사도신조
- 사도신경(복음의 7대 연합이 담겨진 내용)
사도신경(使徒信經, 라틴어: Symbolum Apostolicum) 또는 사도신조
기독교에서 사용되는 신앙고백의 하나로 주로 서방교회에서 기도문으로 활용한다.
'로마신조'서 유래한 기독교인들의 신앙고백문으로 주기도문(마태복음 6:9~13)과 달리 성경에는 나와 있지 않다.
사도신경(使徒信經), 사도신조(使徒信條), 종도신경(從徒信經)
서방교회의 주요 기독교 교파가 사용하는 신앙 고백문이다.
교회 공동체에서 기본적으로 믿어야 할 교의를 요약 정리하고, 초기 교부들과 공의회 등이 재확인하고 천명한 주요 교리 해석에 대해 동의하며 이에 대한 믿음을 약속하는 내용으로, 주로 니케아 콘스탄티노폴리스 신경을 대신하여 암송된다.
니케아 콘스탄티노폴리스 신경 대신에 사도신경을 사용하는 것은 동방교회에서는 인정하지 않는 서방교회의 고유한 전승이다.
본래 로마
지역의 교회에서 세례를 받을 때 사용하던 신앙고백문에 기초하여 발전했다고 추정한다.
하느님의 전능함, 창세의 사실, 예수
그리스도의 신성과 인성, 죽음의 과정과 부활, 승천, 심판에 대한 예언, 성령과 교회 공동체에 대한 믿음, 부활과 영생에 대한
믿음을 차례로 약속한다.
2세기 무렵부터 영지주의 및 몬타누스주의 등 이단 사상이 대두되자 기독교가 신앙을 정립하고자 정했다고 보고, 이 신조에 의거하여 이단을 구분한다.
325년 제1차 니케아 공의회의 결정에 따라 삼위일체를 부정하는 사람은 파문된다.
따라서, 사도신경을 외워 이에 대한 믿음을 선서하지 못하면 곧 이단이기 때문에 기독교 공동체 내에서 효과적인 신앙 검증 도구로 기능한다.
개신교 측에서는 "선생님은 살아 계신 하느님의 아들 그리스도이십니다."(마태복음 16:16)라는 베드로의 신앙고백을 토대로 만들어졌다고 보기도 하며, 사도의 신앙고백이라는 말을 사도적 권위의,
즉 성경의 내용을 잘 요약하여 권위가 있다는 뜻으로 받아들인다.
참고로 사도신경의 전해지는 이야기 중에 사도들이 예루살렘에서
만방으로 선교를 위하여 흩어지기 전에 한 구절씩 붙여서 만들었다는 전설이 있지만 역사적 사실이 아니다.
가톨릭 교회와 개신교에서도
이 전설이 사실이 아니라고 부정한다.
나는 전능하신 아버지 하나님, 천지의 창조주를 믿습니다.
나는 그의 유일하신 아들, 우리 주 예수 그리스도를 믿습니다.
그는 성령으로 잉태되어 동정녀 마리아에게서 나시고,
본디오 빌라도에게 고난을 받아 십자가에 못 박혀 죽으시고,
장사된 지 사흘 만에 죽은 자 가운데서 다시 살아나셨으며,
하늘에 오르시어 전능하신 아버지 하나님 우편에 앉아 계시다가,
거기로부터 살아 있는 자와 죽은 자를 심판하러 오십니다.
나는 성령을 믿으며, 거룩한 공교회와 성도의 교제와
죄를 용서받는 것과 몸의 부활과 영생을 믿습니다.
아멘.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ,
His Only Son our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried
He descended into hell
The third day He rose again from the dead
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God
the Father Almighty
from thence
He shall come
to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The Holy Universal Church,
The Communion of Saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body.
And the life everlasting,
Amen.
주기도
주님의 기도는 기독교의 기도문이다.
천주경(天主經, 라틴어 : Oratio Dominica), 주의 기도, 주기도문(主祈禱文)으로도 부른다.
예수가 직접 가르쳐준 기도문이며 교파를 막론하고 중요하게 여겨지는 기도문이다.
마태복음 6:9절에서 13절,
누가복음 11:2절에서 4절에 그 내용이 실려 있다.
대개는 마태복음서에 있는 내용을 위주로 채택하고 있다.
일부 기독교인들, 특히 개신교에서는 이 기도를 영광송으로 마무리한다.
