In Matt 6:1-4 (cf. 3 Nephi 13:1-4), we read the following:
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
Funnily enough, one has seen this pericope used against the LDS Church, such as its "Helping Hands” program and the Church noting such in the Ensign and elsewhere. This, some critics reason, is a violation of Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount on this point. However, this ignores the cultural background Jesus was discussing. Ulrich Luz, commenting on this pericope, offered the following insightful commentary:
■ 1* The Matthean opening verse is a summarizing title. It has a twofold function. First, it generalizes. Almsgiving, praying, and fasting are exemplary possibilities of the right relationship to God. Once again “righteousness” (δικαιοσύνη) means human conduct according to the will of God, the heavenly Father. In substance it corresponds to what we would call “piety” today.26 Second, the verse anchors this section in its context. It looks ahead to 23:5* and thus secures the parenetic secondary dimension of the opening section of the great woes discourse against Pharisees and scribes. Above all, however, it looks back to 5:20*; it repeats “your righteousness” from that verse. The readers still remember the Pharisees and scribes from 5:20*. They would presumably think of the “hypocrites” as the Pharisees and scribes. Thus in the macrotext of the Gospel of Matthew our text is a component of his great controversy with mainstream Judaism dominated by the Pharisees and scribes.
This development continued in the Didache, which illustrates the post-history of the Matthean communities. Judaism and Christianity have separated; here the “hypocrites” are simply the Jews. Correspondingly, what is decisive for Matthew—namely, the right attitude in giving charity, in prayer, and in fasting—is no longer useful as a distinguishing criterion. The “hypocrisy” of the Jews consists simply in that they, unlike the Christians, fast on Monday and Thursday and that they do not pray the Lord’s Prayer (Did. 8.1–2).
■ 2* Three examples follow. They speak of forms of Jewish piety28 that were also of central importance in the Christian communities. The first strophe deals with private charity. Along with the general meaning “mercy” in Jewish Greek, ἐλεημοσύνη (German Almosen derives from this Greek word), also had the more specialized meaning “beneficence,” “charitableness,” “alms.”31 At the time of primitive Christianity there did not yet exist in the synagogue the community-wide care of the poor that was unique in antiquity; the distribution of the tithe for the poor was left to the discretion of the individual. Charity was urged all the more strongly. Jewish sources give evidence that almsgiving was also misused and was the occasion for showing off in public.
It was not the case that trumpets were ever blown in the synagogues or in the streets to accompany spectacular acts of benevolence.34 The text speaks here with ironic caricature by making use of a widespread metaphor. However, charitable donations could well be talked about publicly in the synagogue or at fasting worship services.36 A person who made an especially large contribution was highly honored and was permitted, for example, to sit next to the rabbi. This form of self-promotion by means of charitable deeds was widespread. Hellenistic cities were full of inscriptions and statues of “benefactors” who had earned the honor with their λειτουργία (contributions for the public good). It was the ancient form of “sponsoring.”
The text apostrophizes as hypocrisy this hyperbolically caricatured practice of giving charity in order to promote oneself. In Greek usage ὑποκριτής is a neutral word that means “actor.” When used in ethics it takes on, in both Greek and Jewish usage, a negative sense and describes people who do or are something that differs from what they say. In contrast to Matthew 23 it is not the deed of the Jewish opponents that is criticized but their attitude. The almsgivers are accused of giving the promised alms not from love for the neighbor or for God’s sake but out of their own interests. They have, with the honor due them, already received their reward. Standing in the background is the rabbinic concept of God’s compensating righteousness. Some people, preferably Gentiles and the wicked, are rewarded for good deeds on earth and punished later in heaven, while the righteous often suffer on earth and are rewarded in heaven. If we read the text for itself—that is, on the level of the pre-Matthean tradition—the hypocrites are not identified with a particular Jewish group or even with “the synagogue”;40 they remain a general negative type. No one is directly criticized by the wording of the text, but everyone knew against what basic attitude the text is directed. Matthew is the first one who presumably is thinking of the Pharisees and scribes.
