Is It OK to Post My Good Deeds Online If My Heart Is in the Right Place?

Example that people give with that would be like, you know, your daughter is Has coins to give to the offering plate or whatever and she drops each one individually loudly. Everyone can hear the sound.

Do ding do ping.

All right, so that would be a tell to tell your motive.

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Welcome to Bible bash where we aim to equip the saints for the works of ministry by answering the questions. You're not allowed to ask. We're your host Harrison Kerrig and pastor Tim Mullett and today we'll answer the age-old question Is it okay to post my good deeds online if my heart is in the right place?

Now tim before we get started on this question, what bible verse do you have for us?

Yeah, matthew 6 1 through 6 says beware 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. Thus when you give to the needy sound no trumpet before you As the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may be praised by others.

Truly I say to you that they have received their reward. 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.

And when you pray you must not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street Corners that they may be seen by others truly I say 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.

Well, that seems pretty open and shut doesn't it?

I mean certainly there's um, there's a lot there that um our culture particularly our culture that is. Uh influenced by social media would do well to you know, try to reflect on yeah.

It feels like social media is one of those things where it basically.

Um.

It's it's it's the type of thing where you typically get rewarded for talking about yourself, right? Not not rewarded in any in any like. Real tangible sense, but more just like hearts. You get fake internet points.

That's what you get on on social media a lot of times and so yeah, likes and and hearts and little laugh emojis and whatnot and so.

Um.

So so basically it sounds like just from a cursory sort of like listening to you read that passage off. It sounds like essentially what's being said there. Uh, the application for our day and age is essentially like a um.

You know beware boasting about your good works online. Otherwise your only reward will be the little thumbs up. The the number of thumbs up that you got on facebook, right? Yeah. Is that yeah, definitely.

Is that an accurate? So that's an accurate what so? Okay. But I mean, what does that mean though? Does I mean does that mean like? Hey, I can never talk about anything good that i've ever done ever in my entire life online lest I you know.

Lose my reward in heaven for those things.

Yeah, so, you know part of what's happening is you have a verse like this it's basically telling you to be aware 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.

So what's happening is um, there is a there's something you're that you're warned against. So that what you're warned against is practicing your righteousness to be seen by other people. That's what you're warned against.

So then in the minds of many people as they're trying to interpret a passage like this. They think then That the issue is entirely one of motive. Okay, okay so like their way of trying to understand what's happening is to basically say hey the problem jesus is.

Addressing is not the problem of practicing your righteousness before others period, right? Right. The issue is it's just a motive issue and I mean certainly yeah, he's critiquing a certain motive. But it's a little bit more complicated than what people are making it out.

So What what's happening is like, um, right? So the idea here is to say hey beware practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen that By them for then you'll have no reward. And there's specific applications that jesus gives at this point.

So if you're going to give to the needy don't sound a trumpet, right? Okay, if you're going to give to a needy don't sound a trumpet and then if you're going to pray, right? Don't be the be like the hypocrites who You know love to stand in the streets and pray and you know make long prayers.

Go in your prayer closet basically shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret.

And.

You know when your father who sees you in secret, he'll reward you. So people look at that and they'll say okay. Is jesus then? They'll start with a prayer kind of thing. Is jesus criticizing the idea of ever praying in public.

Right. So that's what the logic. Well. No, he's not necessarily praying that. Discouraging the idea of ever praying in public. Or else it would always be sinful and always be wrong. For people at church to pray in public.

So then what it reduces to in their mind then is it's all about motive, right? It's not about.

Like.

The issue is not about praying.

Um publicly.

Or not praying publicly is only the issue is only don't do it in order to be seen by others. And then the problem though is to say that that's just that's not really what's happening.

Okay, what do you mean?

Like meaning like um.

So.

Taking a step back part of what's happening is christians in their mind. They don't have. Like a category for an external action that decisively Demonstrates the character of a person's heart. Does that make sense?

Maybe. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. All right.

All right. So what what's happened is christians have been really like religiously policed with this idea that you could never assume anything about the actions of other people and like what you need to do is you need to always kind of assume the best possible motives for other people.

And you need to always basically like you can never Like draw any conclusions whatsoever from a person's external actions as it relates to their heart condition. Okay, so in every single encounter no matter how bizarre a person might actually act you have to basically Like put your fingers in your ear and say I don't know what this means, right?

I can't assume anything negative about this. The only things I can assume are positive about this and so basically Like you have to go into every encounter and if you have bizarre external behavior You have to pretend like you don't know what it means.

