Matthew 6:13b “Doxology 2”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

^13bbecause Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory into the ages. Amen.

As I said in my last post, this final line of the Lord’s prayer is of interest to study for two reasons. The first is the question of its authenticity, of which I am convinced is the case.  The second reason for study, as I stated there, is simply our insatiable desire to mine the treasures of God’s Word. That is the drive behind today’s post.

“For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” At first pass, this may seem all very obvious and straightforward, but, with the Bible, it is always of great value to just stop and let ourselves nurse on its truth.

"Thine is the kingdom." It helps a LOT to stop every once in a while and remind ourselves this is God’s kingdom. Ever since the Garden, Satan has been “the prince of the power of the air,” however, let us never forget he is an usurper. He has no right to the throne of this world, and, as powerful as he may be, yet he cannot do anything unless the Lord allows. Our God is the King. And when He is ready, Daniel tells us exactly what will go on: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (7:13,14).

Jesus is the rightful King of this earth, and as we all love to remember, the day will come when “every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10,11). As Peter reminds us, “In your hearts, always set apart Jesus as Lord…” (I Peter 3:14). That comes right after he told us not to “fear what they fear.” And as Daniel told us again and again, “The Most High rules in the nations of men.”

Even as we finish our prayers, you and I have the wonderful blessing of knowing we are subjects of the true Kingdom, that our God is the true King, and that no matter how things may look today, He absolutely rules over it all. We can say it and mean it, “For Thine is the kingdom.”

“And the power.” Daniel said, “Wisdom and power are His” (2:20). Power. The ability to get things done and make things happen. That is precisely my problem – “I ain’t got it!” When we were young, we thought we had the world by the tail. We were quite sure we had what it takes “to succeed.” If we were honest, it shouldn’t have taken long before we began to realize that was a pipe-dream. I have virtually no control over anything that happens. I can’t keep people from dying. I can’t even keep them from getting sick. I may be quite sure I know how to solve a problem at work, but I cannot make the bosses agree to it. I can’t make the other people involved do their part. And, fact is, even if it all lines up, my idea may simply not work.

Our Lord doesn’t have that problem. “The Most High rules.” “Wisdom and power are His.” When we come to Him in prayer, may we all be reminded, we are speaking to the only One who actually has power. Pilate asked Jesus, “Don’t you know I have the power to give you life or death?” Jesus replied, “You would have no power over Me at all, if it were not granted to you from above.” You and I are surrounded by people and forces which seem to bear great power over us. We seem to have no power at all. But our God reigns!

The problem for us is, as Daniel said, “Wisdom and power are His.” He not only has power, He also has wisdom. Once again, “I ain’t got it.” The real truth is, I don’t know what needs to happen. I don’t know what is the best plan or the best solution. If I had the power, I’d make a mess of everything in a hurry! However, our God doesn’t have that problem either. His wisdom is infinite! He knows everything. “Father knows best.” That is the wonderful freedom of prayer for true believers – we come to the Throne of Grace “to find mercy and grace to help in time of need,” and can spill our foolish, hurting, fearful hearts into His big, loving ears, then have the comfort of knowing He will answer in perfect wisdom. And in that perfect wisdom, He knows what really needs to happen and He has absolute power to grant it. What a blessing to end our prayers acknowledging to Him, “Thine is the power!

“…and the glory.” Here it is worth pausing to remember that our God is God! He is not a man. Yes, Jesus took upon Himself “the form of a servant and was found in fashion as a man,” but let us remind ourselves even in that He is God. What does that mean? It means He is not a created thing. He is the Creator. He exists in what we can only call infinity – something utterly beyond our understanding. He had no beginning and will have no end. He does not exist in time or space. He created time and space for us (and the angels) to live in. As far as time, He exists in an eternal “now.” When He even speaks of past, present, and future, He is stooping to speak to us in our language. It means nothing to Him. And as far as space, we all acknowledge that He is Omnipresent – He fills all the universe with all of His being, and yet is totally present everywhere. He’s just as present at the far end of the galaxy as He is right here beside me as I type. He is just as infinitely present beside you as He is me, right at this minute. You have all of His attention, all of His concern. As parents, if we have two children, we can only focus on one at a time. Not so our God – because He is infinite.

Back to our previous praises, He is infinitely powerful. He is infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely just, infinitely loving, infinitely kind…everything He is, He is infinite. He is God and there is no other. There can be no other. Just as the Greek and Roman “gods,” when people make up their “gods,” they are just super-powerful people. Their gods are really just Marvel’s “super-heroes” – very powerful men and women, but still really just people, subject to creation, death, passions, etc. Not so our God. He is God. Although we are made in His image, still, we are not like Him and He is not like us. He is the Creator and we the created.

Because of that, we can understand that He is perfect. He is infinitely everything He should be. That is why He is absolutely faithful to His promises. As the infinite God, He has the wisdom to make perfect promises, the power to keep them, the presence to know exactly what is happening in every second of each of our lives, and the love to guarantee that “All things work together for good to them that love God…”

In prayer, we come to worship this God of glory. Our lives we live to bring Him glory – and so we say, “Thine is the glory, forever and ever!”

We conclude with an “Amen.” That “Amen” is an ancient word. In fact, it is even spoken in heaven! (Rev. 7:11,12). “So, let it be.” “Such it is.” It’s like digging a post hole and dropping in a fence post, then pouring in concrete. As long as the concrete is still wet, the post can be moved all around, but come back tomorrow and what will you find? It's been “Amen-ed!” If you forget it’s there and walk right into it, you’ll understand what an “Amen” is. “So, let it be.”

