Your Kingdom Come

The Lord’s Prayer, as it has been commonly referred to by Christians for centuries, is an example of how Jesus instructed his disciples to pray. Instead of drawing attention to themselves with public prayers or trying to get God’s attention through vain repetition, followers of Jesus are to pray to God as they would bring their requests to a loving, wise, good, and powerful father. Let’s see how D. A. Carson unpacks the first couple of lines of this “model” prayer in his commentary on Matthew in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary.

“This, then, is how you should pray: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Matthew 6:9–10

Our Father

By contrast with ostentatious prayer (vv. 5–6) or thoughtless prayer (vv. 7–8), Jesus gives his disciples a model. But it is only a model: “This is how [not what] you should pray.”

The fatherhood of God is not a central theme in the OT. Where “father” does occur with respect to God, it is commonly by way of analogy, not direct address (Deut 32:6; Ps 103:13; Isa 63:16; Mal 2:10). Pagans likewise on occasion addressed their gods as father: e.g., Zeu pater (“Zeus, Father”; Lat. Jupiter). But not till Jesus is it characteristic to address God as “Father”. This can only be understood against the background of customary patterns for addressing God.

The overwhelming tendency in Jewish circles was to multiply titles ascribing sovereignty, lordship, glory, grace, and the like to God. Against such a background, Jesus’ habit of addressing God as his own Father (Mark 14:36) and teaching his disciples to do the same could only appear familiar and presumptuous to opponents, personal and gracious to followers. Unfortunately, many modern Christians find it very difficult to delight in the privilege of addressing the Sovereign of the universe as “Father” because they have lost the heritage that emphasizes God’s transcendence.

Jesus use of Abba (“Father” or “my Father”) was adopted by early Christians (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6); and there is no evidence of anyone before Jesus using this term to address God. Throughout the prayer the reference is plural: “Our Father”. In other words this is an example of a prayer to be prayed in fellowship with other disciples (cf. 18:19), not in isolation (cf. John 20:17). Very striking is Jesus’ use of pronouns with “Father.” When forgiveness of sins is discussed, Jesus speaks of “your Father” (6:14–15) and excludes himself. When he speaks of his unique sonship and authority, he speaks of “my Father” (e.g., 11:27) and excludes others. The “our Father” at the beginning of this model prayer is plural but does not include Jesus, since it is part of his instruction regarding what his disciples should pray.

In Heaven

This opening designation establishes the kind of God to whom prayer is offered: He is personal (no mere “ground of being”) and caring (a Father, not a tyrant or an ogre, but the one who establishes the real nature of fatherhood, cf. Eph 3:14–15). That he is “our Father” establishes the relationship that exists between Jesus’ disciples and God. In this sense he is not the Father of all men indiscriminately. The early church was right to forbid non-Christians from reciting this prayer as vigorously as they forbade them from joining with believers at the Lord’s Table. But that he is “our Father in heaven” reminds us of his transcendence and sovereignty, while preparing us for v. 10b. The entire formula is less concerned with the proper protocol in approaching Deity than with the truth of who he is, to establish within the believer the right frame of mind (Stott, p. 146).

Hallowed Be Your Name

God’s “name” is a reflection of who he is. God’s “name” is God himself as he is and has revealed himself, and so his name is already holy. Holiness, often thought of as “separateness,” is less an attribute than what he is. It has to do with the very godhood of God. Therefore to pray that God’s “name” be “hallowed” (the verbal form of “holy,” recurring in Matt only at 23:17, 19 [NIV, “makes sacred”]) is not to pray that God may become holy but that he may be treated as holy (cf. Exod 20:8; Lev 19:2, 32; Ezek 36:23; 1 Peter 1:15), that his name should not be despised (Mal 1:6) by the thoughts and conduct of those who have been created in his image.

Your Kingdom Come

As God is eternally holy, so he eternally reigns in absolute sovereignty. Yet it is appropriate to pray not only “hallowed be your name” but also “your kingdom come.” God’s “kingdom” or “reign,” (see on 3:2; 4:17, 23), can refer to that aspect of God’s sovereignty under which there is life. That kingdom is breaking in under Christ’s ministry, but it is not consummated till the end of the age (28:20). To pray “your kingdom come” is therefore simultaneously to ask that God’s saving, royal rule be extended now as people bow in submission to him and already taste the eschatological blessing of salvation and to cry for the consummation of the kingdom (cf. 1 Cor 16:22; Rev 11:17; 22:20). Godly Jews were waiting for the kingdom (Mark 15:43), “the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25). They recited “Qaddish” (“Sanctification”), an ancient Aramaic prayer, at the close of each synagogue service. In its oldest extant form, it runs, “Exalted and hallowed be his great name in the world which he created according to his will. May he let his kingdom rule in your lifetime and in your days and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel, speedily and soon. And to this, say: amen” (Jeremias, Prayers, p. 98, emphasis his). But the Jew looked forward to the kingdom, whereas the reader of Matthew’s Gospel, while looking forward to its consummation, perceives that the kingdom has already broken in and prays for its extension as well as for its unqualified manifestation.

Your Will Be Done, On Earth as It Is in Heaven

To pray that God’s will, which is “good, pleasing and perfect” (Rom 12:2), be done on earth as in heaven is to use language broad enough to embrace three requests.

1. The first request is that God’s will be done now on earth as it is now accomplished in heaven. The word thelema (“will”) includes both God’s righteous demands (7:21; 12:50; cf. Ps 40:8) and his determination to bring about certain events in salvation history (18:14; 26:42; cf. Acts 21:14). So for that will to be “done” includes both moral obedience and the bringing to pass of certain events, such as the Cross. This prayer corresponds to asking for the present extension of the messianic kingdom.

2. The second request is that God’s will may ultimately be as fully accomplished on earth as it is now accomplished in heaven. “Will” has the same range of meanings as before; and this prayer corresponds to asking for the consummation of the messianic kingdom.

3. The third request is that God’s will may ultimately be done on the earth in the same way as it is now accomplished in heaven. In the consummated kingdom it will not be necessary to discuss superior righteousness (5:20–48) as antithetical to lust, hate, retaliatory face-slapping, divorce, and the like; for then God’s will, construed now as his demands for righteousness, will be done as it is now done in heaven: freely, openly, spontaneously, and without the need to set it over against evil.

These first three petitions, though they focus on God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will, are nevertheless prayers that he may act in such a way that his people will hallow his name, submit to his reign, and do his will. It is therefore impossible to pray this prayer in sincerity without humbly committing oneself to such a course.

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