How to say Our Father

Our Lord then directs the disciples to their Father. This is the first and very significant word of the prayer. When believers in addressing God now use the titles of Jehovah or Almighty God, do they not forget that they are Christians? When God was intelligently addressed as Almighty, it was in the days of Abraham and the patriarchs. They were the days of promise. Afterwards, when the nation of Israel was called out and put under law, it was as Jehovah-God that He was known. Now it is as Father that the Christian knows Him. (2 Cor. 6:18.) Luke says simply, "Father" (not "Our Father which art in heaven," as Matthew has it).281

The first petition is, "Hallowed be thy name." The desire is that in every case the heart might make God its object; as we hear in James, "the wisdom that comes down from above is first pure, then peaceable." (James 3:17.) It first judges by God, and seeks the glory of God. "Hallowed be thy name." Such is, and ought to be, the prime desire of the renewed mind, that the Father's name should be sanctified in everything. All else must yield to this. "Hallowed be thy name."

The next petition is that His kingdom should come. It is not the kingdom of the Son of man, the kingdom of Christ, that is spoken of here, but the Father's kingdom. It is not "my kingdom come," but "thy kingdom come." The Father's kingdom is distinguished from the Son of man's kingdom. It is the sphere in which the heavenly saints will shine as the sun. The Son of man's kingdom is the sphere in which all people, nations, and languages shall serve Him, and out of which the angels of His power shall cast all things that offend. (Matt. 13:41.) Heaven and earth will both be put under the Lord Jesus when He comes, and both will constitute the kingdom of God. But the Father's kingdom is the upper department, and the Son of man's kingdom is the lower one. (Compare John 3:3, 12.) The Lord teaches them to pray for the Father's kingdom. This is blessed and perfect. The Son would teach the children of the Father to wait with reverence and delight for the Father's glory. This was the animating spring of every thought and feeling of His own heart. But the Father's kingdom is not all the scene of glory.

"Our Father, which art in heaven." This is a distinct advance on anything previously known of God. The patriarchs communed with Him as the Almighty; Israel knew Him as Jehovah; but the coming into the world of the Only Begotten Son has brought out the sweet name of Father. Here then He is declaring the Father's name, as He says in John 17:6-26. It is true that in Ex. 4:22, Jehovah says, "Israel is My son, My firstborn," but that was merely a national relationship; while we have in the Lord's prayer what is personal and individual. But Matt. 6:9 falls far short of John 20:17. There we hear the risen One announcing the fruits of His great victory thus: "go to My brethren, and say to them, I ascend to My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." In Matt. 6:9, there is no suggestion of identification with the Son; it goes no further than this, that men who had previously known God as Jehovah should now know Him as Father; John 20:17 lifts us up to the Son's own platform of blessing. To His Father and God we are henceforward "many sons" (Heb. 2:10) and to Himself we are many "brethren" (Rom. 8:29).

A moment's reflection should convince anyone that it is perfectly shocking to teach a mixed company to say "Our Father." It is teaching them to utter the biggest of all falsehoods, to their own hurt and delusion, as well as to the divine dishonour. Though the Lord's prayer was uttered in the hearing of the crowd, the Lord was manifestly instructing His disciples only (Matt. 6:1).

The whole prayer is an address to God as Father: "Our Father who art in heaven." What underlies this title given to God is in fact a relationship never before made known in its true character, between Him and the true disciples of this blessed Teacher. "I have declared unto them Thy Name," He says elsewhere, "and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26). This name of "Father" is something wholly different from those Old Testament titles, which have declared as the "Almighty" His power, or as "the Most High" His supremacy, or as "Jehovah" His enduring immutability. "Father" declares what His heart is toward us, while it gives us title to enjoy the love implied. The character of the tie is such as gives claim and confidence, ― a claim He cannot deny. How great an encouragement to the prayer of faith!

It may be necessary to remind the reader that the remarks made have reference only to the use of this prayer by Christians as a form in its entirety. It is freely conceded, nay, insisted upon, that though we are brought into a new place through the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, and into the known possession and enjoyment of higher blessings, we can go back in the power of the Spirit, take up and present before God many of its petitions. Let us therefore pass through them in brief review.

It has been fully explained that the Christian — one at least who has spiritual intelligence — could not now properly address God as "our Father who art in heaven." But it is the same God, and He is known to us as "our God and Father," because the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (John 20:17.) When we pray, therefore, we do not say, "Our heavenly Father," since in His grace we also are a heavenly people, but simply "Our God and Father," because these titles express to us the twofold relationship into which we have been brought.

