Matthew 5-7: The Sermon on the Mount (6)
Four Triads on Living in the Presence of God (Matthew 6:1-18) The first six triads of the SoM dealt with the practices that God’s people in the midst of the crisis for their life in the 1 st century. Jesus unveils ways for his people to survive and even thrive amid this crisis. We also saw some analogies between the church’s situation in that 1 st century and the North American church’s in the 21 st and made Jesus’ teaching to them reach across the centuries to us in spite of the differences between our circumstances. The next four triads of the SoM reveal Jesus’ teaching on how in such a crisis (or a different one, or, indeed, no crisis at all) to relate to God. Giving Alms (6:1-4) 1 “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be ...