This volume is gratefully dedicated to Hazel Hopkins, who through her loving and faithful companionship has made an inestimable contribution to the life of the author.
Preface
If the disciples of Jesus felt the need of instruction while they were with him in person, is it not likely that we, nearly twenty centuries hence, might be in need of some like instruction from the Master? Jesus’ teaching in that power formula, which we all know and repeat so often, is as timely today as when he gave it to the disciples. The challenge which it gives us to bring the thoughts of our minds and the feelings of our hearts into harmony with its implications is perhaps the most effective means of personal improvement connected with the study of the prayer. This treatise was originally a series of expository sermons delivered by the author to his own church. Subsequently it has been delivered in sermon form in other churches in many states. In response to numerous requests for the series in book form, this volume is humbly submitted to the public on its merit.
F. W. HOPKINS
Chapter I
Divine Sonship
Our Father which art in heaven
To address God as “Our Father,” as Jesus instructed his disciples to do, implies and assumes divine relationship with him. If he is our Father, then we must surely be his children. All who believe in God as a Being and Creator of all things will readily admit such a relationship by virtue of creation, for he “hath made of one blood all nations of men” (Acts 17:26). We are sure that Jesus had in mind a still deeper and more intimate relationship to God, by virtue of re-creation or regeneration, whereby we are made partakers of his divine nature—of his Spirit. “I will put my spirit within you” (Ezek. 36:27). That general relationship through creation exists without our choice or consent; but that personal, intimate, spiritual relationship through a spiritual transformation is only through our desires and choice. The unbeliever or worldly person may call him God, Creator, or Almighty, but not Father.
In instructing his disciples to address God as Father, Jesus gave them a new revelation. The Hebrews had always known him as the Eternal One, Creator, Supreme Ruler, the God of Battles, or the Captain of the Armies of Heaven. But this instruction to address him as Our Father in heaven took them into a new world. This intimate and affectionate title brings him close to us. The name Jehovah carries majesty in it. The name Father carries affection and mercy in it. To so address God lifts our eyes, our admiration, ambition, and hopes from transitory things to things eternal. Only the believer, the person who has accepted him through Jesus Christ, is his spiritual offspring, begotten of the Spirit, and can consequently truly address him as Father. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
It is through this experience of regeneration that the Father communicates to his children his own quality of life. Fatherhood means communication of nature. Animals are God’s creatures.
Men are his children—“begotten of God.” Man shares finitely in God’s infinite nature. A consciousness of this fact should provoke us to walk worthy of this high and honorable relation into which we are taken, and should inspire us to conduct ourselves as children of the heavenly Father ought in all holy obedience to his commands, with fear and reverence to his authority, and in humble submission to his will. If we would be with him hereafter in glory, we must walk with him here in grace. “That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory” (I Thess. 2:12).
To be permitted through Christ to call him Father should stir within our hearts a deep admiration for his infinite condescension, and also an everlasting appreciation of our own privilege and dignity. Father is the most adequate and the most satisfying title or name which the newborn soul can use in addressing God.
This address, “Our Father,” if solemnly and sincerely pondered, serves to search our hearts, minds, attitudes, and motives, and to get us into a proper mood and condition for effectual prayer. Thoughtfully and honestly to lift our eyes and our voices heavenward and to say, “Our Father,” with a consciousness of its implications, strikes a deathblow at self-righteousness and religious bigotry. It makes us begin to realize our littleness as compared to God’s bigness; our ignorance in contradistinction to his unlimited wisdom, and our unworthiness as compared to his all-worthiness. Thus is produced in our own thoughts and attitude the first requisite to real and effectual prayer—humility. It is only when we are made sure of our sonship with God as our Father—when his Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God (Rom. 8:16) that we really feel our unworthiness of his marvelous mercy, love, constant companionship and direction. It is then that we realize and recognize, in the light of his infinite holiness, our own imperfection in understanding, in attitude, and conduct so greatly that we become more considerate of, and more sympathetic and merciful toward, the weaknesses of our fellow men who are in the same condition as we, and worse, if they have not yet found the Savior and have not been adopted into divine sonship.
To address God as our Father is to acknowledge by speaking those words his rightful claim to respect, loyalty, and fervent concern on our part for his cause. It is to place ourselves under his direction with a ready and diligent receptivity and response to his discipline; and to proceed to adjust ourselves to his will as we come to understand it, however great a change in our attitude and plans such adjustment may require. A godly attitude and tender compassion and appreciation toward humanity is also a requisite to effectual prayer. James tells us that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (Jas. 5:16).
Righteousness means justice. How can one pray sincerely to our Father while dealing unjustly with, or holding an unjust attitude toward, or making an unjust requirement of one of our Father’s creation? When we can look up into the face of the Creator and say truthfully Our Father, then we can look out upon the whole human family and say affectionally Our Brother. We can then work and pray for the divine sonship, through regeneration and transformation, of every person on earth, that each and every one may be able to say truthfully, “Our Father” and Our Brother.
