NOTES for Mat 6:1-13

Speaking about spiritual life, Jesus singles out the principal thing that forms its foundation: relationships with God and with people. When He speaks of those who “have already received their reward,” He probably wants first of all to tell us that a reward received here in this world according to the laws of this world will remain in it. It will not become part of the Kingdom. It would perhaps be easier for us to think that by following the Savior’s instructions we are thereby preparing for ourselves some other reward that awaits us in another, better world, where we will one day come in order to enjoy the fruits of our efforts here. But is that so? If the Kingdom awaited us after death, if it were something absolutely other than our world, rewards would probably work precisely as we are accustomed to think. Yet after Christ’s coming, the Kingdom is no longer the future for us but the present, provided of course that we are Christians not merely in word. Our task as Christians is not to lay up reserves for the future, but to take root in the life of the Kingdom here and now. This is precisely what Jesus directs us toward. He calls us to think not about what this present, still untransformed world will say about us, but about how our prayers, good works, and everything else will affect our life in the Kingdom, where the relationships of which the Kingdom consists come to the forefront. Then the successes we have achieved, our rewards, will become part of our new life, the life that is properly called Christianity.