Washington/USA – January 25, 2019: Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser serving workers affected by the government shutdown at Chef José Andrés World Central Kitchen
Matthew 6:1–6, Practicing Righteousness Rightly on Election Day
1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
5 “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 others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 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.
Practicing Righteousness Rightly
In the previous passage, Jesus made it clear that his disciples were called to live differently from, and among, two groups of people whom most of them looked down upon: tax collectors and Gentiles. Both of these groups, interestingly, were part of Christ’s incarnational plan for redemption. Depending on your party affiliation, Jesus might have said, “even members of the other party do that.” Now, however, he turns his attention to living differently from a group that most of his audience viewed as those with laudable virtues and ethics — the religious leaders, or as Jesus calls them, hypocrites. This group Jesus intends to oppose directly and publicly.
This is one of the passages in which the rhetorical skill of Matthew shines bright. After introducing his thesis — “Practice righteousness rightly” — Matthew offers a couplet applying it to two mission-critical aspects of true disciples: charity and prayer. Each uses the same two-option formula.
- Negative: “When you” [act of righteousness], condemnation of motivation for public recognition “as/like the hypocrites,” negative pronouncement — “Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”
- Positive: “But when you” [act of righteousness], commendation for motivation for serving God (as/like disciples), positive pronouncement — “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Jesus is also increasing the contrast between Aristotle’s virtue ethics and the blessed life of righteousness. For Aristotle, true happiness (eudaimonia) comes from living a virtuous life — publicly honored, but its own reward. Jesus, instead, locates reward in a personal God who relates to his children as their Father, and rewards them, even when their acts of righteousness go unseen. For those serving and leading in the public square, it’s about to get very real.
Righteousness and Publicity in Charity
Promoting charity has long been seen as an important measure of a virtuous society. Charity is also something that the platforms of both parties address positively. During campaign season, candidates routinely make their way to food banks, homeless shelters, disaster relief sites, free clinics, and meal kitchens — not because they actually work or are regular volunteers at these venues of charity, but because the photo op allows the candidate to convey a sense of understanding, compassion, and willingness to relate to their circumstances — also known as empathy. Whether the candidate actually has empathy is irrelevant to the photo op. Being seen as an agent of charity is the real motivation. Herein lies the easiest connection to publicity motivated by hypocrisy.
Although many would propose that motivation toward charity comes from empathy, what happens when empathy becomes a lightning rod for virtue signaling in the public square?
In the recently released American Values Survey (Brookings/PRRI, Oct. 2026), the majority of Americans, 52%, agreed with the statement, “Empathy is a foundational moral value that helps build a healthy society.” However, only 30% of white evangelical Protestants concurred. The polling is intended to give a picture of the mindset and motivations of voters ahead of the midterm elections. The same survey revealed that only 17% of Americans agreed with the statement, “Empathy can become dangerous when it leads God’s people away from building a society guided by God’s truth.” Yet more than twice that share — 38% of white evangelical Protestants — believed that empathy can be problematic.
First, from a Christian perspective, both statements are true. Empathy is essential to true flourishing and can also be used to promote initiatives counter to true flourishing. This distinction, of course, comes from the meaning assigned to the word, the purpose with which it is applied, and whether it functions as an idol. Second, recasting empathy as a political ideology forces its own public-square hypocrisy for those who are now forced to speak against it solely in order to curry favor.
Righteousness and Publicity in Prayer
Prayer, too, is fodder for hypocrisy within the public square when it is deployed for personal gain. Most members of both parties expect their candidates and elected officials to end every speech with “God bless you all and God bless America” regardless of whether or not they are actually true worshipers of God.
Within the church, this hypocrisy often takes place in full view of the congregation as part of Sunday morning worship as prayers are offered for our elected leaders. It may come from the person offering the prayer for a political leader whom they regularly slander and malign to members of the church, or it may take place in the heart of the congregant who says aloud “Amen” to a prayer they do not honestly wish to have God answer.
Even in more personal and private interactions, Christians frequently say “I will pray for you” as a means of signaling virtuous care and concern (empathy). The problem is not in the declaration, but in the follow-through. The one recognized as praying receives the public reward of being honored as virtuous, despite the fact that the promised prayer never occurs. This comes from the fact that prayer is wrongly seen as the least that one can do, rather than the most that a Christian can do. It also signals that the person does not believe privately what they profess publicly. That is the definition of hypocrisy.
