"Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Matthew 6:1
"And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. Matthew 6:5
"Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. Matthew 6:16
As we enter chapter 6 of Matthew’s recounting of the Sermon on the Mount, let’s consider the big picture of the first eighteen verses. In this section Jesus continues to reveal more of the deeper spirituality of His disciples and citizens of His kingdom. Three disciplines of the faith are discussed: charitable giving, praying, and fasting.
In each case Jesus said “When you give… pray… fast…” That He said, When, not If, reveals that these are not special activities to be observed by only some of His followers, but by all of His followers. These are not the only actions undertaken by Christ’s disciples, but are three essential disciplines.
That said, before diving deeper into what Jesus said about these three, how are you and I doing with just these three? Are all three even on the radar? Are all three regular disciplines or only sporadically undertaken? The statistics of how many professing believers give in a biblical manner say only around 13% tithe.(1) When it comes to prayer, how often do we give regular time to prayer, privately, with our families, and corporately in prayer meetings at church? For how many of us is fasting (and not merely from eating) a spiritual discipline?
Before asking “How do I do these things?”, let’s start first with “Do I do these things?”
(1) While a majority of evangelicals say tithing — giving 10% of one's income to the church — is a biblical commandment, only an estimated 13% engage in the practice, while half give away less than 1% of their income annually, a new study shows. Christian Post