WHEN YOU PRAY,
YOU ARE NOT TO BE LIKE THE HYPOCRITES; FOR THEY LOVE TO STAND AND PRAY
IN THE SYNAGOGUES AND ON THE STREET CORNERS SO THAT THEY MAY BE SEEN BY
MEN: Kai hotan proseuchesthe, (2PPMS) ouk esesthe (2PFMI) hos hoi
hupokritai; hoti philousin (3PPAI) en tais sunagogais kai en tais
goniais ton plateion hestotes (RAPMPN) proseuchesthai, (PMN) hopos
phanosin (3PAPS) tois anthropois (Mt
7:7,8;
9:38;
21:22;
Psalms 5:2;
55:17;
Proverbs 15:8;
Isaiah 55:6,7;
Jeremiah 29:12;
Daniel 6:10;
9:4-19;
Luke 18:1;
John 16:24;
Ephesians 6:18;
Colossians 4:2,3;
1 Thessalonians 5:17;
James 5:15,16)
(Mt
6:2;
23:14;
Job 27:8-10;
Isaiah 1:15;
Luke 18:10,11;
20:47)
Related resource - The Kneeling
Christian
Ironside calls on us to...
Think of the privilege of
sitting at the feet of the great intercessor Himself and hearing Him
tell us how to pray! It is indeed a priceless opportunity not to be
despised or passed on to disciples of some other age.
When you pray - Not "if" you
pray. Prayer is the believer's lifeline to God. Spurgeon puts it this
way...
Prayer pulls the rope below and
the great bell rings above in the cars of God. Some scarcely stir the
bell, for they pray so languidly; others give but an occasional pluck at
the rope; but he who wins with heaven is the man who grasps the rope
boldly and pulls continuously, with all his might. (Feathers for Arrows)
Stand - The posture is not the
problem, for posture is irrelevant if the motive of the heart is
to please God. Many postures are associated with prayer: prostrate (Num
16:22; Josh 5:14; Dan 8:17; Matt 26:39; Rev 11:16), kneeling (2
Chronicles 6:13; Dan 6:10; Luke 22:41, Acts 7:60; 9:40; 20:36; 21:5),
sitting (2Sam 7:18), and standing (1Sam 1:26; Mark 11:25; Luke 18:11,
13).
A T Robertson commenting on
synagogues and on street corners" writes that...
These were the usual places of
prayer (synagogues) and the street corners where crowds stopped for
business or talk. If the
hour of prayer overtook a Pharisee here, he would strike his attitude of
prayer like a modern Moslem that men might see that he was pious.
(Robertson, A. Word Pictures in the New Testament)
Pray (4336)
(proseuchomai
from prós = toward, facing, emphasizing
direct approach in seeking God's face + eúchomai = wish, pray, a
technical term for invoking a deity and so covers every aspect of such
invocation: to request, entreat, vow, consecrate etc) (Click
for in depth study of the
related noun
proseuche)
means literally to prayer to or before. The prefix "pros" conveys
the sense of being immediately before God and hence would also include the ideas of
adoration, devotion, and worship.
The basic idea of this verb is to
bring something, and in prayer this pertains to bringing prayer
requests. In early Greek culture an offering was brought with a prayer
that it be accepted. Later the idea was changed slightly, so that the
thing brought to God was the prayer. In later Greek, prayers appealed to
God for His presence. This word for prayer encompasses all the aspects
of prayer: submission, confession, petition, intercession, praise, and
thanksgiving.
The root noun
proseuche is the more general word for prayer and is used only of
prayer to God. Lawrence Richards writes that proseuchomai...
"In classical Greek was the technical
term for calling on a deity. The NT transforms the classical stiffness
into the warmth of genuine conversation. Such entreaty in the NT is
addressed to God or Jesus and typically is both personal and specific."
(Richards, L: Expository Dictionary)
Wuest picks
up on this meaning translating it
"by prayer whose essence is that of
worship and devotion".
In Jesus' day the pious Jews
prayed publicly at set times, commonly, in the morning, afternoon, and
evening (Ps. 55:17; Dan. 6:10; Acts 3:1). The Jewish historian Josephus
points out that sacrifices, including prayers, were offered “twice a
day, in the early morning and at the ninth hour.” Jesus makes no mention
of appropriate times for His focus is that of an appropriate attitude on
any occasion on which one prays
Jesus is warning citizens of the
Kingdom of heaven of the danger of emulating the "righteousness"
(according to man's standard of what is righteous, not God's standard!) which they had
seem in the lives and religious activities of the scribes and Pharisees.
Hypocrite
(Click
for in depth discussion) is the man or woman who puts on a mask and
pretends to be what he or she is not in the innermost person. Hypocrite
describes the insincere person who pretends to be pious or virtuous when
he or she really is not. The parallel thought is what others see what's
on the outside. We call this reputation. God sees what's really
present on the inside. We call this character. God is interested
in our character, not our reputation.
