The Lord's Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your Kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom,
the power and the glory are yours.
Now and for ever.
Amen.
It is probably the most said prayer in the world.
You say it every time you go to Church, don't you?
Are you just saying the words from your memory or are you actually thinking of the meaning of the words?
Do you know the real meaning of the Lord's Prayer?
The Lord’s Prayer & His Kingdom
And His Righteousness
Main reference: Mt 6
What is the true meaning of the Lord’s prayer, and what are his
kingdom and his righteousness referring to?
After the choosing of the disciples, starting in Matthew 5, Jesus
gave us commands to keep as believers. One of them is the Lord’s prayer (Mt
6:9-13). He also said to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Mt 6:33).
These are the two main points of Matthew 6.
After seeing the way in which the hypocrites prayed and gave to
the needy, Jesus told his disciples not to do these things to be seen by men as
they (hypocrites) do, but to pray to God who is unseen. He then told us what we
should pray (Mt 6:1-13).
This prayer is the Lord’s prayer that many believers recite at the
end of worship services. They do so with their mouths without knowing its
meaning. If one does not follow through with their prayer in action, one is a
liar to God. He listens to our prayers only if we act as well.
●
Explanation
of the Lord’s prayer
1) Verse 9: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your
name
①
In heaven
Where is the ‘heaven’ at which God resides? The place in
Revelation 4 where God’s throne is located is the spiritual heaven. God coming
to Jesus at the First Coming (Mt 3:16-17; 4:17) was the spiritual heaven coming
down to earth.
Also, the ‘tabernacle’ on earth on which heaven came down was
called ‘heaven’ as well. The reason is that just as the sun, moon, and the stars
are in the sky, Israel, who are God’s chosen people, were figuratively referred
to as the sun, moon, and the stars, and thus, God’s tabernacle was heaven, the
spiritual sky (Gn 37:9-11; Rv 13:6; 12:1; 15:1, 5; Mt 13:24).
② Our Father
In John 8, when the Jews claimed that God was their father, Jesus
said to them that their father is not the true God, but the lying devil (Jn
8:41-44). This was because they were born of the seed of the devil
(liar).
Only by being born of God’s seed, which is his word (Lk 8:11), can
one call God ‘father’. Furthermore, God will only acknowledge those born of his
seed as his sons (children). God doesn’t just automatically become the father of
someone born of the devil’s seed just because he calls (the true) God his
father. Neither can he just automatically become God’s son.
③ Hallowed be your name
God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He has no sin; he
is the light of righteousness and life. He is the Lord who judges between
righteousness and wickedness. He is also the owner of all nations and all
creation. God is truly a holy and flawless being. It is only logical that his
creation reveres and praises God’s holiness as he deserves.
2) Verse 10: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it
is in heaven.
① Your kingdom come
This is praying for the spiritual heaven to come down to and unite
with the tabernacle of heaven on earth. It is also praying for God, who left the
world, to come down to the recreated kingdom (tabernacle) on
earth.
② Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven
Moses (Ex 25) and Jesus (Jn 5) fulfilled on earth just as they saw
in heaven. In the same way, at the Second Coming, the one who fights against and
overcomes the devil (the promised pastor) sees the Holy City, the new Jerusalem,
in Revelation 21 and 4. He then fulfills it (Rv 3:12). Although the devil and
his group will interfere with this, God and Jesus will be happy. We also ought
to be happy, as seen in Revelation 19.
3) Verse 11: Give us today our daily bread
In the time of Moses, until they entered into Canaan, produced
their own crop, and settled in the land, God gave the people of Israel manna
from heaven every morning (Ex 16:14-36). Jesus said, however, that although the
forefathers ate the manna that Moses gave, they died; but that he gives the food
that does not spoil, that endures to eternal life. He said that this food was
the living bread from heaven, his flesh and blood (Jn 6). Jesus himself is also
the ‘Word’ as seen in 1 John 1.
The true daily bread that Jesus gives is the revealed word of the
New Testament. This revelation was sealed in God’s right hand in Revelation 5,
but Jesus opened it starting in Revelation 6, and thus, gave it as ‘the manna
from heaven’, as the real food that endures to eternal life. The one who
overcomes (i.e. the New John) in Revelation 10 is the only one through whom we
can receive this (revelation).
4) Verse 12: Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors
⇒ Refer to the explanations of verses 14-15
5) Verse 13: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the
evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
① Lead us not into temptation
Jesus told us to pray this because he knew what would take place
at his Second Coming. As seen in Matthew 24, nations will rise against nations
and kingdom against kingdom. At that time, many fall into deception and
temptation so as to betray each other; and as there is an increase of evil, the
destroyer stands on the pulpit. He is telling us to pray to not fall into these
temptations and trials.
② But deliver us from the evil one
He is telling us to pray for deliverance from the destroyer during
when he strikes and overtakes the chosen people.
③ For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
It is only proper for the power and the glory to be God’s because
he is the creator of everything, the Lord of all, and the Lord of lords (1 Cor
15:28; Ep 4:6; 1 Tm 6:15). All created things must befittingly give glory to the
maker (creator) of all beings.
● Verse 14-15: For if you forgive men when they sin against you,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you. *But if you do not forgive men their
sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Jesus spoke about forgiveness as follows.
In Matthew 18:21-35, the one whose master canceled his debt of ten
thousand talents did not forgive his servant who owed him a hundred denarii, but
had him thrown into prison until he could pay back the debt. The master, having
heard this, called in the one whose debt he canceled, and asked why he threw his
servant in prison instead of canceling his debt of a hundred denarii, when the
master has canceled his own debt entirely. He then said that he too shall be
thrown into jail, until he should pay back all that he owed.
This is a moral teaching regarding forgiveness. One who does not
forgive others will not be forgiven.
● Verse 33: Seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness.
What
kingdom is this referring to? It is indeed referring to heaven. One cannot see
or touch this heaven. Expressed in parables, heaven comes down on the tree that
grows from a seed (Mt 13:31-32). This heaven also comes down on the one who
overcomes (Rv 3:12). God’s kingdom (heaven) fulfills here on earth as it is in
heaven, and it is to this place that heaven (above) comes down. This heaven is
the kingdom that he told us to seek. This kingdom is the sealed twelve tribes of
New Spiritual Israel (Rv 7, 14). We must seek and find this kingdom which God
and the angels are with. Furthermore, ‘his righteousness’ that we must seek is
the revealed word (Rv 10; 14:1-5) and faith, both of which can be found at this
kingdom.
God’s will, as well as the objective of our faith that the 66
books of the Bible points to, is the twelve tribes of New Spiritual Israel, the
kingdom that is created here on earth as it is heaven. This is the place we as
believers must go to.
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