Latest / Reformed Thinking / Seen in Secret: Hypocrisy, Prayer, and the Father’s Reward (Matthew 6:5–6)

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Seen in Secret: Hypocrisy, Prayer, and the Father’s Reward (Matthew 6:5–6) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking, where we take a stack of source
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material and jump into a deep dive.
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Today we are opening up the Sermon on the Mount and we're
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going to be focusing pretty intensely on a very small, but
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let's say a highly volatile section.
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That would be Jesus teaching on prayer in Matthew chapter 6.
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Specifically, verses 5 and 6. This little passage is just a
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crucial definition of what life looks like when it's really
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lived under the rule of God's Kingdom.
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And our mission for this deep dive is to try and cut through
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all the noise that surrounds religious practice, all the
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performance, and get absolute clarity on one thing.
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And that one thing is the difference between prayer that's
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aimed at human recognition, at applause, and prayer that's
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sincerely aimed at God. Right.
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We're going to trace this this vertical versus horizontal
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distinction throughout the entire chapter.
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And we have to start with the governing principle, the the
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controlling idea that really sets the context for everything
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else Jesus is about to say about piety.
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You're talking about that big warning.
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That's it. The entire section.
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So Matthew 6 verses one through 18, which covers giving,
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praying, and fasting. It's all framed by this one
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programmatic warning. Beware of practicing your
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righteousness before other people in order to be seen by
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them. And that warning is the tripwire
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for the entire Christian life, you know.
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It really is. The central danger Jesus is
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getting at here is a kind of spiritual self promotion.
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Yeah, it's this temptation to take genuinely holy activities,
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prayer, giving, sacrifice, and to sort of hijack them for our
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own hands. We use them to secure earthly
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wages. Yeah, things like honor,
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influence, reputation. It's turning devotion into a
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visibility campaign. And our sources really confirm
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that out of that triad, giving, praying and fasting, prayer is
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chosen as the most intimate and because of that, the most
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dangerous example of this problem.
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Because prayer is supposed to be a vertical conversation, right?
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Secret Communion. Exactly.
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And yet it is so easily, almost reflexively, corrupted into a
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public horizontal performance that's just for a crowd.
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So we want to ask you, the listener as we start this, to
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bring that question into your own heart.
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Which gaze matters more to you? Is it the eyes of passing people
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on the street, or is the eyes of the father who sees everything
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even in secret? That spiritual barometer is
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going to govern every insight we uncover today.
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OK, let's open with the specifics of Matthew chapter 6,
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verse 5. Jesus doesn't start by
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commanding prayer, which is interesting.
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He starts by just assuming it. He says when you pray, not if
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you pray. That's is prayer is taken for
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granted as an expected and ordinary, a consistent rhythm of
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life for anyone who's seeking the Kingdom.
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But right after that assumption comes this really sharp non
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negotiable prohibition. You must not be like the
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hypocrites. And the way that's constructed
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in the Greek, it functions as a command, a deliberate, necessary
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distancing from a specific spiritual disease.
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It's an imperative. Do not adopt their way of life.
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And the whole diagnosis hinges on that one Greek term,
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hypocrisy. He does.
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We use the word hypocrite today to mean you know someone who is
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a liar or just inconsistent in what they say and do.
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But in the 1st century, as our sources highlight, the literal
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working definition was stage actors.
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Stage actors or those wearing a mask.
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And that shift in understanding is so instructive.
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It changes everything. It does.
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Jesus isn't primarily accusing them of moral inconsistency,
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although that's certainly part of it.
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He's accusing them of adopting a public persona.
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So they were treating their spiritual devotion not as a
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relationship, but as a role they played on a stage.
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They put on the mask of piety. And just think about what a mask
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does. The mask is not the true face,
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no, it's an artificial construction.
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It's worn specifically to get a reaction from an audience.
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So the Hippocrates is fundamentally preoccupied not
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with reality, not with what's true in their heart before God,
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but with the cultivated perception of truth that the
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spectators have. And that instantly establishes
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the absolute dichotomy that defines this whole passage, the.
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Fork in the road. It is when you engage in prayer,
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when you see God, you are forced onto one of two paths.
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You are either a genuine child of speaking freely, intimately,
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authentically to a father. Or you are a professional actor
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performing a sacred script for the acclaim of a crowd.