Does that make sense? Yeah. All right. So like let me see if I can give you examples and then talk about well. How does it apply to a passage like this? So like think about it like this like so Like if a girl were to dress immodestly What kind of assumptions would.

Could you make. She's a hussy.

All right, so like in the minds of many people you're not really allowed to say that. She's looking for attention, right. She's desperate for attention. She's looking for attention. She's.

Possible possible. Dad issues.

Possible dad issues godless hussy. All right, you know, whatever you're not allowed to assume anything in the minds of any people but then like people in a past generation, they would know like. Okay, like if you're constantly posting pictures of yourself in various states of undress online.

Like that means something you're communicating. You're easy. You're communicating. You're a hussy. You're communicating your attention starved, right? Yeah, you need affirmation you need. Because so objectively like those behaviors reveal something about a person's heart.

To where like if a person has a like a content like heart, right? They're not filled with vanity. Um, they're concerned about their brothers. They're not going to engage in certain actions along those lines.

And so what's happened though is the church we've kind of declared a ceasefire. Against all of these things to where we're not really allowed to assume anything one way or the other, right? Yeah. And so you always have to kind of assume well, they just they don't know how they're coming across.

It doesn't necessarily mean anything it could be totally innocent and you know. Like who knows right you and so like that's kind of how we're trained in these encounters in general Is to view the world kind of like that and then.

So like what what you're not really allowed to do is just decisively fill in.

The motive.

Right. Yeah.

But then the problem is that like Yeah, like your whole justice system is Like built upon like getting like gaining evidence in order to establish motive, right? Like in order to convict certain people of crime like you don't have to.

Like there's different ways you can convict a person of a crime. Certainly if they have a confession that says hey, I did it, right? Yeah, here's a video of me telling you what i'm going to do and then yeah, certainly that would be evidence.

But like there's other ways to establish motive besides just Confession public. Yeah. Yeah, and you know, and then there's a reality that we all have evil hearts and we're probably deceived about like Like even if we're christians we have like the old man in our heart that is deceiving us about like how wonderful.

How benevolent we are?

Right, right, right. So like so but there's a variety of ways that you can establish motive on the basis of external action. And so as christians, we basically have lost this kind of way of thinking. Because we're so committed to the proposition that you can't make any judgment whatsoever about motives in a way that kind of like it.

Makes it to where it's almost impossible to understand what's being said here. So like just to give you an analogy let's say that you see a person online and we're so kind of inculcated by like Social media and the expectations of social media that some of these things don't seem as absurd as what they actually are.

But like I mean if a person like basically posted a video of himself online saying.

Like.

Look at me help this homeless person.

Right. Uh-huh. Yeah I'm just out here helping this homeless guy. Just out of the kindness of my heart. No, no, no, no, don't thank me don't thank me.

I'm doing this because I love jesus, you know. And I love you, you know, all right now you. You think about something like that like, okay, like the normal kind of christian reaction to something like that is to say Okay, you're full of something right?

Yeah, it may not be.

May not be love you're filled up with here.

Right, uh, but like so but you think about something like that that. Like there's no need like if you really are motivated by the love of god for this other person like there's a sense in which There's no There's no need for you to put it on display like that, right?

Yeah, and show the world how great and wonderful and you know, awesome you are and you know generous you are, you know. So, I mean, you know if you were to say hey, you know, I used to be greedy, but now I'm generous.

You know because god changed my heart watch me help this homeless person, you know, it's like oh come on. You know like just do it just just do it, you know, and so part of like the passage is saying When you give to the needy right when you give don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

So you're giving maybe in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you right? So like the whole issue is like you can engage like externally like if you're just going to broadcast this thing, right?

Like so when you give to the needy sound no trumpet before you as the hypocrites do. Like on the face of it if you saw someone saying hey, i'm going to give to the needy. Right blow the horn, you know, so everyone can watch me give to the needy.

Everyone would look at that and you say hey. That's crazy, right?

That feels a little weird. That's a little excessive. You know what the good news is though. I mean I can't even play the trumpet so I'm safe from that one. You're safe from that. All right.

But the whole all right, so the logic of the passage is to say that that external action is revealing your heart.

Uh-huh. Yeah, you get what i'm saying? Yeah, like like, uh. There was there is no requirement that you Announce to everyone. Hey, i'm, you know giving a hundred dollars to this homeless person. Right, there's no that wasn't that's not like a necessary step.