Jesus taught that right feelings, right attitudes and conduct toward men are an indication of divine sonship. He said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:44–45). This means that we manifest the same spirit, and attitude, and affection which we inherit from our Father; and that men may recognize the actuality of our divine sonship: “that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).
Can we imagine God being partial in his attitude and dealings with men as we sometimes are? Would he allow his sun to shine and his rain to fall only on those who love him and who treat him kindly, but withhold those blessings from those who do not respect him? One farmer tills the soil with a deep consciousness that God, his Father, is the true owner and giver of all things. He worships Him regularly and praises Him constantly for his goodness and mercy. Just across the fence another farmers tills the soil with an air of independence and ownership. He gives no recognition or thanks to God for anything, but rather ridicules and even blasphemes and reproaches His name both in word and in deed.
The ground of both farms becomes dry and the growing crops become thirsty for moisture. And behold, God, our heavenly Father, gathers the necessary moisture into a cloud and floats it across those fields and releases refreshing showers gently upon both without respect to the farmers’ attitude toward him. “He … sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). Year after year he repeats his indiscriminate acts of kindness. Oh, the bigness, the tenderness and mercifulness of our Father! May we, as children of our Father which is in heaven, hold and express that same indiscriminate kindness, mercy, and helpfulness in our daily intercourse with men.
When we can ascertain our sonship to God and can truly and intelligently call him our Father, new life is given to our devotions. This affectionate title brings him close to us. The name Jehovah carries majesty in it, but the name Father carries mercy and sympathy in it. It bespeaks graciousness. With the unclouded consciousness of this filial relationship prayer takes on a new complexion. It becomes a force instead of a form.
Much of the lifelessness and artificiality of our devotions may be traced to the uncertainty of our spiritual relationship with God. How can one commune with God when His relationship is not real or certain? One’s consciousness of delinquency in not having obeyed what he knows to be God’s will, or having knowingly and willfully transgressed his prohibitions, embarrasses one so that he cannot approach God with confidence. His own heart condemns him, and consequently strangles his faith. He feels ashamed to approach the holy Father. John said, “If our heart condemn us, God is greater that our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (I John 3:20–22).
The merit and effectiveness of prayer are not in the abundance of words, nor in the beauty of phraseology, but in the natural and sincere expressions of a feeling heart. God, our heavenly Father, like earthly parents, loves to hear the voice of his child and to look into his sincere countenance. “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers.” (I Peter 3:12).
With the certainty of divine sonship, new joy is given to our discharge of duty. Heaven’s sunshine will illuminate our path, if each morning we can go forth with a vivid assurance that we are about our Father’s business. We are not only working for him, but we are in partnership with him—“workers together with him.” In co-operation with him, we are assured of his direction and assistance in the greatest work in all the world. We work and he works. What an honor to be so employed, to be in such a marvelous partnership! The driest and most uninteresting duties of everyday life acquire new importance in our eyes, and may be performed with gladsomeness when we can feel that we are doing them for our Father in heaven. This inspires us with faith and courage to trust him and to follow at the slightest indication of his beckoning, knowing that whatsoever he does, or whatsoever he requires of us will be well. We know that he cares for his own, and that he is vitally concerned in the welfare of each one.
A new significance is also given to our earthly trials. In this divine relationship suffering and adversity may be turned into means of discipline and culture. Mencius said, with reference to Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, “When heaven is about to confer a great office upon any man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It exposes his body to hunger, and subjects him to extreme poverty. It confounds his undertakings. By all these methods it illuminates his mind, hardens his nature, and supplies his incompetencies.” At the paper mill the pulp is put through one process after another until the finished product comes out a spotless white, with the maker’s name stamped in the very constitution of it. Our suffering and adversity take on a new meaning when we can realize that our loving Father may, through that means, be erasing the image or his adversary from our souls, and purifying our souls and stamping his own image more perfectly there. So often we complain because of our trials and suffering, or at God because of them, and think that he is killing us when in reality he is only trying to tune us. He often chooses to improve us by reproving us. Through trials and suffering our Father adds simplicity, sweetness, poise, strength, and thrill to our faith.
A new glory is given to our conception of the heavenly world. Heaven is our home because it is our Father’s home. “This world, this world, is not my home,” someone has written. Jesus’ promise to go and prepare a place for us and then come again and receive us unto himself, though beyond our comprehension, and though the place cannot be described in human language, is nevertheless, through faith, real and assuring to us. We, with confidence in his promise “look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (II Pet. 3:13). How can one be poor who is a child of such an infinite Father? “All things are yours,” said Paul, “whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (I Cor. 3:21–23). If God cares for little things like the sparrows, his creatures, will he not care for us, his own children?
