Matthew 6:5-6- A Primer on Prayer, or a Study in Hypocrisy?

newton3005 said:

Do people go to church to pray, or do they go because they are tempted toward hypocrisy? Consider Matthew 6:5-6 in which Lord Jesus says, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. BUT WHEN YOU PRAY, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Is Jesus concerned with how we should pray, or is he saying to us that by going to church just to be seen, we reveal ourselves to be hypocrites?

As to the hypocrite part, when you hear of a person who goes to church every Sunday, is it possible you may believe that person to be truly religious, when in fact it’s what they want to you believe by their mere presence in church?

A hypocrite is a person who behaves in a way that suggests one has higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case. Jesus disdains hypocrites. In Matthew 23:23, for instance, he says “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

Which is Jesus more concerned with...prayer or hypocrisy? His telling us to pray in secret is nothing new at the time. In 2 Kings 4:32-37, the prophet Elisha (not to be confused with Elijah, who made Elisha a prophet under God’s command) goes to an apparently dead baby at the request of the mother. What does he do? Verse 33 says “...he went in and shut the door [so he was by himself] and prayed to the LORD.” Verse 34 says, “Then he went up and lay on the child, PUTTING HIS MOUTH ON HIS MOUTH, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands.” (Seems that mouth-to-mouth resuscitation has been around for a while!), and the baby was revived.

Did Elisha go to a House of Worship to pray? No, he prayed in secret. So, as the Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that ALL scripture is for teaching, correction, reproof and training in righteousness, we do not cut off our contact with God by not going to church, if we pay homage to God in our homes, in a room in secret. In these times, it is important to emphasize this in light of the concern of authorities about large gatherings packed in confining accommodations. So, it appears that at least as far as Lord Jesus is concerned, we are not being prevented from practicing our religion as he sees it, by not going to church. And there is no Law that I know of in the Old Testament that requires we go to a House of Worship to show our love for God. Aside from, maybe, the Talmudic implications of the so-called ceremonial Laws.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go to church. Jesus says in Matthew 18:20, “...where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Does not a church accommodate at least two or three people?

There are people who genuinely feel it is necessary to go to church to receive guidance from a clergyman on praying and on what is the right thing to do in showing God our love. And face it, it is easier for a clergyman to preach to a whole group of people at once, than to spend time going into each of their homes. But as Romans 13:1 says to “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God,” it becomes necessary to defer to them; for such authorities in the name of God know what’s best for their jurisdictional households. We can’t bank on God protecting all of us from disease, since Romans 8:28, a verse that some have said is scary, says that under God, all things work for good, for those who are called according to His Purpose. So, God may have planned it for certain people to pass on from disease, perhaps to dwell in His House, but He may not have planned it for everyone. Problem is, we don’t know what God has in mind and exactly whom He has it in mind for, and that makes Romans 8:28 scary for some.

Since Jesus brings it up in Matthew 6:6, there must be people who go to church solely to exhort others to “Look at me, see how religious I am by going to church,” when in fact God is the least of their concerns. Perhaps there is a lesson here regarding hypocrites as well, the lesson being that God has no use for those hypocrites....except maybe, in accordance with Romans 8:28, how He can make those hypocrites benefit those who love Him, perhaps by their downfall.

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