 “Such it is,” and it is. “Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.”

 

“All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying,

‘Amen!

Praise and glory

and wisdom and thanks and honor

and power and strength

be to our God forever and ever.

Amen!’” (Rev. 7:11,12).

Matthew 6:13b “Doxology 1”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

^13bbecause Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory into the ages. Amen.

This final line of the Lord’s prayer is of interest to study for two reasons. The first is the question of its authenticity, as any observant Bible student will notice it is left out of many modern Bible translations or at least questioned in their footnotes. The second reason for study is simply our insatiable desire to mine the treasures of God’s Word.

As far as the authenticity, I have my own resolved opinion on the matter. I’ve read the reasons “for and against” as recorded by many different authors. The main focus of debate is usually a matter of what is called “textual criticism.” There are literally thousands of copies of the Bible recorded in a myriad of languages and all down through the ages. Like any other document, when people copy things by hand, they invariably make mistakes and even sometimes deliberately alter the text for one reason or another. This was true not only of the Bible, but every other copied manuscript throughout history. Textual criticism has to be practiced even on Shakespeare’s writings!

Textual criticism is a science of gathering the evidence, analyzing it, then drawing conclusions based on those considerations. I am a graduate Civil Engineer and started working in the field fifty years ago next August (1976-2026). I love science. It is the foundation of everything we do as engineers – to take science, apply it to the issues people face, and, based on that knowledge, to try to do good to our fellow human beings.

All that said, as I turn to my Bible studies, I have, over the years paid very close attention to any issues of textual criticism which I encountered in the passages I’ve translated and studied. One of my conclusions from all of that is to observe that scientists make lousy theologians and theologians make lousy scientists. I would guess that most theologians would cheer my assertion that scientists make lousy theologians. The whole business of evolution is a prime example. Scientists created the theory specifically for the purpose of undermining theology, while in so doing they’ve created a “scientific” theory that is blatantly unscientific. Science can try as it might, but it cannot exclude the God who created and overrules it all.

Again, theologians may, at this point, be cheering all I’m saying. However, they won’t like it when I turn the tables and tell them that they make lousy scientists. Once again, textual criticism is, in itself, purely a science. It is a business of gathering facts, analyzing facts, and drawing conclusions based on those facts. One of the most obvious evidences that theologians make lousy scientists is their use of textual criticism itself. As you read through a study Bible, you’ll see many footnotes calling attention to places where there are, in fact, different wordings found in the ancient manuscripts. Those notes often say something like “the best and most reliable manuscripts do not include…”

“Best and most reliable.” I could lay out two dusty old manuscripts of any writing and ask you, “Which of these is ‘best’ and ‘most reliable’?” I hope you would look at them and say to me, “That is a ridiculous question. They are two old pieces of paper with ink on them. ‘Best’ and ‘most reliable’ are completely subjective terms. That is not science.” And you would be correct. This is just one of the many places where theologians have resorted to practicing science and in so doing, ended up making statements which are blatantly unscientific. Theologians make lousy scientists. Any good scientist will tell you that subjective evidence is no evidence at all.

I guess here is my rub on the whole matter: The Bible isn’t just another collection of old manuscripts to stretch out on a table and dissect like some formaldehyde-soaked frog. The Bible is God’s Word. It says itself it is “alive and powerful.” It says itself it is “God-breathed.” Peter observed that “prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit,” and that too many “ignorant and unstable” people handle the Scriptures and “distort” them “as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (II Peter 1:21 & 3:16).

Unbelievers will never understand this, and in fact they cannot. “The natural man cannot understand the things of God, for they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:14). When a person comes to God they must come first of all by faith. “And without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

Part of all this is that, again, us believers understand that the Bible is not just another book. It is the Word of God. Jesus Himself said, “Not one jot or tittle will pass away, until all be fulfilled.” The great God who gave us His Word is quite capable of preserving it for His people. When we read the Bible, we are (or should be) in our minds meeting with the Lord Himself. As someone once said, “To read your Bible is to look into the eyes of God.” Where all this leads is that we believers come to the Bible first of all in faith. Faith is not science. Faith is an intensely personal interaction with our Father. Real faith is a relationship. Relationships aren’t necessarily based on facts. You could show me all the evidence you wanted to prove that my wife is being unfaithful to me and I will tell you, “I’m sorry, but I know her and that isn’t even remotely possible.”

By now, it is probably obvious where I’m headed. Frankly, I don’t care what the evidence of textual criticism seems to say. I’ve been reading my Bible and knowing my Lord for all these years and my heart tells me our traditional reading is correct. My heart tells me the Lord’s Prayer does, in fact, end with exactly these words, “for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.” And frankly that goes for all the other major passages which modern Bibles leave out or tell us, “The best and most reliable manuscripts do not include…”

As I try to study my Bible word for word and even Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic letter for letter, I do take notice of points where there are “variants,” places where all of the thousands of old Bible copies don’t necessarily agree. I do consider the “evidence” of textual criticism. Sometimes I agree with the popular conclusions, and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes their conclusions are blatantly unscientific (remember, theologians make lousy scientists), but I do try to seriously consider what they present. However, I want to always be first and foremost a man of faith, not science. I want to be a man who studies his Bible looking into the eyes of God. We may be able to dissect Shakespeare’s writings like the formaldehyde- soaked frog, but the Bible is not dead. It is a living book, the words of the living God, spoken to His believing children. People who don’t belong to the family can take out their scalpels and slice the Bible all they want, but they’ll never really understand. They’re reading “someone else’s mail.” They’re more than welcome to join the family, but until they do, they’ll never “get it.”