Chapter II
Reverence
Hallowed be thy name
To live in the presence of God is the privilege of his children. And no sooner have we lifted our hearts and thoughts to him and have, by faith, uttered sincerely the salutation, “Our Father which art in heaven,” than, out of a heart filled with child-love, admiration, and peaceful joy, we breathe, “Hallowed be thy name.” It is natural that children wish the name of their loving Father respected. So when we come to realize our divine sonship to God, and he has thus become to us a loving, understanding, sympathetic heavenly Father, we wish and ask that his name be treated with holy reverence.
To ask that others honor him surely obligates us to honor him in word and in life. As in the salutation, “Our Father which art in heaven,” we are exalted so highly, “risen together with Christ,” to such a marvelous relationship; so, in this first petition of the prayer, “Hallowed be thy name,” we “seek those things which are above.”
We are likely to be nearly as selfish in our prayers and as egotistical in our religion as in any other part of our lives. Hence Jesus in this very first petition of this prayer formula, as a preparation to true prayer, turns our attention completely away from ourselves and our selfish desires.
We address Him as “Our Father.” Now, what shall we ask of him first? Shall it be for the easing of our pains? for the supplying of our personal wants? No! These things are to be asked for and received, if in accordance with his good judgment and will, but not first. “Hallowed be thy name!” Away from ourself to God our thought is quickly turned. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” This petition being in the very forefront of this model prayer shows that Jesus preferred the honoring of his Father’s name above all other things. He always put first things first.
To hallow means to make holy, or to recognize as holy. We cannot by any means add any essential holiness to the name of the Holy One. But we can by our reverent recognition of his holiness place his name as first in our sanctuary of holy things and beings. We can cause others to respect and revere our Father only by first revering and honoring him ourselves, by conduct as well as by word. Holiness of life on the part of his offspring hallows his name. Unholiness reproaches his name.
Jesus’ life on earth was a perfect example of reverence to his Father’s name. From Bethlehem to Golgotha, from his first testimony of his Father in the Temple to his last invocation on the cross, his whole life in spirit and conduct was a full and tangible revelation of God and a declaration of his name. He could say truthfully, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Multitudes innumerable have been won to God, to respect and to honor him, through the holy conduct and spirit of his children. Someone has said that the loudest and most effective sermons that have ever been preached have been those preached in shoes—everyday living. Men noticed and recognized in the early apostles, after Jesus’ ascension, some kind of inheritance, a spirit, an invincible and unconquerable power, and an unquenchable zeal—the spirit of the Master. They took note that they had been with Jesus, for they saw in them the manifestation of his principles.
It must have been the manliness, the poise, the sweetness of spirit, and the bigness of heart, which Paul and Silas inherited from the heavenly Father, and so marvelously exhibited at Philippi, that caused the jailer to inquire how he might be saved from the slavery of fear and sinful condemnation.
We are told that many Christians of the early centuries were killed for their faith in Christ. They were taken to the great public arena that their death, by the claws and teeth of bloodthirsty lions, or on the horns of angered bulls, might provide entertainment for large audiences. Before being thus killed they were given the opportunity to repudiate their faith in Christ publicly, and to go free. They would state their love and loyalty to Christ in a courageous spirit, and die without wavering. Often men and women in the audience, seeing such manifestation of poise, assurance, and trust, would then and there arise and declare themselves Christians, knowing that the same fate would be theirs, perhaps the very next night. Because a child honored his Father others became children of the same Father, and likewise honored him.
We honor our Father’s name today by meeting life with all its perplexities without complaining or whining about our lot in life. We go forward with a firm faith in our Father, surmounting the difficulties in our path and adjusting ourselves to what we learn to be God’s will from day to day.
More reproach may be brought on God’s name and, we fear, has been brought on his name, by persons professing to be his children but who have exhibited unbrotherly attitudes, unchristian tempers, and unholy conduct than by sinners making no profession of religion. To profess to be a child of God is to announce by that very profession that we have departed from iniquity, and are ambassadors of our Father—doing business for him and in his name.
Reproach is brought upon His name by professors who are indifferent toward his cause. To claim ourselves to be children of God and thereby inheritors of his love for men and his concern for their welfare, is to claim that the things of God are our greatest concern on earth. Then to be indifferent toward them is incompatible with that claim, and reproaches our Father’s name. Indifference toward our relationship and responsibility to him is an insult to him. The lukewarm church at Laodicea, in Asia, was sickening unto Jesus, and he said, “I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16).
He who would hallow his Father’s name should attend diligently on all the means of grace, that his example might exemplify his claim and profession. He should attend public services as often as he can and contribute to the inspiration of the service and the furtherance of the cause. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is” (Heb. 10:25). He should feed his mind by reading not only the Bible, but other clean and inspiring literature. He should refresh and strengthen his soul through meditation and secret communion with God in spirit. Spiritual impotency and protracted childhood are a reflection upon the attributes of God.