그리스어 원문
Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς·
ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου·
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου·
γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς·
τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον·
καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν,
ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφίεμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν·
καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν,
ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ.
[Ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. ἀμήν.]
-
라틴어 버전[1]
- Pater noster, qui es in caelis:
- sanctificetur Nomen Tuum;
- adveniat Regnum Tuum;
- fiat voluntas Tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra.
- Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
- et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
- Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
- et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
- sed libera nos a Malo. Amen.
- (Quia tuum est regnum, et potestas, et gloria in saecula saeculorum.)
하늘에 계신 우리 아버지,
아버지의 이름이 거룩하게 하시며,
아버지의 나라가 오게 하시며,
아버지의 뜻이 하늘에서와 같이 땅에서도 이루어지게 하소서.
오늘 우리에게 필요한 양식을 주시고
우리가 우리에게 잘못한 이들을 용서하듯이 우리의 잘못을 용서하시고
우리를 유혹에 빠지지 않게 하시고 악에서 구하소서.
(나라와 권세와 영광이 영원히 성부와 성자와 성령의 것이나이다. 아멘)
- Our Father in heaven,
- hallowed be your name,
- your kingdom come,
- your will be done,
- on earth as in heaven.
- Give us today our daily bread.
- Forgive us our sins
- as we forgive those who sin against us.
- Save us from the time of trial
- and deliver us from evil.
- For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
- now and for ever. Amen.
The
Study of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4; March, 1931)
9"This, then, is how you should
pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,
10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts, as
we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the
evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen.
2 He said to them,
"When you pray, say: " 'Father, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom
come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread. .
4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against
us. And lead us not into temptation.
1. Introduction:
To know the syllabus of Christianity in a shortest
period of time, it is a reasonable method and a shortcut among others to study
the Sermon on the Mount, as I already said. To achieve the same goal, it is
nearer to its goal to study the Lord’s Prayer, a part of the Sermon on the
Mount.
Essentially, prayer is the pulse and crystal of the
religion. Where there is no prayer, there is no religion; in all ages and
countries, each religion has its own style of prayer. Each prayer manifests its
relative height and authenticity of the essence of that religion clearly more
than any other things. Especially, Christians have this model prayer that Lord
Jesus Christ Himself gave to us; this concise phrase composed of 57 words in
the original text contains the great truth of whole Christianity; it provides
much convenience to those who want to learn Christianity.
Like this, the Lord’s Prayer is not only an important
material to study whole Christianity but also it can be viewed as a separate
teaching as Luke described by looking at its location, rather than viewed as a
part of the Sermon on the Mount as Matthew conveyed; by taking this
opportunity, we shall study the true meaning of important words, by considering
it as a supplement to His teaching about the prayer in Matthew 6:5-6 within the
Sermon on the Mount. To help readers to understand, Matthew had tendency to
collect Lord’s teachings in fragments originally, and systematically arranged
them by their common character; like he collected parables of the kingdom of
heaven in chapter 13, the prophecy of His coming back in chapters 24 and 25, he
arranged the issues of deeds and motives in the first part of chapter 6; he
pointed out the standard of human behaviors in three paragraphs; good deed
between people, namely charitable deed in the first paragraph, good deed
between people and God, namely prayer in the second paragraph, and good deed
toward individual self, namely fasting for self-culture in the third paragraph.
When he was discussing about prayer, he inserted the Lord’s Prayer in the
middle; so the repeating clause at the end of those three phrases, ‘and your
Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly’ was not connected
orderly manner as we can see. (Matthew 6:4, 6, 18) Verses 7-15 regarding the
Lord’s Prayer seem to be additional compilation of other things; consequently
the timing of His teaching of the Lord’s Prayer seems not to be the early part
of His missionary work around Galilee, namely the timing of the Sermon on the
Mount.
On the contrary, according to Luke, “And it came to
pass praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said
to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’ So He said
to them, ‘When you pray, say: (Luke 11:2-4).” It is many scholars’ opinion that
Luke’s quotation is probably closer to what Lord Jesus taught them originally,
based on the fact that the reasoning of situations is more natural and the text
is short and clear. But, they are very similar in general and there is little
difference in their substance; so we will explain it by following the Book of
Matthew for convenience’s sake now.
