Matthew 6:9-15

⁹ In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done On 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 do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. ¹⁴ “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Vs. 9 “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”

The beginning of our prayers than should not be all about us, about all our needs, concerns, and problems. Our prayers should begin with our acknowledging and confessing that God is our Father and He is in heaven and He does just as He pleases in heaven and on earth (Psalm 115:3; 135:6), for He alone is Sovereign (Psalm 89:11; 95:3-5; 97:1-2, 9; 103:19; 105:7; 113:4; 145:11-13; Isaiah 45:7). For He is exceedingly far above every principality, power, ruler and might, there is nothing than that eludes Him, or will ever overcome Him (Jer. 10:10). Quite simply He is before everything, and above everything, and He is aware of everything (Isaiah 44:6). Therefore we are to always put God our Father first and foremost in our prayers and focus, before everything and everyone else; before every need, every concern, every worry, and every fear, we first pray and confess that God is our Father who is in heaven. Next the Lord Jesus says that we are to reverence God’s Name, praying Hallowed be Your Name. Now this is very important because down here in this world, God’s Name is anything but Hallowed. Therefore as God’s children we are always reverence God’s Person and Name, as God Himself says: “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; And before all the people I must be glorified.” ^{Lev. 10:3} Having then a holy reverence for God in prayer goes a long way in directing our thoughts and words in prayer towards Him.

Vs. 10 “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.”

Having placed a Holy Reverence on God’s Name the Lord Jesus now emphasizes His Kingdom, God’s Kingdom, the one to which we belong, and to which all our loyalties go; whose commandments and purposes are to be fully embraced and manifested by us on earth (Isaiah 26:9). Putting the Kingdom of God first then is an important step in getting our lives and purposes aligned with His; because that is God’s desire to see all people not only reconciled to Himself through His Son; but also to see us who believe in Him live in harmony with Him by obeying His Son through His Word. Having then prayed that God’s Kingdom come (i.e. placed our emphasis and focus on God’s Kingdom coming as the priority) we are to also pray, “....Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” Now praying that God’s Will be done on earth as it is done in heaven may seem somewhat out strange given that we previously stated that God is Sovereign and He does just as He pleases in heaven and on earth. However God has from the very beginning by His Sovereign Will given the earth to mankind to rule and subdue (Gen. 1:28; Psalm 115:16). And so what we see today going on in this world is largely neither the hand of God, nor the rule of God; but only the hand and rule of man, whose primary influence and guiding impetus is not God, but Satan who arouses and works through the sinful desires and acts of man. Therefore though God can and will intercede in our affairs when He desires to do so, the earth and all of its sin, messes, corruption and never ending and unsolvable problems (unsolvable by us), are all born out of the sin and rebellion that started in garden of Eden when our ancestral parents rejected God’s Word spoken to them, and choose their own way, choosing to listen to Satan the deceiver, and then having been deceived by him, to listen to one another rather than God. And that is what continues on to this day, as God allows each and every one of us to choose our own way; whether to believe and obey Him, or to follow our own sinful desires, and this sinful and degenerating world, which has an end (a horrible end), and which only the Lord Jesus Christ can save us from, and transform us out of. Even in the church, God’s rule in each and every believer’s life is subject to our own will; of how much we will let His Kingdom come and His Son rule in and reign our own hearts, persons, and lives. Therefore when the Lord Jesus says that we are to pray: “Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.” He is placing our focus right back on God’s Will being done on earth as it is in heaven, because God’s Will being done on earth as it is in heaven is few and far between mans will being done down here.

Vs. 11 “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Having then addressed our deepest and greatest need which is to have God’s reign and rule first and foremost in our lives, the Lord Jesus now moves into the realm of our daily needs, by saying that we are to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus then places the emphasis on what we need today, not on what we desire, or think we will need down the road. For one’s life and God given purposes can be lost in the pursuit of this worlds goods and treasures, and we need to remember that it is God our Father who is our Provider, daily providing for us all that we need to do His Will day by day.

Vs. 12 “And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.”

The Lord Jesus now focuses on our own need of forgiveness, but He tempers that with whether or not we forgive others by saying: “And forgive us our debts just as we forgive those who are indebted to us”. And so by praying as much we are reminded of our own sins, faults, and failings before God when we feel the need to seek justice from God on those who have sinned against us. Therefore when we pray as much we bring to remembrance not only our own ongoing need for God’s grace, but it also reminds us to become God’s people of grace, who also dispense God’s grace to those indebted to us.

Vs. 13 “And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

The Lord Jesus now addresses every believer’s greatest struggle; and that is our ongoing battle with sin and Satan. Now in asking God not to lead us into temptation, we are not saying that God tempts us or anyone else to sin. For God tempts no one, rather it is our own sinful nature that is given over to sin where temptation is born (Rom. 7:14; James 1:13). Therefore by praying as much we are asking God not to lead us into “temptation”, i.e. a testing of our persons and faith which we ourselves cannot come through without Him (1 Cor. 10:13). For it is the evil one who whether directly, or working behind the scenes, is the real tempter of our persons and lives, who is always trying to deceive us and mislead us away from God and doing His will, into doing his will (consider 2 Tim. 2:24-26). And that is the battle that we all face down here, will we submit ourselves to God by believing and obeying His Son, or will we try to go it alone? For us who believe that choice has already been made (the moment we repented and believed) and will continue to be made in favor of God’s Son, not flawlessly, but continually as we press on towards Christ’s Kingdom and Likeness down here until we are home forever with Him in heaven. And so praying that God not lead us into temptation is not just a request to be guarded from our own sinful nature and desires, but the evil one as well. Notice too how our deliverance hinges on how we view and revere God; for if we don’t revere God’s Person and rule in our own persons and lives, then it is very likely we will have Satan’s. Therefore the Lord Jesus reminds us that it is God’s Kingdom, God’s Power, God’s Glory we are to seek, revere, exalt and extol, because when man in his pride exalts himself in his heart he becomes a prime candidate for Satan (who did the same) to be deceived and ruled by him.

Vs. 14-15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

The Lord Jesus now links our being forgiven by God with our forgiving others, reiterating verse 12. Now the forgiveness spoken of here is not the remission of all our sins that we receive the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for that is our salvation from sin and death, (i.e. our being brought to Spirit life by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and thus our justification before God, John 3:16; 5:24; Acts 4:12). Thus the forgiveness spoken of here is that which God gives or withholds from us as we forgive others as Christ’s disciples, and specifically His children (see Matt 18:21-35). And so our forging others when they sin against us is very important if we want to likewise experience God’s forgiveness down here. For as the Lord Jesus Christ warns in Matthew chapter eighteen God’s chastisement will be upon us if we don’t forgive others.

Scripture Quotations
The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.