If every professed child of the Father exhibited the same zeal for God’s cause, the same brotherly love and concern toward his brothers and sisters in the same spiritual family, as you do, would the Father’s name be honored or reproached? Would you have confidence in one who manifests the same degree of concern for the cause of God, the same degree of compassion toward lost humanity, the same degree of affection toward other Christians, including those outside his own group, as you do? “In as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me” (Matt. 25:45). “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name!”
Some even carry the sacred name, a child of the heavenly Father, while practicing impure conduct. What a terrible reproach upon God’s name! Some harbor secret sins in their heart and life under the profession of a child of God, and have so completely concealed the fact from the knowledge of their friends and fellow Christians that these have maintained their confidence in them as a true child of the heavenly Father. But when such a person’s true character comes to light (and it always will: “Be sure your sin will find you out”), it paralyzes the confidence which a good, honest, and sincere soul had placed in that person.
It embarrasses them to have to face their friends and good neighbors and loved ones with the sickening news and acknowledgment of such a tragedy. These sincere, clean children of the Father have perhaps been working for months or years trying to win their friends, neighbors, and loved ones to God that they might let him into their lives and honor his name. But at such a revelation their efforts seem wasted, as far as those particular persons are concerned. Such a catastrophe has been known almost to ruin the influence of the entire church in a community for years to come. And then, think of the tragedy of those so repulsed and turned away from the loving heavenly Father, all because someone reproached rather than revered His name.
To harbor and conceal any sin in our heart, though it may never become known to others, will hinder us from glorifying God. “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.… Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins” (Ps. 19:12–13). We must not presume upon God’s mercy, or assume that he will allow it. To hold a jealous and envious feeling toward other Christian workers will strangle the spirit of meekness and humility, and dim our vision of the Father’s face, and thus reproach his name in our own conscience. “Let us not be desirous of vain glory … envying one another” (Gal. 5:26).
When we pray, “Hallowed be thy name,” we are asking that the Father give us grace from above to enable us individually to glorify him. We are also asking for grace for others that they too might be able to glorify him. Does the sincere desire of our heart at this moment reflect this attitude? If our associates knew our heart as we know it, would they have more, or less, confidence in us than they now have? People do not always understand the true condition of others’ hearts and minds, either good or bad. Do we hold a better or worse attitude than others think we hold?
To hallow our Father’s name we must honestly and conscientiously acquire and retain in our hearts such attitudes and feelings as we know our Father approves, which becometh our profession—such conduct as will reflect our Father’s character.
We must bring our thoughts up to him. Then we can reflect his image, show forth his will, and resemble his character; and others will see in our daily lives his love, his desires, and his spirit. “I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezek. 36:27).
We may hallow His name by rejoicing in his name. We are so prone to rejoice in ourselves, in our faith, our beliefs, our experiences, our prayers, and our works. “Rejoice in the Lord alway’’ (Phil. 4:4).
Finally, when we pray “Hallowed be thy name,” we are asking: Enlarged be our conceptions of thee, O Infinite One. Move back the horizons of our little vision of thy interests, and thy efforts. Extend the boundaries of our fellowship to include all that are thine.
Chastened by our feelings toward thee, O Holy One, reprove and correct us that every feeling which is not pleasing to thy holiness may be expelled, and that which is right be installed. Stamp thy image upon our affection.
Exalted be our purposes with reference to thee, O Mighty One. May we never desire thy marvelous power to be used other than for right. May we never ask that it be used to execute any selfish desire of our own.
Sincere be our thoughts and desires before thee, O All-Seeing One. Make us ever to be mindful that thine eye is ever looking down into the very motives of our heart. That thou knowest our downsitting and our uprising, and understandest our thought afar off. That there is not a word in our mouth but that thou knowest it altogether.
May our love to thee, O Fatherly One, be fervent and true without pretense. May our love be deep and burning and unwavering through sorrow and through joy. Keep us reminded that thou givest and thou takest away, and give us of thy divine aid to say, “Blessed be the name of the Lord!” “HALLOWED BE THY NAME.”
Chapter III
Divine Government
Thy kingdom come
With this short petition of only three words Jesus would quickly get the attention and deep interest of his audience, his disciples. Their national bondage to a foreign government and consequent desire for deliverance, along with their understanding of prophetic promises of a Messiah from God who would restore the kingdom to Israel, would make them quickly susceptible to the hope which such a petition to God would generate. They were in a state of expectancy. Much of the attention and interest, both favorable and unfavorable, which the people gave to Jesus was centered around the hope or fear of his initiating a rebellion which would destroy and bring to an end the rule which was then in force. These three words were very comprehensive. They not only expressed in a sentence the great hope of the Hebrew nation, but they comprehended God’s ultimate purpose and aim through all human history—that his government would be set up in and among men. Thus God’s purpose, and the disciples’ desire, coincided.
