Kingdom Giving = Kingdom Living

1 of ...many?
Christ, preaching about what Kingdom living would look like, enters into the discussion of giving. In Matthew 6:1 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 "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 men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Christ knew that there many in the crowd fulfilling their Kingdom responsibility of giving, but doing it for the wrong reason. Many were giving to be seen; giving so that others would believe they were spiritual people.
It is interesting that Christ begins his discussion on the heart of giving, not giving itself. It is assumed that Kingdom people will give to their brother or sister in Christ, but it is not assumed that the heart behind the gift will be right. In this particular case the heart of those giving was wrong. They were giving for themselves. When giving so that others will see, you are really giving a gift to yourself. (We will look at another case study of this "giving with the wrong heart again in Acts 4 soon.)
As I am studying through this truth of Kingdom giving, I am vexed over my own life. I give to my brothers and sisters in Christ all the time. I give to my brothers and sisters in Christ with the wrong heart all the time. (Those sentences were different!) I give little gifts to myself by giving so that others can see my gift. I may hide that part of the gift way down deep inside and no one else may know about, but it is still there. It is also interesting that when I give, I find a way to bring it up somehow. If I may cut myself some slack that I have love for my brothers and sister in Christ and I give out of that love, but the truth be told I also love myself and I give to me as well.
Dear friends, will you join me on this journey of Kingdom living? Will you joing me on this journey of Kingdom giving? I will be writing much more to come on this subject, but I felt it necessary to deal with the heart of the matter before tackling anything else. (It seemed Christ had the same idea!)
Final Thought: Give to your brothers and sisters in need. Give to them and not to yourself!