Matthew 6:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Matthew 6:8

Comments

Christ tells us here – what authority he speaks with, that he can give such an answer! – that the Lord regards this as a worthless performance, which gives away the fact that those who pray in this way are strangers to his grace. It is like a king who hates flattery and insincerity, approached by an official who believes that the best way to get an answer is to adopt a fawning and obsequious manner. The king sees straight through this. The official has done the one thing that guarantees that he will not be answered.What then is the purpose of prayer? Why should we ask if God already knows what we need? To the pagan this makes prayer pointless, because the only reason he can think of praying is to inform God of his needs, or at least to draw his attention to them. But it stands to reason that if, as the Bible teaches, God knows all things, he also knows our needs and indeed knows them better than we do. But if he knows our need, why does he wait to be asked before he gives us what we need? The Lord makes it a condition of our receiving certain things, that we ask for them. This is to teach us dependence on the Lord. It makes us grasp that we are creatures in need of the love and provision of a heavenly Father. Furthermore it teaches us our real needs. God does not give to men and women everything that they ask for; he does not treat us a spoiled children gratifying every lust and whim, but he denies frivolous requests and trains us in our priorities. By prayer the Lord shows his children his willingness to answer as their heavenly Father. Although he is above high above us, he is willing to answer the needs of the obscurest of his children. He can be petitioned by insignificant creatures on earth. But we must ask in faith and prayer is a major means of training us to exercise faith. Certainly, he does not always wait for us to pray before answering; many times he provides without our asking at all, and there are things we do not think to ask for which he knows we need and gives us anyway: the air we breathe, the growing of our food, the shining of the sun, the safety of the earth, the rationality of our minds, the strength of our limbs, the working of every part of our bodies. If we had to ask first for all these, we would never cease from asking.

Application

This is a most comforting word for believers. Our Father in heaven knows our needs and this together with his love for us assures us that we can appeal to a care that already exists in his heart. A father already has an interest in the good of his child before the child asks for anything, and yet a father loves to hear the child engage with him, and recognise that he is the source of all of the child’s good. How easy it is to persuade a father to do good to a child, when the father is disposed to do this even without asking.

Questions

By prayer God makes us co-workers with himself in the unfolding of his eternal plan. But if that plan cannot be altered and is determined from eternity past, how can prayer offered within time, have any influence on how his plan unfolds? Isn’t prayer about persuading God do change his mind? How can what comes afterwards, affect what happened before, in eternity past? Is prayer a real exercise or just an illusion? Do we have any real influence on God at all? There are many mysteries that are not revealed concerning the relationship between God’s eternal plan and our free will, but God assures us that he does hear us, and Scripture teaches many times the difference prayer makes. We resolve this puzzle by realising that our prayers having been predestined as the means by which his plan comes to pass. They too are part of that plan. Within that plan there is a link between our prayer and the outcome. He takes our prayers into account. If we do not pray, then certain things will not come to pass. We therefore take advantage of our freedom to pray and make real requests to our Father in heaven who is sympathetic to our needs. It is his desire that our prayers too occupy this crucial role and he does this in order to draw out our earnestness. Which comes first: our asking or his providing? No doubt, his providing, nevertheless he wishes to teach us to ask and so makes our asking a condition of his providing.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Matthew 6:8 Commentary and Bible Study