Giving and forgiving

Meditation June 1. 2020

Matthew 6

I had this thought almost completed when I did something I should not have done and deleted two-thirds of it. Then, attempting to recover the two-thirds I had lost, I lost the other third. I can only conclude that whatever I had said, either what I said was not what the Lord wanted me to say or I had said it in a way that needed complete improvement. So, you get the new improved version.

“Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

Although I had not seen it in the past, I am more and more convinced as I work through this contemplation of the Sermon on the Mount that all that follows the beatitudes in this ‘sermon’ is by way of explanation and demonstration; a fleshing out of the concepts given in them.  We come now to the petitions for the daily need that we all have; i.e. sustenance for the day and forgiveness both of which are continual needs day by day. Again, we see the reflection of the beatitudes and the character of the new creature in Christ. Here, as we will see, is further portrayed the character of the poor in spirit, who mourns sin and strives to be a peacemaker.

“Our sustenance for the day ahead, give us today” is a more literal rendering of the verse. Some read it as give us for tomorrow our sustenance but that seems to me to strain at the point of the prayer which is daily, constant dependence on God for our needs. Not only does give us tomorrow’s bread today sound much too much like assure me today that I don’t have to worry about what You are going to do tomorrow but it is only about ten verses ahead that Jesus is going to say “don’t worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will worry about itself.” It seems quite clear to me this is not intended as a prayer of one who wishes to relieve himself of concern about how he will eat tomorrow but is rather the prayer of that humble soul who realizes that he lives always at the pleasure of the God who make him and whatever may be his labors, like the “lion that roars after it’s prey and seeks its meat from God” (Psa. 104:21) so also they. This, and the exhortation from Jesus that we should not worry about tomorrow, is not an exhortation against storing up grain in the storehouse, against saving and providing ahead as the Lord provides but it is a reminder that we live in a fallen world where thieves break in and steal, wicked men burn and pillage, plagues come and accidents happen. Though our pantries are full, we know not what the day ahead will bring; thus, we pray, however well prepared we may think ourselves to be, “God gives us such as we need this day to sustain us.” It is simply a petition acknowledging and expressing our humble reliance on God for our sustenance day by day and asking he will grant it to us as needed.

“and forgive us our offenses as we have forgiven those who offend us.” In the Greek, forgive (as we forgive) is in the aorist and should be translated in the past tense; i.e. as we have forgiven. We are not to think Jesus is here teaching that we earn forgiveness by forgiving others nor to suppose our forgiveness depends upon our forgiving others. All the teaching of Scripture is against this. It is not by works of righteousness that we have done that we are saved. (Eph. 2:8-9)  Rather it is as, Jameson-Fausset-Brown acknowledge, a reminder that “as no one can reasonably imagine himself to be the object of divine forgiveness who is deliberately and habitually unforgiving towards his fellow men, so it is a beautiful provision to make our right to ask and expect daily forgiveness of our daily shortcomings and our final absolution and acquittal at the great day of admission into the kingdom, dependent upon our consciousness of a forgiving disposition towards our fellows, and our preparedness to protest before the Searcher of hearts that we do actually forgive them.”

Thus, as we go to God for our daily provisions as those poor in spirit, humbly depending on Him for our physical needs so we go before Him as those who are merciful, having obtained mercy, and now acting as peacemakers. Suffering offence and persecution we for give that we may be known as followers of Christ by our love.