In the nature and extent of the anticipated kingdom, however, the disciples and the Lord were at variance. There was destined to be much disappointment to the disciples and grief to the Lord over that different viewpoint. The disciples’ long anticipated hope for a political and literal emancipation, and consequent expectation of a military kingdom, blinded their eyes to the Lord’s otherwise clear teaching of a kingdom deeper in nature, stronger in operation, wider in extent, and more permanent in duration. Their preconceived ideas rendered them incapable of catching the meaning and significance of such plain and clear statements from Jesus as: “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation … for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20–21). It is God in humanity, here and now. “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight” (John 18:36).
The disciples were not only materialistic in their thinking, but their attitude and spirit geared in with that thinking. For instance, when they, together with Jesus, were passing through the country of the prejudiced and despised Samaritans, en route from Galilee to Jerusalem, Jesus “sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (Luke 9:52–56).
Neither John nor James records his particular part in that incident. Perhaps it is because they both got a different understanding of the nature and work of the kingdom before they wrote. Probably they were ashamed of their unchristian attitude and display, as well as their greed for a high and conspicuous position in the new kingdom, which they also did not mention.
Even after this, and after Jesus’ repeated teaching, when the soldiers came for Jesus in Gethsemane, Peter drew his sword and began to fight, the very thing which Jesus had said that neither He nor His servants should do. In worldly kingdoms the people are forced to die that the king might live, but in Christ’s kingdom of love the king voluntarily died that the people might live. “I am come that they might have life” (John 10:10).
Even after all of Jesus’ efforts to correct their views and to give them the heavenly Father’s attitude and purpose, and many years after his ascension, the Apostle Paul found some Christians still thinking of the kingdom in terms of material substance. They were criticizing and judging one another over such things as food, customs, and days of the week. In Paul’s efforts to correct them he gave a very concise and striking definition of the kingdom of God: “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17).
Are not all these marvelous virtues needed in our world today? How much are we in need of righteousness—justice, just feelings, just attitudes, and just dealings with one another? How hungry are human hearts for peace—peace with God, peace with their fellow men, and peace with themselves! Men’s hearts are failing them because of fear—because of war within their own souls. What a need in gloomy hearts for wholesome joy, for that deep, substantial emotion which accompanies one’s consciousness of his right relationship with God, right relationship with men, and harmony within his own soul! What a need for that spring of deep and lasting happiness emanating from the residence of the Person of Christ and from the Holy Spirit in the heart! Paul tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love. (See Galatians 5:22.) Jesus said, “That MY JOY might remain in You, and that YOUR JOY might be FULL” (John 15:11); “Your joy no man taketh from You” (John 16:22).
With Paul’s definition of the kingdom before us, it seems we might safely say that the kingdom of God is his spiritual government set up within the human heart of the individual and collective society. To follow Jesus’ instruction and sincerely pray, “Thy kingdom come,” is to ask that God’s government of love, mercy, and justice be set to work in one’s own heart, regardless of the cost. It means that the heavenly Father’s will becomes the rule of one’s whole life, and that the doing of God’s will is the first and foremost desire and ambition of our hearts.
As the leafless, naked trees in the spring seem to lift their hands toward heaven and say, “O Spring, come and clothe our nakedness with thy beauty; O Summer, come and enrich us with thy abundance,” so we should lift our hearts and voices to our heavenly Father imploring him to come and clothe our nakedness with his garments of righteousness, and to enrich our barren souls with the rich fruit of his Spirit—“Thy kingdom come.” A feeling and attitude of self-sufficiency is an indication of moral nakedness and spiritual barrenness. Jesus said to the church in Laodicea, Asia, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear” (Rev. 3:17–18). Until one feels that nakedness and barrenness he cannot have God’s garments of righteousness nor the fruit of his Spirit. God cannot give them to him until he recognizes that need and asks, “Thy kingdom come.”
The performing of the Father’s will was to Jesus his spiritual and moral sustenance. “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34). When he was brought face to face with grim death for doing his Father’s will, or to live if he would choose to forsake his Father’s will and do his own human will, he said, “Not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). Thus he placed the doing of his Father’s will ahead of his own physical life. Could he have meant less when he instructed the disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come”?
To pray “Thy kingdom come” is to acknowledge one’s consciousness of his inability to govern himself properly. It is to announce the abdication of the throne of the heart in favor of Christ. It is to say, with Fanny Crosby, “My heart shall be thy throne”; with Paul, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20). It is to announce the renunciation of all the competitive rulers of the soul. “No man can serve two masters” (Matt. 6:24).
To pray this short petition honestly is to ask God to take control of our affection and to keep our love pure and true. We ask him to keep it from fastening itself on low, sensual, and unworthy objects, and to guide our love toward the highest, most enduring, and the most worthy. “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:2).
This petition asks also that God set up his government in our intellect, that he correct our thinking, that he purge it from every thought which clashes with his truth, and from every view which will produce an unchristian attitude and ambition; that he purge it regardless of the pain it may bring us, and that he guide our thinking through the maze of confusion and fear of public opinion “into all truth.”
