The motive all important.
Such examples as this might be multiplied without limit. If you will examine your own acts, you will find that every act of yours is the result of a preconceived thought, entertained and fed. Is it not clear, then, that the teaching of Jesus is far better than the teaching of the Old Law? It is more important to train the mind and to guard the motives, than merely to guard one's acts. If one's motives are pure, wholesome, and sound, one's acts cannot but be so also.
Jesus's doctrine of rewards.
Now, just as Jesus differed in His teaching of the ultimate basis of the moral life from the teaching of the Old Law, so He differed from the Old Law in His teachings about rewards. Amongst the Jews of the time of Jesus, the fear of punishment or the hope of immediate good fortune constituted the primary motive of a good life. In other words, rewards—more or less material and immediate—were in the Old Law the inspiration to action. Jesus would do away with such an attitude toward charitable living. He would have people do good for the good's sake; He would have people live right for the sake of right living, He would have people work righteousness for the sake of righteousness. And He emphasized and drove home the thought that if any one worked merely to increase his own honor and to exalt himself in the eyes of men, he should fail, and should be humiliated in the attempt.
A parable in point.
"It came to pass," says the New Testament narrative, "as (Jesus) went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched Him. . . . "And He put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when He marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them. When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; and he that bade thee and him come and say to thee. Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then thou shalt have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
"For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
A sound psychological principle.
Here again Jesus announces a sound, psychological principle. Men who crowd and push themselves forward always arouse the ill will and antagonism of their fellowmen; whereas those who are humble and meek stir the admiration of their fellowmen and are advanced by them. All our acts should be inspired, not by the desire for honor or for worldly reward, but by the desire to work righteousness.
A further illustration.