You could have just done it. Right, right, right. And so like the issue is like if you really want to beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to see Be seen by others. What you need to do is you're not just like Trying to figure out if your heart's in the right place.

And that's what everyone gets stuck at right? They think well. It doesn't matter what you do externally. So in the minds of many people they read the passage and they're reading it. They're saying well.

Whether you blow a trumpet or not before you give is entirely irrelevant. So long as your heart is in the right place. But the whole logic of the passage is if you blow the trumpet before you give That shows Decisively that your heart is not in the right place.

Yeah, does that make sense? Yeah, like so like what you need to do like like if you're modest, right? You want a reward from god or you want a reward from men? All right, if you want a reward from god just give to that guy.

Okay, and don't parade it around don't turn it into a social media video. Don't put it out there on youtube, you know to show how generous you are. Because all you're going to get is you're going to get those likes and those hearts which I mean Shows us how vain we actually are is that youtube has like both a thumbs up and a heart one.

And I have no idea which one you're supposed to use. It's so you end up having to use both because one one method of affirmation is not enough, you know, you mean yeah as uh.

So people with regular accounts on youtube all they can do is is give a thumbs up to comments, but then when you are a content creator. They give you the ability to heart. Uh hand to heart and like the people who comment on your videos.

There you go. I don't know what the difference is other than. The heart immediately distinguishes that a person got a like from the content creator themselves, so maybe that's like a I mean, that's like the definition of of you know the praise of men kind of thing.

Like they only gave me the thumbs up they didn't give me the heart this time.

I got a like on my comment from the person who made this video.

Right. Well, it's all nuts. All right. So but I think the broader point though is just to say hey you're looking at a passage like this. There are certain external things that you can do. Here's the point.

There's certain external things you can do that decisively show Where your heart is? All right. So if you feel the need to sound a trumpet before you give It's like that tell that like that's decisive that should be decisive proof to everyone around you.

Your heart is not right, right? Yeah, it's like it's like the person who says hey, I want to be a You know starting quarterback in the nfl, right? And then they you ask them like, okay. Well, what are you doing?

That's a pretty lofty goal. What are you doing to get there? And they're like do you like do you study film? Well, no, I don't really study much film. Oh, okay. Well, do you Work on your mechanics a lot.

Like are you working on your um technique? Nah, I don't really practice that a whole lot. Oh, okay. Well, are you at least like getting in the gym and working out and getting stronger? It's like no, I don't really do any of that.

It's like All right, maybe maybe you don't actually want to go to the nfl and be a starting quarterback. No. No, I definitely do. I definitely do want that. How dare you judge me? You know, it's like I don't think you do if you did you would probably be doing those things.

How do you yeah, how dare you judge me that uh, you know. Judge my heart, you know, right? How do you know what I really want? All right, so but that's the point like you're like biblically speaking your behavior is gonna Like reveal the state of your heart.

Sure. Like the things that you do are going to reveal the state of your heart. And so when you're thinking about a passage like this, here's I mean the point there is just to say hey. Like this passage is telling you Certain behaviors right certain behaviors are cues to tell you where the state of certain people's heart Is and so like so the idea is like when you give to the needy don't sound a trumpet before you.

What you're meant to do is you're meant to say, okay. Sounding a trumpet before you give that's absolutely bizarre. The only reason why anyone would ever do that is because they're looking to draw attention to what they're doing, right?

Unnecessarily. So then the way you are meant to apply this today is you're meant to say you're like what are equivalents to? Blowing a trumpet before you give that we can look at see right. Uh-huh. Like what are some modern equivalents to doing that kind of thing?

That will tell people irrefutably. Here's the state of your heart, right? Like and so and I think I mean posting.

Like.

Like just some easy modern equivalence this kind of thing. Is it like why do you feel the need every time you have a bible study to post a picture of you? You reading the bible on social media? Like what are you trying to get out with the filter added?

With the filter. With your you know sepia filter or whatever I mean like what what did you get out of that? Like look at me reading the bible, right? Hey, look at me being a good husband. Picture of me being a good husband.

Look at me like giving here's a picture of me given to a homeless person like aren't I you know, it's like.

Why did you do that? Smile. Homeless person?

Take a selfie with me cheese. Look at how benefit. All right. Good luck being homeless. You know, I don't need any of this like the the homeless guy takes the stuff you just gave him and throws on the ground.

After he leaves.

But.

No, so like there are things like there are equivalents to this kind of thing and the problem is like when you live in a narcissistic society. Like for many people this is just a foreign way of thinking like it's a very foreign way of thinking that it would be even remotely wrong to.