To pray “Thy kingdom come” is to ask God to come in and govern our actions. We desire that he not only set up his government there, but that he constantly extend his rule over our entire being. “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end” (Isa. 9:7). We are asking the Lord, through the process of enlightenment and correction, to extend his rule to each and every phase of our life. We are saying to him that we shall be receptive and responsive to whatever discipline, or whatever means of applying that discipline, he may see best to use.
We, like the Apostle Paul, must “die daily” (I Cor. 15:31). As we discover that some attitude which we have been holding, or something which we have been doing, is not the right attitude to hold or the right thing to do, we bring ourselves into subjection to the newly found will of our Father and say, “Thy kingdom come”—Father, take control of this particular phase of my life also. By this attitude and act he will have increased his government in our soul.
On that memorable occasion on the Damascus road, Saul asked Jesus, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” It took years of living and learning for him to realize the fullness of the Lord’s answer. Like Jesus himself, Paul learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Do not we do the same? Surely with our finite understanding and imperfections of nature we shall learn more of the Lord’s way, and give ourselves more completely to his control and direction as long as we live in this world. We shall “grow in grace [favor], and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (II Pet. 3:18). Jesus increased in favor with God and man. (See Luke 2:52.)
To pray “Thy kingdom come” is to place the extension of God’s rule in our life beyond and above all other interests which we may have. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God [righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost], and HIS righteousness” (Matt. 6:32). If God’s kingdom is not increased in us, it will soon decay and be lost. If it is not improved, it will be impaired. To use God’s grace is to increase it. Not to use it is to lose it. The greatest thing in the world is a soul ruled by God. Constantly to acknowledge his controlling interest in all the affairs of our lives is a sure sign of the increase of his government in us. Humility is the dignity, and obedience is the liberty of the kingdom of the heavenly Father.
There is a further extension of his kingdom for which we are asking when we pray these words. It is that his government be set up in every human heart, that it may extend beyond the racial line of the Hebrew, and beyond the national boundary line of Judea to every nation and to every creature. Peter said, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:34–35). Since the Savior is no respecter of persons, neither can we be so long as he lives in us and rules us. But we, with his spirit and compassion, desire the recovery from sinful slavery and the restoration of every person to right relationship with the heavenly Father.
To this end we shall live, pray, and labor that all might know his saving grace and the comfort of his companionship, and that all persons might be transformed and grow more gentle, more kind, more true, and stronger in character. Our sincere desire is that all others might, through the power of the indwelling King be able to go out and cope with the problems of everyday life and be victorious. Satan’s kingdom of darkness and slavery must be destroyed in every willing heart, and Christ’s kingdom of light, love, peace, joy, and liberty must be set up, established, and increased both in ourselves and in others. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:8).
God’s dominion over us with his enlightening, soul-subduing, life-transforming power will ultimately, through our individual submission and co-operation, bring every thought and action into harmony with his holy mind and purpose. We can then say with that great and exemplary Christian, Paul, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20).
Chapter IV
Doing God’s Will
Thy will be done
As the first petition in this prayer might be called the most solemn one, and the second the shortest one, so this might be called the most difficult one. After praying that our Father’s name be hallowed, and that his kingdom come, we are instructed to pray next that his will be done in earth. Unless his will be done his kingdom cannot come, nor can his name be honored.
The fact that Jesus instructed his disciples so to pray that God’s will be done in earth implies that God has a purpose and a will to be performed in earth. This purpose is that men must have some connection with the doing of that will—that his will can be done by men here on the earth. Further, the implication seems to be that if God’s will is ever to be performed in earth it must be done by men living on the earth. It would be a reflection upon the sincerity and justice of Jesus to think of him instructing men to implore the heavenly Father for a thing that could not be done.
This petition that God’s will might be done means more than a surrender, or a passive resignation that his will be borne or endured. It means one’s voluntary service to do his will actively. It is to implore the Father for Christian understanding, energy, courage, guidance, and endurance to endeavor to do his will as well as to bear it. It means that one might conform to his will in conduct as well as in mental assent. The petition is an appropriate one for lifetime use. It certainly is appropriate for the penitent, who has come to realize his condition and wishes to cease working against God, to surrender and submit to follow and do God’s will. It is also appropriate for the Christian who is voluntarily offering his entire being to God for his exploration and conquest of love; and who is committing his whole personality, with all its faculties, to the Father to be employed in the spreading of the knowledge of his will and the performance of it in all the world.
The doing of the heavenly Father’s will is not only pleasing to Him, but is beneficial to men. Even those who do not do God’s will experience untold benefits because of its being done in earth by others. Does not the history of God’s dealing with men of the past, and also of the present, reveal to us the untold suffering which has come to both God and man through man’s willful disobedience or failure to do his will? Has it not revealed the misery and unhappiness which have always accompanied our doing our own wills in contradistinction to his will? On the contrary, the obedient performance of his will has brought expressions of pleasure from him, and deep and substantial pleasure and security to men have attended our doing his will. What person in our world today, howsoever wicked he may be, if he would use a few moments of good sensible thinking, would wish that all the blessings and human conveniences and helpfulness which the world enjoys because others do God’s will, be withdrawn from our world forever?
