You can certainly pray this prayer word for word if you like. But other interpreters say we should base our prayers on each line, but put our prayer in our own words. That is, it’s a model prayer.
The model prayer begins in v. 9. I include the context at v. 5.
The translation is mine. If you would like to see other translations, please click here: biblegateway.com. I include Greek in the left column, so Greek readers can check my translation. You can ignore the left column if you wish.
By the way, I consider this prayer and the one in Luke 11:2-4 to be different prayer lessons because of the different contexts. A teacher is allowed to repeat himself, whether in long or short form. Matthew’s prayer lesson is long, while Luke’s is short.
Here is Luke’s prayer model:
Links are provided in the commentary for extra study.
Let’s begin.
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Lord’s (Model) Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15) |
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| 5 Καὶ ὅταν προσεύχησθε, οὐκ ἔσεσθε ὡς οἱ ὑποκριταί, ὅτι φιλοῦσιν ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς καὶ ἐν ταῖς γωνίαις τῶν πλατειῶν ἑστῶτες προσεύχεσθαι, ὅπως φανῶσιν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀπέχουσιν τὸν μισθὸν αὐτῶν. 6 σὺ δὲ ὅταν προσεύχῃ, εἴσελθε εἰς τὸ ταμεῖόν σου καὶ κλείσας τὴν θύραν σου πρόσευξαι τῷ πατρί σου τῷ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ· καὶ ὁ πατήρ σου ὁ βλέπων ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ ἀποδώσει σοι. 7 Προσευχόμενοι δὲ μὴ βατταλογήσητε ὥσπερ οἱ ἐθνικοί, δοκοῦσιν γὰρ ὅτι ἐν τῇ πολυλογίᾳ αὐτῶν εἰσακουσθήσονται. 8 μὴ οὖν ὁμοιωθῆτε αὐτοῖς· οἶδεν γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὧν χρείαν ἔχετε πρὸ τοῦ ὑμᾶς αἰτῆσαι αὐτόν.
9 Οὕτως οὖν προσεύχεσθε ὑμεῖς· Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· 10 ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου· 11 τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον· 12 καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, 13 καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν, 14 Ἐὰν γὰρ ἀφῆτε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὰ παραπτώματα αὐτῶν, ἀφήσει καὶ ὑμῖν ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ὁ οὐράνιος· 15 ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ἀφῆτε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, οὐδὲ ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ἀφήσει τὰ παραπτώματα ὑμῶν. |
5 Further, whenever you pray, don’t be as the hypocrites, because they like to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, to make a public appearance before people. I tell you the truth: they are paid their reward. 6 But you, whenever you pray, go into your secret room and close your door and pray to your Father in secret, and your Father who sees you in secret will reward you. 7 While you are praying, don’t babble as the pagans do, for they think that they will be heard with their multiple words. 8 Therefore, don’t be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 Therefore, pray in this way: Our Father who is in heaven, 14 For if you forgive people their trespasses, your Father in heaven will also forgive yours. 15 But if you do not forgive people, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. |
Comments:
Let’s go verse by verse. I often quote the published commentators because I learn many things from them, and I write to learn. They form a community of teachers I can trust, though I don’t agree on every tiny detail. I really like how they honor Scripture. They are friendly readers, not hostile ones.
5:
“whenever”: it means indefinite time, so we can pray whenever we can—or should. It does not mean “if you pray” or “whenever you feel like it.”
“pray”: Let’s take an expansive look at the verb (and noun). It is the very common verb proseuchomai (pronounced pros-yew-khoh-my) and appears 85 times. The noun proseuchē (pronounced pros-yew-khay) is used 36 times, so they are the most common words for “prayer” or “pray” in the NT. They are combined with the preposition pros, which means, among other things, “towards,” and euchē, which means a prayer, vow and even a mere wish. But Christians took over the word and directed it towards the living God; they leaned in toward him and prayed their requests fully expecting an answer. It is not a mere wish to a pagan deity.
Prayer flows out of confidence before God that he will answer because we no longer have an uncondemned heart (1 John 3:19-24); and we know him so intimately that we find out from him what is his will is and then we pray according to it (1 John 5:14-15); we can also pray with our Spirit-inspired languages (1 Cor. 14:15-16). Pray!
What Is Biblical Intercession?
