Concept

Lord's Prayer

Intro

The Lord's Prayer is the prayer Jesus taught His disciples when they asked how to pray. It opens with the address "Our Father in heaven," and works through seven petitions: that God's name be hallowed, His kingdom come, His will be done, that we receive our daily bread, that He forgive our sins as we forgive others, that He keep us from temptation, and that He deliver us from evil. The prayer is recorded twice in the gospels, once in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 6:9-13) and once in answer to a disciple's request (Luke 11:1-4). Christians have prayed it daily for two thousand years.

It is the most-prayed prayer in human history. It is recited in worship across nearly every Christian tradition, taught to children as the first prayer they learn, and used as a model for how to pray more broadly.

In full

The Lord's Prayer (Latin Pater Noster, "Our Father"), also called the Our Father, is the prayer Jesus Christ gave His disciples as a model for prayer. The prayer appears in two forms in the canonical gospels: the longer form in Matt 6:9-13 (set within the Sermon on the Mount) and the shorter form in Luke 11:1-4 (given in response to a disciple's request, "Lord, teach us to pray"). The prayer is structured as an address to God as Father plus a series of seven petitions in the longer form: three concerning God's purposes (His name hallowed, His kingdom come, His will done) and four concerning human needs (daily bread, forgiveness of debts, deliverance from temptation, deliverance from evil). A doxological ending ("for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever, Amen") was added in the Didache (c. 90 AD) and is reflected in the Byzantine/Protestant liturgical text but absent from the earliest gospel manuscripts. The prayer's theological substance integrates God's sovereignty and human dependence: God's purposes are named first, human needs are named in light of God's prior purposes. The prayer's pedagogical function is to teach Christians how to pray; Luther in his Small Catechism and Calvin in Institutes III.20 both walk through the prayer as the school of Christian prayer.

The text

Matthew's version (Matthew 6.9-13, ASV)

"Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."

Liturgical English (with doxological ending)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Luke's shorter version (Luke 11:2-4, ASV)

"Father, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we ourselves also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And bring us not into temptation."

Address and petitions

Address: "Our Father in heaven"

• Father: intimate, family-relational; the Aramaic underlying Jesus' speech is Abba, the term a child uses for a parent (cf. Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6).
• Our: communal; the prayer is plural even when prayed individually. Christians stand together in addressing God.
• In heaven: high reverence balancing intimacy; God is not just like a human father but the eternal sovereign.

Petition 1: "Hallowed be Your name"

That God's name be honored, set apart, treated as holy. The first petition asks that God be God in the world: that His character, reputation, and reality be acknowledged.

Petition 2: "Your kingdom come"

That God's reign be realized: in the believer's heart, in the church, in the world, and ultimately in the eschatological consummation. The kingdom Jesus proclaimed is both present (Mt 12:28; Lk 17:21) and future (Mt 6:10; 8:11).

Petition 3: "Your will be done, on earth as in heaven"

That God's will be obeyed and accomplished. The petition asks for alignment: that earth (the present reality) come to mirror heaven (the realm where God's will is already perfectly done).

Petition 4: "Give us this day our daily bread"

The first petition concerning human needs. Daily bread (Greek artos epiousios) is variously interpreted: (a) the daily ration we need to live; (b) the bread for the coming day; (c) "supersubstantial" bread (Vulgate panis supersubstantialis), the Eucharistic bread. Most commentators favor reading (a) or (b): physical, daily, ordinary provision asked from God who gives all things.

Petition 5: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors"

Debts (Matt) / sins (Luke). The petition asks divine forgiveness, but explicitly mirrors it against the petitioner's own forgiveness of others. The relationship is taught immediately after the prayer (Matt 6:14-15): if you forgive, you will be forgiven; if you don't, you won't. The asymmetry is sharp.

Petition 6: "Lead us not into temptation"

That God spare us the test we are not strong enough to bear. The Greek peirasmos can mean either temptation to sin or trial / testing. Most commentators favor the eschatological reading: spare us the great end-times tribulation. James 1:13-14 clarifies that God Himself does not tempt; the petition asks Him to spare us situations where we would fall.

Petition 7: "Deliver us from evil"

The evil one (Greek tou ponērou) likely refers to the devil personally. The petition closes with rescue language: spare us, deliver us, save us from the great enemy.

Doxological closing

"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever, Amen." Not in the earliest gospel manuscripts but present in the Didache (c. 90 AD) and standard in Protestant liturgical use. Catholic and Orthodox liturgies typically end at "deliver us from evil" with the doxology spoken separately.

Theological function

The Lord's Prayer integrates several key Christian convictions:

• God is approachable as Father: not deistic remoteness; not Greek-philosophical detachment; intimate relation.
• God's purposes come first: the first three petitions concern God's name, kingdom, will; the human-needs petitions follow.
• Human dependence is daily: not "give us this lifetime's resources" but "give us this day."
• Forgiveness is reciprocal: the petitioner's forgiveness mirrors and is mirrored by God's.
• Spiritual conflict is real: the closing petitions acknowledge temptation and the evil one as real threats requiring divine rescue.

Interpretive traditions

• Tertullian (c. 200), On Prayer: the first sustained Christian commentary on the prayer.
• Cyprian (c. 250), On the Lord's Prayer: walks through each clause.
• Augustine: integrates the prayer into the broader theology of grace.
• Luther, Small Catechism (1529): uses the prayer as the framework for teaching Christians how to pray; each petition gets a "what does this mean?" expansion.
• Calvin, Institutes III.20: extensive treatment as the school of Christian prayer.
• Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 100-107: walks through the prayer petition by petition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church §§2759-2865: full treatment.

In Christian practice

• Liturgy: recited in most Christian worship services (Catholic Mass, Orthodox Divine Liturgy, Lutheran/Anglican/Reformed Sunday services).
• Catechesis: taught to Christian children as the first prayer to memorize.
• Personal devotion: prayed daily by many Christians as part of morning or evening prayer.
• Hours of prayer: included in the Daily Office (Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox monastic traditions).
• Ecumenical: shared across nearly every Christian tradition; one of the strongest unifying liturgical elements.

See also

• Sermon on the Mount, the Matthean context for the longer form
• Matt 6:9-13, the Matthean text
• Luke 11:1-4, the Lukan parallel
• Prayer, the broader doctrine
• Kingdom of God, the petition's central theme
• Forgiveness, the petition's reciprocal dynamic
• Apostles' Creed, the credal counterpart in basic-Christian-practice catechesis
• Jesus Said, the catalog of Christ-speech passages