So, there you go. These are the thoughts of a man who spends all day every day in a career based on science, yet who does it all enjoying the face of the God I cannot see – but know.

If you’re a believer, I hope my thoughts are encouraging to you. Your Bible is absolutely trustworthy and please be assured, those major passages that are supposedly “doubtful” are quite genuine and there for you to enjoy, sitting in your Father’s lap, wrapped in His loving arms. And what can we say but,

“For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Matthew 6:13 “An Honorable Prayer”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹³and do not bring us into testing, but rescue us from the evil [one].

It is quite appropriate, after a serious consideration of our own need of forgiveness and our forgiving others, to turn immediately and plead for rescue! Truly born-again people inwardly mourn over their own sinfulness. We are all too aware of the pain we find struggling against our selfishness, against our horridly deceptive pride, and against our seemingly constant ignorance of even what is right. Sin is a horrible master. Our salvation freed us from it, yet sometimes it feels those old chains are still there, waiting for the smallest opportunity to wrap their icy links around us.

Then there is this whole issue of forgiving others. People may regularly hurt us, disappoint us, betray us, and just generally make our lives miserable. As if that were not bad enough, we then have to confront this whole business of our own sinfulness and our unwillingness to forgive them.

It is all a very painful process in our hearts and lives. No wonder the next line is “Rescue us!” The Apostle Paul came to this exact same place and exclaimed, “Who shall deliver me from this body of death? (Rom. 7:24). And what was his answer? “Thanks be to God, through our Lord Jesus Christ!” Just as we learn here in the Lord’s prayer, the answer to it all is to take it to that Throne of Grace, “that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb.4:16).

And so, for us believers, keenly aware of how painful is this whole business of life in a fallen world, we go to our Lord and beg, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

All that said, I definitely want to take the time to think more deeply what this line of the Lord’s prayer is saying. Right off the bat, I have to admit that first line does give us all some trouble. “Lead us not into temptation…” Several thoughts I want to remember. First of all, as James tells us, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed” (1:13,14). That states very clearly what we are all quite sure of – that the Lord has nothing to do with evil or even the temptation to succumb to it.

Interestingly, the Greek verb behind “Lead us” is not actually a strict imperative, as it appears in our English translation. Instead it is what grammarians call a “subjunctive.” We really have no other way to translate it into English, but suffice it to say it is at best a very weak imperative. Also, the word doesn’t really mean “lead.” It might be better translated something like “bring,” but then that doesn’t translate well either. Bottom line is just to note this “lead” is a very weak imperative. Definitely more of a request, like Jesus’ words, “If it be possible…”

Also, the word translated “temptation” is actually a word for testing, with no natural positive or negative connotation. It is the same word for the kind of testing someone might do in a factory’s quality control lab. They bring in one out of so many products and “test” it. If it passes, that batch is assumed good. If not, something needs to be checked or changed.

We are all keenly aware that the Lord allows us to be “tested” in that sense. The problem is, since we are all sinners with wills of our own, every test becomes a temptation. For instance, as we pass through each day, we interact with all kinds of people. The Lord wants us to love each of them. Depending on how they treat us, we may be tempted to respond unkindly. Whether we’ll love each one is a test. It’s our pride and selfishness that tempts us not to.

So, perhaps we could translate this line as “Please don’t bring us into testing.” While that would certainly express the intent of the passage, it leads us to another problem. I’m thinking most of us would probably say to ourselves, “That doesn’t sound like something we should be praying – not to be put through trials or testing.” However, we have a number of very clear instances in the Bible where someone asked to be spared from testing. Above them all, we have those words of Jesus Himself, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me” Then we have the Apostle Paul with his “thorn in the flesh,” asking three times for the Lord to take it away (II Cor. 12:7-9). Then we have Jesus telling His disciples, “Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41).

The real clincher for me is the prayer of Jabez. In I Chron. 4:9,10, we’re told, “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers…Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my territory, and that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from trouble, that I might be free from pain.’ And God granted his request.” Here, even deep in the Old Testament, we have a man praying, in essence, these exact words, “Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil,” and the Lord Himself tells us he was an “honorable” man.

So, yes, this is a perfectly good prayer to pray. “Lord, deliver me from evil – spare me from trouble.” The fact is life in this fallen world is very hard and the Lord knows it. He knows our frame that we are but dust, so He allows us this grace of asking to be spared from trouble. Of course, Jesus added, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done,” and, when God’s answer to Paul was, “No, I won’t take it away,” he responded, “Most gladly will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me…”  

In a sense this circles back to the beginning of the prayer, acknowledging Him as our Father and praying His will be done. We can ask for almost anything, but always, always, always leaving the answer in His wise and good hands. If I could add one more thought to all of this, while I pray to be spared from testing and trouble, I realize I have a responsibility in it. In Psalm 32:8,9, we read, “Let Me instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. Let Me counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding, but must be controlled by bit and bridle, or they will not come to you.”

I take that to mean we have two options in life – we can just blunder on in our Christian life and make the Lord have to clobber us every time He wants to teach us anything, or we can sincerely strive to be teachable – to be often in the Word, listening intently in church, staying close to the Lord in prayer, and allowing Him to teach us without having to first clobber us. I would much rather have Him show me His will right out of the Word, than to have to resort to painful trials just to get my attention. Because I’m a sinner, there will always be things He can only teach me (burn out of me), by putting me through pain, but what I’m saying is, I believe we can minimize it all, just by very deliberately being teachable.

