|















| |
INDEX
PREVIOUS
NEXT
|
COLLECTIONS
Commentaries, Word
Studies, Devotionals, Sermons, Illustrations
Old and New Testament. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Click to
enlarge
"Sermon on the Mount" (Bloch) |
|
Matthew 6:11
'Give us
this
day our
daily
bread.
(NASB:
Lockman) |
|
Greek:
Ton
arton
hemon
ton
epiousion
dos
hemin
semeron;
Amplified: Give us this day our daily bread.
(Amplified
Bible - Lockman)
KJV: Give us this day our daily bread.
NLT: Give us our food for today (NLT - Tyndale House)
Philips: Give us this day the bread we need
(New
Testament in Modern English)
Wuest: Our bread, that for the coming day, give us today. (Wuest:
Expanded Translation: Erdmans)
Young's Literal: 'Our appointed bread give us to-day.
|
|
REFERENCES |
Albert Barnes
Brian Bell
Chip Bell
John Calvin
Rich Cathers
Thomas Constable
Ron Daniels
Bob Deffinbaugh
John Gill
Guglielmo, Joe
David Guzik
Danny Hall
Danny Hall
Matthew Henry
Gregg Herrick
F B Hole
IVP Commentary
Jamieson, F. B
S Lewis Johnson
Hampton Keathley
John Lightfoot
John MacArthur
John MacArthur
John MacArthur
John MacArthur
J Vernon McGee
J R Miller
J R Miller
J R Miller
Phil Newton
Phil Newton
Phil Newton
Phil Newton
A W Pink
John Piper
Wil Pounds
Ray Pritchard
A T Robertson
Gil Rugh
J C Ryle
J C Ryle
Chuck Smith
Marvin Vincent
Thomas Watson
Thomas Watson
Octavius Winslow
Octavius Winslow
Octavius Winslow
Steve Zeisler
Precept Ministries
Our Daily Bread |
Matthew 6
Matthew 6:5-15
Matthew 6:9-15 The
Paternoster - A Model Prayer
Matthew 6
Matthew Sermon Notes
Matthew
Matthew sermon Notes
Matthew 6:1-18
Fatal Failures of Religion - Externalism
Matthew 6
Matthew sermon Notes
Matthew 6
Matthew 6.1-18 An Audience of
One
Matthew 6.1-18 Restoration
Hardware
Matthew 6
Matthew 6:12-15
Forgiveness in the Sermon
Matthew Commentary
Matthew 6
Matthew 6
Matthew Audio - 101
Messages!
Matthew 6:The
Practice of Righteousness
Matthew 6
Matthew 6:11 The Provision of
Prayer, Pt. 2
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 The
Pardon of Prayer, Pt. 1
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 The
Pardon of Prayer, Pt. 2
Matthew 6:12, 14-15 The
Pardon of Prayer, Pt. 3
Matthew 145 Mp3
Audios - Thru the Bible
Matthew 6:11 The Daily Bread
Matthew 6:12 Forgive Us Our
Debts
Matthew 6:12b As We Forgive
Matthew 6:11
The Lord's Prayer: Dependence
Matthew 6:12,14-15
The Lord's Prayer: Forgiveness
Matthew 6:13
The Lord's Prayer: Deliverance
Matthew 6:13b The
Lord's Prayer: Glory
Matthew 6:9-13: Prayer
Matthew 6:7-15: As
We Forgive Our Debtors
Matthew 6:12 The
Model Prayer: Forgive Our Debts
Matthew 6:12
Forgiveness and the Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6
Matthew 6:11-15
Prayer for Personal Needs
Matthew 6 Commentary
Matthew 6:9-15 Expository
Thoughts
Matthew 186 Sermons
Matthew 6
Matthew 6:11 The
Fourth Petition in the Lord's Prayer
Matthew 6:12 The
Fifth Petition in the Lord's Prayer
Matthew 6:11 The Dependent
Spirit of the Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6:12 The
Penitential Spirit of the Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6:12 The
Forgiving Spirit of the Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6:1-14, 16-18: Honored by Men,
or By God?
