Note 26 at Mt. 6:3: "Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth" is simply a metaphor used by Jesus to stress secrecy (v. 4). Of course, it is not possible to have one member of your body function independently of another (1 Cor. 12:26), and so it is not always possible to conceal our alms. As stated in verse 1, it is not the fact that we do alms before men that is wrong, but rather that the motive is "to be seen of men."