Lesson 6 – The King’s Code of Righteousness
Read Matthew 6 – www.bible.com/bible/59/mat.6

In this chapter Jesus teaches us the difference between righteousness that comes from us and His righteousness. He contrasts four areas of our lives: how we love others, how we communicate with Him, how we set our priorities, and how we deal with life in general.

Loving others this world’s way means we use others for our own benefit. In verses 1-4 Jesus gives us the example of our charity work. If we are practicing our own righteousness, we give to someone in need so we will get recognition for our gift; our purpose has little to do with actually meeting the need of the person to whom we are giving. Jesus says this kind of gift brings you at that moment all the reward you will ever get for it – it does nothing for your eternal life. You have given for temporary purposes; you are rewarded only with the recognition you received.

Prayer with fasting is another part of our life that can be done either for temporary honor or for eternal value – verses 5-18. Communicating with our King is our goal rather than praying and fasting for show. Again we see Jesus’ words that those who do this to receive recognition from others have that honor as the only reward they will ever receive – they have not strengthened their relationship with the King; they have no more righteousness than what they have been able to make on their own. True prayer is talking WITH our King rather than talking ABOUT Him.


Verses 19-24 tell us about righteousness relating to how we set our priorities in this earthly life. What are our treasures here on earth? Do we treasure money and the things money can get for us? All those things can be stolen from us or will fade or decompose with time. We cannot take money or anything it can buy with us to heaven. We will see later, in lesson 25, how treasures are stored up in things we have done for others – things we didn’t do for our own glory but for their benefit. Notice here in the last few verses of this section: what we look at with longing actually becomes our treasure. And the last verse is the capstone – we cannot serve two masters. We must choose: will we serve eternal God or temporary wealth?

Finally, our King’s code of righteousness determines how we deal with life. Righteousness from Him results in faith rather than worry. We might be able to convince ourselves for a little while that we really trust God for the circumstances in our lives, but the real faith coming from His righteousness gives us peace and joy we cannot create ourselves. In the middle of life’s storms that threaten to destroy all we have and are, we do not have the ability to make ourselves joyful and peaceful. Only our King can give us His peace and joy!

*How can you ensure the good things you do are done for eternal value and not just temporary honor?
*How do your priorities reflect where your treasure is – here or in heaven?