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Matthew 6:9-13—Lord, Teach Us to Pray
Some Thoughts on the Lord’s Prayer After this manner therefore pray ye.—Matthew 6:9.{1} “Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” Our Lord Jesus puts first and foremost in our minds that God is first. The first commandment given to Moses was, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Paul urged, “Do all to the glory of God.” When John fell down to worship the angel who revealed things to him, the angel said, “See thou do it not … worship God” (Exodus 20:3; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Revelation 22:8,9). “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” We long for a heavenly government to straighten things out on earth. But do we ask whether Christ is teaching us to pray for his thousand-year kingdom, or for the eternal kingdom when Christ turns it over to God himself? Christ’s thousand-year kingdom will be a time for remedial education, in reforming people’s ways and returning them back to the perfection lost in Eden. Not until that reformation is accomplished, and the perfected world of mankind has been once again tested by Satan for a little season, will God’s will be done on earth—just as it already is done in heaven (1 Corinthians 15:24-28). “Give us this day {2}our daily bread.” This is the only ‘Give me’ in the Lord’s prayer. In it we are to recognize our dependence upon our heavenly Father. But are we to ask for the bread that perishes? or for the spiritual bread, the word of God, like the manna that came down from heaven to fleshly Israel? Likely we are to ask for both—for everything that we have need of in our daily walking with the Lord. “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Noting this more careful translation in the RV, ASV, NASB, ESV and others, we are not promising to forgive others if God will forgive us. We are to demonstrate our sincerity: we are to first forgive others and then ask God to forgive us. (See also the succeeding article, Forgive Us … As We Have Forgiven Others.) “And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the {3}evil one.” The Greek word for “the evil one” is pon¶ros. He is not the one who does the evil deed, but the one who whispers in your ear the reasons why you should do it, while he goes and hides. Some later scribe(s) added the words, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”{4} In the fourth century a controversy broke out as to whether Christian Rome was or was not Christ’s kingdom. That century would seem to be the most likely time for the words to have been added, although no known manuscript before the fifth century has them. The wording is in many different forms. Moreover, it seems inconsistent to pray both “Thy kingdom come” and “Thine is the kingdom.”
________________________ 2. Gk. our bread for the coming day. Or, our needful bread. 3. Or, evil. 4. The Editorial Committee of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament were apparently unanimous in concluding, “The absence of any ascription in early and important [manuscripts] … suggests that an ascription, usually in a threefold form, was composed (perhaps on the basis of 1 Chr. 29:11-13) in order to adapt the Prayer for liturgical use in the early church. Still later scribes added ‘of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ [after ‘glory’].” Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Second Edition; United Bible Societies, 1994. |