“hypocrites”: “hypocrites”: originally it comes from the Greek play actor on the stage. They wore masks and played roles. There were stock characters, such as the buffoon, the bombastic soldier, or the old miser. The Septuagint (pronounced sep-too-ah-gent and abbreviated LXX for the “seventy” scholars who worked on it) is a third-to-second century (B.C.) translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. It uses the term hypocrite to mean the godless. However, in Matthew’s Gospel (it is used only once in Mark 7:6 and three times in Luke 6:42; 12:56; 13:15), it is more nuanced. Hypocrites appeared one way, but in reality they were different. They appeared outwardly religious, but inwardly they were full of dead men’s bones (Matt. 23:27). They wore religious masks. They actually did many things that the law required, but they failed to understand God’s view of righteousness. They were more self-deceived than deceivers, though in Matt. 23, Jesus denounced the Pharisees and experts in the law for teaching one thing but living another. They are religious show-offs who act out their righteousness to impress others but are out of touch with God’s mercy and love. Eccl. 7:16 says not to be overly righteous, but that is what they were and displayed it publicly. Here in these four verses, ostentatious display is wrong.
They make a public appearance for their prayers. Once again this pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or section or unit of Scripture is all about the contrast between public, ostentatious displays on the one hand and on the other doing righteous acts in private with so much trust in your heart that you know God sees you praying in private.
“are paid”: it is the verb apechō (pronounced ah-PEH-khoh), and in this context it means “receive a sum in full and give a receipt for it (commercial term”) (Shorter Lexicon). Then the editors cite 6:2 and 5, 16. it means to get something back in full or receive a reward in full. In this case, their reward is earth-bound and small. Maybe in this context the receipt is spiritual. The paper is blank or the amount is really small. I prefer blank. It’s an empty receipt.
“people”: it is the Greek noun anthrōpos (pronounced ahn-throw-poss), and even in the plural some interpreters say that it means only “men.” However, throughout Greek literature written before and during the NT, in the plural it means people in general, including womankind (except rare cases). In the singular it can mean person, depending on the context (Matt. 4:4; 10:36; 12:11, 12; 12:43, 45; 15:11, 18). So a “person” or “people” or “men and women” (and so on) is almost always the most accurate translation, despite what more conservative translations say. So I chose “people.”
“synagogue”: this was the place of Jewish social life. Prayer and teaching were centered there.
I tell you the truth”: Matthew uses this expression thirty times in his Gospel. “Truth” comes from the word amēn (pronounced ah-main and comes into English as amen). It expresses the authority of the one who utters it. The Hebrew root ’mn means faithfulness, reliability and certainty. It could be translated as “truly I tell you” or I tell you with certainty.” Jesus’s faith in his own words is remarkable and points to his unique calling. In the OT and later Jewish writings is indicates a solemn pronouncement, but Jesus’ “introductory uses of amēn to confirm his own words is unique” (France at his comment on 5:18). The authoritative formula emphasizes pronouncements which are noteworthy and will be surprising or uncomfortable to the listener.
Normally, Jews did not literally pray in the streets, “but again Jesus reduces the questionable behavior to the absurd by graphically depicting a worst-case scenario: a person who craves notice so much that he arranges to find himself in the street during the regular daily prayer times” (Keener p. 211).
So once again, Jesus uses a startling image to instruct us. He uses this technique often in the Sermon on the Mount.
6:
You may certainly take the “secret” or “private” or “unpublic” room literally. Many people do take it literally and call it their “prayer closet.” They literally go into their closet where their clothes hang and crawl underneath them and sit and pray. It makes me smile, and I’m sure God also smiles. He likes their enthusiasm to obey the Word literally. In my own life, I go on prayer walks away from people, except a few passersby. So I suppose the open air is my closet.
“reward”: it could be translated as “recompense” or “pay.” See v. 5 for more information.
God sees you in private, and he rewards you in private. He won’t send you out in public for a standing ovation because of your secret prayer life. He wants a relationship with you and you alone. Not you and your spouse. Not you and your children. Not you and your small group. All those people are important, but he wants you, in private.
7:
“While you are praying”: this translates a present participle. Your praying can happen at any time.
“pagans”: it could be translated as “Gentiles” or “non-Jews.” They prayed at pagan temples and apparently prayed repetitively, multiplying words. Jesus worked in Galilee, where there was a large influx of Romans and Greeks. He may have actually heard them praying like this, as he worked as a craftsman in his youth, before he began his ministry.