■ 3–4* The text also formulates the opposite position with exaggerated and hyperbolic language:41 the left should not know what the right is doing. One should not press this image, which has become a household saying. The idea is not that “he who practices mercy is not himself permitted to know that he practices mercy.”43 The ideal of “entirely spontaneous and unpremeditated” good deeds is foreign to the text. The image means only that no one, not even your most intimate confidant, needs to know anything about your alms. Benevolence takes place before God alone, before whom nothing is hidden45 and who—again a Jewish idea—in the last judgment will reveal, reward, and punish hidden deeds. The perspective is that of the eschatological judgment according to works as it is found in Paul in Rom 2:16*, 28–29*. Thus the text assumes that benefactors will receive a reward from God.47 However, it does not call on people simply to be more skillful in their calculations and to live with a more subtle, that is, religious, form of self-affirmation. Instead, it uses the reference to the reward (actually) given by God to expose human self-promotion as the secret goal of good deeds.
Numerous Jewish and Hellenistic texts make similar demands. Wisdom texts warn against religious hypocrisy (Sir 1:28–29*) and recommend “a gift in secret” (Prov 21:14*). Rabbi Zadok (1st century) warns against making the Torah a crown with which to magnify oneself (m. ʾAbot 4.5). The principle of giving alms secretly to the poor in order to keep from publicly shaming them is often advocated. Therefore, one should also put money in the “Chamber of Secrets” located in the temple (m. Šeqal. 5.6). The practice of pledging alms publicly is criticized by the Shammaites. Practicing charity for the sake of one’s own reputation was regarded as a decidedly Gentile practice.50 However, similar tones are also sounded in Hellenistic, especially Stoic, texts. “Whatever I did well, I did so, not on account of the spectators, but on my own account …; it was all for myself and for God” (Epictetus Diss. 4.8.17). To be sure, God is not the external judge but is identical with the person’s conscience. “There is no higher audience for virtue than the conscience” (Cicero Tusc. 2.26 [64]). What is unique in Jewish texts in comparison with Hellenistic texts—namely, the wise person’s renunciation of self-promotion—lies in its understanding of God. In our text it is creatively expressed with the idea of reward.
There is little difference between our text and its Jewish parallels. Noteworthy is the overly sharp demand that elsewhere is characteristic of Jesus. It is also in Jesus’ style that the hyperbolic-metaphorical demand “the left is not to know what the right is doing” cannot be legally regularized. How this demand is to be fulfilled is left to the hearer’s creative imagination. Finally, in the designation of God as “your Father” the community is reminded of Jesus’ relationship to God. That is, it knows about the loving God who is near at hand. (Ulrich Luz, Matthew 1-7: A Commentary on Matthew 1-7 [Rev ed.; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007], 299-301)
John Welch, commenting on this text as it appears in the Sermon at the Temple, wrote:
Giving to the Poor
Almsgiving is the first requirement encountered in connection with the establishment of the higher order (see 3 Nephi 13:1-4). If done in secret (kryptos), giving of one’s substance will reap open rewards. This rule is a natural conjunction of the law of the gospel (see D&C 104:18) and the law of consecration (see 3 Nephi 13:19-21, 24, 33). Vermes believes that Jesus’ requirement that alms must be given in secret alludes to the “Chamber of Secrets” in the Temple of Herod mentioned in the Mishnah, into which “the devout used to put their gifts in secret and the poor of good family received support therefrom in secret.” But giving to the poor has long been a requirement placed upon the Lord’s covenant people, and giving in sacred secretness has been generally recognized as “a mark of the truly righteous man.” Righteous deeds need not necessarily be performed anonymously. They should be done without pretentiousness; and perhaps even more for secret, sacred reason.
King Benjamin emphasized it as one of the main spiritual attributes of a righteous, covenant person:” Ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor” (Mosiah 4:16). Giving to the poor, he stipulated, is necessary in “retaining a remission of your sins from day to day” (Mosiah 4:26) and is an essential prerequisite for entering into a covenant with God, having “no more disposition to do evil, but do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2; see 5:5). In order to establish Zion, there are to be no poor among the Lord’s people (see Moses 7:18). (John W. Welch, Illuminating the Sermon at the Temple and Sermon on the Mount [Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999], 78-9; cf. Welch, The Sermon on the Mount in Light of the Temple [Surrey: Ashgate, 2009], 120-24)
There is nothing in the modern LDS Church practice of Helping Hands and other activities which are contrary to the words of Jesus in Matt 6:1-4.
