Bible Studies

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Familiarity Breeds Contempt
Part Two

Continued from Part One …

With this in mind, we will conduct a line by line examination of what is commonly referred to as The Lord’s Prayer.

Our Scripture will be taken from Matthew 6: 9-13 NASB.
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Note that a shorter version of what is commonly referred to as the Lord’s Prayer is found in Luke 11: 2-4. The Luke 11: 2-4 version does not include the sentence, “Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” that is found in the Matthew 6 version, nor does the Luke 2 version include the ending sentence, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

The NASB places this “ending sentence” in brackets, and notes that this sentence was not found in early manuscripts. Perhaps this explains why Luke did not include it is his Gospel.

Luke *begins his writing (1) noting that his Gospel was the result of an extensive and investigation that he made, reviewing many reports that was circulating within the Christian Community at that time.

The original manuscripts did not have chapters, paragraphs, or numbered verses. Such reference markers were added by the translators centuries later. These separations and references greatly improved locating specific portions of Scripture, but can raise issues when trying to determine where one thread ended and another began. The use of pronouns present the same problems when translating some verses of Scripture.

Luke did not personally witness much of what he recorded in his Gospel. This is not a cause for alarm, as the same thing could be said of Moses (e.g. speaking of Creation) or many of the Old Testament prophets and psalmists who wrote in great detail concerning both past and future events.

People with *spiritual discernment (2) can clearly see the hand of God working behind the scenes in the production of what we now know as the Bible.

Luke is best known as a physician, a traveling companion of Paul, and the author of the Gospel according to Luke, Luke was also the author of the New Testament book recording the Acts of the Apostles.

Differences in accounts provided by “eye-witness” to the same event is not at all unusual.

Having had the experience of a thirty year career in law enforcement, I can tell you that no two witnesses will hear, see, or remember the same event exactly the same way.

My wife and I can watch the same news broadcast on the boob-tube and walk away with very different “takes” on exactly what was said or shown.

Printed words without seeing the facial expression and/or the tone of the speaker can leave the reader with a totally different impression. For example, the expression, “Yeah, right.”, could be interpreted as a sarcastic statement of disbelief, or a statement of excited endorsement.

There should be a general consensus of what had taken place, but when there aren’t any differences in eye-witness accounts, a red flag should go up as this is a sign of collusion and/or conspiracy.

Many of the accounts that Luke compiled in the course of his investigation were verbally passed along.

We are all familiar with the parlor game in which a brief, but detailed statement is passed around the room from one person to another, and how the details change by the time it reaches the last person.

When written accounts are translated from one language to another, there are problems trying to select the word in the new language that best conveys the principle that had been more clearly laid out in the original language that God inspired the original authors to use.

This is especially true with the ambiguous English translations of Scripture.

Human memories can fade or change over time. Some of what became the books of the New Testament were not written until decades after the events took place.

I believe that at least some of these human factors and differences surfaced during Luke's compiling of accounts and likely contributed to the differences found in the version of the “Lord's Prayer as it appears in Matthew’s Gospel and the version of the “Lord’s Prayer” as it appears in Luke's Gospel.

Never-the-less, 2Timothy 3: 16 NASB assures us that in principle, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”

For me, it is accurately interpreted and applied Scripture that has the final say in all spiritual matters. In my 60+ years of walking with the Lord, I haven’t gotten a bum steer yet.

Whenever I misinterpreted and or misapplied Scripture, the error was on me; not on God.

What we now know as The Bible took some 1500 years and dozens of human authors to compose and to recopy. Only the hand of God could successfully accomplish this divine objective.

It is when Scripture has been added to, taken from, mistranslated, misinterpreted, misapplied, or otherwise adulterated that one gets into trouble.

There is a difference between writings that are the product of religious authors and “Scripture.”

It is “Scripture” that was inspired by God and profitable for teaching, etc..

Virtually all of the Bibles that are commonly used today throughout the Christian Community are translations of Scripture. Some translators did a more accurate job of translating than others.