“babble”: it translates an extremely rare word battalogeō (pronounced bah-tah-lo-geh-oh, and the “g” is hard as in “get”). It is hardly found in the larger Greek word, except in one instance. Liddell and Scott says it is related to Battos the Stammerer, the name of the king of Cyrene. It means “to speak stammeringly or say the same thing over and over.” The Shorter Lexicon suggests “babble.” To me, the battos stem sounds onomatopoeic (the sound and meaning of the word converge). It sounds like someone babbling or stammering. The log– stem is related to “words.” So it could mean, literally, “speaking batta” (babble) (Blomberg).
Multiplying words out of insecurity or fear because you think God may or may not be listening is misguided. We don’t need to repeat ourselves. He heard you the first time. We need to pray from a place of victory and confidence in our loving Father.
“This is not a diatribe against lengthy prayers per se (Jesus prayed all night [Luke 6:12] as well as lengthily in Mark 1:35; 6:46; 14:35-42) but rather the type of long prayer with endless repetition and virtually meaningless gibberish” (Osborne, comment on 6:7). Then Osborne points out that Gentiles sometimes repeated an extensive list of names of God, thinking that if they said the names correctly, they could manipulate the god Or it means mystical gibberish similar to mantras in Eastern religious today. Muslims have a string prayer beads, as if this act of piety means anything to God. It does not.
8:
This is a short command: “Don’t be like them.” Don’t be like the pagans who don’t know God and pray out into the air and speak many words. They won’t be heard because of the abundance of their words, but if they turn to the true God in repentance, only then will God hear them.
God wants to reward people who trust in him and believe that he sees or knows what they need before they ask him. As noted in the previous verse, we need to pray out of confidence. He is our loving Father. He knows what you need before you ask. “The kingdom citizen does not need to prattle on and on as if God is hard of hearing or has a short attention span. This is exemplified in the short, balanced, and profound prayer that follows” (Osborne, comment on 6:8).
So why pray if he knows everything? Out of his love and mercy God has built the human or moral order to be in relationship with him. He does not need our participation, but he invites us into this relationship. And one sure way to be involved with him is to talk to him. Are you wise enough to see that you have needs, or can you handle things on your own? “I got this!”
Are you humble enough to pray to him, or can you figure this out on your own, with your own clever mind and intellect? What kind of relationship is that, before Almighty God? He is God; you are not. We enter a relationship with him on his terms, not ours. We pray to him, and we relate to him through prayer. He ordained prayer. We use our minds, and then our mouths speak and form words, and he allows our human speech to relate to him. Yes, we can pray with our minds only, but a healthy prayer life is a vocal or voiced one.
Prayer means self-surrender. In praying for yourself or someone else or for things, you are telling God, “I give my life to you and submit it to you. I depend on you, not my own abilities and brainpower and willpower. I give up! You take charge! You answer my prayers if it is your will” The moment we humble ourselves and pray, he answers. He wants to answer. But he’s the boss, not you.
Therefore he knows in advance that we need this or that answer, but he invites us into the privilege of praying to him and relating to him, by our needs and by our speaking—our being human.
9:
“in this way”: the phrase indicates a model prayer. Though I won’t quarrel with anyone who prays the exact words and only the exact words, the people who do this miss the deeper meaning of the prayer. We are supposed to expand our prayers based on these verses beyond rote repetition.
“Father”: this is the most wonderful relational word that exists for God. Yes, he is our Savior and our Rock and our Deliverer and our Redeemer (and so on), but he is deepest of all our Father.
His fatherhood means we are his children. We can approach our Father whenever we want. If you had a mean earthly father, don’t project your bad experience or feelings on to God your Father. That’s not fair. He is not like your earthly father. He is wholly different and loving.
“let your name be made holy” in the eyes of the people or “let your name be sanctified” in the eyes of the people. Or it could be translated as “let your name be reverenced” in the eyes of the people. Or it could be “made holy” or “sanctified” or “reverenced” in your heart. You must treat God as holy or wholly other than any being, whether angel or the most holy man or sacred space (e.g. a temple). There is no one like him (“I am God; there is no one like me,” says Is. 46:9), so see him in that light.
