That your alms may be in secret: and your Father who sees in secret himself shall reward you openly.
All Commentaries on Matthew 6:4 Go To Matthew 6
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Serm. in Mont., ii, 2: Above the Lord had spoken of righteousness in general. He now pursues it through its different parts.
Thus what He says, “Do not sound a trumpet before thee,” refers to what He had said above, “Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men.”.
Serm. in Mont., ii, 2: And such sinners receive from God the Searcher of hearts none other reward than punishment of their deceitfulness; “Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.”.
This refers to what He had said above, “Otherwise ye shall have no reward of your Father which is in heaven;” and He goes on to show them that they should not do their alms as the hypocrites, but teaches them how they should do them.
But according to this interpretation, it will be no fault to have a respect top leasing the faithful; and yet we are forbidden to propose as the end of any good work the pleasing of any kind of men. Yet if you would have men to imitate your actions which may be pleasing to them, they must be done before unbelievers as well as believers. A third interpretation is ridiculous; that the left hand signifies the wife, and that because women are wont to be more close in the matter of expense out of the family purse, therefore the charities of the husband should be secret from the wife, for the avoiding of domestic strife. But this command is addressed to women as well as to men, what then is the left hand, from which women are bid to conceal their alms? Is the husband also the left hand of the wife? And when it is commanded such that they enrich each other with good works, it is clear that they ought not to hide their good deeds; nor is a theft to be committed to do God service. But if in any case something must needs be done covertly, from respect to the weakness of the other, though it is not unlawful, yet that we cannot suppose the wife to be intended by the left hand here is clear from the purport of the whole paragraph; no, not even such an oneas he might well call left. But that which is blamed in hypocrites, namely, that they seek praise of men, this you are forbid to do; the left hand therefore seems to signify the delight in men’s praise; the right hand denotes the purpose of fulfilling the divine commands. Whenever then a desire to gain honour frommen mingles itself with the conscience of him that does alms, it is then the left hand knowing what the right hand, the right conscience, does. “Let not the left hand know,” therefore, “what the right hand doeth,” means, let not the desire of men’s praise mingle with your conscience.
But in the Greek copies, which are earlier, we have not the word, “openly.”
