistent with the injunction of Christ to do our alms giving secretly; and we have come to see that the common notion that men will be saved by good deeds in this direction is an unscriptural and an untrue notion.

We have come to see that men can only be saved by the belief and obedience of the gospel, and that no amount of alms-giving will avail for those who are outside the covenant-reconciliation with God in Christ. But we must not allow the recognition of this truth to dim our perception of the other. We must not go to the philanthropist and say, " Ah! you expect to be saved by your annual subscriptions, whereas we look for salvation in the Abrahamic covenant ratified by the blood of Christ only."

The philanthropist is undoubtedly mistaken in hoping to make peace with God through his alms-giving; but we shall be mistaken, too, in hoping to find acceptance with Christ through faith alone. Faith without works is dead. He must" do the will" of the Father, as well as believe His word. His will is that we be like Him in character. Christ plainly says, "Be like unto your Father." It is a very high standard, but it is the standard, and it would be the height of folly to ignore it.

Seasons 1.104.

4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

When Christ said, "Do not your alms before men to be seen of them," he did not contradict his other injunction that we are to "let our light shine before men" that men might glorify God.

A man who lives a life of submission to God in the presence of his neighbour is no doubt a man who gives alms, but he does not give them "to be seen of men." He takes care, so far as he is concerned, that they are done in secret. There is all the difference in the world between men who modestly do the will of God in the presence of men, and the men who perform deeds to get a public reputation.

The latter Jesus styles "hypocrites," and says we are "not to be as they hypocrites are."

The Christadelphian, Aug 1898

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

Prayer in secret is genuine prayer. Prayer in the presence of others is not necessarily so. Christ inculcates privacy in the matter; not that he excludes public address to the Father in season; for he himself exemplified this phase (Jno. 11:41, 42), and Paul also (Acts 27:35.) But he enjoins the same secrecy, on the whole, in this matter, as in almsgiving.

Men of God pray much in secret, as Jesus did, who often withdrew himself to solitude to pray (Luke 6:12), and Daniel, who did so three times a day (Dan. 6:10), and David, who seven times a day gave thanks and praise.—(Psalm 119:164.) The men who pray most in secret pray best in public; for the genuineness of their private habit infuses itself into their public petitions. The formality of prayer-saying is a transparent abomination.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1875

Prayer: Public and Private

"Does the command in Matt. 6:5, to pray in secret, forbid public prayer?"

Answer.—No; for Jesus himself prayed before his disciples (Luke 11:1; John 17.), and in the presence of a mixed company of Jews.—(John 11:41, 42.) The apostles also prayed together (Acts 4:24). Paul gave thanks before a ship's company of nearly 300 souls (Acts 27:35); and the believers were in the habit of giving thanks in each other's presence.—(1 Cor. 14:16–17).

What Jesus condemned was the offering of private petition in a public and ostentatious manner, as was the custom with the Pharisees in Jerusalem, who performed their personal devotions,

"at the corners of the streets, that they might be seen of men."

This sort of thing is execrable, in whatever matter or manner it is perpetrated; but it does not exclude the edifying luxury of collective worship, which may be as pure and modest on the part of the person leading it as the prayer prayed in secret.

The Christadelphian, Feb 1873

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

This is plainly expressed in another part of the word of wisdom thus: "Labour not to be rich" (Prov. xxiii, 4). Nothing in the whole range of language could be plainer than this. Christ, who surely knew better than all, states a fact which constitutes a powerful reason for the commandment not to aim at riches. "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God" (Luke xviii, 24).

Riches he calls "the mammon of unrighteousness." He does not say their possession is absolutely inconsistent with divine favour and inheritance of life eternal. But He gives us to understand that the danger of their "choking the word" is extreme (Matt. xiii, 22), and that the only safety of those who have them, lies in turning them by use into friends and safeguards.

His advice is: "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness" (Luke xvi, 9). How this is to be done, he indicates: "Give alms: provide yourselves bags that wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not" (Luke xii, 33). This advice is repeated by the apostles "Charge them that are rich in this world . . . that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come" (1 Tim. vi, 17). "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Peter iv, 10).

The rich in Christendom do not conform to these divine prescriptions. On the contrary, they lavish their superabundance on themselves in a thousand ways that minister to "the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." If they get more, their plan is to enlarge the basis of their own individual aggrandisement. They would be considered fools if they did otherwise. How Christ regards the matter (that, in fact, he considers them fools for doing that which the world considers them wise for doing), they may learn beforehand from Luke xii, 16:-

"The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do; I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, THOU FOOL, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then, whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God."

