<p>6:1&nbsp;<em>Take heed you do not do your good deeds</em>- Gk. 'to hold the mind towards'. Again and again, the Lord's emphasis is upon the innermost functioning of the mind and thought processes. For to be spiritually minded is the essence of Christianity.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>Before men, to be seen by them</em>- The same Greek phrase is used in Mt. 23:5 about the Pharisees doing all their works motivated by this desire to be seen of men. What we do&nbsp;<em>unseen</em>&nbsp;by men is therefore the litmus test of our love and Christianity. We should almost have an obsession about doing good works unseen by men- we must &quot;take heed&quot;, consciously set our mind, to do unseen acts of kindness to others. Because the &quot;reward&quot;, the nature of our eternity, will depend on these things.</p>
<p><em>Else you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven-&nbsp;</em>Salvation is by grace, but the 'reward' will be in terms of how the&nbsp;<em>nature</em>&nbsp;of our eternal existence reflects good things done in this life. The Greek word for 'reward' is quite common in the Sermon, and the first usage of it suggests that the reward is given in Heaven right now (Mt. 5:12 &quot;great&nbsp;<em>is</em>&nbsp;your reward in Heaven&quot;, s.w. Jn. 4:36 &quot;he that reaps receives wages / reward, and gathers fruit unto life eternal&quot;; Mt. 5:46; 6:1,2,5,16). Yet the Lord comes from Heaven to give us the rewards after we have been resurrected at the last day (Mt. 20:8; Rev. 11:18; 22:12). So if we will be given an eternal reward for our works, it follows that there is a recompense for us noted in the books of Heaven at the very point we do the good deed. But there will be no such recompense for things which are openly seen of men, or anything which is consciously done so as to be seen by men. In the reality of life, the hardest thing about good deeds is when we sense nobody appreciates us, that we are holding the fort alone, that we have no recognition. On one hand, recognition for labour is hugely important to our basic psychological makeup- and employers have all come to realize that. It is only by appreciating the principle of eternal blessing for being<em> u</em>nrecognized that we can live the way Jesus asks of us. It is my observation in the life of believers that often the Lord's most zealous servants are marginalized, falsely accused, rejected from churches etc. The Lord's teaching here makes perfect sense of that phenomenon. He wants them to continue their service in a way which will be eternally recognized, and He wants to ensure their motives for their good works are not in order to be seen of men. Therefore He allows them to be marginalized. So that their works may be totally sincere, and receive an eternal recognition. It is also the case that when serving others, we reflect that nobody realized all the host of planning and frustrations which went into one good deed. A plan to visit someone in hospital may involve struggles with public transport, getting lost on the way, forgetting our telephone, being late home which meant we missed something important... and so forth. It is all those good deeds which others don't see. They 'see' only that we spent 15 minutes in a hospital visiting someone. But those other components to the good deed of the 15 minutes are all carefully logged with the Lord.</p>