Take heed that you give not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise you have no reward of your Father who is in heaven.
All Commentaries on Matthew 6:1 Go To Matthew 6
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Take heed, says He, that you do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them; otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Here He has mentioned righteousness generally, then He follows it up in detail. For a deed which is done in the way of alms is a certain part of righteousness, and therefore He connects the two by saying, Therefore, when you do your alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. In this there is a reference to what He says before, Take heed that you do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them. But what follows, Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward, refers to that other statement which He has made above, Otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Then follows, But when you do alms. When He says, But you, what else does He mean but, Not in the same manner as they? What, then, does He bid me do? But when you do alms, says He, let not your left hand know what your right hand does. Hence those other parties so act, that their left hand knows what their right hand does. What, therefore, is blamed in them, this you are forbidden to do. But this is what is blamed in them, that they act in such a way as to seek the praises of men. And therefore the left hand seems to have no more suitable meaning than just this delight in praise. But the right hand means the intention of fulfilling the divine commands. When, therefore, with the consciousness of him who does alms is mixed up the desire of man's praise, the left hand becomes conscious of the work of the right hand: Let not, therefore, your left hand know what your right hand does; i.e. Let there not be mixed up in your consciousness the desire of man's praise, when in doing alms you are striving to fulfil a divine command.