Inductive Study on Sermon on the
Mount
Matthew 6:9-11
Matthew 6:11
Matthew 6:11 |
|
|
|
THE LORD'S
(DISCIPLE'S) PRAYER
Links to the
Index Sentences |
|
Index #1 |
Our Father
Who is in heaven... |
|
Index #2 |
Your
Kingdom Come... |
|
Index #3 |
Your will
be done... |
|
Index #4 |
Give us
this day our daily bread... |
|
Index #5 |
Forgive us
our debts... |
|
Index
#6 |
Do not
lead us into temptation... |
|
Index
#7 |
For Yours
is the kingdom... |
INDEX
SENTENCE:
NUMBER FOUR
GIVE
US THIS
DAY OUR DAILY BREAD: Ton arton hemon ton epiousion dos (2SAAM) hemin
semeron (Mt
4:4;
Exodus 16:16-35;
Job 23:12;
Psalms 33:18,19;
34:10;
Proverbs 30:8;
Isaiah 33:16;
Luke 11:3;
John 6:31-59;
2 Thessalonians 3:12;
1 Timothy 6:8)
“Give us bread today for the
coming day”
“Give us today the bread we need
for today”
Our bread, that for the coming day,
give us today. (Wuest)
J C Ryle explains that...
We are here taught to acknowledge our entire dependence on God for the
supply of our daily necessities. As Israel required daily manna ("Then
the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you;
and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I
may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction." Ex
16:4), so we require daily “bread.” We confess that we are poor, weak
creatures in need (cf "poor in spirit"
Matthew 5:3),
and beseech our Maker to take care of us. We ask for “bread” as the
simplest of our wants, and in that word we include all that our bodies
require.
Give (1325) is in the
aorist imperative calling
for
this to be carried out effectively and even with a sense of
urgency.
Give Us - Not
"give me"! Intercede for your brethren as well as yourself.
Daily (1967)
is an interesting, somewhat difficult to explain Greek word because it does not have an etymology upon which all expositors agree.
The Greek word is epiousios (some feel it derives from epí
= for or into + ousía = being, substance) appears to have been
coined by the gospel writers. It pertains to recurring on a daily basis
and in the NT is used only here and in Luke 11:3, the parallel prayer.
It is descriptive of a daily and needed portion of food, that which
suffices for each day or for the coming day.
Vine feels
that epiousios is derived from epi + eimi = to go and thus
means
(bread) for going on,
i.e., for the morrow and after, or (bread) coming (for us). This suits
the added sēmeron, “today,” i.e.,
the
prayer is to be for bread that suffices for this day and next, so that
the mind may conform to Christ’s warning against anxiety for the
morrow."
Bread (740)
(artos) refers to
bread.
Wuest
translates this passage
Our bread, that for the coming
day, give us today.
This translation may sound redundant,
but it is a precious and urgent petition by those who live from hand to
mouth.
EBC adds that this is a
petition
for one day at a
time
("today"), reflecting the precarious lifestyle of many first-century
workers who were paid one day at a time and for whom a few days' illness
could spell tragedy.
(Gaebelein,
F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament.
Zondervan Publishing)
Even though God knows our needs
before we ask, this prayer acknowledges our dependence on His for daily
provisions, spiritual and physical. Note that is a prayer for our
needs not our greeds.
D. L. Moody knew the secret of
spiritual "daily bread" writing
A man can no more take a supply of
grace for the future than he can eat enough today to last him for the
next 6 months,
nor can he inhale sufficient
air into his lungs with one breath to sustain life for a week to come.
We are permitted to draw upon God’s store of grace from day to day as we
need it!
God never gives His strength in
advance, so let’s stop crossing bridges before we come to them. The
Heavenly Father will graciously supply our every need—one day at a time!