The last thing I want to record about this passage is in the final line, when we pray, “but deliver us from evil.” Some translations render it “but deliver us from the evil one.” Actually in Greek it can be either. Personally, I don’t think it matters. Evil is evil, whether it is Satan seeking to devour me or just my own evil heart, or the evil of this world we live in. We need to be delivered (lit. “rescued”) from it all!

So then let us pray prayers like this, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” knowing full well what we are asking for, and rising assured we’ve done right and that our wonderful Lord will answer according to His perfect wisdom and kindness.

That is an honorable prayer. 

Matthew 6:12 “Debtors 3”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹²and forgive to us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.

Forgiveness -- again. So far I’ve been pondering the first phrase of this verse: “Forgive us our debts.” Now, let’s turn to the last phrase, “as we forgive our debtors.” As mentioned before, this is an interesting study, just to pause and think about sins as debts. As far as the first phrase, “Forgive us our debts,” it perhaps deepens our understanding of sin when we think of them as the culpable violations of the obedience and honor we owe to our Creator God.

Now we move on to seeing them in light of our debts to one another. I don’t believe I’ve ever given this any thought at all, so it has been a very interesting and enlightening study. First of all, we are in fact talking about sins, not just money we owe each other. That should be obvious, but needs to be said as we would consider the whole matter. So, what do we owe each other?

First and foremost, Jesus taught us we owe each other love. Therefore, to give to another anything less is to have sinned. We are indebted to God to “love our neighbor,” but we do not, either through sins of commission or omission. I’ve certainly done a lot of that in my 68 years of life, but then I’ve also been on the receiving end of a LOT of “unpaid debts” of love. Of course, in my myopic, self-centered world view, the LOT is far greater against me than from me. That is absurd, of course, but my sinful little nefarious heart is still full of pride and “deceitful above all things.” It may be huge in my mind, but the Lord here even infers it is “normal” for children of the Father to “let it go” and forgive all of that.

“As we forgive our debtors.” Again, the assumption of this prayer is that we do. Let’s think about that for a second. First of all, remember this is a child’s prayer to their Father. This world is full of unregenerate people who sadly are “of their father, the devil…and the lusts of their father they will do” – lying and stealing and killing. This prayer is NOT directed at them. Who they are would be obvious except that too many of them sit on the pews of Bible-preaching churches. I would have to say, most of the people I’ve ever attended church with were probably unregenerate. They may have appeared moral and made a good show at church, but there was absolutely not the slightest hint of Jesus in who they were – and in fact it was quite the opposite. Too often, in private and even sometimes in public, they had tongues “set on fire by hell.” We’ve all known them and probably been too often on the receiving end of those tongues.

So, before we talk about whether “forgiveness” is normal or not for Christians, let’s dispel this notion that most of the people who call themselves Christians really are. They are not. Just because someone is a church-goer does not make them a Christian. Real Christians are Jesus people. Although they themselves (like me) still have their issues and struggles, yet there is that sweet, graciousness of Jesus about them.

I’ve known a number of people who really did come to salvation and I saw for myself that instant transformation. Yes, they were new believers, and yes, they had a lifetime of spiritual growth ahead of them, but immediately they became Jesus people. Suddenly there was a sweetness about them, suddenly they really did want to love other people. Suddenly there was a hunger to know God and to know the Bible. As Jesus said, “By their fruits, you shall know them.”

SO…first of all, yes, Jesus can instruct us children of the Father to say, “as we forgive our debtors.”  I may not do it very well, but the fact is, as a real Christian, a real child of the Father, that is my heart’s desire. And that is true of everyone (I hope including you) who has been born again. So, that settled, let’s us born again people, us children of the Father, think more about this business of forgiving our debtors.

Why is it hard to forgive? First of all, let us remind ourselves, when a debt is forgiven, it’s the creditor (in this case us) who loses. It’s the creditor who must “give up” something in order for the debtor to go free. That is difficult, because, in a sense, they really do “owe” us. As we noted above, at minimum, we all (saved and unsaved alike) owe each other love. The problem with that is we’re all sinners and do a terrible job of it, sometimes in ways we find very hurtful. At those times we may find it seemingly impossible to forgive that person.

What to do? One way is to “walk backwards” through Ephesians 4:32. What does that verse say? “And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Think first about that last phrase, “Even as God in Christ forgave you.” As Romans 5:10 says, “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son…” How much sin did Jesus have to pay for to save me? How much have I failed Him even since He saved me? Yet, God forgave (forgives) me. Now, still working backwards through Ephesians 4:32, He asks us to be “forgiving one another.” As I look at that person, can I see that they’re no different than me? I’m no different than them. Yes, perhaps what they did was very, very bad – but sin is still sin. Even if I can say “I’ve never done that,” the fact is I’ve done just as bad (or worse). In the light of Jesus’ forgiveness of me, I realize I’m just as capable of every sin in the book, and I needed Jesus’ forgiveness just as much as them.

Then God asks us to be “tenderhearted.” Hopefully, at this point, we’re already there. Can I actually feel sorry for that person? Sin is a horrible beast, yet it seems to be the very skin we live in – we all live in. It’s awful to be its slave. I myself know its pain, its darkness, its slavery, its hopelessness. Hopefully by this point, we are wishing we could help that person somehow. Hopefully we actually want to be “kind” to them in some way. And hopefully in our Christian heart we’re finding that, “Yes, I can forgive them. In fact, I want to. Jesus died for me and I don’t deserve His forgiveness any more than anyone else, yet He forgives me. I want to do the same.” As Erika Kirk said to the young man who murdered her husband, “I forgive you…that’s what Christ did.”

