What is…
The Lord’s Prayer

also known as “The Disciples’ Prayer”

Introduction

This is the common name given to the only prayer Christ specifically taught his disciples (Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4). It is more accurate to call it The Disciples’ Prayer, for it was given for them to pray, not Jesus. He would not have prayed this Himself, as He was sinless and therefore would not ask the Father for forgiveness of sin.

Before giving the disciples this prayer, Jesus first told them how NOT to pray:

When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Pray, then, in this way:

The Disciples’ Prayer
often called The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.] —Matthew 6:5-13 NASB


The closing doxology clause of the prayer is not found in early manuscripts and is omitted by Luke (11:2-4) and therefore some translations either omit it entirely (such as the New International Version) or include it with a footnote.

This prayer contains no allusion to the coming atonement of Christ, nor to the coming ministry of the Holy Spirit.

“All Christian prayer is based on the Lord's Prayer, but its spirit is also guided by that of His prayer in Gethsemane and of the prayer recorded in John 17. The Lord's Prayer is the comprehensive type of the simplest and most universal prayer.”

Streaming video— 
About the Lord’s Prayer and how we should we pray
>Dr. John MacArthur Jr. at the Ligonier Ministries’ 2005 National Conference on 5 Keys to Spiritual Growth
Video by Ligonier Ministries
Length: 56 minutes

“The opening words of the Lord’s Prayer have become so familiar that we often speak them without a thought, sometimes without any awareness that we are speaking at all. But to the disciples who first heard these words from Jesus, the prayer was a thunderbolt, a radical new way to pray that changed them and the course of history.

Far from a safe series of comforting words, the Lord’s Prayer makes extraordinary claims, topples every earthly power, and announces God’s reign over all things in heaven and on earth.” —R. Albert Mohler, Jr., The Prayer That Turns the World Upside Down: The Lord’s Prayer Is a Manifesto for Revolution

The true Lord’s prayer

John 17 records for us what is truly a prayer of Christ to the Father—prayed at what was basically the end of His earthly ministry as it was about to culminate in the willing sacrifice of His life in atonement for the wickedness of others—so that He could redeem lost sinners.

“Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” —John 17 NASB

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Article Version: June 5, 2019