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Doing Good Without A Trumpet
The Lord told us, “For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good” (John 12.8; cf. Matthew 26.11; Mark 14.7).
In doing them “good whensoever ye will,” the guidelines are stated in the Lord’s teaching from Matthew 6.1-4: “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. 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. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.”
Yet we see much “trumpet sounding” this time of the year. Notice what the Lord called those who do so: “Hypocrites”! Further, he said, “They have their reward.” Manmade churches publicize their works for one day out of 365, as proof of their love and honor for the babe. Jesus said of those in John 5.43, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”
True disciples feed the poor now and the other 364 days of the year “in secret” for they act per the guideline stated in Romans 2.29: “He is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