Finally, let me offer one more observation in all of this which I find enormously helpful. As we noted above, we all really do “owe” each other love. Justice says those who do not have sinned and done wrong. They really do “owe” it to us. So there is this natural and in fact very legitimate sense of justice within us. No wonder it is a struggle. In an ideal world of law and justice, they really have done us “wrong” and should be punished. Yet, is that the world you and I (children of the Father ) live in? No. We live in a world of grace. Based on law and justice, we should be burning in hell. Yet, in Christ, God the Father forgives us and welcomes us into His big loving lap. Do we “owe” Him sinlessness? Yes. Does He require it of us? In Christ, no. He “lets it go.”

Because I myself live in grace, I can look out at my world and be gracious. My love for others is not a matter of law and justice. I can see them through Jesus’ eyes. Because of grace and because of Jesus, I can look at my world and honestly say from my heart, no one owes me anything. I myself deserve hell. Who am I to look around and think I deserve anything from anyone? No. Because of Jesus, my only concern is that I “owe” my world love – and like Jesus, I should give it to them regardless of how well or how badly they treat me. My Father takes care of me. He will make sure I get every little thing I truly need. “He opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing.” So I depend on Him, not others, to make sure I get “what I need.” My job is to give love. Whether I receive it is up to Him.

No one owes me anything. I’m the debtor. What this verse has taught me is to try and look out at my world through those eyes. Then, what does it matter really what others do to me? “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” “Jesus was a man, ordained by God, who went about doing good.” Like Charlie Kirk and Stephen before him, they killed him for it – while He only did them good. “It is enough for a disciple to be like his Master.” What does the Lord tell us? “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love…” (Eph.5:1,2).

No one owes me anything. If I can keep that in my head, what does it really matter what they do or don’t do to me? I want to just go on being like my Savior – loving a world that may or may not love me, “forgiving my debtors.” “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Lord, help us to so fill our hearts with You, that we can look out and see our world through Your loving eyes. May us children live the grace You’ve already showered on us, and may we truly find, as we bring our failures to our God, it really is true we’re living a life of “forgiving our debtors.” Jesus, make us like You, and change a world because of it!

Matthew 6:12 “Debtors 2”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹²and forgive to us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.

Forgiveness. As I savored in my last post, forgiveness is a wonderful thing. “The wages of sin is death.” Sin is an infinite offense because the God we offend and His justice are infinite. That infinite debt of death we owe because of our sins we cannot pay. We’ll praise Jesus through all eternity that He “paid it all!” “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased us for God from every tribe and language and people and nation!” (Rev. 5:9).

As wonderful as that is, yet here we are still asking the Lord to “forgive us our debts.” Jesus “paid it all.” Why then are we still asking forgiveness? It is because Jesus not only paid for our sins, but His death granted us another wonderful gift. We acknowledge it in the very opening words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father…”

Our Father. Our sin debt had to be paid before God the eternal Judge. Now we call Him “Father!” Without Jesus, our sins were a judicial matter. It was all about broken laws and guilt and penalties, about a Great White Throne and a Judge and the justice He must execute. Now, suddenly we call Him Father. For those who have accepted Jesus’ salvation, this whole business of our sins is no longer judicial. It is now familial. It’s family business.

It is monumentally important that you and I understand this wondrous transformation. Those very first words remind us that our lives are now a family business. When we approach the Lord, Jesus Himself would remind us we are addressing our Father. “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:15,16).

May I insert here that it took me over thirty years to understand this?  And if I could, may I say I fear few Christians I’ve ever known understand it. I fear that most of us should actually begin our prayers with “Your Honor…” Almost everything you hear about forgiveness and the way people talk about it, they’re still seeing God as their Judge. No! Jesus says to come to Him very deliberately seeing Him as our Father.

What is the difference? A judge cannot allow his own emotions or attachments to impact his responsibility to mete out justice. The accused are either guilty or not guilty. If they’re guilty, he must execute justice or be an unjust judge. Even if the accused was his own child, justice still must be served. With a father, it is (or should be) all about love, not justice. A father (or mother) can never stop seeking the welfare of their child.

For example, when it comes to money and the possibility I might “cheat” someone, it is easy for me to say, “That isn’t even possible. I fear God. I don’t want to have to explain to Him why someone else’s money is in my account.” Many would hear me say that and think I’m afraid of God’s judgment. That actually isn’t strictly true. What I mean is, “My Father loves me way too much to let me get away with cheating other people. I am quite sure, if I do, He will soon have me over His knee – and I don’t like His spankings!” It is also true that I love Him and don’t want to be doing things I know displease Him. I enjoy sitting in His lap with His big arms around me. The Lord’s spankings aren’t a matter of justice or an angry judge. They’re about a Father who loves me, who cares who I am and what I’m becoming.

Although I don’t think I understood this in my relationship with God, yet with my own children, I remember living under the constant awareness it was my responsibility to guide who they became. Their mother and I often reminded each other that each child would one day be 18 and walk out of our house. When they did, they’d better be ready to live in a real world. They’d better be ready to work (hard). They’d better be ready to be honest, dependable, kind, respectful of authority, …all the things we must be in order to “get along” in this world. Even when they needed correction (lest they learn bad habits), I can honestly say there was never one second when I didn’t love them. Their corrections weren't given as an angry judge, but rather as a father who loved them too much to let them get away with behaviors I knew would wreck their lives.

