Matthew 6:9 ¶ 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. 14 For if ye forgive men their
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Let’s first look at my comments on the so-called Lord’s Prayer
from Luke;
“Luke
11:1 ¶ And it came to pass, that, as he
was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto
him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. 2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our
Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3 Give
us day by day our daily bread. 4 And
forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And
lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. 5 And he said unto them, Which of you shall
have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend,
lend me three loaves; 6 For a friend of
mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7 And he from within shall answer and say,
Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I
cannot rise and give thee. 8 I say unto
you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet
because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall
be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
10 For every one that asketh receiveth;
and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
11 If a son shall ask bread of any of
you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish,
will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good
gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
In a great passage on prayer one of Jesus’ disciples asks a
logical question about how His followers should pray. Jesus replies with a
model that starts with identifying to whom you are praying, God the Father in
Heaven. He then praises the Father and prays that the name of God be hallowed,
holy, set apart. Of course, in our world His name is all too often used as a
curse word with no reverence or respect with even Christians using substitutes
for God and Jesus Christ like gosh, golly, and gee whiz. I heard a child once
say that when you love someone their name is safe in your mouth. Using God’s
name flippantly as a curse word or exclamation does not show love at all, of
course.
Jesus then tells the disciple to pray for the kingdom of God, the
kingdom of Heaven, to arrive on earth, to be fulfilled, and that God’s will,
clearly His perfect, directive will rather than just permission, be done on
earth as it is in Heaven. He then brings the prayer down to asking for God to
supply daily needs. In history, for the common man at least, hunger and
starvation were constant threats, as well as the disease that consumed a body
weakened by day-in and day-out hunger…
…After asking for what was needed in that day Jesus told the
disciple to pray for their sins against God to be forgiven in the same manner
that they forgave sins committed against them. This rather radical statement
says that we are not worthy to have our sins forgiven if we are not willing to
forgive others. Peter questioned such a command.
Matthew
18:21 ¶ Then came Peter to him, and
said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till
seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I
say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
Certainly, the nature of our forgiveness is a little different
than God’s due to our finite and weak position. When God forgives He restores
fellowship with Him. We dare not always do that. The shop-owner who forgives
the cashier who stole money from them would be an idiot to put that person back
on the cash register if the person was even kept in the employment at all. They
might forgive the person and wish them no harm but dismiss them from their job
for prudence sake.
In the same respect if a person in a position of trust and
authority harms a child sexually or physically in some other manner it is
possible to forgive them but it is never acceptable to ever let them be in a
position of trust and authority again where they can hurt children. And, if the
offender were a Christian they would never want to be put in that position
again or ask to be.
So, our forgiveness does not always involve restoration although
it could. A spouse may forgive an adultery and restore their cheating spouse to
the marriage or they may forgive and simply acknowledge the irreconcilable
breach caused by the adulterer and move on.
But, regardless of the ability or willingness to restore or not,
it is essential that we forgive those who sin against us, even the most
egregious sins against our person or soul. One of the greatest causes of mental
illness is the unwillingness to forgive or to be forgiven. It will eat you
alive and ruin your life even more than the actions of the perpetrator. By not
forgiving them you give them power to hurt you again and again and again.
Christ calls us to forgive trespasses against us. It is not only a
command but it is a healthy thing to do lest bitterness consume us. This
statement of Christ underscores that we are in a time before the Resurrection
and this is still a very Jewish prayer that suggests you will not be forgiven
if you do not forgive. Jewish and Gentile Christians are not saved or lost
based on their willingness to forgive but on their faith in Christ and in His
righteousness, the fact that He forgave them, to get to Heaven. Be careful how
you apply this verse and this prayer although it is a great prayer for us all
to remind us of our need to forgive and how much Christ has forgiven us.
Then, we come to a very confusing statement for those people who
do not read and cross-reference their Bible. What is a temptation? Biblically defined a temptation is a test, a trial, a proving of your faith and trust in
God. The Devil tempts us in the hopes that we will fall away from Christ and
reject Him, while God tempts and tries us to reveal our faith.
James
1:13 ¶ Let no man say when he is
tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither
tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is
tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
So, a temptation
can be sin itself as it leads you away from God. Many people, especially
young people, have abandoned their faith when the lusts of youth demanded their
attention. A noted evolutionary biologist, Edward O. Wilson, wrote a
book entitled Consilience in which he
writes in chapter one about the joy he felt when he found and believed in the
theory of evolution and the unity of all sciences with that atheistic
determinism as their foundation, well unquestionable fact more than theory to
him with the following as part of his journey to atheism;
On a far more modest
scale, I found it a wonderful feeling not just to taste the unification
metaphysics but also to be released from the confinement of fundamentalist
religion. I had been raised a Southern Baptist, laid backward under the water
on the sturdy arm of a pastor, been born again. I knew the healing power of
redemption. Faith, hope, and charity were in my bones, and with millions of
others I knew that my savior Jesus Christ would grant me eternal life. More
pious than the average teenager, I read the Bible cover to cover, twice. But
now at college, steroid-driven into moods of adolescent rebellion, I chose to
doubt.
It can also be suffering that puts pressure on your faith and, if
you are not grounded in God’s word, can lead you away from Him in your pain and
anguish.
Galatians
4:14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected;
but received me as an angel of God, even
as Christ Jesus.
And it can be persecution that forces you, in order to be accepted
by people or to keep from losing life, liberty, family, employment, or
property, to consider turning your back on God. Essentially, though, a
temptation is a test, a time of trial, and it can be caused by many different
circumstances. It is rarely a pleasant experience and if our faith is weak and
not grounded it can lead to disaster.
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