But when you give alms, let not your left hand know what your right hand does:
All Commentaries on Matthew 6:3 Go To Matthew 6
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Jesus is not talking about literal left and right hands. Rather, he speaks spiritually with intentional exaggeration. “If it is possible,” he says, “for you to remain unaware, let this be your goal. The result, if it be possible, is that your giving be concealed from the very hands that serve.” It is not, as some say, that we should hide it from wrongheaded people, for he has commanded here that it should be concealed from all. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
