Matthew 6:7 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Matthew 6:7

Comments

Another fault which characterises the prayers of the pagans and of those who do not know the living and true God is vain repetition. It is as if they pray to a dead God, not a living God, and their false conception of God cannot help showing through in the way they address him. It is hard for them not to go on repeating the same prayers again and again when they have no assurance that they are heard, or that the God they address has any knowledge of their lives. The real problem here is the misconception of God that results from never having come to know him. How can those who have never tasted the power of God conjure up in their own imaginations a God who anything like the true and living God? He is beyond their understanding. Instead they view God as limited in power, ignorant of their needs until told about them, unwilling to help, and needing to be cajoled into responding. It was in this way that the false prophets of Baal addressed their gods on Carmel. Whereas they prayed from morning to noon repeating the same request again and again, Elijah prayed only once and that was enough. Whereas they prayed in a frenzy of worked up passion, he prayed calmly and quietly – ‘let it be known this day that you are God in Israel and I am you servant’. While they prayed as if their gods needed to be woken from a deep sleep, Elijah prayed to the God who knew all about his situation and did not need to be informed. The false prophets cut themselves to incline their gods to hear them by their suffering, but Elijah was quietly confident that God would answer him. ‘They think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.’ To the pagan mind prayer is a payment: the more prayer, the more likely they are to be heard, therefore repetition is vital; it could make the difference between receiving and not receiving an answer. What is God’s attitude to such prayers? Does God care about how men and women think of him and pray to him? Does he only pay attention to what they request, and ignore the manner in which they ask? Does it mean nothing to him that people think of him as a prayer answering machine? Of course he cares; the relationship we have with him is far more important than any individual answer to our requests.

Application

Questions

Does Christ forbid us ever to repeat our prayers, and to ask for the same thing again? Why then did Christ teach persistence in prayer: ‘that men ought always to pray, and not to faint’ (Luke 18:1)? Why did Paul plead three times with the Lord that his thorn in the flesh might be taken away (2 Corinthians 12:8)? And why did Christ himself pray three times that the cup of the cross might pass from him (Matthew 26:39-44)? Evidently we may ask for the same thing more than once. God is often pleased to test our faith by not answering us at first. A child who is not given the definite answer, ‘no’, may ask again in the hope of prevailing. What Christ forbids is repetition that implies that God is less than he is, or that thinks there is merit in repetition, like the Roman Catholic use of the Lord’s Prayer, or prayer to Mary . Such prayer insults God and damages our perception of the divine nature. God does not need to be spoken to as if he is hard of hearing, as if he is slow to understand what we mean, as if sheer repetition can break down his resistance to answering us, or as if repeated asking of the same thing accrues credit in heaven. Our prayers should recognise God for what he is: the God who made us and understands us perfectly, who is of infinite intelligence and can learn nothing from his creatures, who has invited all men to come to him with their requests, and who can easily answer our petitions because nothing is impossible for him.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Matthew 6:7 Commentary and Bible Study