Don’t try to bear tomorrow’s burdens with today’s grace.
Prayer should be more than a wish
list so if we pray as Jesus taught us, we'll do much more than say, "Our
Father, give us."
Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me
to pray;
This is my heart-cry day unto day.
I long to know Thy will and Thy way;
Teach me to pray, Lord, teach me to pray. --Reitz
Ray Stedman in his sermon
When Prayer Becomes Personal
has some wonderful thoughts on this
topical sentence...
You will notice that this is a prayer
for the whole of man: body soul and spirit. With magnificent accuracy he
puts his finger squarely on the area of paramount need in each of these
areas so that if we understand this prayer properly, and pray it as it
should be prayed, there is really nothing further to be said. This
magnificent prayer covers every aspect of life.
This is one of the amazing things about the Bible -- how the writers of
Scripture were able to reduce to the simplest terms some of these mighty
themes of life, stating them in just a word or two, so that we can grasp
what they mean. As we will see, however, this prayer is not intended to
be merely repeated over and over in some mechanical rote-fashion like a
Christianized prayer-wheel; though, unfortunately, it has become that in
some circles. This prayer is intended to become a guide to prayer. Each
of these areas is capable of infinite expansion as to detail, but, in
principle, this is a completely adequate prayer. Nothing more needs to
be said if we have genuinely prayed as our Lord indicates. There is no
essential area of life neglected. God's interest and love for man
touches the whole of our lives every single area. That is why Paul says
"Pray about everything. And do not forget," he adds, "to thank him for
the answers," (See note
1Thessalonians 5:18).
Jesus begins this section of the prayer with the needs of the body. I
like that! I find that we have such distorted concepts of prayer that we
often feel there is something wrong with praying about physical needs. I
am afraid this is a reflection of a pagan concept of life. The Greeks
regarded the body as coarse and unworthy of redemption and they
therefore mistreated it. They beat their bodies tortured and tormented
them. You find this philosophy widespread in the Orient today, this idea
that the body must be subdued by physical torment or suffering, but you
never find this in the New Testament nor in true Christian faith. Oh, I
know there is that verse in Philippians which in the King James' Version
speaks of looking for "the coming of the Lord Jesus who shall change our
vile body" (Philippians 3:21), but all you can say about that is that it
is a very vile translation! The word does not mean vile at all, it means
"a body of lowliness, of humiliation" that is not yet glorified. It has
not yet entered into the ultimate state that God has designed for it.
But Paul is not saying there is anything wrong with the body.
It is important that we see that prayer must quite properly begin on
this level. God likes bodies. That may startle you, but it is true. God
engineered and designed them, and he likes them. It is perfectly proper
then that we pray about the need of the body. Bread here is a symbol of
all the necessities of physical life. It includes more than mere bread;
it stands for all that our physical life demands -- shelter, drink,
clothing -- anything that the body requires. The vital concern in this
area is that there be available to us an immediate unbroken supply. So
this prayer moves right at the issue when it says "Give us this day each
day our daily bread." The only limit in this prayer is that we are never
to pray for a warehouse a full supply for a year ahead. There are no
giant economy packages available to us in this are of life. We are to
pray for one day's supply.
Now I would like to put this simply to your own heart as I have asked my
own this week. Do you pray daily for your physical needs? I wonder if
any really do this. Do we pray about the supply of our food, clothing,
shelter, and all the physical necessities of life? Do we take time to
ask God for them or at least to give thanks for them? Perhaps this has
become such a familiar request in the repeating of The Lord's Prayer
that it has lost any real meaning to us, and we do not take it
seriously. It may therefore be that this is the most flagrant and
frequent area of Christian disobedience. For, after all, our Lord meant
it when he told us to pray "give us each day our daily bread."
