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9–13. THE LORD’S PRAYER
St Luk 11:2-4, where the prayer is found in a different connection, and is given by our Lord in answer to a request from the disciples to teach them to pray, ‘even as John taught his disciples.’ The text of St Luke as it stands in E.V. has probably been supplemented by additions from St Matthew.
πάτερ ἡμῶν. It is of the essence of Christian prayer that God should be addressed as a Father to whose love we appeal, not as a God whose anger we appease. The analogy removes nearly all the real difficulties on the subject of prayer. A wise earthly father does not grant all requests, but all which are for the good of his children and which are in his power to grant. Again, the child asks without fear, yet no refusal shakes his trust in his father’s love or power.
ἁγιασθήτω, ‘held sacred,’ ‘revered.’ Each of these petitions implies an obligation to carry out on our own part what we pray God to accomplish.