I may have been wrong (and often was). There may be things I wish I had done (but didn’t), and things I wish I hadn’t done (but did), but I can at least say before God that I was sincerely trying to love them. Although I may not have understood it exactly in my relationship with God, yet I did understand it in relation to my own children. Even their “sins” and even if those “sins” were directed at me personally (like sassing), the issue was never justice, but rather love for them and concern for who they’d become.

Let us all be reminded, when we pray, Jesus says to approach God as “Our Father.” Even when we’re praying “Forgive us our debts,” let us remember we’re dealing with our Father, not our Judge. Our prayers are family business – they’re all about a relationship between us and a Heavenly Father who loves us, who will never “leave us nor forsake us,” and who is absolutely committed to our best eternal welfare. Confession of sin is not about paying a debt or getting out of jail. It’s about treasuring a relationship – with our Father!

Matthew 6:12 “Debtors”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹²and forgive to us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.

This is an interesting study – to think about sins as “debts.” In Luke’s version in 11:4, our sins are actually called “sins,” while what others have done to us are still called “debts.” More on that later.

Debts. What is a debt? It is something owed. In our world, there is a creditor and there is a debtor. Basically, debts must be repaid. The matter is so serious there used to be “debtors’ prisons,” where people were sent to “work off” their unpaid debts. If a debt isn’t repaid, who loses? The creditor, of course. In our world today, if a debt cannot be repaid, a person can declare bankruptcy, but, other than that the only hope would be for the creditor to willingly “forgive” the debt. Having said that, however, let us be reminded that, in so doing, it is still true the creditor is the loser. Financially speaking, forgiving debts is a wonderful thing for debtors, but for creditors it is a losing business.

As we turn our hearts toward God, it’s not hard to see that our sins are each and every one a debt. We, the created, owe to God the Creator our obedience and our worship. When we fail to give to Him those things, we have sinned. We “owe” Him for those sins. And what is the punishment for sin? “In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” “The wages of sin is death.” The problem, which we fail to consider, is that we are sinning against and offending an infinite God – which means what we “owe” is an infinite price. We’re in BIG trouble. God is just. How long would it take us to pay an infinite debt? How long must we “die?” Infinity. Forever. Hell is no “purgatory.” It is forever. We cannot repay our debt to Him.

Our only hope is that somehow, someway He would forgive our debt. However, in this case, that is theologically impossible. God is just. He must punish sin, since He said He would. His justice demands payment. In order for Him to simply “forgive” our debt, He would have to lose His justice – but He cannot do that. The price must be paid. There must be an infinite death for God to “balance” His books.

Who can pay an infinite price, die an infinite death and yet be able to say, “Paid in full?” Only God Himself! The wonder of grace is He did exactly that. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth…and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:1,14,17). Jesus went to the Cross for us and what were His last words? “It is finished!” What was finished? Our sin debt was paid. Someone paid it for us.

Oh, yes. Above I said our only hope as debtors is for the creditor to forgive our debt. I forgot one other option – when another person steps forward and says, “I’ll pay that for them.” Why would anyone ever do that? Instead of the creditor, now it’s that person who is the loser. Why would anyone willingly be a loser? Love, of course. Any of us who are parents know that feeling. How many times have we each stepped in and said to one of our children, “Don’t worry. I’ll pay for that”? Why did we do it? Love. We made ourselves “losers” and never regretted it for one second, and why? Love.

Isn’t it, in a way, a strange feeling to lose, to willingly make ourselves “losers,” and yet feel happy we did? Once, one of our adult children went to move out of an apartment, only to be told they owed $1,000.00. At that time, they were penniless and called us distraught at what to do. Although we weren’t rich either, it was wonderful to be able to say to them, “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of it.” It cost us $1,000.00 we probably could barely spare, but we didn’t care. It was for a person precious to us. We were actually glad to be “losers.” The truth is, we didn’t “lose” at all. We just exchanged money for love – and that is an exchange that pays a lifetime of dividends!

So with Jesus. He emptied Himself. He made Himself a servant. He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” then made it possible for God the Father to answer His prayer because He said, “I’ll pay that.” And why did He do it? The book of Hebrews says He did it for “the joy that was set before Him.” He did it for love. Love for you and love for me. Paul exemplified that when he told Philemon, concerning Onesimus, “If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.” Paul learned it from Jesus.

Now, when we said to our child, “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of that,” they could have said, “No. I won’t let you,” and gone on in the misery of their unpaid indebtedness. Back in John, it says, “He came unto His own, but His own received Him not…yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (1:11,12).

The wonder of His grace is that “Jesus paid it all.” However, you and I are left with the choice to accept His offer or not. Whether we like it or not, we are all debtors before God, owing a price we cannot repay. And what does the Bible tell us? Why did God the Father willingly give His Son to pay our debt? “He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the Justifier of those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).

In this world, it is an awful thing to be indebted for a price we cannot repay. In God’s world, the good news is the price is already paid. We only need say, “Thank you” and accept His wonderful kindness in Jesus.

You and I don’t need to be debtors!!

Matthew 6:11 “Bread 3”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹Give to us today our daily bread.

In the last post, we looked at how no request or concern is too small for prayer. My next observation, in a way, grows out of all of that. Psalm 145:15,16 says, “The eyes of all look to you, O Lord, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” 

Food. Eating. We humans spend a great deal of our time and energy making sure we have food. Today, groceries take up a significant chunk of our income, especially if you add that it’s not only the groceries themselves, but we need a refrigerator/freezer to keep them in, a stove to cook them on, all the plates and silverware and such, and then we have the time it takes to cook it, serve it, eat it, and clean up afterwards. Consider how it wasn’t that long ago, people lived on farms where most of their day was spent growing their crops, caring for the livestock (much of which would later appear on their dinner table), gardening and canning, etc. Today there is a restaurant on every corner, it would seem, and their parking lots are often full, but then “eating out” certainly isn’t cheap, so we’re back to hours working just to be able to pay for it all.

So, we have to work a LOT at this simple, basic business of eating. To us, it appears it is entirely our doing. We must do the work and then we will be able to eat. Yet, what is the prayer we’re considering? “Give us this day our daily bread.” Notice the “Give.” Combine that with the words of Psalm 145 noted above, and here we are again with this business of faith and sight. By sight, it appears to be completely up to us whether we eat or starve. Yet, what are we being told to see by faith? In spite of what we think we see, even a slice of bread is a gift from God! 

While an unbeliever thinks it’s all on them, what does faith remind us? Who gave you the very breath to work at all? Who makes crops to grow or not? Who protects those crops and livestock all the way to our dinner table? I don’t think it’s any mistake that the old farm families were people of deep faith – they lived (and worried their heads off) in the realization that they could only plant the seeds. Whether or not there would be a crop was completely dependent on God Himself! They were very aware they could not make it rain or the sun to shine. They were terribly vulnerable to insects, weeds, storms and seemingly a thousand other threats that could mean starvation for them the next winter. They lived in the constant realization they need God.

Perhaps it was easier for them to see it, yet it is true for them and us both that we are totally dependent on the Lord even for the food on our tables. Even the simple word “Give” is for us a grace word. By faith, we can see, if He does not “give” us our food, we’ll not have it! “He opens His hand and satisfies the desires of every living thing.”

When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we are acknowledging, by faith, our utter dependence on God even for the food we eat. It is good for this man to sit here and let these thoughts swirl in his head. I want to remember this all day every day. I want to be totally dependent on the Lord for even my food, in spite of the fact that it may look like “it’s all up to me.” It reminds me I am not alone. I am a man with a God. All of life is about this constant companionship. Without Him “I can do nothing,” yet He calls me to work, even for the food I eat. He says to the world, “If a man will not work, neither shall he eat” (II Thes. 3:10). And still, as it says in Psalm 145, “the eyes of all wait upon You, O Lord, and You give them their food at the proper time.”

I admit I’m just rambling now, but I really do want these truths to sink deeply into my heart. I must work (a lot) for my food, yet still it is a grace gift from my God that I can eat at all. I owe Him humble thanks for every morsel that passes through my teeth. As I sit here pondering, I’m reminded, as it is always true, that my “work” is actually a privilege. The Lord could leave me lying in my recliner and just drop food in my mouth. Yet from the very Garden of Eden (even before sin), the Lord in His wisdom and kindness put man there “to keep it and to till it.” He called us to work for that which was, in reality, a grace gift straight from His hand. He rained down manna for the Israelites to eat, yet they had to go out every morning and gather it. He could have just dropped it in their pots.

I’m reminded once again that it is actually an enormous dignity for us humans that He does not just “drop it in our mouths,” but instead calls us to work for that which He gives us. Back to our companionship with Him. He’s so kind, He allows us to be a part just like the rest of our lives and everything we do.

The only thing He must do alone is to save us. “For by grace are you saved, through faith, and it is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works…” (Eph. 2:8). Yet even that glorious passage goes on to say of those He has saved by grace, that we are “created in Christ Jesus to do good works…” (v.10). I guess we can say the plan always is that He wants us to work as much as we can, but He does for us that which we cannot. In salvation, He must do it all. In the rest of life, He calls us to this “God and me” companionship.

I know, especially at work, it is an enormous comfort for me to remember that. There is so much that needs to be done. Yet, while I can meet with people, discuss projects, do the calculations, design even entire water and wastewater plants, yet I can’t make the money appear to pay for them. I can’t make deliveries show up on time or equipment show up without serious defects. I can’t control the weather. I often have no control over whether other people do their part. I cannot ultimately control whether any project gets done on time, in budget, and is well built and a good solution. I can only “do my part.” As Daniel told us all, “Wisdom and power belong to God.” It is a great peace to know I am not alone, that I am a man with a God.

This simple little prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” reminds me all of this is true, even for the very bread I eat.

I want to be reminded of this every time I eat – every time I put food in my mouth, even as I’m “working” to even make it possible. It’s God and me. He is very present. We work together. He doesn’t need me, but I desperately need Him. He allows me to join Him and grants me the dignity to “do my part.”

What a good, kind, and wise God He is! “Give us this day our daily bread.”

 

Matthew 6:11 “Bread 2”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹Give to us today our daily bread.

As I said in my last post, I fear this simple little verse is so pregnant with truth, I doubt if I can do it justice, but I will try. Over the years, too many times, I have heard people say things like, “You shouldn’t bother God with “little” things, that you should only pray about “important” things. That sentiment has always horrified me. Life is mostly made up of “little” things. If we shouldn’t pray about those things, to me we might as well cut off the arms and legs of our prayers.

For anyone subscribing to that opinion, what will you do with this line of the Lord’s Prayer? “Give us this day our daily bread.” Bread. How much simpler can that get? No, no, no, and a thousand times no. Who ever told their two-year old not to bother them with “little” things? All they know is “little” things. They ask for silly things and does that bother us? “Of course not,” you say. “I just love to hear their little voice!” And do you think God our Father is any different?

Proverbs 15:8 says, “…the prayer of the upright is His delight.” Elsewhere, the Bible tells us our prayers are like incense to the Lord. Later in the Sermon on the Mount (ch. 7), Jesus Himself compares prayer to a child asking his father for bread or a fish. In Luke’s version, the child asks for an egg. Does Jesus say, “They’re so foolish! They shouldn’t bother their father about such simple things!” No, and rather what does He say? “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?”

Simple things. Based on the words of the Lord Himself, let us all be encouraged that no request, no problem, no question is too “small” for prayer. Instead, He says, “…in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil. 4:6). 

Pray on, my friends! Give Him your squeaky little voice and tell Him anything and everything that crosses your mind. Remember, your prayers are His delight. He’s your heavenly Father. 

"Give us this day our daily bread." 

Pray on, my friends!

Matthew 6:11 “Bread”

 Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹Give to us today our daily bread.

When I first embarked on studying this verse, I didn’t think there would be much to find in such a simple request. However, now I fear it is so pregnant with truth, I doubt if I can do it justice. I will try. One of the best commentators on these verses is Matthew Henry. He obviously thought deeply about the verse and had lived it.

Where do we begin? Jesus has just taught us in vv. 9,10 to acknowledge God as our Father, to pray for Him to be glorified, and to express our submission to His rule. Having said that, what will come next? You would think we’d go straight to “forgive us our debts…” However, where does He go? “Give us this day our daily bread.” He teaches us, after attributing glory to God, to ask Him for bread. This simple truth leads in about a million directions. I’ll try to express at least the most important lessons I think I’m seeing.

I fear that our natural understanding of faith is an example of where the Lord says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.” And that is precisely why we must study the Bible. It alone teaches us how to see our lives through the Lord’s eyes. Our natural understanding of life and faith is that our basic needs “don’t count.” In other words, we think all that matters, really, is the spiritual issues in our lives and in our world. Our very basic needs are a sort of a natural evil that “take up time and only get in the way of what really matters.”

I once heard a pastor say from the pulpit, “Your job is just the way you make money.” What he was saying was that people’s jobs are no more than a necessary evil that they should dispense with, then get on to the “important” things – especially showing up at the church building to report for duty. If jobs are so unimportant, I wonder why the Lord Himself says they are the one place where we can “adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things?" (Titus 2:9,10). Adorn.

That pastor was reflecting what I believe is perhaps a very subtle error that weaves its way through modern Christianity. It is actually a form of asceticism – despising and minimizing the importance of our basic needs, supposedly to allow us to focus on what “really matters."

How does all of that square with this simple request, taught us by the very mouth of Jesus? “Give us this day our daily bread.” As usual, the Lord is way smarter than us and doesn’t have His head filled with illogical and frankly stupid ideas. He knows that when He formed Adam, He “formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). God gave Adam a body and breathed into him a spirit. Adam had a body. Within that body, God placed his spirit, but it was, in fact, in a body.

The fact is, in order to exist in this world, you and I have to live in a body. What happens when this body dies? Our spirit leaves this world and goes to be with the Lord (II Corin. 5:8). That means our opportunity to do good in this world is over. Done. Past tense. We humans must live in bodies in order to even have spiritual influence in this world.  If I don’t have a body here, I can’t do anyone any good. If I want to do good, I need to keep this body as healthy as I can.

“Give us this day our daily bread.” If I don’t eat, I will eventually die. In the meantime, I think we all know how hard it is to concentrate, to do anything at all, when I’m hungry. I need to eat. Is that “unspiritual?” Is it a “necessary evil” to be dispensed with as quickly as possible so we can get on with the “important” stuff? Or would the Lord have us to acknowledge the importance of this body He gave us, keep it as well fed and healthy as we can, and see all of that as part of the life we live before Him? He says to pray about it.

And note again the order. After teaching us to pray about God’s glory, His very next line is “Give us this day our daily bread.” Even before we address the issue of our sins (“debts”), He addresses our most basic physical needs. So then, how should you and I think about those “physical needs?” Are they important or not? Are they just “necessary evils?” Does God care about them? Should we?

For me personally, I remember when I first became a Christian. I was a runner. Immediately, I had to address whether that was a good thing or not. I remember feeling it was not, that I should rather be spending my time doing “spiritual” things. Running takes time. As I thought about it, I realized that it makes me much healthier. I realized, if I want to do any good in this world, I need to be as healthy as I can. I realized, to whatever extent I was not healthy, I couldn’t do anyone any good. I of course had no Bible to back that up at the time. It just made sense to me. So I kept running.

The result is that now, nearly fifty years later, I’m not overweight. I basically have no major physical conditions. At 68 years old, I am still working full time. One of my delights has been our interns at work. I love young people and am very glad to still be able to interact with them. Hopefully I’m able to be a positive presence in their lives. Looking back over the years, running has given me the opportunity to spend a great deal of time with all three of my children, as they wanted to run also. In addition, I have been able to spend time with other men, running together (and discussing God, the universe, and other subjects!). Even with the ladies, just the fact that I was a runner gave me a common interest with them and often has given me a subject to discuss with them and hopefully establish a relationship.

Obviously, not everyone can be a runner. My point is simply that I can clearly see the advantages I have gained by trying (my best) to be healthy. It was not “a waste of time.” It was not a “necessary evil.” To be as healthy as I could be has afforded me many opportunities to build relationships and to hopefully see the Lord use those relationships in some way to do them good, to draw them to Himself.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

Bread.

A basic need.

What does our Lord think about that? What should we?