"Oh," you say, "I say grace before every meal." Yes, so do I, but
unfortunately I find that it is often so perfunctory so mechanical it
really sounds like a sanctimonious way of saying "Let's eat." When I was
in high school in Montana we had a neighbor who was a self-confessed
atheist, a godless fellow, but with a very engaging personality. We boys
often went out to his place because he was a very generous man and let
us do many interesting things on his ranch, but he had no use for the
gospel or for Christian things. At meal time he engaged in a form of
ribald mockery in this matter of giving thanks. I think he did it to
shock us. But he would sit down to the table and before anyone could
start to eat he would say "Now we are going to say grace," and he would
fold his hands and say,
"Pass the bread and pass the meat,
Pitch in, you gol-darn fools, and eat."
Of course he intended it as mockery,
but I wonder if our own graces, repeated perfunctorily, mechanically,
are not equally as blasphemous? I do not wish to be negative at this
point, but I am sure that there must have been some good reason why the
Lord told us to pray this way.
I know there are many who are ready to argue that Jesus said elsewhere,
"Your Father knows that you have need of these things even before you
pray" (Matthew 6:8), so it is not in order to inform God of our needs.
And there are others who say it really makes little difference, whether
they pray about physical things or not. They get the necessities of life
regardless. Furthermore, some say there are many people who never bother
to pray at all and who are eating steak and ice cream while we
Christians are trying to get along on hamburgers and jello. What is the
point, then, of praying?
The answer to that question really touches the central value of prayer.
It is very illuminating. Obviously, prayer is not something by which we
inform God of our needs or influence him. But prayer is designed to
influence us. It is we who are in need of this kind of prayer, not God.
Of course, he knows what we have need of, for he knows everything about
us. But prayer is something we need. God does not need to be told, but
we need to tell him, that is the point.
If you want to see why, ask yourself the question, "What happens to me
when I neglect this area of prayer?" If you are honest and look at your
life over an extended period of time, you will see that, inevitably, a
slow and subtle change occurs in the heart of a Christian who does not
pray about material things, who does not take time to thank God for his
daily supply of food, shelter and raiment -- the necessities and the
luxuries of life.
What happens is that we take these things for granted, and gradually we
succumb to the quite foolish delusion that we actually can provide these
necessities ourselves. We become possessed with the incredible vanity
that our wisdom and our abilities have really made these things
possible, that we can supply these things quite apart from God. And when
we begin to think that way, we find pride swells within us and a kind of
blindness settles upon us, a blindness which darkens our spiritual
insight, and we become moody, restless and depressed.
The book of Daniel vividly describes this type of thinking in the story
of Nebuchadnezzar, that proud monarch of Babylon, the greatest king of
the greatest nation of his age. He walked out in the evening hours upon
the battlements of his palace in the city of Babylon, looked out over
the city, and said, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have made? My
wisdom has built this, my ability has brought it to pass," (Daniel
4:30). He revelled in what he thought were his powers, inherent in
himself, by which all this came to pass. As a result of that defiant
assumption of basic powers of supply in his life, God brought upon him
the judgment of bestiality. He became a beast, and was turned out to
grass, to eat in the fields like an animal, which is simply God's
dramatic way of saying that ingratitude causes men to become
animal-like, to become beasts, with all the ferocity and
self-centeredness of a beast growling over his food.
I remember Dr. Ironside telling of an occasion when, as a young man, he
went into a cafeteria to eat. When he took his tray and looked around
for some place to sit down he found that all the seats in the room were
taken except for one chair opposite a man already seated at a table.