“name”: this noun stands in for the person—a living, real person. You carry your earthly father’s name. If he is dysfunctional, his name is a disadvantage. If he is functional and impacting society for the better, then his name is an advantage. The Father has the highest status in the universe, before and above the entire universe, which he created. His character is perfection itself. Now down here on earth you walk and live as an ambassador in his name, in his stead, for he is no longer living on earth through his Son, so you have to represent him down here. We are his ambassadors who stand in for his name (2 Cor. 5:20). The good news is that he did not leave you without power and authority. He gave you the power and authority of his Son Jesus. Now you represent him in his name—his person, power and authority. Therefore under his authority we have his full authority to preach the gospel and set people free from bondages and satanic spirits and heal them of diseases.
“holy”: William Mounce in his Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words says the Hebrew adjective for holy is qadosh and is used 117 times. “It describes that which is by nature sacred or that which has been admitted to the sphere of the sacred by divine rite. It describes, therefore, that which is distinct or separate from the common or profane” (p. 337).
Renewal theologian J. Rodman Williams teaches that the basic connotation of holy and holiness in the Old Testament is that of separation / apartness from the common, mundane, and profane things of everyday life. This true of God in His total otherness, also of persons and things set apart for Him and His service (vol. 1, p. 60, note 41).
God’s majesty speaks of God’s awesomeness and majesty. “At the heart of divine majesty is the white and brilliant light of His utter purity. There is in God utterly no taint of anything unclean and impure” (p. 61).
In simple English, it means God is completely different and separate from earthbound things. But this does not mean that he is so far up in heaven that he ignores us. As our holy Father, he is involved in our lives. So we have a perfect balance of God’s unique holiness and his fatherhood. Further, he likewise calls us to be holy or separate from the world’s pollution, but involved in the world. Be in the world, but not of it.
Do I Really Know God? He Is Majestic
Do I Really Know God? He Is Holy
Do I Really Know God? He Is Beautiful
Word Study on Holiness and Sanctification
I really like Turner’s comments on 9a:
God is “our Father in heaven” because God has come near to his children by his grace, establishing a covenant relationship of intimacy and community. Yet God is at the same time “our Father in heaven”; he remains distant from his children because of his glory, which leads his disciples to approach him with awe. This God deserves the utmost devotion flowing from love and reverence for the one who perfectly and harmoniously possessed goodness and greatness, grace and power, immanence and transcendence. When prayer is made, God’s goodness and greatness must be carefully balanced to achieve intimacy without sentimentality on the one hand, and reverence without austerity on the other.
10:
“kingdom”: What is it? As noted in other verses that mention the kingdom in this commentary, the kingdom is God’s power, authority, rule, reign and sovereignty. He exerts all those things over all the universe but more specifically over the lives of people. It is his invisible realm, and throughout the Gospels Jesus is explaining and demonstrating what it looks like before their very eyes and ears. It is gradually being manifested from the realm of faith to the visible realm, but it is not political in the human sense. It is a secret kingdom because it does not enter humanity with trumpets blaring and full power and glory. This grand display will happen when Jesus comes back. In his first coming, it woos people to surrender to it. We can enter God’s kingdom by being born again (John 3:3, 5), by repenting (Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:5), by having the faith of children (Matt. 18:4; Mark 10:14-15), by being transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son whom God loves (Col. 1:13), and by seeing their own poverty and need for the kingdom (Matt. 5:3; Luke 6:20; Jas. 2:5).
Here it is the already and not-yet. The kingdom has already come in part at his First Coming, but not yet with full manifestation and glory and power until his Second Coming.
Bible Basics about the Kingdom of God
Questions and Answers about Kingdom of God
Basic Definition of Kingdom of God
1 Introducing the Kingdom of God (begin a ten-part series)
“come”: it is a standard verb. Whatever is done in heaven should be done on earth. But some critics suggest that we have no death in heaven, so should we pray realistically that people on earth never die? There is no evangelism in heaven, so no evangelism on earth? No marriage or sex or raising children properly or money in heaven; therefore, since there is none of those things in heaven, should we pray for them to come down to earth? And therefore, say the critics, this verse in the Lord’s (Model) Prayer is not carte balance to ask for everything in heaven to come down to earth. But the critics miss the point. The kingdom, as we just learned, is not fully manifested, but it will be at the Second Coming.
