January 7

Your Religion Is Serving the Wrong God

Matthew 6:1–24 is Jesus ripping the mask off religious performance and revealing who people are really living for. He does not speak against pagans. He addresses the devout. He begins with a warning that cuts to the motive level. “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” ~Matthew 6:1. The problem is not giving. The problem is the why. God is not moved by visible obedience if the heart is thirsting for applause.

Jesus walks through three pillars of religious life: giving, praying, and fasting. In every example, He draws the same dividing line. Are you pursuing the praise of men, or the approval of God? When charity is trumpeted, prayers are performed, and fasting is advertised, Jesus says the reward has already been paid. “They have their reward” ~Matthew 6:2,5,16. God owes nothing to hypocrisy. Heaven will not credit what earth applauds.

When Jesus teaches prayer, He strips away religious noise. He attacks empty repetition and public performance, not because prayer is small, but because God is holy. “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” ~Matthew 6:8. Prayer is not information for God or theater for men. It is dependence. That is why Jesus directs prayer Godward first. “Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done” ~Matthew 6:9–10. Anyone who begins prayer with self has already missed the point.

Jesus then addresses anxiety, and He does not coddle it. He exposes its root. Worry reveals what we trust. “Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” ~Matthew 6:25. Anxiety flows from living as if God were distant, unwilling, or uninvolved. Jesus points to creation itself as evidence that God provides. If God feeds birds and clothes grass, how much more will He care for those made in His image ~Matthew 6:26–30. Fear does not come from lack of information. It comes from divided loyalty.

That is why Jesus moves straight to treasure. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth” ~Matthew 6:19. Earthly treasure is unstable, temporary, and vulnerable. Heavenly treasure is secure because it rests with God Himself. Jesus makes the connection unmistakable. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” ~Matthew 6:21. The heart always follows what it values most. If your life revolves around what can be lost, your soul is already impoverished.

Jesus then speaks of the eye as the lamp of the body. He is talking about focus and allegiance. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” ~ Matthew 6:22-23. Jesus exposes religion that looks right on the outside but leaves the heart in darkness. Spiritual confusion is not accidental. It is the result of wanting God and something else on equal terms. Jesus ends with a sentence that leaves no negotiating room. “No man can serve two masters” ~Matthew 6:24. Not should not. Cannot. God and mammon are not compatible authorities. One will rule. The other will be resisted.

This passage leaves religious fog in ruins. Jesus is not offering tips for better spirituality. He is demanding undivided allegiance. The Father sees in secret. He rewards truth, not display. He provides for those who seek His kingdom first ~Matthew 6:33. That promise is not for pretenders. It is for those who have abandoned self rule.

If your faith needs an audience, Jesus is confronting you. If your prayers are shaped more by habit than surrender, Jesus is correcting you. If anxiety governs your days, Jesus is exposing what you trust. This is not a call to try harder. It is a call to repent of divided hearts. Scripture is clear that God desires truth in the inward parts ~Psalm 51:6. Anything less is religion without reward.

Matthew 6 does not comfort the proud. It confronts them. And that confrontation is mercy. Because only a heart turned fully toward God can finally rest.

Genesis 16:1-18:15
Matthew 6:1-24
Psalm 7:1-17
Proverbs 2:1-5

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New Testament: Matthew 6:1-24

Summary:
Giving to the Needy
The Lord’s Prayer
Fasting
Lay Up Treasures in Heaven

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ~ Matthew 6:1-4