by jimwalton » Thu Jan 19, 2017 5:55 pm
Jesus' opening words in Matthew 6 make it clear that he is reprimanding the attitude, not the practice: "To be seen by them...to be honored by them." He is not forbidden public prayer. The goal of prayer is not the roaring approval of the crowd, but a relationship with God. Jesus' problem was with the hypocrisy that uses prayer as a means to some other end, using God to advance their own social status.
Mike Molenda, editor of *Guitar Player* magazine, wrote an editorial in 2013 that speaks to the subject: "I’ve been going through this kind of strange and obnoxious, yet liberating mind games the past couple of years where I determine that everyone—myself included—is full of sh**. I’m polite about it. I don’t call people out or disrespect them. I just don’t absorb what anyone says along with his or her attitudes, egotism, paranoia, rationalizations, distortions, arrogance, anger, frustration, pleading, self-deprecation, fear, or any other element of psychological impact that doesn’t have to do with the idea itself. I’m all about trusting that the concept, the action, or the proposal will reveal its worth by its mere existence. Good ideas win because they’re actually really good, and, in our hearts, most everyone knows what is the best practice and what is not. Less-than-optimum ideas cannot be transformed into genius simply because someone pushed extremely hard to sprinkle fairy dust on horse manure."
True quality is in the character, not in the display. That's what Jesus' point is.
To answer your second question, Jesus never promises special rewards for private piety. The expectation of humility about our faith in our day to day lives is to be common, not remarkable.
Jesus' opening words in Matthew 6 make it clear that he is reprimanding the attitude, not the practice: "To be seen by them...to be honored by them." He is not forbidden public prayer. The goal of prayer is not the roaring approval of the crowd, but a relationship with God. Jesus' problem was with the hypocrisy that uses prayer as a means to some other end, using God to advance their own social status.
Mike Molenda, editor of *Guitar Player* magazine, wrote an editorial in 2013 that speaks to the subject: "I’ve been going through this kind of strange and obnoxious, yet liberating mind games the past couple of years where I determine that everyone—myself included—is full of sh**. I’m polite about it. I don’t call people out or disrespect them. I just don’t absorb what anyone says along with his or her attitudes, egotism, paranoia, rationalizations, distortions, arrogance, anger, frustration, pleading, self-deprecation, fear, or any other element of psychological impact that doesn’t have to do with the idea itself. I’m all about trusting that the concept, the action, or the proposal will reveal its worth by its mere existence. Good ideas win because they’re actually really good, and, in our hearts, most everyone knows what is the best practice and what is not. Less-than-optimum ideas cannot be transformed into genius simply because someone pushed extremely hard to sprinkle fairy dust on horse manure."
True quality is in the character, not in the display. That's what Jesus' point is.
To answer your second question, Jesus never promises special rewards for private piety. The expectation of humility about our faith in our day to day lives is to be common, not remarkable.