Doing Our Works Before Men - A Message From Augustine

The thing that amazes me in being a Christian is that messages preached over 1500 years ago are still relevant today. The preaching style might have been different back then but the message was the same. Here is an excerpt from a message from Augustine of Hippo who lived from 354-430 AD.

"Take heed, therefore," Jesus says, "that you do not do your righteousness before men to be seen of them. We are to take heed that we do not live righteously with the intent to be seen by men and that we do not place our happiness in being seen by men. "Otherwise you have no reward of your Father who is in heaven." The issue is not being seen by men but it is in being righteous with the intent of being seen by men.

For if the issue was doing our righteousness secretly as to not be seen by men, what would become of the statement made prior to this one: "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works"?

But he did not set up this as the end for He added, "and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Jesus is finding fault with people whose purpose for right actions is to be seen by others. If we act rightly with the design of being seen of men after Jesus has said "Take heed that you do not do your righteousness before men," then we have made Jesus' words empty and He has added nothing to our life. Hereby, it is evident that He has said these things, not to prevent us from acting rightly before men, but to prevent us from acting rightly before men with the purpose of being seen by them.

For the apostle also says, "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." In another place he says, "Please all men in all things, even as I also please all men in all things." Those who do not understand the principle we are talking about here today think these verses are a contradiction. The explanation is that the apostle has said that he does not please men because he was accustomed to act rightly, not with the express design of pleasing men, but of pleasing God. Through these actions, he wanted to show God's love and turn men's hearts by that very thing in which he was pleasing men. Therefore, he was both right in saying that he did not please men because in that very thing he aimed at pleasing God and right in authoritatively teaching that we ought to please men, not in order that this should be sought for as the reward of our good deeds, but because the man who would not offer himself for imitation to those whom he wished to be saved could not please God.

No man can possibly imitate one who has not please him. A man who is looking for a ship to take him to his homeland would not speak absurdly if he said, "It is not a ship that I seek but my native country." So the apostle also might fitly say, "In this work of pleasing men, it is not men, but God that I please because I do not aim at pleasing men. It is also my desire that those whom I wish to be saved may imitate me."

The apostle says a similar thing in regard of an offering that is made for the saints: "Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit." The apostle was saying that in seeking their gift, he sought not really the gift but the fruit, for by this proof it could appear how far they had advanced Godward. The proof would be shown if they would offer willingly that which was sought from them not for the sake of his own joy over their gifts but for the sake of the fellowship of love.

When Jesus went on to say, "Otherwise you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven," He points out that nothing else except that we ought to be on our guard against seeking man's praise as the reward of our deeds. We need to avoid thinking that it is through man's praise that we attain to blessedness.