T Mt 612 zat dges Hui re cocrguare tudiv, ds rool Mueis donna amey ToIs agerirors quay. Lk 114% zud ages Hiv res dmoprics Tieciv, zoek yeep cedrol Kpioueey THVT! OPEACYTE TKI.
SERMON ON THE MOUNT 37
will is the only law of life, and that His Kingdom is the only end of life, the worshipper needs God’s forgiveness for his spiritual comfort and inspira- tion, in order that he may start anew each day towards the achievement of the ideal. It is in this fundamental and comprehensive sense that the term d¢ehjuara is figuratively employed in this petition, including everything that we should be and do towards God, our fellow-men, and ourselves, * The second clause contains an explicit condition of this Prayer, that men must feel and exercise the same spirit of forgiveness towards one another which they wish God to show towards themselves. Jesus places these words in the petition, in order that men may be face to face with this condition when- ever they pray to God for their own forgiveness. This principle of love as the basis of all human and Divine relations is a constant teaching of Jesus, and furnishes the key to the Sermon on the Mount, ef. esp. Mt 57 23 43-48; it is also most im- pressively set forth in the teaching and parable of Mt 187", In the Lord’s Prayer as recorded by Matthew this idea is further strengthened by the two added verses, 6! 15, with which Mk 112 may be compared. Itis not to be understood that the ws xat which introduces Matthew’s second clause signifies a quid pro quo kind of forgiveness on God’s part, as though God forgave men only ina measure proportionate to their own forgiveness. The words might have this force (as in Mt 20%, Rev 18°), but it is not the only meaning for them (cf. Mt 18), Such a commercial idea is inconsist- ent with the method of God as abundantly shown in Jesus’ teaching. God is in amount more loving and forgiving than men can be, but He requires that men also shall be loving and forgiving.+
The sixth petition,§ which closes the Lord’s Prayer, provides for the moral and spiritual wel- fare of the individual in the future. As the fifth petition sought forgiveness for past failures to do God’s will, so the sixth petition seeks His protec- tion from future failures. The worshipper, con- scious of his own weakness, puts his dependence upon God. He prays for deliverance from those situations in life where he will be liable to yield
* In classical Greek, égesAyjuore was used generally of financial debts, and it was probably to avoid this ambiguity that Lk 114 reads &meorixs instead (originally Luke’s account must have had ogeAjpore like Matthew’s, as is seen by the d¢e/Aove: in the second clause ; so Chase, Lord’s Prayer in the Karly Church (1891), p. 55, and Page, Hwpositor, 3rd ser. vol. vii. p. 437). But ogeiAnux (and its kindred forms) is a frequent NT word for moral and spiritual obligation (Lk 1710, Jn 1314, Ro 151.27, Gal 5%), although used also in the money sense (Mt 1828, Lk 741 165, Ph 18), Luke’s &ueprins lacks the Aramaic colour, the strength and the comprehensiveness of the égsajuere. In the EY also the word ‘debts’ gives a deeper meaning when rightly understood than the word ‘sins,’ since the latter term tends in popular usage to signify only positive, flagrant wickedness. And still less satisfactory is the word ‘trespasses,’ given cur- rency in this petition by the Episcopal Prayer-Book (apparently from Tindale [? by reading ‘ trespasses’ from y.14f into v.12]) ; for itis not a proper translation of either égeayuore or ce peceprices, and is the most limited in its scope of the three English words.
+ Mt 614.15 has apparently found its way into the Sermon through its previous connexion with the Lord’s Prayer. Whether it had its place historically in that connexion is uncertain. Mk 1125 has a different setting for the passage, but one due to topical association rather than to original position. There is nothing unlikely in the hypothesis that Jesus, after giving the Prayer, spoke in explanation of it, and that this trate: was a part thereof. In these two verses, as in Mk 11%, raparrduare is used instead of dpergumora or &moprias.
} Luke’s variant, z«i yé&p, is distinctly intended to remove the possible misinterpretation that God forgives a man just to the extent that the man forgives others. But the Matthzan wording gives evidence of being a closer translation from the Aramaic. Another instance of Lukan modification is his &¢/owev in this clause instead of Matthew's o4zauev, to give the petition a general character instead of the specific import of the original Prayer. It was noted that in the fourth petition changes were made for the same purpose, Luke having 6/dev instead of des, and +6 za8’ yuépay instead of r4 spor. an, cae
§ Mt 613 zoel uh sloevéyans ics els repaopsy, CAA ploroek Theses xd rou rovnpod. Lk 114> zai ph sloeviyans tyecs sis reipeopeoy. The first clause is the same in both accounts, while the second clause does not appear in Luke (see above).
38 SERMON ON THE MOUNT
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
to wrong or false influences. But inasmuch as men must undergo trials, and in them work out their own character and service, Jesus gives to this petition a second clause, which provides against necessary trials by asking for strength to come through them safely. Wemay then paraphrase the sixth petition of the Prayer in this way: ‘Spare us as much as possible from all trials in which there is danger that we shall fail todo Thy will; but, so far as we must meet trials, give us the strength neces- sary to withstand the temptations to evil which are involved in them.’* It thus becomes clear that the second clause of the petition, ‘ but deliver us from evil,’ is not a separate, seventh petition, but an essential element in the sixth, pertaining to those trials from which God cannot and should not deliver us. In them we pray Him to preserve us from falling. The ‘evil’ which is meant is, of course, moral and spiritual transgression or failure of doing God’s will; and the context therefore makes it improbable that the rod zovnpod should have been intended to refer concretely to the devil in person.| The term repacuds is used with a wide range in the NT, having both a neutral meaning (=trial) and a bad meaning (=malicious temptation).t Only in the former, neutral sense can God be spoken of as ‘tempting’ men, i.c. bringing them into situations which test their character and thus promote their growth. Such trials involve a possible lapse into evil, and must