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And there is no middle territory.
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So where does this actor choose to perform?
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Jesus tells us. He says the hypocrites love
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that's philoson in the Greek they love to pray its specific
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high visibility venues. The synagogues and the street
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corners. And that word filia here, is
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strong. It suggests a deep, a cherished
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affinity for these places because they provide what the
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actor wants most. A stage.
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A stage. No, we have to be careful here
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not to misinterpret this. We do.
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Standing was a standard posture for prayer in Jewish tradition,
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and the synagogue was the proper place for communal devotion.
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Jesus isn't condemning standing or training in the synagogue.
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So what's the actual target of the condemnation then?
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The target is the underlying motive.
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It's the intentional choice of the environment.
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Let's look at the street corners.
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The Gunai Tung Platin. This isn't just a vague term for
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a busy spot, is it? Not at all.
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It refers to the intersection points of the major public
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squares, the points of maximum foot and cart traffic.
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So in 1st century Jewish life, especially in the major towns,
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there were fixed hours of prayer, morning, afternoon,
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evening. Yes, often correlated with the
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daily temple sacrifices. And our sources indicate that
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these hypocrites, they timed their devotion perfectly.
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Oh, this is not an accident. They didn't just get caught
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praying in public. They specifically sought out,
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crafted, and cherished the moment when the formal hour of
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prayer coincided with peak rush hour with the four way
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intersection. The entire purpose was to
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maximize exposure. The text is explicit about it.
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Hopas Phoenician, Tois Anthropois, in order that they
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may be seen by others. So this isn't just a side effect
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of their prayer. No.
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It is the objective. The stage is set, the actor is
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performing, and the currency they're looking for is
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recognition. And this reveals the core
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theological problem, here, the horizontal gaze.
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That's a good way to put it. When the primary direction of
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religious practice shifts sideways toward man rather than
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vertically toward God, the orientation of life itself just
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becomes disordered. The sources define this as a
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fundamentally disordered orientation.
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Well, think about what this behavior implies.
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It's saying the silent, unseen approval of the omnipresent,
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omniscient God is not enough to motivate me.
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I need more. I require the visible, audible,
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immediate confirmation of human beings.
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And that's where the fear of man really intersects with a kind of
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spiritual idolatry. It is.
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They are preferring the momentary, fleeting gaze of the
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crowd over the constant, perfect gaze of the Father.
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They're trading the Creator's approval for the Creation's
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fleeting notice. Their theology, as you said
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earlier, it's dangerously thin. Well, they operate functionally,
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as if God's unseen presence is weak or maybe impotent.
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If God truly saw them and approved of them in secret, why
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would they need to manufacture a scene for human onlookers?
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It's like they treat God's presence like a camera that only
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turns on when a human audience is present.
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That's a great analogy for today.
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Imagine prayer not as a private communication, but as a live
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stream event. Right, and the hypocrite doesn't
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care about the content of the message, they're just obsessed
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with the view count, the likes, the comments.
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The goal is engagement metrics measured by applause, not
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communion with the living God. They have made prayer into a
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broadcast studio where visibility is the highest value.
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And the problem with the broadcast studio is that it
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guarantees the performance will be tailored to the audience's
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expectation, not God's glory. Exactly.
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They are performing the role of the pious, 1 conforming their
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demeanor, their vocabulary, even the length of their prayer to
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meet the public standard of holiness.
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So the ultimate take away from this first section is pretty
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simple, but it's challenging. If we choose a stage, we confirm
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our identity as an actor. And an actor is always at the
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mercy of the crowd. So once Jesus has dissected the
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motive, this desire to be seen and applauded, he moves
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immediately to the consequence. And it's a solemn, authoritative
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pronouncement introduced by the King's binding verdict.
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Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
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That opening, Amen legal chameen, signals the finality
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and the gravity of what's about to come.
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It sounds like an irreversible judgement, but the stunning part
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is the terminology Jesus uses for they have received.
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It's highly specific. It is the Greek verb is
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epitussin. And this is one of those crucial
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details that a deep dive into the historical sources really
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brings out. Yes, Epitussin is not just a
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generic word for possessing something.
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It is technical, commercial terminology.
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Our sources show us this verb was routinely used on ancient
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receipts, legal contracts, financial ledgers.
