What Does Matthew 6:4 Mean?
So that your compassion may be in the hidden; and your Father, who sees in the hidden, himself will give it back to you in the open.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.THE KEY
The hiddenness of your giving is not its invisibility: the Father sees it there and brings its answer into the open.
THE MEANING
Your quiet act of mercy is seen by the Father where no audience can certify it. Its answer comes from him into the open, so the value of the gift is not measured by who witnessed it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that generosity only counts when people witness it and repay it.
THE ROOT
κρυπτῷ
kryptō
GROWS FROM
κρυπ-
To hide or conceal; what is out of sight.
“in the hidden” in this verse is kryptō. The verse repeats this word for both the giving and the Father’s seeing. The same hidden place that removes human applause is where divine attention is already present.
ALSO GROWS
kryptō: To hide, conceal.
κρύπτω
The giving is hidden from people’s view, but concealment does not make it unseen by the Father.
kryptos: Hidden, concealed.
κρυπτός
This is the word’s basic sense in the verse: the act is out of sight, not outside the Father’s awareness.
ἀποδώσει
apodōsei
GROWS FROM
ἀπό + δίδωμι (apo + didōmi)
To give back, render, or repay.
“give it back” in this verse is apodōsei. The promise carries the motion of giving back: what is given quietly is answered by the Father. The open reward completes the movement from a hidden act to a visible response.
ALSO GROWS
didōmi: To give.
δίδωμι
The word at the heart of the promise keeps the verse within the language of giving.
antapodidōmi: To repay, requite.
ἀνταποδίδωμι
This related compound also carries the sense of giving back, illuminating the return expressed in the Father’s reward.
ἐλεημοσύνην
eleēmosynēn
GROWS FROM
ἔλεος
eleos
Mercy or compassion.
“your compassion” in this verse is eleēmosynēn. The word for alms carries mercy into a tangible act of giving. The hidden deed is not just a private transaction; it is compassion taking form, known by the Father even without an audience.
ALSO GROWS
eleos: Mercy, compassion.
ἔλεος
It reveals the compassionate quality carried by the gift.
eleēmōn: Merciful, compassionate.
ἐλεήμων
This related word describes a person marked by mercy, connecting the act to the nature expressed through it.
THE PATTERN
What human eyes cannot measure remains fully visible to God, whose sight brings hidden reality into the open.
You perceive my sitting and my rising, and from afar you separate out my thought.But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have pushed him away. The LORD does not see as the human sees. The human sees what is outside, but the LORD sees the heart.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.THE THREAD
Therefore, judge nothing before its season, until the Lord comes, who will light up the hidden things of darkness, and will make visible the plans of the hearts. And then the praise will come to each one from God.The phrase “hidden things” uses the same Greek word family as “in secret” here. Matthew shows the Father seeing the concealed act and bringing its answer into the open; this verse extends that movement to what lies concealed in the heart.
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