THE LORD’S PRAYER?

Saturday 19 October

In Christendom worldwide, there is a popular belief that Jesus taught this prayer to His disciples. Here are a few thoughts to consider.

The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. He didn’t say pray this prayer. It is not a prayer therefore it is not something that we should recite. Jesus said after this manner, pray. He gave them a prayer outline to follow based on the parameters of the Old Testament. This is a crucial piece of information to observe. This is not a prayer for the Christian as many have been led to believe. Let’s break it down into the original text to help us interpret it correctly. Here is the prayer in the King James Version:

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Verse 9 starts with acknowledging the Father and giving Him praise.

In verse 10 Jesus says ‘thy kingdom come’. We in the New Testament don’t speak that way because Jesus brought the kingdom and released it to us through His death, burial and resurrection through His Spirit. ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ is also something that has already taken place as it is in direct reference to salvation in Christ which is the will of God being done on the earth. Again, we don’t have to declare it.

Verses 11,12 and some of 13 need more explanation using the original text to get the right understanding of what Jesus was communicating.

Here they are again for reference.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

This is how it should read.

You give us this day our daily bread.

You forgive our debts,

so that we can forgive our debtors.

You don’t lead us into temptation,

But you deliver us from the evil one.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Think about how this rendering is much more of a reflection of God’s character as our Heavenly Father. Remember also there are crossovers between old and new testaments because Jesus was the one bringing the transition.

He gives us our daily bread. We don’t need to ask Him to do it.

He forgives our debts. We don’t have to ask Him to do it.

He doesn’t lead us into temptation because He is not the tempter. It is not in His nature to tempt.

He delivers us from the evil one. He ultimately did this in salvation by defeating Satan for us.

Jesus finally ends in acknowledging the Father followed by more praise.

Praise and thanksgiving should be the ‘bookends’ to any type of prayer.

The New Testament version would be in past tense. It would read something like this:

He gave us our daily bread

(He supplies all our needs) Phil 4:19

He forgave all our debts

(Father forgive them) Luke 23:34

He never tempts us (James 1:13)

He has delivered us from the evil one. (Colossians 1:13)

Jesus taught this outline for prayer to the Jews. Even though we can learn from it, the Christian has no business following it or saying it. How do we know this? There was never another time it was mentioned in the gospels and it is never found in the New Testament, not once.

It’s not a prayer, it was an outline for prayer in the gospels which are mainly Old Testament. It’s not some magic formula. Let’s not be religious about it. Declare you are in Christ and Christ is in you instead and the benefits of your salvation which is far greater.

APPLICATION

Become aware that there are vast differences in theological application between the Old Testament, the gospels and the New Testament and learn to be able to interpret the word based on this fact.