Here we have the law of Christ forbidding the poor to labour to be rich, and commanding the rich to use their abundance in the alleviation of the want around them. What is the practice of Christendom with regard to these institutes? Is not "laying up treasure upon earth" the one thing aimed at, the one thing commended, the one thing needful and respectable on all hands? and do not the rich resent the suggestion of liberality to the poor as an impertinence, entitling them to fling the suggestor into the gutters?

These things are true. But the commandment calmly remains, and we shall have to face it one day, as Jesus says: "The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge you at the last day."

We may prosper in our diligent laying by, or pleasantly enjoy ourselves inside the ring-fence we set up for our unrighteous mammon - justifying our course on the social economic theories yielded by the experience of a sinful generation; but where will both be in the day when we emerge empty-handed from the grave, to appear before Him who will "judge the living and the dead," and who will open our eyes to the fact that what we had in the day of our probation, was His? He will decide the issue on His own principles alone, and not on the principle that sinners have rendered popular among themselves.

Christendom Astray L 18.

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth

Here is a common practice condemned. To accumulate property is considered a virtue. It is enjoined as an "honourable ambition," and sanctioned by so many high-sounding and pleasant phrases of commendation, that men get at last to think it is positively a highly moral achievement to make money. There is certainly no more sure way of securing the good opinion of men than to get rich.

But there is another side to the subject: that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. The possession of riches is an inheritance of great peril. A rich man needs to be more anxious and careful towards God than a poor man. It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. So declared Christ, who knew what was in man, and who here gives us this commandment, forbidding us to get into the position of rich men.

He commands us to (17) lay up our treasures in heaven. Paul and Peter tell us how this is to be done (1 Tim. 6:18, 19; 1 Pet. 4:9, 10), viz., to use the goodness of God that may be in our hands in the blessing of those who are destitute, and in the doing and contriving of those things that shall be for the welfare of men in the gospel. Very few—scarcely any—receive this doctrine; but there it is, to judge us at the last.

It is no doctrine of human invention. It is too much opposed to human instincts for that. It is Christ's direction to those who would follow him. But it is now, as it was in the days of Paul, who, speaking of professors, says,

"All seek their own."

Yet God has opened the hearts of a few, by the power of His Word, to obey His Word, to give themselves as living sacrifices for the work of His house. The time is too short to hope for much increase in the number of these, but His Word will accomplish that for which it has been sent.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1875

24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

It is not without the profoundest reason in the nature of things, that it is written, "The friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God" (James iv, 4). "NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS.... YE CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON" (Matt. vi, 24).

The force of this reasoning increases tenfold when we contemplate the present situation in the light of its divine explanation and the divine purpose concerning it. We must seek for this explanation in the beginning of things - the beginning as Mosaically exhibited (an exhibition endorsed by Christ, and therefore to be trusted in the face of all modern theories and speculations).

This beginning shows us man in harmony with God, and things "very good." Then it shews us disobedience (the setting aside of the divine will as the rule of human action - alias, sin), and as the result of this, the divine fellowship withdrawn, and men driven off to exile and to death, permitted only, thereafter, to approach in sacrifice, in token of the final way of return. The present world is the continuance and enlargement of the evil state of man, resulting from man's alienation from God in the beginning. It is enlarged and aggravated.

...we have harmony with God at the beginning of things, and harmony with Him at the end of things, and the dark and dreadful interval of "the present evil world" between, in which God is not obeyed nor recognised, but the pleasures, gratifications, and interests of mere natural existence made the objects of universal pursuit. In this dark interval, however, the divine work goes on of separating a family from the evil, in preparation for the day of recovery and blessing. It is not easy, in view of these things, to realise the reasonableness of the divine command to His servants meanwhile, not to be conformed to an evil world, in which God is disowned, and to which they do not belong?

Now, how does Christendom look in this light? Is it not evident at a glance that this elementary axiom of the law of Christ is totally disregarded? The idea of a Christian of the ordinary type being "not of the world" is an anomaly only calculated to excite the sarcastic smile of the cynic. If the ordinary "Christian" is not "of the world," where are we to find the people that are? To call a man "a man of the world," has, in fact, become one of the highest compliments that can be paid to a man's judgement and culture: as a man at home everywhere, who sees good in everything; and nothing very wrong in anything.

In the ears of such a man, the distinctions and scrupulosities enjoined by Christ and his apostles have an antiquated sound: and worse - a sound of uncharity, of harshness, of narrow-minded and bigoted sectarianism. The earnest recognition and observance of right and wrong, as arising out of the law of Christ, are in his eyes the symptoms of an odious fanaticism, disqualifying the subject of them for society or the commonest good fellowship.

