Last week my Bible notes took a fairly close look at Matthew 6.  What struck me most, and which never seemed to evoke comment, was the frequent use of the word 'reward,' at least in the translation I was using.  In each little set of cautions the general gist is 'don't do it where people will see it to get an earthly reward but do it privately and God will reward you.'  This left me wondering about the whole concept of doing things to get a reward anyway... surely we ought to give alms, say, because it's the right thing to do not because people or God will give us a medal (or however we understand the reward).

Checking an online interlinear, the Greek is evidently more subtle... the public displays earn "misthon" whilst the private approaches lead to divine "apodosei".  Alas my Greek isn't good enough to discern the difference, all my Greek books are at church, and the www isn't helping much.  Anyone out there able to give me a hint as to the significance (or otherwise) of the choice of words and their better translations?

Still doesn't help me with the reward aspect as a potential motivation for doing the right thing, not yet what the reward might be understood to be, but it may move my thinking along just a little bit.