Glorify God Through Good Works

Jesus Christ Topical Guide: Sermon On The Mount Series

“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

And Matthew 6:1

“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.”

Previously I thought the Lord was contradicting Himself in these two verses. I certainly don’t have the full answer but now I see it as quite different things. I see Matthew 5:6 more about service and Matthew 6:1 about worship. It makes sense that worship should be a personal and private thing and service more public and keeping in mind that powerful service is also anonymous.

I think the key to Matthew 5:16 is to glorify God not ourselves. In everything we do, we should be trying to point others toward God. He is the one who has all the answers and all the powers.

Matthew 6 talks about hypocrisy. A hypocrite pretends he is righteous and does things for show so others think he is righteous, but inside he doesn’t care about the words (of God) he is saying. A hypocrite is not genuinely trying to live the gospel but only saying the right words to look good to others with no intention to live them.

We must be careful to label someone a hypocrite because we don’t know that persons heart. We don’t know what that person truly desires. Therefore, it is a serious thing to call someone a hypocrite. For example, a hypocrite is not someone who is a sinner or preaches something he has difficulty living. So long as he believes the doctrine and wants and tries to live it even though he fails over and over again, he is not a hypocrite.

This line “Let your light so shine before men…” I think of President Uchtdorf’s talk about spiritual sickness. He said all spiritual sickness has one thing in common, darkness.

We can shun all darkness from our lives.

If you live in the Salt Lake City valley, I invite you to join us at church on Sunday's. Currently we meet at 9 A.M.; however, starting in January we will change to noon. We are a mid-singles ward; however, if you have a family please don't let that stop you. Please, join us for for our first meeting which is Sacrament meeting, and make sure you ask someone to introduce you to our ward mission leader. Our address is 7155 South 540 East, Midvale Utah, 84047.