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And it carries the specific transactional meaning paid in
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full. Paid in full.
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That changes the entire tone of the verse.
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It moves it from a general statement of fact to a chilling
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accountancy note. It signals that a business
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transaction is now completely closed.
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The hypocrite performed a religious service, the public
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prayer. The audience rendered its
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payment, applause and admiration.
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And the Ledger is settled. They have collected their check
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on Earth. And the related noun here is
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mistethos, which means wage or payment for service rendered.
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So they traded a spiritual relationship for a commercial
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transaction. They.
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Actively chose a cash payment from men rather than accepting
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the gift of grace and fellowship from God.
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This choice just reveals A deeply disordered value system.
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It does. They had two potential sources
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of reward, the infinite generosity of God or the finite
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praise of men, and they chose the praise of them.
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They prioritize the tangible, immediate payment over the
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invisible deferred blessing. So we have to analyze the
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content of this wage. What exactly did the hypocrite
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get? Well, they got human notice.
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They got admiration, temporary recognition.
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The key observation is that they received precisely what they
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aimed for. Jesus acknowledges they achieved
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their goal. They wanted to look holy.
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People thought they looked holy. Transaction.
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But the tragic limitation is the duration.
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This mistos is described as purely this worldly.
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It's immediate, which means it's quickly consumable.
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And it's fleeting, The applause, no matter how loud it is, it
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lasts maybe 30 seconds. The admiration dissipates the
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moment they walk away from the street corner.
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The recognition is exhausted. So the tragedy of this paid in
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full verdict is twofold. First, they mistook the means
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for the end. They thought the admiration they
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thought was the reward for piety, instead of recognizing
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that piety is oriented towards God.
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And the second part is even more damning, yes.
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Because the transaction is irrevocably completed, paid in
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full, the hypocrite has utterly forfeited any further claim on
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God regarding that act of piety. They can't stand before the
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Father on the last day, point to their public prayer at the
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street corner and ask for credit.
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That credit was already used up. They exchanged an eternal claim
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for a temporal, trivial puff of vanity.
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Think about the spiritual poverty this creates.
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They traded the possibility of eternal, incorruptible glory for
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what is basically noise. They chose transient praise over
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lasting validation. It's a terrifying indictment of
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human short sightedness, valuing the immediate penny over the
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distant goldmine. The analogy of the contractor is
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incredibly fitting here. It is a contractor finishes the
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job and immediately demands the final cash payment.
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Once that money's in their hand, the agreement is terminated.
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The employer owes them nothing further.
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There's no relationship, just a closed Ledger.
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And the hypocrite demanded immediate payment from the
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audience and in receiving it, they severed the chance of being
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paid by the father. Later, they were bought out by
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the crowd's shallow approval. This point is particularly
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important for us, you know, for those of us who hold to a
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covenantal theology rooted in God's grace.
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Yes. Even though our rewards are
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gifts, not wages earned by merit.
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And we'll come back to this in a bit.
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The principle still holds. If you seek the reward of men,
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you demonstrate that your treasure is here now.
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And therefore you have forfeited the reward that is stored up in
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heaven. It raises a really piercing
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question for everyone listening Where are you cashing your
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checks? Are you seeking immediate
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spiritual gratification from those around you, knowing that
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immediate payment means the relationship with the ultimate
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employer is financially settled? Or are you willing to wait,
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trusting the Father's promise? And having delivered that
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devastating verdict on the actors who chase these fleeting
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rewards, Jesus shifts the instruction.
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He does it with a deliberate emphatic contrast.
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But you when you pray. The focus moves away from they,
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the actors, and it lands squarely on you, the disciple.
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And this antithesis introduces the alternative methyl the
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Kingdom way of seeking God. The command is twofold.
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Disciples are instructed to enter your inner room and then
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specifically to shut your door. We should probably pause on the
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geography of this instruction. What exactly is this inner room?
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The Greek term is tanion. We often translate this is
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closet, but it was much more specific in a typical 1st
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century home. It wasn't designed to be a grand
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sanctuary or anything like that. Not at all.
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The Tamion was a small interior storage chamber.
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It could be a storage closet for valuables, a pantry for food or
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treasury. Crucially, in many common
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dwellings it was the space least likely to have windows.
