Beware of Dog

“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.  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. 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. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
(Matthew 6:1-4)

Walking up and down the alley behind our house, you'll see a "Beware" sign or two.  We catch a glimpse of that word in such a context, take note of the dog running up to the fence the sign is posted on, and gladly stand back.  You wouldn't think of sticking your hand across the line because it could mean that you'd get pulled all the way in, or at least end up with a torn up mitt.  Well, we would do alright to adhere to the same word in the same way as we look at the Scriptures.  Jesus told His listeners to beware of the temptation to live uprightly in order to be held up high by others.  In fact, if we really thought about what He was saying, we would be way more concerned about taking to heart this instruction to "beware" than we would about putting our hand within reach of an angry dog--sounds crazy, but I'm being serious.

Sometimes Christians are scared to talk about working for rewards.  We like to say, "No, no, I do what God says simply because He says it."  Well, that's fine, but if that's all there is to it, why would Jesus give a warning against "holy showmanship" wherein He explains the consequence of such to be a lost heavenly reward?  He said it because we should be thrilled over getting to hear God say one day, "I saw what nobody else saw back then, and I'm so happy to grant this extra blessing to you right now because of it."  Trust me, He's not going to hand us "Good Job, Sport!" stickers at those moments.  Losing what will be a rich reward and replacing it instead with a self-exalting attitude that reminds heaven and earth of why Jesus needed to spill out His blood...that should simply kill us!

I tell ya, it's tough; I get that.  I'm rotten at living in such a way that shows all I want is God and what He wants to give.  Heaven seems far away and pats on the back are so very nice and so very right now.  But living for those is something that we should beware of.  They will never satisfy.  They will never come in all the right forms.  They are not what our hearts long for.  And when we start to find out just how true that is, unless we wake up, we're going to step further and further away from the God motivated life and into the land of empty pleasures and pursuits.  You better believe we ought to "beware of practicing [our] righteousness before other people to be seen by them. "  It's a double-loss if we don't--loss of heavenly reward and an eventual loss of our senses altogether.

Go bless the socks off of somebody today.  But be secretive...be stealthy...and anticipate amazing things one day from the hand of the One you live for.  Do you think He won't know how to give your eternal new body and soul the kind of rewards that make your heart sing and still result in exalting praise of His name forever?  Beware...and be happy.