Ironside went over and asked if he might sit down and the man looked up
and grunted something. So Ironside sat down, and, as his custom was,
bowed his head and began silently to give thanks for his food before he
began to eat. When he looked up he saw the man was eyeing him, almost
glowering, and the fellow said to him, "What's the matter, anything
wrong with your food?" Ironside said, "No, I don't think so. It seems
all right to me." "Well," he said, "have you got a headache or
something?" And Ironside said, "No, I haven't. Why do you ask?" "Well,"
he said, "I noticed you bowing down, and putting your hand up to your
head, and closing your eyes. I thought there was something wrong with
your head." The tone of voice he was using indicated he wanted to make
an issue out of this, but Ironside said to him, "Well, I was simply
returning thanks to God for my food." The man snorted, and said, "Oh,
you believe in that bosh, do you?" And Ironside said, "Don't you ever
give thanks?" He said, "No, I don't. I don't believe in giving thanks
for anything. I just start right in." And Ironside said, "Oh, you're
just like my dog. He never gives thanks, either, he just starts right
in."
After all, it is we who need to give thanks to God, it is we who must
always be reminding ourselves that everything we have comes from his
hand, and that any moment he can turn it off if for any reason he may
choose, that it is only his grace and his goodness that keep it flowing
unhindered to us. The only way, therefore, that we can avoid this
terrible sin of ingratitude, which the book of Proverbs calls "the sin
that is sharper than a serpent's tooth," is to pray daily. Remember
that,
Back of the bread is the snowy flour,
And back or the flour, the mill,
And back of the mill is the field of wheat,
The rain, and the Father's will."
><>><>><>
F B Meyer has the
following devotional on GOD'S PROVISION -
"Give us this day our daily
bread."--Matt. 6:11.
IF YOU want daily bread, and would
pray for it aright, you must ask as a child; and you must put first,
before your own satisfaction, the Hallowing of God's Name, and the doing
of His Will. Implicitly you suggest that if He gives you bread, you will
use the strength it gives for His service.
Let us ever think of God as the
bountiful and generous Giver. Too often He has been described as hard
and austere, and as a result, men dread God, and only think of Him when
they have done wrong. But we should describe Him as the All-Giver, who
gives all things to all with the most royal generosity. He gives
sunbeams and dewdrops, showers and rainbows, grace and glory, His
beloved Son and His Spirit, human love and friendship, the daily
spreading of our table, the provision of all that we need for life and
godliness. Whether we wake or sleep, whether we are evil or good,
whether we are pleasing to Him or not; to those who forget and blaspheme
Him equally as to the saints and martyrs of the Church, God gives with
both hands, pressed down and running over. We cannot buy, we do not
merit, we cannot claim, but we may rely on Him to give. God is Love; and
Love cannot refrain from giving, or it ceases to be Love.
Yet how low God stoops! He is so
great, that His greatness is unsearchable. He dwells in the high and
lofty place. His sun is ninety-seven millions of miles away from our
earth; He has filled the heavens with countless constellations, for each
of which He has a name. He puts the Himalaya into a scale, and the
islands are as dust in His balances; but Jesus has taught us to say,
"Our Father, give us bread!" When we get troubled about the immensity of
heaven and the distances of the universe, let us come back to the
discourse, of which this prayer is part, and which tells us that the
great God thinks about the clothing of the lilies, the down on a
butterfly's wings, the food of the young lions in the forest, the store
of acorns that squirrels accumulate for their provision. It is wonderful
to remember that from the first days of man's sojourn on earth, our
Father has been laying up stores for us. Though we may be among the
youngest children of Time, we come to a table as richly plenished and
provided as those who first tasted of His bounty. "Fear not, it is your
Father's good pleasure to give."
PRAYER - Heavenly Father, let me not be anxious about to-morrow's
provision or path, but trust Thee to provide and lead for to-day. Open
Thine hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing. AMEN. (F. B.
Meyer. Our Daily Walk) |
|
|
Matthew
6:12
'And
forgive us our
debts, as we
also have
forgiven our
debtors.
(NASB:
Lockman) |
|
Greek:
kai
aphes
hemin
ta
opheilemata
hemon,
os
kai
hemeis
aphekamen
tois
opheiletais
hemon
Amplified: And forgive us our debts, as we also have
forgiven (left, remitted, and let go of the debts, and have given up
resentment against) our debtors.