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*Scripture (3) teach that God is attentive to the prayers of a “righteous” person.

Atheists and followers of the numerous religions (Psalms 96: 5) of the world can engage in good behavior and involve themselves in all kinds of humanitarian and environmental projects. Participating in such things is not what makes one “righteous” in the eyes of God. A 1Pet. 3: 12 “righteous” person is one who has been born again.

A righteous person desires to be in *fellowship (4) with God. Born again believer’s are forever saved, but step out of fellowship with God when they have known sin that has not been *confessed (5) and/or *forsaken (6). These periods of time out of fellowship can be as brief as the few seconds it takes to confess, or as long as the rest of one's post salvation spiritual life here on Earth.

Confessing, but then not forsaking the same sin will result in one spending much of his/her post salvation spiritual life in a revolving doorway going in and out of fellowship with God, and never moving forward in his/her post salvation spiritual life.

Jesus taught His disciples that they will accomplish nothing when they are *apart from God (7). I believe that born again believers are apart from God when out of fellowship. Such a believer remains saved, but is unproductive is his/her spiritual life. One's productivity determines the quality of his/her post salvation spiritual life.

Therefore, to “pray for effect” in the capacity of a “righteous” person, a born again believer can insure that he/she is in fellowship (2Cor. 13: 14) with God, by beginning a prayer session by confessing to God (1John 1:9) any known sin that they had not yet confessed. This was the customary way that all worship services began at the local assembly where, after twelve years of study, I was ordained.

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The Lord began by teaching His disciples how they were NOT to pray! As examples, He spoke of NOT praying *to be seen (8) by others. He spoke of NOT using meaningless repetition (9).

After setting up the stage by making these introductory comments, He then went on to teach the *way (10) that His disciples were to pray.

“Pray then in this way….(Matt. 6: 9a NASB).”
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“Our Father who is in heaven…(Matt. 6: 9b NASB).”

In this verse, His disciples were taught to address all prayers to God the Father. Nowhere in Scripture are the people of God taught to address prayers to anyone other than to God the Father.
His *disciples (11), and later on, *Church Age believers (12) were further instructed to make their prayer requests to God under the name, that is the authority that was given to born again believers by God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This authority is what gives born again believer’s clearance to approach the throne of Grace with their prayer requests.

*Scripture (13) teach that God the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) makes intercession with God the Father in our behalf, and that God the Holy Spirit helps in prayers that we address to God the Father.

All three Personalities of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) hear and are involved in our prayers. In short, the prayers of Church Age believer’s are addressed to God the Father, offered under the authority of God the Son, and uttered with the enabling power of God the Holy Spirit.

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“Hallowed be Your name…(Matt. 6:9c NASB).”

This is a reiteration of an *Old Testament Commandment (14), but with a Church Age application. This was a teaching technique that was used by the Lord Jesus Christ on other *occasions (15). The Old Testament Commandment that Jesus was referring to is recorded in Exodus 20: 7 and reads as follows:

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain (Exodus 20: 7 NASB).”

It was in Antioch that followers of the Lord Jesus Christ first began being called Christians. I believe that to take on (identify) oneself as a Christian and then not walk the walk is to take (on) the Lord’s name in vain.

By acknowledging that the Lord’s name is to be hallowed, it brings to mind our calling to walk the walk and to Whom it is that we are entering into solemn communication when we pray.
To be continued…
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(1) Luke 1; 1-4 (2) 1Cor. 2: 14. (3) 1Pet. 3: 12 (4) 2Cor 13: 14 (5) 1John 1:9 (6) John 8:11 (7) John 15: 5. (8) Matt. 6: 5 (9) Matt. 6: 7 (10) Matt. 6: 9a) (11) John 14: 13 (12) Phil. 4:6/Eph. 2: 18. (13) Romans 8: 34/Romans 8:26 (14) Exodus 20: 7 (15) Matt. 5: 27-44/Matt. 19: 16-21

End of Part Two

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