Yet "the man of the world," with his kindly unconcern about all things, is a good Christian by the popular standard. He is "of the world" essentially; and though Christ proclaimed himself as "not of the world" and commanded his disciples to accept a similar position, this man's being of the world, is held to be no drawback to his Christian standing in the eyes of Christendom. No wonder! The church is the world. What is there in and of the world that the church does not mix with? (and by "the church" we may understand the dissenting bodies as well as the State establishment).

Take the political sphere. If there is anything characteristically "of the world," it is politics, whether in the exercise or the discussion of temporal power, and its forms. It is written: "The KINGDOMS of this world are to become (at Christ's return) the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." Consequently, the kingdoms are meanwhile "of this world." In modern usage "kingdom" has become "State," because the political form of the State varies. Where is the church in relation to the State? The alliance of the church with the State is of itself a sufficient illustration of the departure of Christendom from the commandments of Christ. It is a proof that the modem church is "of this world," even if the private practice of its members were in harmony with the mind of Christ.

The common private practice of those who consider themselves "Christians," removes any doubt that the public form of things might leave. That common private practice may be summed up as an earnest discharge of all the parts and functions that belong, or could possibly belong, to citizens of the present world. There is no point, part or feature of the present evil world, in which they are not found incorporate.

...What is to be done in such a state of things by the man earnestly seeking to be the servant of Christ, and desiring to be found of him at his coming, in the attitude of a chaste and loyal bride, preparing for marriage? Common sense would supply the answer if it were not plainly given to us by God Himself:

"Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. vi, 1718).

The questions with which Paul prefaces this quotation strike home the reasonableness of this command at a blow: "What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial: or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?"

The believer of the gospel has no alternative but to step aside from the world. He cannot otherwise carry out the will of Christ concerning those whom he asks for his own. What this stepping aside from the world means, there need be no difficulty in the earnest man determining for himself. Christ and the apostles have in themselves furnished an example which we are invited to imitate (1 Peter ii, 21; John xiii, 15; xv, 1820; 1 Cor. xi, 1: iv, 17).

It does not mean seclusion: for they lived an open daily public life. It does not mean isolation: for they are always seen among men. It means abstinence from the aims and principles of the world, and from the movements and enterprises in which these find expression. The activities of Christ and the apostles were all in connection with and on behalf of, the work of God among men. They never appear in connection with the enterprises of the world.

Their temporal avocations are all private. Christ was a carpenter; Paul a tent maker; but at these, both worked as the sons of God. Disciples of Christ may follow any occupation of good repute; (they are expressly prohibited from having to do with anything of an evil appearance or giving occasion of reproach to the adversary - Rom. xii. 9; 1 Thess. v, 22). But in all they do, they are to remember they are the Lord's servants, and to act as if the matter they have in hand were performed directly to him (Col. iii, 2324). Even servants are to do their part to a bad master faithfully as "to the Lord" (1 Peter, ii, 1820).

The sense in which they stand apart from the world is in the objects for which they work, and in the use to which they put the time and means which they call "their own." They are to "follow after (works of) righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart" (2 Tim. ii, 22). They are to "deny ungodliness and worldly lusts," and "live soberly and righteously and godly" (Tit. ii, 12). They are not to live in pleasure (Tit. iii, 3; 1 Tim. v, 6). They are to live to give God pleasure, in which, as they grow, they will find their own highest pleasure. They are to be "holy in all manner of conversation," cleansing themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and walking as those who are the temple of God among men (1 Pet. i, 15; 2 Cor. xiii, 7; 2 Cor. vi, 16).

Guided by these apostolic principles, they will abstain from the defiling habits that are common to ungodly Christendom, amongst which smoking and drinking stand prominent. And as men waiting and preparing for the kingdom of God (whose citizenship is in heaven, and not upon the earth) they accept the position of "strangers and pilgrims" among men. They are not at home; they are passing on. They take no part with Caesar. They pay his taxes and obey his laws where they do not conflict with the laws of Christ; but they take no part in his affairs.

They do not vote; they do not ask the suffrages of his supporters; they do not aspire to Caesar's honours or emoluments; they do not bear arms. They are sojourners in Caesar's realms during the short time God may appoint for their probation; and as such, they sustain a passive and non-resisting attitude, bent only upon earning Christ's approbation at his coming, by their obedience to his commandments during his absence. They are not of the world, even as he was not of the world; and therefore they refuse to be conformed to it. The way is narrow and full of self-denial - too much so for those who would like to perform the impossible feat of "making the best of both worlds." But the destination is so attractive, and the results of the cross-bearing so glorious, that the enlightened pilgrim deliberately chooses the journey, and resolutely endures its hardships.

Christendom Astray L 18.

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no [anxious care] thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Take no [anxious care] thought for your life - difficult only for those who have not learnt to have that faith in God which Christ commands; and without which, we are no sons of His.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1875