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And it was designed to be easily locked off from the main
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activity of the house. So the Tamion is selected
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precisely because it's the most hidden, most ordinary, most
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unremarkable space possible. It's the location that
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guarantees 0 visibility. And This is why we have to avoid
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taking this as a rule of legalistic geography.
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Right. Jesus is not establishing a law
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that God only processes prayers originating from small dark
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rooms. No.
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The sources rightly identify this as a spiritual pedagogy.
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It's a teaching tool that's enacted geographically.
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So that physical withdrawal, entering the tamion and shutting
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the door, it's like an enacted parable.
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It is, and it's design purpose is a kind of spiritual triage.
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It physically strips away the human audience.
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The noise at the street corner, the faces of the crowd, all of
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them are excluded. And this is the ultimate test of
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sincerity. The closed door forces the
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disciple to confront their own motivation without distraction.
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If I know absolutely no human eye sees me, no one will
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applaud, no one will be impressed, and no reputation
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will be built. Do I still desire to seek the
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Father? If the answer is yes, then the
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ACT is pure. If the answer is no, then the
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act was always fundamentally about self display and the stage
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needs to be dismantled. The practice of secrecy acts as
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a spiritual discipline. It actively kills the impulse
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toward image building and self promotion that is so endemic to
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the human heart. The physical act of shutting the
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door confirms the shift in audience.
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When we're alone the to me on we are forced to deal with God and
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God alone. This is critical for authentic
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spiritual formation. The door is shut to the world so
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that the heart can open fully to the Divine Presence.
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And the language confirms the new identity we adopt behind
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that locked door. The command is to pray to your
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Father. So the disciple is no longer
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functioning as an actor. A Hippocrates.
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No, they're now operating in the security of Sonship.
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This language establishes intimacy, acceptance, and
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adoption, the prerequisite for authentic filial communion.
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The prayer is no longer a public broadcast.
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It's a family conversation. And a family conversation is
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messy, honest, often desperate, and completely unconcerned with
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external presentation. You were simply talking to your
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dad. This practice reorients our
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entire theology of God's presence.
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It does. We are commanded to pray to the
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Father who is in secret and who sees in secret.
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This trains the disciple to trust completely in the
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sufficiency and the certainty of the unseen.
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It teaches the heart a vital lesson.
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The Father's unseen gaze is constant.
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It's sufficient, and it's infinitely more valuable than
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all the visible, fleeting gazes of the world combined.
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The center of gravity of 1's spiritual life is definitively
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relocated back to God, away from the transient opinions of man.
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What's really fascinating here is the contrast in God's
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omniscience, the fact that God sees everything, that he sees us
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seeking the spotlight at the street corner.
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That's terrifying for the hypocrite because it exposes
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their duplicity. But that very same divine
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omniscience becomes sweet consolation to the sincere
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disciple in the inner room. Right.
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Knowing that the Father sees me even when I'm silent or groaning
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or struggling is the ultimate comfort.
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I am not forgotten simply because I am not visible to the
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crowd. My hidden obedience is known by
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the one whose opinion matters most.
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So the disciple treats prayer like a private study, or maybe
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the family treasury. The door is locked to the world
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and it's rating. Systems and the conversation is
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strictly between a child and their father, with a quiet
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confidence that this intimacy is its own immediate reward, a
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foretaste of the future gift. And in direct, beautiful
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contrast to the hypocrite who was instantly paid off with a
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finite wage. The promise given to the genuine
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disciple is certain, and it's future focused.
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The Father will reward you. That's Apodosi soy.
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And this shift from the immediate closed transaction,
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the Peshusen, to the future open promise, the Apodosi, that's
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everything. It is, but for those of us who
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hold to a faith defined by grace, we really have to clarify
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the nature of this divine reward.
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Right. We have to avoid the error of
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misunderstanding this reward as a wage earned by merit.
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Because our prayers, even those whispered in secret, are
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imperfect. If we earned heaven on the basis
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of our prayer purity, we would all fail.
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The sources affirm that from a Reformed perspective, this
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reward is entirely A gracious gift.
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It does not place God in our debt, no.
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Rather, the Father is graciously crowning His own work in his
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children. Our secret prayers are evidence
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of the grace already at work in US, and the reward is His free
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favor given for Christ's sake. That is a crucial distinction.
