Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jsast@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Johann) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Faith in secret (was Re: Use of God's money) Message-ID: Date: 25 Apr 91 02:49:08 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Society for the prevention of cruelty to the male race. Lines: 69 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , dhosek@euler.claremont.edu (Don Hosek) writes: > It's interesting to contrast Matthew Chapter 6 (prayer, > almsgiving, and fasting should be secret) to Matthew Chapter 5 > ("You are the light of the world... your light must shine before > others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your > heavenly father.") ... We're called in > the case of the sermon on the mount to a very difficult position: > we must glorify God the Father, but we must be careful not to do > things in a manner that causes the glory to go to ourselves > instead. And it's very difficult, but Jesus never said following > Him would be easy. I have a tendency to agree with you on this point. It seems that Christ feels that curbing our sinful actions is important, but curbing our sinful intentions is even more important. (see Matt 5:21-22,27-28) Personally, I think it is best if we look at the passage on showing your religion before men closely. "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." (Matt 6:5-6 RSV) In this passage, I do not believe that Christ is condemning the hypocrites for their actions. Instead, he calls them hypocrites because their true intention is not to communicate with God, but to be "seen by men". It would be hard to justify calling someone a hypocrite simply because they pray in a synagogue. As far as praying in a restaurant goes, if the intention of our prayers is to be seen by men in order to show off our righteousness, then we have sinned. However, if we seek no "reward" for our prayers, only the glorification of God, then how have we sinned? Jesus did not say do not pray, he only said don't pray so that your prayers with earn you glory on Earth. > I don't have a fish on the back of my car for two reasons. One is > that I personally tend to get a very negative impression of those > people who do have their aluminum fish on the hood partly because > of reasons related to the second reason: what does advertising > that one is a Christian on the back of one's car do for God? Am I > to imagine that someone noting that I let them ahead of me in > L.A. traffic will also notice the fish and decide that they > should look into all this Jesus stuff? It seems to me more likely > that someone seeing that will get the impression that the driver > of the car is some self-righteous pompous ___ regardless of what > I do. It seems to me that this sort of advertising of one's faith > is more a self-promotion than a God promotion. Sadly, getting > back the first reason, my experience tends to bear this out. Well, that could be. It is hard for me to say with certainty whether a person puts an aluminum fish on their car to be "seen by men" or to glorify God. I cannot make a judgement on them. If they have received their reward than so be it. If God will someday reward them for their aluminum fish than so much the better. This is for the Lord to decide. I have, however, found one passage which has somewhat guided me through this issue. Paul writes this concerning others preaching the gospel during his imprisonment: "Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it our of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of partisanship, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice." (Philippians 1:15-18 RSV) -Jon Anderson