The doing of God’s will by each individual is pronounced by Jesus an act of wisdom: “Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and DOETH them, I will liken him unto a wise man” (Matt. 7:24). Whereas, he calls the failure to do his will an act of foolishness. “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and DOETH them NOT, shall be likened unto a foolish man” (Matt. 7:26). A life of sincere obedience to the sayings of Jesus, to the best of one’s knowledge, will be, and is, able to meet and withstand the tests and strain of everyday life as the house built on a rock can withstand the torrents of rain and the force of the wind. On the other hand, observation and experience teach us that a life of disobedience to the known will of God as surely comes to ruin as the house built on the ever-shifting sand.
Doing God’s will is Christianity in its beginning. There is no entrance upon the new life without it. One must make a decision between his own shrinking, clashing, rebellious will and God’s known will. That great representative of the religion of the Pharisees, Saul of Tarsus, pursued the course of his own will to the point of that terrific crash that day on the Damascus road. There his enlightenment was positively astonishing and humiliating. There he was informed that his zealous and unrelenting and indiscriminate persecution of Christians was not what he had thought it to be. His widespread persecution was immediately reduced to One, Jesus the Son of God. He had thought that he was doing God’s will, but this revelation convinced him that he was doing exactly the opposite of what he had thought. This sudden realization brought him face to face with a new course in life and forced a decision upon him. His widespread interests had been quickly reduced to two persons, “SAUL, SAUL, why persecutest THOU ME?” (Acts 9:4).
To have persisted in his old course against such a new discovery could have been no less than dishonest obstinacy. To accept the newly learned, of course, was decidedly humiliating and would bring about untold suffering to him in the future. To follow the new course would be to acknowledge that which he had formerly thought to be right, now to be wrong; that which he had thought to be faith, now to be unbelief; that which he thought to be earnestness, now to be treason; and that which he had thought was truth, now to be error.
Being a man with strong character and integrity he could remain honest and progressive only by choosing the new course. He therefore in one penitent question committed his entire future to the direction and service of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God: “Lord, what wilt THOU have ME to DO?” (Acts 9:6). This was the beginning of “old things” passing away. He later tells of the cost to him of entrance upon the new Christian way: “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Phil. 3:7–8). “All things” had “become new”! He never once expressed a regret that he chose to enter upon that new life.
Saul, or Paul, as he was called after he entered upon the new way, became a most able instructor of others who learned of the Christian way and wished to enter upon it. The jailer at Philippi, in Macedonia, asked, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). He wanted to enter upon that new way where men were freed from fear of men, from bitterness because of injuries and injustices, and where men could look prisons and death in the face with calmness and manly poise. Upon receiving instruction from Paul, that to do God’s will was to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” as he himself had done some years before, the jailer proceeded at once to believe and to do. Happiness and rejoicing accompanied his decision and action. “He … rejoiced, believing in God.” We repeat, doing God’s will is Christianity in its beginning. There is no entrance upon the new life without it.
God’s will cannot be done acceptably by law, or from a legalistic point of view, but by love. Obeying moral law without loving it, without inspiration, is like a man within the walls of a penitentiary obeying the laws of that institution. God wants obedience with a heart in it. Christ chose to do God’s will at Gethsemane, not because he wanted to escape suffering or death, but because he loved his Father and esteemed his Father’s will and the performing of it more than his own life. He said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23).
Acceptable and effectual performance of the Lord’s will must be prompted by pure love. “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me” (John 14:21). It is vain and untruthful for a man to say that he loves God while he is slighting, ignoring, or refusing to obey his commandments. Where there is knowledge, love, and willingness, there will be performance. David, the man after God’s own heart, said, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart” (Ps. 119:33–34).
Doing God’s will is Christianity in its course. There is no continuing in the new life without it. If full and complete submission to, and ready and unreserved performance of God’s will are necessary to entrance into the new life, then willful and diligent obedience to that known will, as well as all subsequent discoveries of his will, is surely necessary to continue in that new life.
Many a person has had a bright and happy entrance upon the new way on acceptance and performance of the Lord’s will, but has experienced a sad, dark, departure from it through refusal or neglect to accept and perform later discoveries. When Saul of Tarsus asked, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” he included all future revelations of the Father’s wish for him, as well as the present. Sin, by omission as well as by commission, separates between the sinner and God. James said, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (Jas. 4:17). Isaiah said, “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you” (Isa. 59:2). To have the bare knowledge of God’s will is ineffectual. It enlightens the mind, but it does not warm the heart. If not obeyed, such wonderful knowledge will eventually darken the mind and harden the heart. Jesus said, “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:23). Again he said, “Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you” (John 12:35). One’s light or understanding, if not obeyed, might become a torch to light him to hell.