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It is the future verb Apedosi means he will pay or he will
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render payment. It promises a return based not
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on a calculation, but on the father's boundless generosity.
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A generosity that far surpasses the value of the action itself.
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It flows from relational connection from sonship, not
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from a commercial contract. And the beauty of this divine
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payment is that it has a dual content.
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It's not just reserved for the future.
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There's a tangible present reward here on Earth.
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That present reward includes things like deeper communion,
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peace that surpasses understanding, and joy in God.
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The simple consolation of knowing that the sovereign,
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omniscient Father's gaze is resting upon you in approval,
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even when the world ignores you, that is a profound, immediate
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blessing. This is the comfort of secrecy,
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the immediate relational wealth of intimacy.
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But the primary focus is the future, the ESTA logical reward.
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This is where the disciple ultimately receives the public
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recognition that the hypocrite craved and failed to secure.
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That future reward involves public commendation at the last
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day. The disciple who deliberately
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rejected the stage will be placed upon it by the king
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himself, and we'll hear the public words of approval.
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Well done, good and faithful servant.
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This is participation in eternal glory.
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Just think about the irony of that, the prayers whispered in
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the dark, the quiet unseen struggles, the tears shed in the
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tamium. All of these hidden things will
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be openly vindicated by the King of the Universe.
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The things we did to avoid the spotlight will be the very
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things God chooses to celebrate eternally.
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And this forces us into a choice between two entirely different
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eschatologies. Two different views of what
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matters. In the end, the choice between
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rewards is a choice between two treasures, one corruptible and
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one incorruptible. The hypocrite chooses the
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immediate visible earthly wage, which is instant cash, but it
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evaporates instantly. They chose a disposable
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treasure. Whereas the disciple chooses the
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delayed, unseen reward, a treasure that is meticulously
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stored up and guaranteed to be enduring, held securely in the
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unwavering hand of the Father. So let's just summarize that
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radical contrast one last time. The hypocrite demanded to be
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seen by men and received only visibility, a superficial,
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momentary thing. The disciple asked only to be
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heard by the Father and will receive intimacy now and glory
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later. The analogy of the heir
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clarifies this relational motivation perfectly.
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The disciple is not an hourly worker clocking in for a wage.
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The disciple is an heir working in the family field out of love
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and obligation. Knowing that the Father is the
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guarantor of their entire future.
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The Father secures the inheritance, which far exceeds
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any small daily wage. Their motivation is love and
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sonship, not commercial payment. And we have to now take this
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deep dive even further and move past just ethical instruction.
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Right, because if Matthew 6.56 were presented to us simply as a
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set of rules, pray in your closet and keep your motives
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pure, we would all stand condemned.
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We would. Our motives, even in our most
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secluded prayers, are always mixed.
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They're tainted by subtle desires for self justification
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or self congratulation. That's the ultimate tension of
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the Sermon on the Mount, isn't it?
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It presents a standard of righteousness that is humanly
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impossible to achieve perfectly. It is, and the only way we can
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stand under the condemnation of this law without being crushed
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is by understanding that Christ fulfilled this law perfectly and
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His perfection is applied to us. He fulfills it first as our
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model. Jesus did not simply preach the
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command to enter the inner room. He lived it.
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Florida State. The sources trace his lifelong
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pattern of repeatedly withdrawing to solitary places
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to pray. Think of the times recorded in
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the Gospels. Mark 1.35 tells us he rose very
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early in the morning while it was still dark and went off to a
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desolate place to pray. Or Luke 5.16, which notes that
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he would often withdraw to desolate places and pray.
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He constantly rejected the temptation to cultivate a public
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image of mystical piety. So the command for us to enter
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the inner room is therefore not just a rule, but a gracious
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invitation into his own pattern of hidden fellowship with the
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Father. We are invited to pray as the
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true Son prayed. And this hidden obedience, this
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perfect withdrawal, it reaches its climax and ultimate
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enactment in the Garden of Gethsemane.
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This is the moment we have to analyze closely, because
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Gethsemane is the ultimate Tamion.
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Jesus literally went a little farther than his disciples.
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He left them behind at the entrance.
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He entered the dark, lonely space under the olive trees, the
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ultimate inner room of submission where no human eyes
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could fully observe him. His closest friends were asleep.
