Teachings at the Table of a Pharisee

72. Teachings at the Table of a Pharisee

This passage is about motivation. Why do we do the things we do? For approval? Acceptance? Status? Jesus would say that such motivation is doing things “that they may be seen of men.”

What would be another motivation for our actions? In an earlier passage, Jesus instructs: “Do these things in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall recompense thee.” Why does Jesus recommend that motivation? What is the recompense we can expect?

Doing things for God is by definition acting for the good of the whole: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” When we do things that lie outside our ego-driven interests, we expand the boundaries of our identity and establish a more conscious relationship with the larger system of which we are a part, with God.