Who do we seek to please in our
various religious activities?
Are we "playing the part" like an actor/actress or are we seeking to
please only our Father Who art in heaven?
Do we pray in order to cause
others to think highly of us? Do we pray to somehow impress even
ourselves that we are spiritual? Do we pray in order to gain merit with
God?
Unger adds that...
the hypocrite is a double person,
natural and artificial. The first he keeps to himself, and the other he
puts on, as he does his clothes, to make his appearance before men.
Hypocrites have been divided into four classes: (1) The worldly
hypocrite, who makes a profession of religion and pretends to be
religious, merely from worldly considerations (Matt. 23:5). (2) The
legal hypocrite, who relinquishes his vicious practices, in order
thereby to merit heaven, while at the same time having no real love for
God (Ro 10:3). (3) The evangelical hypocrite, whose religion is nothing
more than a bare conviction of sin; who rejoices under the idea that
Christ died for him, and yet has no desire to live a holy life (Matt.
13:20). (4) The enthusiastic hypocrite, who has an imaginary sight of
his sins and of Christ and talks of remarkable impulses and high
feelings, etc., while living in the most scandalous practices (2 Cor.
11:14). (Unger,
M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. The
New Unger's Bible dictionary. Chicago: Moody Press)
Vine writes that a hypocrite is
primarily one who answers; then, a stage–actor; it was a custom for
Greek and Roman actors to speak in large masks with mechanical devices
for augmenting the force of the voice; hence the word became used
metaphorically of a dissembler (one who hides by putting on a false
pretense, concealing the real facts, their true intentions and genuine
feelings), a hypocrite. It is found only in the Synoptists (Matthew -
Luke), and always used by the Lord, fifteen times in Matthew; elsewhere,
Mark 7:6; Luke 6:42; 11:44 (in some mss.); Luke12:56; 13:15.
When (not if but when) you give, pray and fast, don't be an play actor
hiding behind your mask of religious activity trying to convince people
you are someone you devoted to God and pious, when you really are not.
By way of application it would be wise to apply this warning by our Lord
to all our "religious activities". Be honest and ask yourself "Why am I
doing what I am doing at church?"
The Pharisees were like actors in a
play, speaking from under a mask. Their mask was that of
self-righteousness which men would look at and be deceived thinking that
they were something they were not. They were not praying to honor God
but themselves! They sought the esteem of men not that of God. Praying
in an inner room as Jesus instructs below would have been the last thing
these pseudo-pious hypocrites would do. Who would hear their lengthy and
embellished oratory?
Phil Newton writes...
You can picture the scene. The
rabbi calls upon Brother So-and-so to pray in the synagogue, and then he
begins the most polished, flowery prayer that the congregation had ever
heard. Once he sat down the members of the congregation were awed by his
knowledge and use of language and obvious spirituality! He sat with a
smug grin, knowing that he had impressed the whole congregation by what
he had said. Jesus declared that he got what he wanted, the approval of
men. But he did not receive what he prayed for in the least.
Charles Spurgeon was alarmed when he
heard one of his students begin his prayer, “O Thou that art encinctured
with an auriferous zodiac!” The man proved to be an imposter that
finally became a playwright and actor, abandoning his wife and the
ministry. His desire for the attention of men exposed the sinful motives
that dictated his prayer.
(Read his full message on
Matthew 6:1-18)
Our Daily Bread
explains that...
A hypocrite is a pretender. He
is a person who does not act his real self but disguises himself to be
another. God hates hypocrisy but loves sinners. In all the records of
the Gospels, Jesus spoke to sinners with sympathy, kindness, and
forgiveness. But to the hypocritical religious leaders, He used the
strongest possible language of condemnation. He called them blind
guides, whitewashed tombs, and vipers (Matthew 23:24,27,33).
The biggest hypocrite of all, however, is the man or woman who refuses
to come to Christ because there are so many hypocrites in the church.
Such a person is being inconsistent. Business is full of hypocrites, but
that does not stop him from doing business. Society is full of them, but
he does not decide to become a hermit. Hell is full of hypocrites, so if
a person doesn't like hypocrites he had better make sure he's not going
there.
If your excuse for not bowing before Christ and accepting Him as your
Savior and Lord is that you don't like hypocrites, will you let me show
you the biggest hypocrite of all? I say this in love, dear friend. Look
in the mirror. Stop pretending. If you can't think of a better excuse,
you have no excuse! —M R De Haan (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
One day before God's judgment
bar
All sham and pretense will take flight,
We'll all be known for who we are—
There'll be no hiding from His sight. —D. De Haan
There's no bigger hypocrite than
the person who pretends he doesn't need Jesus.
R A. Torrey explains
that...