We may now point out the effect in us of the reception of the Spirit of adoption. The first is that we cry, as we have seen, "Abba, Father." In Galatians the apostle says, "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts." (Gal. 4:6.) This is as instructive as it is remarkable. When our blessed Lord was in the garden of Gethsemane, assailed by Satan in the prospect of His death on the cross, He cried, in the agony of that hour, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt." (Mark 14:36.) This shows what the "Spirit of His Son" is, as well as that the Lord was at this moment in the conscious enjoyment of His relationship to the Father, whatever the agony through which He was passing. The same Spirit therefore, in the power of which Christ, as the Son, thus, addressed the Father, dwells in us — in all who have, been cleansed by the precious blood of Christ. And dwelling in us He teaches, yea, leads, our hearts to cry, "Abba, Father." This cry is, so to speak, the necessary consequence of possessing the Spirit of sonship (huiothesia). We may have addressed God in other terms before; but as soon as the relationship has been formed, and God has sealed it by the gift of the Holy Ghost, we shall be constrained to. call God our Father. If we did not it would be as unreasonable as if the child of an earthly parent were to persist in naming him "master" instead of giving to him the endearing name of "father." Indeed, and it must not be overlooked, "Abba, Father" is the cry of the Spirit Himself in our hearts.

Having then the Spirit we cannot but thus address God; but if any have not the Spirit of God it will be impossible for them to call upon God from the heart as Father, because they have not entered upon the enjoyment of the relationship. Very recently a well-taught Christian told the writer, that after he was first awakened he tried for two years to call God Father, but in vain. He could not utter the word before God; but immediately on being brought to the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, it became the natural mode of address, because now he had become indwelt with the Holy Ghost. And this experience accords with the teaching of the word of God. If we are real before God the truth of our souls must come out; and thus our state and relationship are immediately discovered when we pray, especially if in private, when we are not affected by the presence of others. What a solemn consideration is it then that the Spirit of God actually makes these bodies of ours His temples, that the very title of Father which we utter before God is really the Spirit's own cry! And what grace on the part of God to make us thus know, even now, that He has put us among His children, and given us to know that He has formed a relationship with us that will endure throughout eternity! To be in the power of this blessed truth would make our prayers far more real and blessed, as well as fill us with unspeakable gratitude to Him who, in His condescending grace and love, has gathered us around Himself as His beloved* children. (Eph. 5:1)

The very opening title or address to God appears to me in beautiful keeping with the Gospel and the then position of the disciples: "Our Father which art in heaven." It is a phrase which constantly occurs in Matthew's Gospel and there only. It is true that the authorized Bible has in it the corresponding passage of St. Luke (Luke 11:2); but it is known to every person of competent acquaintance with these matters, that there are weighty reasons for reducing the clause there to the single word "Father." My own conviction is that the larger form which appears in the common text of Luke was borrowed from Matthew, and this probably either through the mistake of some ancient copyist who trusted to his memory, and thus introduced confusion, or through the graver fault of designedly making as exact a harmony as possible in the language of the two evangelists. It is unnatural to suppose that, if an open enemy tampered with the sacred text, his corruption would gain currency in Christendom. On the other hand, no friend of revelation could possibly justify to himself the deliberate introduction of a discrepancy with another Gospel. The tendency, therefore, and more particularly in the Gospels, has always been, on the part of misguided professing friends, to interpolate words or clauses from one into another, so as to give not only concurrent testimony but as much as might be of verbal resemblance. I need hardly say that it is grievous and presumptuous thus to meddle with a word or letter of that which the Holy Ghost has inspired; that such a step, even if well meant, invariably spoils, so far, the beauty and perfection of scripture, though of course the substantial truth remains; and that they are the truest friends of the Bible who seek to go back to the earliest and purest sources, relying on the abundant evidence which the goodness of God affords in order to arrive at a just decision.

— The first thing I desire to point out is the accordance of the Lord's prayer with the place it holds in the first Gospel, and with the object the Lord Jesus had then in view. It occurs in the sermon on the Mount, where He is addressing Jewish disciples, and leading them out of their previous thoughts and feelings and ways into the new principles of the kingdom of heaven, which He was about to introduce. This is important to remember for understanding either the meaning or the object of the prayer. It does not contemplate, as it was not addressed to, the whole human race indiscriminately; it does not express the state, wants, and feelings of every person who has certain desires after God or a fear of coming wrath. Thus, when the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, realizing his sin and unworthiness, he does not venture to say, "Father," or "Our Father, which art in heaven." He has no thought of taking up the profound and lofty petitions with which the Lord's prayer opens, nor has he leisure of heart to think of the full supplies and the tender mercy counted on in God, which the latter portion breathes. "God be merciful to me a sinner" was the just and becoming cry from his contrite heart. Here was a man under the guidance of the Spirit of God, contrasted by our Lord Himself, not with disciples of course, but with the Pharisee who trusted in himself that he was righteous and despised others, whose prayer, if prayer it is to be called, betrayed his self-gratulation, and whose thanks were not for what God, but for what he, the Pharisee, was. The publican, on the other hand, might be dark as to the riches of divine grace; but at least, so far as his conscience was enlightened, he really felt and owned his condition as a sinner before God. "He who is mighty despiseth not any;" and the publican went down to his house justified rather than the other. At the same time, it is not to despise a man if we call his attention to the actual condition of his soul, and remind him that the Lord's prayer supposes discipleship and the relationship of children with a Father. Sincerity can never change wrong into right, and ignorance, though less guilty than the conscious utterance of language which goes beyond our state and experience, is a sorry excuse before the full blaze of God's revealed light in His word.

