What does it mean to pray, "Thy kingdom come"?

"Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in Heaven." Thus were the disciples (and we also) taught to desire that throughout the universe everything may be brought into fullest correspondence with the Father's character. This petition goes beyond the Millennium in its scope; not until the new heavens and the new earth appear will the Father's kingdom be fully established. We shall enter into the Father's kingdom as soon as we are caught up, and from thence we shall shine forth as the sun, as Matt. 13:48 shows; but not until the Son of man has subjugated every foe will He deliver up the kingdom to Him who is God and Father, that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:21-28). But realising, as we do, that everything here below is as wrong as it could be, we long, and we pray for, this blessed consummation. Meanwhile, we seek to be fully subject to the Father's will ourselves. Else, how could we consistently take such a petition upon our lips?

The first petition is, Hallowed be Thy name — one which we can ever utter, if indeed we understand its solemn purport. "Name" in Scripture is always the expression of what God is as revealed, and hence, in connection with the Father, it is the truth of what God is in that relationship. If, then, we desire that His name should be hallowed, it is that it should be sanctified in us, by us, and by all who have the privilege of calling upon God by this precious title, that there should be in us an answering response to His holiness in this relationship. Surely we have often uttered the petition with but little thought of what it involved, and even while we, as His children, were dishonouring His name as our Father, by our unholy ways and associations! To present this prayer means that we should be holy because He is holy, that His name should be sanctified in and by us in all that we are and do.

The next two petitions, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, we could also all adopt. It is, as will be perceived, the Father's kingdom. A reference to this will be found in this same gospel. "Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Matt. 13:43.) From the context it is plain that this looks onward to the time when Christ shall have returned with His saints, and shall have taken His kingdom to Himself (v. 41); and When the saints shall be displayed in His glory in the Father's kingdom - the heavenly scene of the Father's government. The petition therefore expresses the desire for the arrival of the time when Christ shall come to be glorified in His saints. (2 Thess. 1:10.)

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven," goes further still in its full accomplishment. Never but once has this been as yet seen on earth, and that was in the life and death of the Lord Jesus — the only One who could ever say, "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." (John 17:4.) He alone on earth has done the Father's will perfectly. Nor will it be done in the millennium, excepting by Himself as the King who shall reign in righteousness. There will be approximations to it, greater or less, by the saints of that time, but save by Himself, the will of the Father will not be done on earth as it is in heaven, not by a single saint. It surely, therefore, must point to the new heavens and the new earth, when the tabernacle of God will be with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Rev. 21:3.) Then the will of the Father will be done on earth (the new earth), and never before, as it is done in heaven. The two petitions together will thus embrace two successive dispensations, that is, the millennium and the eternal state. How vast and comprehensive are the thoughts of God! And it is these thoughts and these desires He would have us share with Himself!

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.

The prayer the Lord taught (vs.2-4) corresponds to Matthew 6:9-13 and whether it is the same occasion or not, Luke omits some expressions that Matthew includes, making Luke's record quite brief in comparison. It is the Spirit of God who has decided this, giving an outline here morally suitable for the Gospel of Luke, but it is an outline, not intended to be repeated verbally, for there is no closing sentence and no "Amen" included. In fact, even in Matthew the closing sentence, "For Thine is the power...." in the KJV is only an addition by a copyist, for it is not found in the earliest and best manuscripts.

First, God's primacy (our Father) is affirmed, yet in gracious relationship with us. "Hallowed be Your name" is next, which speaks of His dignity as sanctified from all others. Then the desire for His full divine authority is expressed in "Your kingdom come." This is the Father's kingdom, not that of the Son of Man in the millennial reign, but the giving up of the kingdom into the hand of the Father (1Cor.15:24) when the millennium is completed.

"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.

Only when the Father's kingdom comes (an eternal kingdom) will His will be perfectly done on earth as in heaven. Praying for this will prompt our obedience to His will now. "Give us this day our daily bread" is connected also with His authority, for good government Ministers to the necessity of its subjects; but an insubject attitude has no title to benefit by God's just administration.

As to His kingdom, it will come, so they are told to pray for it — a kingdom which embraces heaven and earth, a kingdom really bounded only by the limits of created things, a kingdom which shall last for ever and ever. For doubtless the petition, "Thy kingdom come," looks on beyond millennial times for its full accomplishment, even to the eternal state, when, all things having been subdued to the Son, He Himself shall be subject to Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all; for then He will have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father (1 Cor. 15:25-28). Yet ere this is effected, to which we are taught to look forward, the heavenly saints will experience an answer to this petition in measure, as they will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father throughout the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 13:43). For it is our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom (Luke 12:32); but into it only those on earth now enter who do His will (Matt. 7:21).

"Thy kingdom come." It is not exactly Christ's kingdom, but the Father's. The Gospel of St. Matthew, if examined with care, shows the Father's kingdom is distinguished in scripture from that of the Son of man. Thus, in Matthew 13:41-43, we are told that the Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all scandals, and them which do iniquity … then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. At the end of this age the Lord will take the world as His kingdom, and must have evil purged from it, sooner or later, by His judicial power. But the Father's kingdom is another and heavenly sphere where only the righteous shine.

But it does not satisfy the heart that the Father's will should be done in heaven only. Accordingly, the third petition runs: "Thy will be done on earth as in heaven.'' When the Father's kingdom comes, this will be the moral answer to it, if I may so say, though in a lower sphere. The Father's will, instead of being despised or resisted, is yet to be the guide and ensurer of all blessing in that which was still but a rebellious province. The disciples were to pray that it might be done on earth, where there was nothing like it yet, save in His ways who thus led their desires Godward. This closes the first division of the Lord's prayer.

How often we put ourselves and our interests first in our prayers. It was not thus that the Lord taught His disciples. He taught them to put God first. To pray that His name might be hallowed, and then to stretch out in their desires to the utmost bounds of the earth, to plead that every evil imagination might be overthrown and every evil work might be judged, and every will might be subdued to God's will, and that the whole earth might be filled with the glory of God. Then, when the heart has reached up to the sacred glory of God's name and broadened out to include every habitation of man, we may ask for our daily needs. And then we shall not ask selfishly but confidently, joyfully, adoringly, with a sense in our souls of the greatness of our Father's name and of the blessedness of His will, subject to which we ourselves have determined to live, for otherwise our prayer that that will might be done on earth would be glaring hypocrisy.

As to prayer, He teaches not only secrecy but brevity, which lies at the heart of reality. A man, who asks with intense reality and earnestness, inevitably goes straight to the point with the fewest words. He cannot possibly wander in a maze of circumlocutions. Verses 9-13 give us the model prayer, exactly suitable to the disciples in their then circumstances. There are six petitions. The first three have to do with God; His name, His kingdom, His will. The second three have to do with us; our bread, our debts, our deliverance. The heavenly Father and His claims must be first, and our needs second. The blessing of men on earth depends upon His will being done on earth, and that will only come to pass when His kingdom is established.

James gives us the other reason too. We ask and receive not, because we ask amiss that we may consume it upon our own lusts; selfishness. Do you notice the secret of all prayer? Look at what the Lord has given us. Not a model to say like parrots, but to show us the true spirit of prayer, "Our Father, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done." It is all God's glory, all God's interests; self is left behind, put in a secondary place. Whenever we are thinking more of the glory of God than of our own selfish interests, we are in a true attitude of prayer. Would it were ever thus: Thy will, Thy kingdom, Thy glory. Whenever God is glorified we may rest assured that His beloved people will not fall short of their blessing.