5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully
Until the kingdom comes in full power and manifestation, we need our daily bread and the forgiveness of sins, both ours and those who have sinned against us. And those two things are just representative samples. We need better marriages and child-rearing skills and wisdom, more evangelism. We pray for kingdom harmony in our marriages. Evangelism: we pray down kingdom power to enable us to fulfill it. As for death, it will end at the Second Coming. We pray down kingdom life in us, not to live forever in our earth suits (bodies), but to sustain us while we live in them. We live on earth, and we can indeed pray down from heaven the things we need on earth in the current dispensation (I’m no dispensationalist in the convoluted sense of the term). We let other Scriptures guide us to pray down heavenly things down on earth to us.
So don’t let the misguided critics boss you around or mislead you, as they misread and overread things with utmost literalness and fail to capture the intent.
However, don’t be disappointed if the partial yet powerful manifestation of heaven and the kingdom does not happen right now, particularly healing. Yes, pray in faith for healing, but the polluted world and our weak bodies may not be healed at this time.
Why Doesn’t Divine Healing Happen One Hundred Percent of the Time?
Does God Want to Heal Everyone Every Time They Ask?
Bottom line: Jesus is telling us to pray for the full manifestation of the kingdom, and it has not happened yet and will not happen until he returns. We see through a mirror dimly and know in part, and the perfect has not yet come (1 Cor. 13:9-12). He is telling us to pray for God to come through his Son at the Second Coming; only then will his kingdom come in its earth-shattering fulness. But we can also pray for the little things of the kingdom to come down right now to meet our needs right now.
“be done”: it is the very flexible verb ginomai (pronounced gee-noh-my, and the “g” is hard as in “get”). It could just as easily be translated as “let your will happen” or “let your will be,” the two more frequent definitions of the verb.
“as in heaven, also on earth”: that is a literal translation, and I like the brevity; “it is” is supplied by other translations: “as it is in heaven.” And they even switch things around: “on earth, as it is in heaven.” I can’t quarrel with their translations, and I’m sure theirs is better, but I like to keep things literal. It is strong in its brevity.
“So while this second petition includes a desire that the kingdom come upon unbelievers (i.e. evangelism) and that God’s people experience the kingdom in a new way (i.e. spiritual growth), it primarily centers on a desire for this world to end … So this prayer asks for the present kingdom to manifest in new ways, but especially asks that God end this present order and bring the kingdom to fullness” (Osborne, comment on 6:10). In other words, the prayer is about the inaugurated kingdom, which Jesus was introducing right then and there, and the future kingdom. Present and future.
Once again:
5 The Kingdom of God: Already Here, But Not Yet Fully
In his commentary on Luke’s Gospel and the parallel (model) prayer, Darrell L. Bock quotes the Kaddish, an eschatological Jewish prayer that ended the ancient synagogue services:
Exalted and hallowed be his great name
In the world which he created according to his will.
May he let his kingdom rule
In your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime
Of the whole house of Israel, speedily and soon.
Luke 9:51-24:53. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Vol. 2. (Baker 1996), p. 1052.
11:
“give”: The verb is in the imperative or command form, but it is only a grammatical point. We must not believe that we can command God, but we can ask with authority. We should have confidence when we ask God for our food and other supplies.
“bread”: it stands in for our other basic needs. In Greek it is the first word in the sentence, for emphasis. It stands in for all of our need for supplies, like a job or groceries—whatever nourishes us and puts a roof over our head.
We can pray every day for our daily need. Or you can divide it up weekly—“Lord, give my family our weekly need. I also ask that you promote myself and my husband at my and his job.” Or pray for your daily bread every day.
“for living”: it is the extremely rare noun that means “necessary for existence”; “for the following day”; or “for the future” (Culy, Parsons, and Stigall in the Gospel of Luke, p. 374), and it is used only here and in the other version of the Lord’s Model Prayer (Luke 11:3). Let’s appropriate the word to teach us to pray for the necessities of life for the next day and the future. The Greek phrasing also has the word today in it. You can pray for tomorrow’s bread or supplies that exist in the future. No, this does not allow heavy credit card debt, for that is presumptuous. But God’s supply exists in his time, which for us appears like the future because we have a limited perspective (we’re not omniscient). In any case, God sees what we need today, and he is preparing things tomorrow to give them to us. Today and tomorrow are one for God since he has an eternal perspective.
Carson: “the prayer is for our needs, not our greed.” He also reminds us that the common laborer worked daily and got paid daily, but often the work was seasonal. And if he fell ill, it would be a tragedy (comment on v. 11).
