What is the true meaning of the Lord’s prayer, and what are his kingdom and his righteousness referring to?
After the choosing of the disciples, starting in Matthew 5, Jesus gave us commands to keep as believers. One of them is the Lord’s prayer (Mt 6:9-13). He also said to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Mt 6:33). These are the two main points of Matthew 6.
After seeing the way in which the hypocrites prayed and gave to the needy, Jesus told his disciples not to do these things to be seen by men as they (hypocrites) do, but to pray to God who is unseen. He then told us what we should pray (Mt 6:1-13).
This prayer is the Lord’s prayer that many believers recite at the end of worship services. They do so with their mouths without knowing its meaning. If one does not follow through with their prayer in action, one is a liar to God. He listens to our prayers only if we act as well.
● Explanation of the Lord’s prayer
1) Verse 9: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name
① In heaven
Where is the ‘heaven’ at which God resides? The place in Revelation 4 where God’s throne is located is the spiritual heaven. God coming to Jesus at the First Coming (Mt 3:16-17; 4:17) was the spiritual heaven coming down to earth.
Also, the ‘tabernacle’ on earth on which heaven came down was called ‘heaven’ as well. The reason is that just as the sun, moon, and the stars are in the sky, Israel, who are God’s chosen people, were figuratively referred to as the sun, moon, and the stars, and thus, God’s tabernacle was heaven, the spiritual sky (Gn 37:9-11; Rv 13:6; 12:1; 15:1, 5; Mt 13:24).
② Our Father
In John 8, when the Jews claimed that God was their father, Jesus said to them that their father is not the true God, but the lying devil (Jn 8:41-44). This was because they were born of the seed of the devil (liar).
Only by being born of God’s seed, which is his word (Lk 8:11), can one call God ‘father’. Furthermore, God will only acknowledge those born of his seed as his sons (children). God doesn’t just automatically become the father of someone born of the devil’s seed just because he calls (the true) God his father. Neither can he just automatically become God’s son.
③ Hallowed be your name
God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He has no sin; he is the light of righteousness and life. He is the Lord who judges between righteousness and wickedness. He is also the owner of all nations and all creation. God is truly a holy and flawless being. It is only logical that his creation reveres and praises God’s holiness as he deserves.
2) Verse 10: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
① Your kingdom come
This is praying for the spiritual heaven to come down to and unite with the tabernacle of heaven on earth. It is also praying for God, who left the world, to come down to the recreated kingdom (tabernacle) on earth.
② Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Moses (Ex 25) and Jesus (Jn 5) fulfilled on earth just as they saw in heaven. In the same way, at the Second Coming, the one who fights against and overcomes the devil (the promised pastor) sees the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, in Revelation 21 and 4. He then fulfills it (Rv 3:12). Although the devil and his group will interfere with this, God and Jesus will be happy. We also ought to be happy, as seen in Revelation 19.
3) Verse 11: Give us today our daily bread
In the time of Moses, until they entered into Canaan, produced their own crop, and settled in the land, God gave the people of Israel manna from heaven every morning (Ex 16:14-36). Jesus said, however, that although the forefathers ate the manna that Moses gave, they died; but that he gives the food that does not spoil, that endures to eternal life. He said that this food was the living bread from heaven, his flesh and blood (Jn 6). Jesus himself is also the ‘Word’ as seen in 1 John 1.
The true daily bread that Jesus gives is the revealed word of the New Testament. This revelation was sealed in God’s right hand in Revelation 5, but Jesus opened it starting in Revelation 6, and thus, gave it as ‘the manna from heaven’, as the real food that endures to eternal life. The one who overcomes (i.e. the New John) in Revelation 10 is the only one through whom we can receive this (revelation).
4) Verse 12: Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors
⇒ Refer to the explanations of verses 14-15
5) Verse 13: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
① Lead us not into temptation
Jesus told us to pray this because he knew what would take place at his Second Coming. As seen in Matthew 24, nations will rise against nations and kingdom against kingdom. At that time, many fall into deception and temptation so as to betray each other; and as there is an increase of evil, the destroyer stands on the pulpit. He is telling us to pray to not fall into these temptations and trials.
② But deliver us from the evil one
He is telling us to pray for deliverance from the destroyer during when he strikes and overtakes the chosen people.
③ For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
It is only proper for the power and the glory to be God’s because he is the creator of everything, the Lord of all, and the Lord of lords (1 Cor 15:28; Ep 4:6; 1 Tm 6:15). All created things must befittingly give glory to the maker (creator) of all beings.
● Verse 14-15: For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. *But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Jesus spoke about forgiveness as follows.
In Matthew 18:21-35, the one whose master canceled his debt of ten thousand talents did not forgive his servant who owed him a hundred denarii, but had him thrown into prison until he could pay back the debt. The master, having heard this, called in the one whose debt he canceled, and asked why he threw his servant in prison instead of canceling his debt of a hundred denarii, when the master has canceled his own debt entirely. He then said that he too shall be thrown into jail, until he should pay back all that he owed.
This is a moral teaching regarding forgiveness. One who does not forgive others will not be forgiven.
● Verse 33: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.
What kingdom is this referring to? It is indeed referring to heaven. One cannot see or touch this heaven. Expressed in parables, heaven comes down on the tree that grows from a seed (Mt 13:31-32). This heaven also comes down on the one who overcomes (Rv 3:12). God’s kingdom (heaven) fulfills here on earth as it is in heaven, and it is to this place that heaven (above) comes down. This heaven is the kingdom that he told us to seek. This kingdom is the sealed twelve tribes of New Spiritual Israel (Rv 7, 14). We must seek and find this kingdom which God and the angels are with. Furthermore, ‘his righteousness’ that we must seek is the revealed word (Rv 10; 14:1-5) and faith, both of which can be found at this kingdom.
God’s will, as well as the objective of our faith that the 66 books of the Bible points to, is the twelve tribes of New Spiritual Israel, the kingdom that is created here on earth as it is heaven. This is the place we as believers must go to.
Shincheonji: Healing All Nations
http://cafe.daum.net/scjschool/E3qZ/297
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