You know make a online record of all your good deeds for everyone to look at. So like we've lost like we've utterly lost any idea of humility. Like in our society in general. Sure to the point where. Like all like it's just it's obvious like, you know, if I have good deeds to do.

Why wouldn't I tell everyone about it? And and then you know, if anyone criticizes it then you just look at them and say hey, you don't know my heart, right? Right. It's like well I know I don't. I know a trumpet when I see one.

I know what it sounds like.

Yeah, I know what a trumpet sounds like so. You know. That's told me what your heart is.

Right, that's the point now. What about the argument like hey. This might be encouraging to someone else to hear but essentially like a you know, like a um. Hey, i'm sure i'm trying to share my testimony.

Or like i'm trying to you know. Communicate to others like what what it is that god's doing um, you know. And and using that as a means of encouragement to other people. Um, where does that fall into all of this?

Yeah, I mean so I think the like the main Issue here is like you're you know, be aware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them. Uh for then you have no reward from your heavenly father who is in heaven.

So like you think about that what you're meant to do is you're meant to kind of identify. Like what are some trumpet equivalents in this kind of way, right? What are some things that are trumpet equivalents?

And so like what you're meant to think is like you're meant to like look for moments where individual is Like parading their righteousness in front of other people. Unnecessarily.

So.

Like is this unnecessary or is this like necessary in that way? So like meaning all right. So I think about like this like when you give like you give like don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Let your giving done be done in secret, so Like if you're going to give to people Like there's a sense in which Like actually giving to people might mean that some people find out about it, right?

Uh-huh.

All right, so like you can't just absolutely always make every single one of your giving anonymous, but then.

Like.

Here's the thing like to the extent to which you can tone that down. Not make a spectacle out of it not make a show about it. The better off that will actually be. So there's there's any number of ways in which you can encourage people to give in public.

Right.

So like if I if you were to you know. Post verses online about like the importance of giving the importance of being generous. You can do that over and over again.

Without.

Like every time you give to someone posting a receipt.

About.

Here's the thousand dollar check I sent to x you know. Here's the five hundred dollar check I sent. So a lot of this is about like how specific does this information? Actually have to be you get what i'm saying.

And so like the more that you can Tone that down The more that you make it about the like the message like so the met like you can have an encouraging message Without putting all the focus and intention on yourself, right?

So you can be a person who's talking about the importance of giving all day long. So and this is these are just kind of basic distinctions that people are mixing up when you talk about this kind of stuff online to where.

Like every time you decide to give to a charity, you don't have to broadcast. Hey, i'm going to give a thousand dollars to this charity. Hey, i'm going to give five hundred dollars to this charity because I appreciate this charity and support this charity and you know.

And then you say well the reason i'm doing this is because i'm trying to encourage you to give as sacrificially as I am.

Right.

It's like you can. Like there's any number of ways you can encourage people to give sacrificially without broadcasting. All the specifics of what you're doing. Does that make sense? Yeah. So hey, we should give like here's a good charity.

You should be supporting right?

Um.

Here's a charity I support. I'm not going to tell you how much I support them. But here's a chair. Like if you're thinking through charities to support here's some ones i've identified as good methods of supporting.

Like any number there's any number of ways to say the same kind of thing without necessarily having to rub people's face in.

Like all the specifics of it. Does that make sense? Yeah, what um, what about. You know, like there's a lot of in this day and age. There's a lot of guys out there who do like, um.

Uh.

Evangelism street evangelism where they where they're filming it or you know, some form of like, um uh. Protesting abortion clinics or you know pride pride parades or whatever whatever it is something like that.

They're recording it and Um, they're posting it online like hey, here's my interaction with a atheist. Sharing the gospel or something like that. Is that falling into the same category of you know boasting before men?

I mean, I think right so you could take the same kind of action. And like if you think about like the principle that's at work. They were right people are practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them for then you will have no reward.

Uh, that's when you give sound no trumpet before you. As the hypocrites do in the synagogues. So part of this is like, um. Discussion about what kind of things that we're talking about here. Yeah, okay.

So you have a certain. So obviously like being a public witness you're supposed to let your light shine before men that when they see your good works. They're going to glorify god your father in heaven.

So this like when people are trying to harmonize these kind of things they often go to that kind of passage where that passage is basically talking about the importance of letting your light shine before men and.

Like so you're going to do public Things to show your allegiance to god, right? In general like that's just a part of the christian life. You don't have to keep your christian life. Just utterly private and.