Righteousness and Secrecy in Charity
Over years of ministering in Washington, I have repeatedly heard members, appointees, and staff utter the phrase, “The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing!” When said, it is never offered as a commendation of proper Christian behavior but rather as frustrated commentary on structural missteps and inefficiencies that hinder flourishing. This raises two questions: what does the phrase mean, and how are we supposed to obey it?
As the earlier section highlights, the issue is not practicing righteousness but the audience of and motivation for the behavior. First, Jesus does not intend his disciples to operate like someone who has undergone a procedure so they cannot remember what they do for a living, like those in the popular Apple TV+ show Severance. What he does expect from them is to not perform acts of righteousness, like charity, for a public audience or the private audience of themselves. The former is hypocrisy because the actions occur to receive the praise of others. The latter is hypocrisy because the actions occur to receive the praise which you give yourself. What Jesus is calling for is living righteously to the praise of the glory of God alone.
All Christians are called to pursue charity on behalf of widows and orphans, the immigrant, the disabled, and the poor. For servants and leaders working in the public square, this charity may take the form of developing legislation or policy intended to provide for their housing, food, or appropriate financial assistance. In these cases, there is no way to avoid a public record of actions taken toward that goal. During a campaign, making a promise to support policies that care for the needy should be part of any disciple’s platform. Further, it is proper to communicate to constituents the progress of one’s efforts to fulfill these promises. The apostle Peter makes clear that the purpose of government is to “punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Peter 2:14). While this passage does not address the role of government in charity, it does make clear that encouraging good and opposing evil are central to its God-given charter.
Jesus, therefore, is calling for charity that is motivated by service to God before all else, even though public praise may accompany the action. Not letting your ego know what your heart is doing might be a more fitting expression for today.
Righteousness and Secrecy in Prayer
Getting prayer back in school is an issue that carries a large amount of political opinion and heat, especially with evangelical Christians. This passage strengthens that belief and also encourages the practice. Yet it does so in a manner that empties the “prayer in school” issue of its politically polarizing effect.
In First Thessalonians, Paul instructs his readers to “pray without ceasing.” Even though there were no public schools in the first century, Paul certainly would have expected this to apply to Christians in school. But what Paul imagined was not a prayer coming over the loudspeaker during homeroom or at a Friday night high school football game. Instead, he might have said, “Pray, no one is stopping you!” Paul was doubling down on the importance of prayer, which Jesus said was not to be done “at the street corners [or homeroom or the ball game], that they may be seen by others.” Praying in school is just as available as praying in the workplace and praying on vacation. Words are not required.
Imagine having a superpower that you could use to encourage what is good, restore what is broken, create what is missing, and oppose what is evil. That is exactly what prayer is. For reasons that will become clear in the Lord’s Prayer, prayer to the Father is always the most you can do, but rarely all you can or should do. Yet, despite its power, it can, and should, also be practiced without anyone knowing, except the Lord.
Righteousness and Reward
Christians serving and leading in the public square must find their motivation for action in pursuing a joy that comes from righteous obedience to Christ’s mission of making all things new, regardless of whether they get a ten-point bump in the polls or end up in a news cycle of shame. Our example, of course, is Christ.
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1–2)
Here the author of Hebrews speaks directly to the issue of motivation and reward. Jesus was pursuing joy first, even though the obedience of righteousness, including his acts of charity and even his spoken words, was used by others to accuse and condemn him.
Jesus does not shy away from laying before his audience the motivation for reward. In fact, pursuing reward is precisely the motivation Jesus wants them to use. Unlike Greek philosophy’s motivation of virtue as its own reward, Jesus directs followers, seekers, and skeptics to seek reward from their Father in heaven, and assures them, “And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” The promise of reward in front of our Father frees us from the exhausting work of performing for an electorate with ever changing values or for a boss that refuses to acknowledge anything you do — no matter how virtuous.
In the next section, Jesus instructs his disciples on how to use their superpower.
Application Questions
- When you give, whether it’s a check, a casserole, or an afternoon at the shelter, who are you hoping notices? What would change if no one ever did?
- If your Father’s “well done” were the only reward you ever received for your work this year, would it be enough? Where are you still working for the ten-point bump?
- Today is Election Day. Which leader, from either party, do you find hardest to pray for sincerely? Spend five minutes this week praying for them behind a shut door.
Faithful Presence exists to provide whole-life discipleship in the whole of life for the whole of the public square. Join us as we seek renewal in politics and the public square by becoming a Supporting Partner.
Find Us On: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Apple & Spotify