We should never utter one syllable of
prayer, either in public or in private, until we are definitely
conscious that we have come into the presence of God and are actually
praying to Him.... I can remember when that thought transformed my
prayer life. I was brought up to pray. I was taught to pray so early in
life that I have not the slightest recollection of who taught me to
pray.... Nevertheless, prayer was largely a mere matter of form.
There was little real thought of God, and no real approach to God. And
even after I was converted, yes, even after I had entered the ministry,
prayer was largely a matter of form. But the day came when I
realized what real prayer meant, realized that prayer was having an
audience with God, actually coming into the presence of God and
asking and getting things from Him. And the realization of that fact
transformed my prayer life. Before that, prayer had been a mere duty,
and sometimes a very irksome duty, but from that time on
prayer has been not merely a duty but a privilege, one of the
most highly esteemed privileges of life. Before that, the thought
that I had was, "How much time must I spend in prayer?" The thought that
now possesses me is, "How much time may I spend in prayer without
neglecting the other privileges and duties of life?" (Torrey, R A: The Power of Prayer)
(Bolding added)
TRULY I SAY TO
YOU, THEY HAVE THEIR REWARD IN FULL: amen lego (1SPAI) humin apechousin
(3SPPAI) ton misthon auton
(Mt
7:7,8;
9:38;
21:22;
Psalms 5:2;
55:17;
Proverbs 15:8;
Isaiah 55:6,7;
Jeremiah 29:12;
Daniel 6:10;
9:4-19;
Luke 18:1;
John 16:24;
Ephesians 6:18;
Colossians 4:2,3;
1 Thessalonians 5:17;
James 5:15,16)
(Mt
6:2;
23:14;
Job 27:8-10;
Isaiah 1:15;
Luke 18:10,11;
20:47)
(Mt
23:6;
Mark 12:38;
Luke 11:43)
(Mt
6:2;
Proverbs 16:5;
Luke 14:12-14;
James 4:6)
Truly (Amen) - The following
conclusion is trustworthy; valid and binding. Only the Lord Jesus uses
amen at beginning of a sentence (in this case the beginning of
the concluding clause) which guarantees the truth of what He is saying
and also affirms His authority
Ironside comments that Jesus
first warns us
against mere formality in prayer
and pretended piety, rather than concern for the glory of God. He
demands reality. There were those of the Pharisees who looked on prayer
as having a certain degree of merit in itself (even as Mohammedans,
Romanists, and others do now). Formal prayers were recited in public
places, and the longer the prayer the more intense was the impression
made on those who stood by. They were inclined to judge a man's piety by
the length of his devotions. Jesus warned His disciples against such an
abuse of prayer. He did not forbid their praying in public places. In 1
Timothy 2:8 ("I want men in every place to pray...") this is definitely
implied. But He did inveigh against praying to be seen of men, or
engaging in any other religious exercise for ostentation.
Dwight Pentecost applies
Jesus' warning to our modern church noting that...
While man’s faith in God will
manifest itself in a man’s relationship to men, a man’s faith in God is
a matter between himself and God alone. When one’s religion is used to
impress men, God disavows it as providing any basis for His approval.
Multitudes assemble themselves in churches, not out of a heart of love
and devotion to God, nor because they recognize a sense of obligation to
come together with God’s people around His Word to fellowship with the
Father. They gather together to maintain an image, a reputation before
men. They go through empty forms of worship, devoid of any reality. They
are there to impress men, and the Lord said they will get what they
want. They will have their reward, but not from God. (Pentecost,
J. D. Design for living: Lessons in Holiness from the Sermon on the
Mount. Kregel Publications)
><>><>><>
PRAYING IN PUBLIC -
When Jesus told people to pray in secret, He didn't mean that praying in
public is wrong. What He condemned are insincere prayers made only to
impress people. We may all sense that subtle temptation at times.
A group of delegates from a Christian conference stopped at a busy
restaurant for lunch and were seated at several different tables around
the room. Just before eating, one member announced in a loud voice,
"Let's pray!" Chairs shifted and heads turned. Then followed a
long-winded "blessing" that did more to cool the food than warm hearts.
Finally, amid snickers and grumbling, came the welcome "Amen."
Contrast that story with another scene. A history teacher at a large
state university was having lunch with his family in the school
cafeteria. As they began their meal, their little 3-year- old cried out,
"O Daddy, we forgot to pray!" "Well, honey" said the man "would you pray
for us?" "Dear Jesus," she began, "thank You for our good food and all
these nice people. Amen." From
nearby tables came "amens" from professors and students alike who were
touched by that child's simple and sincere prayer.
May all our public praying be like that. - D J. De Haan (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Though lines to heaven should ever be
Attuned to praying ceaselessly,
Let's take that extra special care
To guard our words in public prayer.--HGB
If we pray to catch the ear of
man,
we can't expect to reach the ear of God.