(Amplified
Bible - Lockman)
KJV: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
NLT: and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those
who have sinned against us. (NLT - Tyndale House)
Philips Forgive us what we owe to you, as we have also forgiven
those who owe anything to us.
(New
Testament in Modern English)
Wuest: And forgive us the moral obligations we owe, even as
also, as for us, we have forgiven those morally obligated to us. (Wuest:
Expanded Translation: Erdmans)
Young's Literal: 'And forgive us our debts, as also we
forgive our debtors.
|
|
|
INDEX
SENTENCE:
NUMBER FIVE
AND
FORGIVE
US OUR DEBTS: kai aphes (2SAAM) hemin ta opheilemata hemon (see related
discussion under topic of "blessed are the merciful"
Matthew 5:7)
(See discussion of Jesus' continuation of this topic in
Matthew 6:14)
(Exodus
34:7;
1 Kings 8:30,34,39,50;
Psalms 32:1;
130:4;
Isaiah 1:18;
Daniel 9:19;
Acts 13:38;
Ephesians 1:7;
1 John 1:7-9)
(18:21-27,34;
Luke 7:40-48;
11:4)
Give us, this day,
our daily bread;
And, as we those forgive
Who sin against us, so may we
Forgiving grace receive.
And (2532)
(kai) is used to connect each of the last three petitions, whereas the first
three are "independent". Why connect the last three? This connection
speaks of all three as absolutely necessary, food for the body,
forgiveness for the soul and deliverance from temptation for the spirit.
Spurgeon has a rebuttal for
the one who says "I have no need to pray this sentence for I have no
trespasses"...
Dear one, look at your own
heart. I will have no argument with you. Take the bandage off your eyes.
You are about as full of sin as an egg is full of protein. Among the
rest of your many sins is this rotten egg of an accursed pride about
your own state of heart.
J C Ryle explains that in this
index sentence...
We confess that we are sinners,
and need daily grants of pardon and forgiveness. This part of the Lord’s
Prayer deserves especially to be remembered. It condemns all
self-righteousness and self-justifying. We are instructed here to keep
up a continual habit of confession at the throne of grace, and a
continual habit of seeking mercy and remission. Let this never be
forgotten. We need daily to wash our feet (John 13:10)... Its object is
to remind us that we must not expect our prayers for forgiveness to be
heard if we pray with malice and spite in our hearts towards others. To
pray in such a frame of mind is mere formality and hypocrisy. It is even
worse than hypocrisy: it is as much as saying, “Do not forgive me at
all.” Our prayers are nothing without love. We must not expect to be
forgiven if we cannot forgive.
Why would Jesus mention
forgiveness so far down the "list" of this model prayer? What is the
emphasis in the first three topical sentences? God the Father - worship,
longing for His Kingdom, desiring His will, seeking His provision for
our life needs. See the greatness and goodness of our Father Who art in
heaven, how can we mere mortals choose to withhold from others the same
forgiveness we have received at the time of our salvation and each day
the rest of our life? We must have His forgiveness, for we have wounded
the heart of our Father by our sins, including our sins of
unforgiveness, a sin which God cannot overlook for He is holy. Therefore
for our prayer to be effective we must dealt with our sin. Dearly
beloved, please don't sweep your sin (including unforgiveness) "under
the rug", but put it "under the blood". Proverbs warns us...
He who conceals
(intentionally, willfully hides or covers over sins so as to keep
secret) his transgressions will not prosper (accomplish
satisfactorily what is intended = generally expresses idea of a
successful venture, as contrasted with failure),
But (note the marked contrast) he who confesses
(acknowledges to God) and forsakes (not just confesses but
depart, leave and walk away from the sin! - equates with repentance)
them will find compassion (mercy, pity). (Proverbs 28:13)
Forgive (863)
(aphiemi
from apo =
implies a separation + hiemi = put in motion, send) means to send
from one's self, to forsake, to hurl away, to put away, let alone,
disregard, put off. It conveys
the basic idea of an action which causes separation. It refers to total
detachment or total separation, from a previous location or condition.