I do not dwell at length upon the occasion of these great words of our Lord. We know that Mary Magdalene, in her most commendable love, would have detained the Saviour, not knowing that by her, as by the church at large in the sequel, Christ was to be known only after a heavenly sort. No contradiction between our Lord's manner here, and His permission subsequently to the other women to hold Him by the feet. For did not these typify how Israel will know Christ in the millennium? But Mary's was a higher privilege, though then she might hardly realise it. And so the Lord utters the magnificent words, "I ascend," etc. And is there not exquisite beauty in the fact that "Father" comes before "God"? It is doubtless the same divine hand that wrote, by the same St. John, "grace and truth." The tenderer relation comes first. Still, as more than one has remarked, it is not "our Father," nor "our God." That could not be. Whatever the grace, never can the interval between the Creator and the creature be bridged — not in that sense. The Lord could tell His disciples in that most comprehensive prayer, which He gave them, "When ye pray, say 'our Father.'" But His is a unique Sonship, though doubtless at the same time there is an emphasising of the truth that His God and Father is also ours.

Prayer. — The request of a disciple gives occasion for further elucidation of this subject. The Lord was praying in a certain place. When He had ceased, one of those with Him said: "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1). This request was an acknowledgment of the great advance in spiritual teaching which had characterised the Lord's ministry. The old forms of prayer were evidently no longer suited for the disciples of John, wherein to express all their desires. So he had taught them to pray. But John's ministry, which was of a rousing character, and so dealt with the conscience, did not minister grace like that of the Lord, which spoke of the Father. This was a revelation by the Son, never entrusted to John. Hence, with such fresh truth, old forms of prayer would not be in perfect harmony. And the Lord, by His answer, admitted that, and thereby intimated that prayer should be in keeping with the revelation vouchsafed us. An important principle this is, but how little, even now, understood!

The Lord's Prayer. — Thereupon follows the prayer known throughout Christendom as the Lord's Prayer, in harmony, of course, with the revelation of its day, but not anticipating that which was afterwards to be unfolded (John 16:24-26), when prayer to the Father was to be offered up in Christ's name. In our gospel, though the prayer is identical in character with that which Matthew has given us, we have it in a shorter form, when read in accordance with the best attested text: "Father, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation." Short, yet suggestive! Short, for in a few sentences very much is comprised. Suggestive, because it reminds us, that God's glory, and that which concerns our Father, should have the first place in the heart, whilst there is perfect freedom to make known our wants as well.

"Father," it begins with, for in that relationship He is made known to all true disciples of the Lord Jesus. Next follow two petitions, the one concerning the hallowing of the Father's name, the other desiring the advent of His kingdom. His name had been blasphemed (Psalm 74:18; Isa. 52:5; 65:7; Ezek. 20:27). It shall be hallowed (Psalm 148:13; 149:3; Isa. 29:23; Ezek. 36:23; Mal. 1:11). And the Father's kingdom shall come. But this last in its fulness will only be accomplished when the eternal state begins (1 Cor. 15:24); though, during the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, the heavenly part of the kingdom will be known as the kingdom of our Father (Matt. 13:43). Comprehensive and far-reaching are these two petitions, the first having reference to intelligent creatures, the second looking on to the end of time. "Hallowed be Thy name," expresses a desire that by all it should be sanctified. "Thy kingdom come," gives utterance to the wish that God's purposes in time should all be worked out, that the eternal state may begin.

After that what concerns the child is taken up, and expressed in three petitions, viz., the supply of his daily need, the forgiveness of his sins, and the being kept from temptation. As a creature he needs to be cared for. As a failing one he needs forgiveness (1 John 1:9). As a fallen and weak one, with sin in him, he needs to be kept from temptation. So of his Father's interest in him he is assured; of his Father's love and upholding power and grace he is fittingly reminded; and of his freedom to present his petitions, the Son by this prayer teaches him.

Each of these sections has three subjects; first, "Our Father." indicating the dignity of His prime place, get at the same time His tender care. "Who art in heaven" shows His supremacy, high above all creation. "Hallowed be thy name" is the reminder of His sublime holiness, as set apart from all others.

"Thy kingdom come" refers, not to the millennial kingdom, but to Christ's delivering up the kingdom to God the father (1Cor.15:24), therefore an eternal kingdom. If we truly desire this, with everything perfectly in subjection to the Father, then our present desires will be subject to His will.