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In that darkness where visibility was 0, he entered
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into an agonizing spiritual struggle, submitting his human
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will to the divine will. Praying not my will but yours be
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done. That was the foundational act of
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obedience, the perfect fulfillment of the command to
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pray in secret, performed when no one was watching.
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He succeeded in that secret submission where Adam failed in
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the Garden and where the nation of Israel failed throughout its
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history. This is Christ as the second
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Adam and true Israel, succeeding in perfect secret obedience.
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But here is the critical theological connection, the
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thing that's so central to reformed thought.
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Yes, this perfect secret prayer life is not simply an example we
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try to emulate with our mixed motives.
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Christ's secret, sinless prayer life is part of the perfect act
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of righteousness that is imputed to believers through faith.
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We should probably take a moment to unpack imputation in this
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specific context. We should.
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When the Bible talks about the righteousness credited to us, it
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includes not just Christ's passive obedience, His death
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covering our penalty, but his active obedience.
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This perfect lifelong fulfillment of every command.
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Including the command to pray purely.
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And this imputation is how the Father accepts our faltering
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devotion. Christ's perfect obedience at
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the street corner, His rejection of the spotlight, and His
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perfect submission in the inner room of Gethsemane.
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That entire flawless prayer life is credited to the believer.
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This is the Atonement cover bring the guilt of our tendency
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towards self promotion and our constant subtle mixed motive
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prayers. And the work doesn't stop there.
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He continues this work now as our ascended High Priest.
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So he takes the prayers we whisper in our own inner room,
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prayers that we know are still tainted by pride or distraction
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or self-interest. And he receives them and he
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performs the function of refining them.
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The high priest takes the sincere, though imperfect
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devotion of his people and purifies it.
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He removed the taint of sin and the subtle desire for human
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applause, making those prayers acceptable to the Father for His
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sake because they are now cloaked in His perfection.
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So we have filial access to the very presence of God, not
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because our motive was 100% pure when we shut the Tammy on door.
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But because our High priest is actively interceding, presenting
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our petition, enveloped in his sinless intercession.
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The analogy we used earlier really ties this whole section
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together. The Apprentice, That's the
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believer attempts to carve a beautiful structure of devotion,
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but they are distracted by the noise of the public square and
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the carving is crooked. And the master architect Christ
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builds the flawless, beautiful structure in secret submission
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at Gethsemane. The master architect then takes
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the apprentice's clumsy, impure attempts at carving our half
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hearted prayers and places them securely inside his own perfect
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finished structure. And then he presents the
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combined work to the king. The king does not accept the
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work because of the apprentice's effort.
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The king accepts the entire structure solely because of the
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master architects perfection. This is the Gospel significance
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of Matthew 6.5 to 6. We are called to strive for
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purity in the inner room, but we rest in the knowledge that
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Christ has already achieved it for us and is mediating our
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failure. This deep dive into Matthew 6.5
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to 6 has fundamentally revealed that the issue in prayer is not
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physical location. Nor is it the length or the
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eloquence of our words. It is audience.
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The passage forces every believer to ask, whose approval
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do you truly covet? Whose gaze determines your
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value? And the theological insight
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delivered here is absolutely clear.
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The error of hypocrisy is the quiet assumption that visible
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human approval is somehow more immediate, more satisfying, and
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therefore more necessary than the invisible approval of the
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omniscient. True Kingdom righteousness
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demands a complete reversal of this priority.
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The command to shut the door is fundamentally a call to
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repentance, a call to turn away from the quiet idol of
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reputation and consistently cultivate a hidden life with
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God. A life based, thankfully not on
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the purity of our efforts, but on Christ's perfect fulfillment
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of the law and His ongoing mediation for us at the Father's
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right hand. We are called to step off the
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stage and renounce the fleeting applause of men, replacing that
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craving with the hunger for the intimacy and the coming glory
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promised by the Father. And since the Father will reward
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those who live for His unseen gaze, those who trust His
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invisible validation, what is 1 visible aspect of your spiritual
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life? Perhaps one you've been tempted
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to share, or one you usually perform within earshot of others
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that you might deliberately choose to perform an absolute
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secret this coming week, knowing that the only applause that
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matters is the one you will hear on the last day.