To hear and learn God’s will and then not to do it is a sure road to deception. James said, “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (Jas. 1:22). Progressive performance is essential to progressive understanding. Jesus said, “While ye have light; believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light” (John 12:36). The performance of our Father’s will produces wholesome conviction, moral courage, and spiritual vitality—character! Jesus said, “My meat is to DO the will of him that sent me” (John 4:34).
Doing God’s will is Christianity in its consummation. There is no finishing the new life without doing his will. “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to FINISH his work.” Final victory can come only at the end of the race, or the finishing of the course. Paul’s dying testimony was, “I have FINISHED my course … henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day” (II Tim. 4:7–8).
The Christian race is not competitive where one can defeat another. It is a race in which all may enter and all may finish. Each person entering the race is assured the companionship of Jesus, who is light and strength, yea, all that is needed to the finish. He said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20).
Final reward and unchangeable security in the kingdom of heaven hereafter will be dependent upon sincere love and faithfulness, rather than ability or professed eloquence and miraculous service. Again we quote the words of our Master, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that DOETH the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:21–23). “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and DO not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). It will be a sad day for the many who have once known the blessing, comfort, and security which accompanies the doing of the Father’s will, but who have subsequently severed their relationship with him through neglect or refusal to do some portion of his known will—when those persons shall be summoned to the judgment seat of Christ, having forfeited all that was worth while. Be thou faithful! To do all God’s known will excepting one part, and then refusing, or even neglecting, to do that part reduces one’s performance to his own will rather than to that of God’s.
To do God’s will “in earth as it is in heaven” is to do it in manner as well as in matter. Do not only what he appoints, but do it as he appoints. It is to be done in earth as it is done by those in heaven—not as it is done by some neighbor. We are to look higher for our standard. In heaven, God’s will is done by ALL, with sincerity, readiness, and cheerfulness, and without hesitation, deference, or modification. So, to pray to our Father that his will be done in earth as it is in heaven is to ask that all do all of his will, readily, heartily, and cheerfully, without reservation or modification, with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength. As we do all his will that we have learned we shall learn more of it to do. “If anyone is willing to DO his will, he shall know about the teaching” (John 7:17, Weymouth).
Nothing will cloud one’s understanding and impede one’s spiritual progress more than an unwillingness to do our Father’s will which we already know. What profit is it to know his will if we are not willing to do it? How can one sincerely pray for guidance when he is unwilling to follow that guidance? If we are not willing to do what we already know of God’s will, we would not do more of his will if we should learn it. Much of humanity’s difficulty is not because of ignorance, but because of delinquency—not doing what is already known. “Thy will be DONE in earth, as it is in heaven,” fully, according to our understanding, ability, and opportunity. “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Mic. 6:8).
To do God’s will in earth with reference to our fellow beings is to deal justly with them, as we wish that they should do with us; to hold the same kindly and merciful attitude of consideration and forgiveness toward others that we wish them to hold toward us; and that our whole life and its interests be conducted with an unreserved submission to our Father which art in heaven. “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31). Our attitude is to be positive rather than negative. We are not merely to restrain ourselves from treating others as they have treated us, but we are to take the initiative and do unto them as we would that they should do unto us. As an employer, to pay our employee the same wage for his service that we should like him to pay us for the same service if the situation were reversed. As an employee, render to our employer the same honest day’s labor which we should wish that he would render unto us for the same price. As an employer, show the same respect and courtesy to an employee as we should like from an employer if we were the employee. As an employee, have the same respect and consideration for our employer, his interests and his property, as we should wish from him if we were the employer and he the employee. If you wish that men would not impose upon your ignorance, nor unskillfulness, nor upon your necessity or cramped circumstances, then do not impose upon them. If you wish that men should deal honestly, generously, and faithfully with you, then deal so with them first. If you wish that others take into consideration your circumstances, your point of view, and your trial or provocation before passing judgment against you, then do unto them likewise. Be as ready to forgive as you would wish to be forgiven. Surely this is included in doing God’s will in earth as it is in heaven. Jesus certainly implies that these will be vital considerations at the final judgment. He said, “In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt. 25:40). Jesus’ indictment against Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road demonstrates this principle to the astonishment and humiliation of Saul. Whereas Saul had thought that he was pursuing and apprehending undesirable Christians, he was apprised of the fact that he was, in reality, persecuting Jesus himself. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”
In this petition Jesus must have considered the matter and manner of doing God’s will in the earth as it is done in heaven—too big a task for a person to do in his own strength. He instructs that the heavenly Father’s aid be implored. The fact that we are instructed to ask his help implies that he is willing to assist us. God had formerly said, “I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezek. 36:27). The writer to the Hebrews said, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
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