Showing, Hiding, and the Sermon on the Mount

'. . . let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works . . .' --Matthew 5:16

'Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them . . .' --Matthew 6:1

How do the two fit together?

John Stott quotes A. B. Bruce from 100 years ago:

Bruce sums it up well when he writes that we are to 'show when tempted to hide' and 'hide when tempted to show.'

--A. B. Bruce, Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (London: Hodder, 1897), 116; quoted in John Stott, The Sermon on the Mount (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2000), 69

HT: Stacey Ortlund