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. 2 Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 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 6:1-4 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Observe here, 1. The duty directed to, almsgiving after a right manner; Do not your alms before man: some copies read it, Do not your righteousness before men: because almsgiving is a considerable part of that righteousness and justice which we owe unto our neighbour: he that is uncharitable is unjust: acts of charity are acts of justice and equity. It also intimates to us, that the matter of our alms should be goods righteously gotten: to give alms of what is gotten unjustly, is robbery, and not righteousness.
Observe, 2. Our Savoiur’s cautionary direction in giving alms, Take heed that you do them not be seen of men. It is one thing to do our alms that men may see them, and another thing to do them that we may be seen of men. We ought to do alms before men, that God may be glorified: but not to be seen of men, that ourselves may be applauded.
Observe, 3. The particular sin which our Saviour warns his disciples against in giving their alms, namely, ostentation and vain glory, which the Pharisees were notoriously guilty of: Sounding a trumpet, to call people about them when they gave their alms.
Thence learn, That the doing any good work, especially any work of charity and mercy, vain-gloriously, and not with an eye to God’s glory, will certainly miss of the reward of well-doing in another world.
Observe, 4. The advice given by our Saviour for the prevention of this sin and danger; and that is, to do our alms as secretly as we can; Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that is, conceal it from thy nearest relations, and, if possible, from thyself.
Note thence, That the secrecy of our charity is one good evidence of its sincerity. Hence the Egyptians made the emblem of charity to be a blind boy reaching out honey to a bee that had lost her wings.