In secular Greek it initially conveyed the sense of to throw and in one
secular writing we read "let the pot drop" (aphiemi). From this early
literal use the word came to mean leave or let go.
It is interesting that "forgive"
is in the
s in the
aorist imperative calling for this to
be carried out with effectively and even with a sense of urgency.,
a command to forgive, but it is "activated" only as we are willing to
forgive those who have sinned against us.
Aphiemi means to send forth
or away from one's self. It refers to the act of putting something away
or of laying it aside
and as used here means to let go of the obligation another person has
"owes" you because of sin. It means to remit (to release from the
guilt or penalty of) as one would a financial debt (e.g., on the Rosetta
stone it refers to the "total remission" of certain taxes). In the
present context Jesus is referring to an ethical or moral debt due to
some offense by another person against us. In that sense they "owe" us.
It follows that the basic meaning of forgiveness is to put away
an offense. Unfortunately the English word "forgive" does not adequately
picture the meaning of the Greek.
In secular Greek literature, aphiemi was a fundamental word used
to indicate the sending away of an object or a person. Aphiemi
was used to describe the voluntary release of a person or thing over
which one has legal or actual control. The related noun aphesis meant
described a setting free. .Later it came to include the release of
someone from the obligation of marriage, or debt, or even a religious
vow. In its final form it came to embrace the principle of release from
punishment for some wrongdoing. .
Colin Brown adds that
aphiemi means...
With a personal object, to send
forth, send away (of a woman, to divorce; of a meeting, to dissolve,
end), to let go, to leave, dispatch; with an impersonal object, to loose
(e.g. a ship into the sea), to discharge (e.g. arrows), to give up. In
the figurative sense the verb (aphiemi) means to let alone, permit, let
pass, neglect, give up (taking trouble, etc.); in Josephus, Ant., 1, 12,
3, to lose one’s life, die. The legal use is important: to
release from a legal bond (office, guilt, etc. and also, a woman from
marriage, e.g. Hdt., 5, 39), to acquit (e.g. cancellation of criminal
proceedings, Plato, Laws, 9, 86, 9d), to exempt (from guilt, obligation,
punishment, etc.; e.g. Hdt., 6, 30). Similarly the noun aphesis (e.g.
Demosthenes, 24, 45) means release, pardon, or remission, etc (Brown,
Colin: New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986. Zondervan)
Aphiemi was also used of teachers, writers, and speakers when
presenting a topic, in the sense of “to leave, let alone, disregard, not
to discuss now. It means “to abandon, to leave as behind and done with
in order to go on to another thing.”
The Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, contained many of these ideas.
In the Old Testament aphiemi spoke of releasing a prisoner or remitting
a debt, but it also came to mean pardon or forgiveness.
Trench says that the image
underlying aphiemi is that of releasing a prisoner (Isaiah 61:1),
or letting go, as of a debt (Deut 15:3). One is reminded of the one goat
who was offered as a sin-offering on the Day of Atonement, and of the
other goat upon which was placed the sins of the people (symbolically)
and which was let go in the wilderness, never to be seen again by
Israel, the latter goat typifying that aspect of redemption in which the
sins of the human race were put away, never to be charged against the
individual again (see Leviticus 16)..
