As we continue to study Christ’s Kingdom Manifesto in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continues to challenge His hearers with the challenge to do things for God Himself, not for the reward of man. He using the Spiritual Discipline of Fasting to show that a heavenly reward is much better than an earthly reward given my people.
When we are discipled by listening directly to Jesus’ voice in Scripture, we can trust His wisdom as being inerrant because He perfectly embodied all the spiritual disciplines we aspire to have. In contrast, when we are discipled by listening to others, we should discern which particular spiritual disciplines God has empowered each one of them to have. Because, as fallen people, even as devout followers of Jesus, none of us embody them all.