The Reward You Seek Reveals the Audience You Serve
“If people’s approval is your reward, do not be surprised when that is all you get.”
Is Anyone Watching?
How much difference can an audience make—even when the audience is not real?
Researchers at Newcastle University studied an honesty box in a staff coffee room. Employees could make tea or coffee and were expected to put the appropriate amount of money into a box. For ten weeks, researchers changed one small detail on the price list. Some weeks it displayed flowers. Other weeks it displayed human eyes looking directly at the person making the coffee.
The rules and prices never changed. No cameras were installed. Nobody was actually watching! Yet when the eyes were displayed, people put nearly three times as much money into the box. A printed pair of eyes changed real behavior because we behave differently when we believe someone is watching.
An audience can change our behavior, but it can also corrupt our motives. In Matthew 6, Jesus warns us about living for the wrong audience. He asks us to consider: Whose attention am I seeking? Whose approval am I serving? What reward am I hoping to receive?
The reward you seek reveals the audience you serve.
Jesus says, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).
At first, this may appear to contradict Jesus’ command to let our light shine before others. But Matthew 5:16 explains the purpose: people should see our good works and “give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” The difference is motive. Are our actions pointing people toward God, or are they drawing attention toward ourselves?
Living for human recognition forfeits heavenly reward. This does not mean that good works earn our entrance into God’s kingdom. Salvation is the gift of grace. But the New Testament repeatedly teaches that God rewards the faithfulness of those who belong to him.
It matters greatly why we do what we do.
Generosity Reveals Your Audience
Jesus applies this warning first to generosity:
“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:3–4).
Jesus warns against hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is not struggling with sin; it is pretending you do not. A hypocrite is an actor—someone performing a part for an audience. Even something as beautiful as generosity can become a performance when we use it to gain admiration. If people’s approval is your reward, do not be surprised when that is all you get.
Jesus therefore calls us to give without sounding a trumpet or tooting our own horn. His instruction not to let our left hand know what our right hand is doing is purposeful exaggeration. The point is simple: be generous without craving recognition.
Our Father sees what is done in secret. We do not need our name displayed, our gift announced, or our sacrifice admired. We can give quietly, content in knowing that God sees.
Prayer Reveals Your Audience
Jesus then applies the same truth to prayer. He warns against praying publicly for the purpose of being noticed and against piling up empty phrases as though many impressive words could secure God’s attention. The problem is not public prayer. The problem is performative prayer. Charles Spurgeon said, “The goal of prayer is the ear of God.”
Prayer is not about impressing others—or even impressing God. We do not have to say the right amount of words, adopt a spiritual-sounding voice, or persuade a reluctant deity to help us. Jesus reminds us, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). We are speaking to our Father. He is already attentive. He is already good.
That truth frees us to pray sincerely. Our prayers can be long or short, polished or halting. Their power is not found in a magic formula. What matters is not the eloquence of our words but the One to whom we are speaking.
Who Are You Serving?
Two questions can help reveal what is happening within our hearts.
Do I practice righteousness only when others are around?
This is the test of sincerity. If obedience only feels worthwhile when someone notices, then I may not be serving God as much as I am using righteousness to serve myself. We may fool other people, but we cannot fool God. He desires to transform us from the inside out.
Whose approval is most rewarding to me?
This is the test of worship. If human praise feels more satisfying than the pleasure of our Father, even generosity and prayer can become stages for self-glory. Our words may appear vertically directed toward God while our hearts look horizontally for approval.
When you pray, are you hoping others notice your spiritual-sounding words, or are you simply speaking to your Father in heaven? When you give, do you need someone to know, or is it enough that your Father sees what is done in secret? The approval of others is fleeting and shallow. The approval of the Lord is eternal and meaningful.
The reward you seek reveals the audience you serve. May God purify our motives so that our generosity becomes worship, our prayers become communion, and our lives seek the pleasure of the only Audience who truly matters.
Whose approval are you living for? In Matthew 6, Jesus reveals how our motives in generosity, prayer, and obedience expose the audience we truly serve—and calls us to seek the eternal approval of our heavenly Father.