Good morning. Beware of
practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you
have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Back then they were probably
more ostentatious than today. Now it is a little bit more subtle. We probably
do it more on Facebook than in public. We say that this thing or that thing is
evil, and we don't do that! When therefore you give alms, do not sound a
trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may be honored by men. We would not dare do anything like that. There
may be some people who would put an envelope in the special offering with flare
so that people would notice that they had contributed. Jesus said to give them
in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. He then says to
not be like the hypocrites when you pray - they do it in public to be seen by
men. We should go to our prayer closet; and our Father who sees in secret will
repay us. We don't need to use meaningless repetition. Our Father knows what we
need before we ask Him. That does not mean that we never ask Him a second time
for something. I'm sure you found this out – that begging does not get us
anywhere with Him. Father thank You that You know what the reader needs before he/she
even asks You. You desire for him/her to have them even more than he/she does.
Help him/her to have a great day today.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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