Everything else but you can do.

You know.

Um, like if you're gonna post a video of you Talking to an atheist with the goal of trying to edify the body and equip them. To see how do you talk to atheists right. Equip them and train them? Yeah you can you can like there's.

There's there's a way to do that that puts the focus on equipping and training, right? And there's a way to do that that puts the focus on your own personal achievements, right? Like meaning like okay i'm gonna post this is my you know, uh.

This is our number five of me evangelizing this week.

Man i'm really tired. My voice hurts so much from sharing the gospel with 1 000 people today, but I just gotta keep going.

All right, so that would be so that's. Now like the difference see see what I mean like the difference between those two scenarios doesn't just resolve to motive it resolves to like the presence of the trumpet.

Sound does that make sense? Like in that way like the like that trumpet like there's um. Things that are entirely unnecessary.

Okay.

To what you're doing and sounding a trumpet like what like that like that kind of thing would be the kind of thing that's entirely Unnecessary to the goal. Does that make sense?

Yeah, it just it just kind of seems though like if if the passage is saying practice your righteousness before men that feels like Practicing, you know, hey, here's a video. Here's a video of me sharing the gospel.

You know that's meant to be an encouragement and a Method of equipping you to go and share the gospel still feels like practicing your righteousness before men. When that's not a necessary That's not like a necessary step in sharing the gospel is filming it and in fact in some ways it might even be like a Deterrent because like hey, I don't want to be in I don't want my face on your video.

No, you know.

Without. Necessarily, yeah. Validating that one way or the other just like the prohibition though is beware of practicing your righteousness before men in order to be seen.

By him so.

In your mind like the prohibition is not practicing your righteousness before men. It's practicing it in order to be seen by it. And then the issue is that there are tells. Like there are behavioral tells That will tell everyone around you That they'll out you.

Does that make sense? So there's like, you know, there's poker tells That will out an individual that that like they are practicing their righteousness before men to be seen by men. And so this is a passage which gives a few poker tells so to speak, right?

Like that will out you that will out your motives, okay. Uh, so so yes. No, the issue is not Practicing your righteousness before men period.

Okay.

The issue is practice your righteousness before men to be seen by them. And their behavioral tells that will tell your heart is doing that. Okay?

And so.

Now it doesn't give you like an exhaustive list of all of those tells. But it gives you examples that you're meant to try to extrapolate out to other scenarios. Does that make sense?

Mm-hmm.

All right. So the tell what gives is thus when you give to the needy don't sound a trumpet before you. So you could give to the needy in a public way. What do you get. What I mean, what do you mean.

Like just you're out in public and you and you give to like a homeless dude, is that what you mean?

Right. Yeah, so you're giving to the needy, right? Now if you want to make it to where? Everyone knows you're doing this to be seen as you do it. There are certain things you can do like record it. Right.

Yeah, put it on the internet and say hey i'm gonna go give to this homeless person watch me give right. Like that like you don't have to do that. You know if the goal was to bless the homeless or the poor person, right you could do that.

Right if your goal was to be seen doing it. Then you sound your trumpet you turn your camera on you put it on social media, right? Does that make sense?

Yeah, but then it seems like kind of the same thing though with the evangelism is like hey, you could just evangelize them. Or you could evangelize them or you know turn the camera on find the person and then evangelize.

Yeah, well no, I think it's a good example. I think it's a good example of something that people should be thinking about. Where. Um, there is um. There is An inbuilt temptation in that kind of framework to make it about Things that it's not too.

Okay. Yeah, and by the way, i'm i'm pushing back on this as someone who feels like they've benefited greatly From watching a lot of those videos like great comfort or something like that. Yeah, like jeff durbin.

Yeah, because I mean just because You know for so long I was terrified to say anything And be thought of as unloving and then I just saw these guys who were like going out there and And they were just saying it all you know, and so me watching that I don't I don't know that I don't really watch them very much anymore, but Initially, it was like, uh, oh there's guys out there that are just doing it I guess I should go do that too, you know, and so so I benefited a lot from from those videos whether you know.

Whether they're good or bad at the end of the day. I I did benefit from them. I feel like So but then i'm just you know, i'm still wanting to push back and say well, hey if we're you know What does that mean for these things that I've been?

Benefited from it, you know if if that's sort of the application with this other thing, you know giving to the needy, so.

All right. So like the issue is like what like the issue is like what would be some irrefutable? Tells that would tell you that the primary goal here, right? Yeah. Is to receive praise from men, okay.