The Lord’s Prayer is a part of the Sermon on the Mount. Here Jesus teaches principles that characterize the radical kingdom he announces and the attitudes and behavior that characterize those who participate in it.
And so, Jesus teaches a kingdom prayer. He establishes the standards of good practice for his followers first through negative examples that teach them how they should not pray (vv. 5–8), and, second, through a model prayer that teaches them how they should pray (vv. 9–13: Οὕτως οὖν προσεύχεσθε ὑμεῖς. The context suggests that the imperative in v. 9 is best taken as a customary present, expressing a habitual action. Contrary to those whose prayers are habitually self-promoting, those whose prayers follow Jesus’s model cultivate a different habit.
And so, Jesus teaches a kingdom prayer. He establishes the standards of good practice for his followers first through negative examples that teach them how they should not pray (vv. 5–8), and, second, through a model prayer that teaches them how they should pray (vv. 9–13: Οὕτως οὖν προσεύχεσθε ὑμεῖς. The context suggests that the imperative in v. 9 is best taken as a customary present, expressing a habitual action. Contrary to those whose prayers are habitually self-promoting, those whose prayers follow Jesus’s model cultivate a different habit.
This kingdom prayer has six petitions, grouped in two sets of three. The first set presents requests about God: three clauses, each [p. 21] with a third-person, aorist imperative verb, followed by a noun modified by a second-person possessive pronoun (vv. 9–10). The imperative is a natural choice in prayer, because it is the verbal form normally used when someone of lower status communicates to a superior.1 The second set of petitions presents requests about human needs (vv. 11–13). Each of these petitions contains a first-person, plural pronoun, and the second and third petitions are connected to the previous one by καί (“and”) to form one long sentence.
Our English translations may lead us to think that the first petition is a statement or declaration (i.e., “hallowed be your name” = “your name is holy”). We have seen that the Greek verb, however, is not an indicative but an imperative that expresses a petition. It is a request to God that his name be treated as holy because at the present time it is not always so. Essentially this is a plea for the coming of God’s kingdom, which Jesus says has drawn near (4:17). The second request articulates this plea: “May your kingdom come!”
The third request extends the plea for God’s kingdom to come in its fullness. Its word order in the Greek is illuminating. The emphasis is on the first clause, “as in heaven.” God’s will is done in heaven in a way not yet done on earth. The point is not simply to pray that God accomplish his will, but that God accomplish it on earth as it is [already done in heaven].
Through repetition and variation, the first three petitions ask God to realize his kingdom in all its fullness. Yet it is not a passive prayer. It is not a request that God act while human beings wait and watch. This kingdom prayer orients Jesus’s followers to the present revelation of God’s future reign. As a result, we may live in this kingdom by promoting God’s person, will, and ways rather than our own.
- J. Scott Duvall, Devotions on the Greek New Testament: 52 Reflections to Inspire and Instruct
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