Wuest explains aphiemi
from God's perspective noting that
It refers to the act of putting
something away. God did that at the Cross when He put sin away by
incarnating Himself in humanity in the Person of His Son, stepping down
from His judgment throne, assuming the guilt of man’s sin, and paying
the penalty, thus, satisfying His justice, and making possible an offer
of mercy on the basis of justice satisfied. When a sinner avails himself
of the merits of that atoning sacrifice, he thus puts himself within
the provision God made. His sins were put away at the Cross,
and he comes into the benefit of that when he believes.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Studies in the
Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament: Grand Rapids: Eerdmans)
(Bolding added)
Richards notes that aphiemi...
is a verb that occurs 146 times in
the NT. It has the sense of "forgive" 49 of these times, 44 of which
occur in the Gospels; but it has this meaning only once in Paul's
writings (Ro 4:7). It is used in the sense of forgiveness of sins, of
debts, and of crimes. The majority of the occurrences of aphiemi convey
a meaning other than forgiveness: i.e., dismiss, release, leave, or
abandon. (Richards,
Larry:. Expository Dictionary of Bible Words. 1985. Zondervan)
The
aorist imperative is a command which
calls for this to be carried out with effectively and even with a sense
of urgency.
Our English word “forgive”
does not, as commonly used, give an adequate picture of the Greek word.
We say that we have forgiven some one who has wronged us. By that we
usually mean that any feeling of animosity we may have had, has changed
to one of renewed friendliness and affection. We do not hold the wrong
done us against the person anymore. But so far as the act itself is
concerned, we cannot do anything about it. It has been done, and it
cannot be removed from the one who committed the wrong.
When missionaries in northern
Alaska were translating the Bible into the language of the Eskimos, they
discovered there was no word in that language for forgiveness. After
much patient listening, however, they discovered a word that means,
“not being able to think about it anymore.” That word was used
throughout the translation to represent forgiveness, because God’s
promise to repentant sinners is, “I will forgive their iniquity, and
their sin I will remember no more” (Jer.
31:34).
Debts (3783)
(opheilema from opheílo = to owe) is that which is owed or
obligations we have incurred; including sins of omission and commission.
Sins are moral and spiritual debts to God that must be paid. In
his account of this prayer, Luke uses hamartia (“sins”; Luke 11:4),
clearly indicating that the reference is to sin, not to a financial
debt. Matthew probably used debts because it corresponded to the most
common Aramaic term (hoba) for sin used by Jews of that day, which also
represented moral or spiritual debt to God.
In this petition disciples ask God's forgiveness for their failure to
live according to His will. John writes...
If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. (1 John
1:7-9)
Pastor Ray Pritchard writes
that...
Augustine called this text “a
terrible petition.” He pointed out that if you pray these words while
harboring an unforgiving spirit, you are actually asking God not to
forgive you. Ponder that for a moment. If you pray “Forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors” while refusing to forgive those who have
wronged you, this prayer which is meant to be a blessing becomes a
self-inflicted curse. In that case you are really saying,
“O God, since I have not
forgiven my brother, please do not forgive me.”
That is why Charles Haddon
Spurgeon, the great English preacher, said that if you pray the Lord’s
Prayer with an unforgiving spirit, you have virtually signed your own
“death-warrant.” During one period of his life, John Wesley was a
missionary in the American colonies—primarily in the area that would
become the state of Georgia. There was a general by the name of
Oglethorpe with whom Wesley had some dealings. General Oglethorpe was a
great military leader, but he had a reputation as a harsh and brutal
man. One day he said to John Wesley, “I never forgive.” To which Wesley
replied, “Then, sir, I hope you never sin.” (Matthew
6:12 Forgiveness and the Lord’s Prayer )
AS WE ALSO
HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS: hos
kai hemeis aphekamen (1PAAI) tois opheiletais hemon
(Mt
6:14-15;
18:21,22,28-35;
Nehemiah 5:12,13;
Mark 11:25,26;
Luke 6:37;
17:3-5;
Ephesians 4:32;
Colossians 3:13)
as we also have forgiven (left,
remitted, and let go of the debts, and have given up resentment against)
our debtors. (Amplified)
As (hos) is the key word in
this verse, which marks a comparison (see
terms of comparison)
between the way we forgive and the way God forgives us. In a sense, we set the
"standard" and God follows the standard in the way He deals with us in
the issue of forgiveness.
| | |