After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
After this manner, [ Houtoos (G3779 ) more simply, 'Thus,'] therefore pray ye. The "ye" х humeis (G5210)] is emphatic here, in contrast with the pagan prayers. That this matchless prayer was given not only as a model, but as a form, might be concluded from its very nature. Did it consist only of hints or directions for prayer, it could only be used as a directory; but seeing it is an actual prayer-designed, indeed, to show how much real prayer could be compressed into the fewest words, but still, as a prayer, only the more incomparable for that-it is strange that there should be a doubt whether we ought to pray that very prayer. Surely the words with which it is introduced, in the second utterance and varied form of it which we have in Luke 11:2, ought to set this at rest: "When ye pray, say х legete (G3004)], Our Father." Nevertheless, since the second form of it varies considerably from the first, and since no example of its actual use, or express quotation of its phraseology, occurs in the sequel of the New Testament, we are to guard against a superstitious use of it. How early this began to appear in the church services, and to what an extent it was afterward carried, is known to everyone versed in church history. Nor has the spirit which bred this abuse quite departed from some branches of the Protestant Church, though the opposite and equally condemnable extreme is to be found in other branches of it. According to the Latin fathers and the Lutheran Church, the petitions of the Lord's Prayer are seven in number; according to the Greek fathers, the Reformed Church, and the Westminster divines, they are only six; the two last being regarded-we think less correctly-as one. The first three petitions have to do exclusively with God: "Thy name be hallowed" - "Thy kingdom come" - "Thy will be done." And they occur in a descending scale-from Himself down to the manifestation of Himself in His kingdom; and from His kingdom to the entire subjection of its subjects, or the complete doing of His will. The remaining four petitions have to do with OURSELVES: "Give us our bread" - "Forgive, us, our debts" - "Lead us not into temptation" - "Deliver us from evil." But these latter petitions occur in an ascending scale-from the bodily wants of every day up to our final deliverance from all evil.
INVOCATION:
Our Father which art in heaven. In the former clause we express His nearness to us; in the latter, His distance from us. (See Ecclesiastes 5:2; Isaiah 66:1.) Holy, long familiarity suggests the one; awful reverence the other. In calling Him "Father," we express a relationship we have all known and felt surrounding us even from our infancy; but, in calling Him our Father "who art in heaven" we contrast Him with the fathers we all have here below, and so raise our souls to that "heaven" where He dwells, and that Majesty and Glory which are there as in their proper home. The first words of the Lord's Prayer-this Invocation with which it opens-what a brightness and warmth does it throw over the whole prayer, and into what a serene region does it introduce the praying believer, the child of God, as he thus approaches Him! It is true that the paternal relationship of God to His people is by no means strange to the Old Testament. (See Deuteronomy 32:6; Psalms 103:13; Isaiah 63:16; Jeremiah 3:4; Jeremiah 3:19; Malachi 1:6; Malachi 2:10.) But these are only glimpses-the "back parts" (Exodus 33:23), if we may so say, in comparison with the "open face" of our Father revealed in Jesus. (See the note at 2 Corinthians 3:18.) Nor is it too much to say, that the view which our Lord gives, throughout this His very first lengthened discourse, of "our Father in heaven" beggars all that was ever taught, even in God's own Word, or conceived before by His saints, on this subject.
FIRST PETITION:
Hallowed be, х hagiastheetoo (G37)] - that is, 'Be held in reverence'-regarded and treated as holy.
Thy name. God's name means 'Himself as revealed and manifested.' Everywhere in Scripture God defines and marks off the faith and love and reverence and obedience He will have from men by the disclosures which He makes to them of what He is; both to shut out false conceptions of Him, and to make all their devotion take the shape and hue of His own teaching. Too much attention cannot be paid to this.
SECOND PETITION: