Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 6

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.

"You cannot expect to be paid twice; if therefore you take your reward in the applause of men, who give you a high character for generosity, you cannot expect to have any reward from God." We ought to have a single eye to God's accepting what we give, and to have little or no thought of what man may say concerning our charitable gifts.

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.

And they will have no more; there is, in their case, no laying up of any store of good works before God. Whatever they may have done, they have taken full credit for it in the praise of men.

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

Our blessed Lord does not tell his disciples to give alms, but he takes it for granted that they do that. How could they be his disciples if they did not do so? But he tells them to take care that they do not do this in order to get honour and credit from it. Oh! How much is done in this world that would be very good, but it is spoilt in the doing through the motive—done to be seen by men. You have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

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.

The motive that leads a man to give will form the true estimate of what he does. If he gives to be seen by men, then when he is seen by men, he has the reward he sought, and he will never have any other. Let us never do our alms before men, to be seen by them.

Our King sets people right regarding almsgiving. It is taken for granted that we give to the poor. How could we be in Christ’s kingdom if we did not?

Alms may be given publicly, but not for the sake of publicity. It is important that we have a right aim, for if we obtain the result of a wrong aim, our success will be a failure. If we give to be seen, we shall be seen, and there will be an end of it, Ye have no reward of your father which is in heaven. We lose the only reward worth having. But if we give to please our Father, we shall find our reward at His hands.

Regarding our intent and design, we must “take heed,” for nobody goes right without carefully aiming to do so. Our giving of alms should be a holy duty, carefully performed, not for our own honor, but for God’s pleasure. Let each reader ask himself how much he has done in the way the King prescribes.