12:
“forgive”: it comes from the verb aphiēmi (pronounced ah-fee-ay-mee), and BDAG, considered by many to be the authoritative lexicon of the Greek NT, defines it with the basic meaning of letting go: (1) “dismiss or release someone or something from a place or one’s presence, let go, send away”; (2) “to release from legal or moral obligations or consequence, cancel, remit, pardon”; (3) “to move away with implication of causing a separation, leave, depart”; (4) “to leave something continue or remain in its place … let someone have something” (Matt. 4:20; 5:24; 22:22; Mark 1:18; Luke 10:30; John 14:18); (5) “leave it to someone to do something, let, let go, allow, tolerate.” The Shorter Lexicon adds “forgive.” In sum, God lets go, dismisses, releases, sends away, cancels, pardons, and forgives our sins. His work is full and final. Don’t go backwards or dwell on it. Clearly the most significant definition in this context is the second one and the Shorter Lexicon’s. It means to forgive.
Please read these verses for how forgiving God is:
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Ps. 103:10-12)
And these great verses are from Micah:
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea. (Mic. 7:18-19, ESV)
In this verse 12, here in the Lord’s (Model) Prayer, you forgive as you have (already) been forgiven. Note the verb tense. It goes along with vv. 14-15, below.
“debts”: it could be translated as “morally indebted” to us, which adds up to sin. Here it is sin that put the person in a moral debt or obligation to you. So someone wrongs you, and you believe he owes you an apology, but what if he is unwilling to give it or is even unaware that he has wronged you? You still need to forgive his moral debt to you. Unforgiveness is poison in your soul, not his. Forgive the other person, and God will purge out the poison.
13:
“Since the Spirit led Jesus into a time of testing (4:1), this petition is not so much for God not to lead the disciple into a moral test as it is for the disciple to be delivered from Satan so as not to yield to temptation” (Turner, comment on 6:13).
“bring”: it could be translated as “lead,” but the basic meaning is to “bring.”
“temptation”: it is the noun peirasmos (pronounced pay-rahss-moss), and it can be translated in one context as “test, trial” (to see what is in a person) and in another context as “temptation, enticement” (to sin) in another context. Since it does not seem possible that God would lead people into temptation, it may be better to translate the word as a “time of trial.” On the other hand, though God does not do the tempting (Jas. 1:13-14), he may allow the devil to attack our frail, sinful human nature, to see what is in us (Job 1-2). Do we have the power to resist? I pray nearly every day something like this, based on Jer. 15:20: “Lord, I proclaim over my heart and soul the inner strength and power and anointing to stand and not to fold or flag during satanic or broken-human attacks.” It works. I have become stronger.
“evil”: it could be translated as “evil one,” that is, Satan.
The phrase “bring us not”: is a Hebraic way of praying the positive; that is, when a Hebrew prays against the negative, he prays for the positive. Maybe therefore we could say: “Lead us to victory over temptation.”
14-15:
These verses are strong and clear. There is no other way to read them than in their plain sense. You simply have to forgive others, or else your Father won’t forgive you. Are you ready to forgive? If not, consider all the sins of which your Father in heaven has forgiven you. Many and deep sins. Your walk with God will suffer greatly if you do not forgive. Your walk with him will thrive the moment you do forgive. Pray that you can be made willing to forgive, and then do it. Sometimes an evil spirit can attack your mind and deepen the unforgiveness and bitterness you already have. You can rebuke Satan off of your mind, as part of the process.
Now let me get a little theological and practical. Will God forgive you if you hold bitterness even at your death? How far do we take these two stark verses? The context here is not about the afterlife and final judgment, but about life in the kingdom here and now, so I am reluctant to apply them outside of their down-to-earth context. I’m not clear what God would say to you at judgment if you had not forgiven your aunt (for example) for what she did to you. I somehow doubt he would throw you in hell for it, when you had still walked with God and confessed Jesus as Lord throughout all the other areas of life. My hunch is that he would not reward you but give you “special instruction” for your refusal to forgive. However, please don’t test the Lord about this. Jesus is speaking strong words here to throw water in your face and warn and wake you up. Forgive right now!
“forgive”: see v. 12 for more comments on the verb.
“people”: used twice in these two verses, and see v. 5 for more comments.
GrowApp for Matt. 6:5-15
A.. Check your prayer life. Is it nonexistent, occasional, or regular?
B.. Read Eph. 4:32. Forgiveness is so important that the Father demands it from you, or else you’ll put yourself in the prison of unforgiveness. How do you escape it?
SOURCES
To find the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 