All churchgoers can recite the Lord’s Prayer; even
kindergarteners learned to memorize it freely without looking at the Book. But,
the name of it causes misunderstanding now and then; of course, the Lord’s
Prayer does not mean that Lord Jesus used to pray like this for Himself; Lord
taught a model prayer to disciples who asked for one. Since Lord taught us the
Lord’s Prayer, believers should make it a model of our prayer; but "This,
then, is how you should pray:” does not mean that we should repeat the
outwardly ‘pattern’ of the Lord’s Prayer as it is; He was not asking us to
adhere to its phrases as He taught us. If we do, it is against His original
intention of teaching the Lord’s Prayer. Therefore, He taught us how to pray,
simply following ‘the essential points’ and its ‘spirit’ and knowing what you
pray for. While we can pray using completely different phrases for the same
purpose of the Lord’s Prayer like Luther, the majority of believers recites the
Lord’s Prayer many hundred times without a single mistake but their spirit runs
counter to the spirit of the Lord completely just like south pole and north
pole are diametrically opposed to.
The latter half of verse 13, the praise of glory, is
not in the Gospel of Luke; and only recent manuscripts of the Gospel of Matthew
include it; so scholars’ guess sounds reasonable that it was inserted after the
Lord’s Prayer was used during a public assembly or a service; such a praising
come to being at the end of this prayer is rather a manifestation of naivety,
and it is not an unnatural thing like grafting a bamboo to a tree. When we
exclude this praising at the end and the naming, ‘our Father in heaven’ at the
beginning, the remainder in the middle is the essence of the Lord’s Prayer. The
prayer consists of two sections; each section consists of three passages. In
sum, the prayer consists of two sections, six passages, and fifty-seven words.
This is the model of prayer for Christians, the greatest prayer of the world;
the whole truth of Christianity, namely the administration of the universe,
about which 66 books of the Old Testament and the New Testament convey, is
completely contained in these 57 words. It is true what Luther said, “The
lesser words are uttered, and the better the prayer is; the more words spoken,
the worse it is.” Those, who cannot pray like a lecture with an intonation and
a tune and so called a ’powerful’ prayer at great length, should be first of
all relieved at the Lord’s Prayer.
The first section of the Lord’s Prayer is about Your
(God’s) name, kingdom, and will, namely about the heaven. The second section is
about our bread, forgiveness, and salvation, namely about the earth; the first
section is for the heaven and the second for the earth, just like Moses’ Ten
Commandments consist of two sections, one about God and another for men; He
taught us that the beginning section of the prayer, that is the most important,
should be about God. Indeed, the heart of what believers concerned the most
should focus whether it is for the glory of God or not. Christ’s prayer did not
leave this central issue at all times. Nearing the end when He was praying on
the Gethsemane that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him, sweating
drops of blood in agony; and He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible
for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what
you will” (Mark 14:36). It was the manifestation of His most important issue,
which He could not disregard for a short moment; to Jesus, it was His food and
His living to do the will of God who sent Him, and to finish His work (John
4:34); His life and His prayer centered only on God from beginning to end. It
does not need to explain any further that our most concerned issue should
occupy the important first half of our prayer in an agreement with Him.
The second section deals with earthly issues, but
only one issue is about flesh and other two deal with the issues of redemption
and salvation; we should also pay attention to the fact that He prayed thinking
about brothers and sisters and all other people, always expressing ‘our daily
bread’, ‘our debts or sins’, and ‘lead us not into temptation’. According to
our experience of daily life, a matter of flesh is more urgent than a spiritual
matter; I can pray sincerely for the medical treatment of my illness, for my
family living, for the sanctification of myself, and for the redemption of myself,
rather than for my brethren or countrymen. We are thoroughly self-centered. Our
human nature makes us to believe that our brothers and sisters exist for me,
having faith is for my happiness; we even try to take advantage of God for our
self. Yet, Jesus Christ taught us how to pray: Pray more about spiritual things
than things of flesh, for ‘us’ rather than for ‘me’, pray for the salvation of
the countrymen or the mankind rather than wishing for the happiness of one
individual, and thirst for the glory of God more than for any other things.
When He gave us the model prayer, His purpose was to
teach His disciples who did not know how to pray (Luke 11:1); at the same time,
He clarify that there is the intrinsic difference between a babbling pagan’s
prayer and a dialogic prayer to Abba Father. However, some misunderstand the meaning
of ‘our’, and interpret that this prayer it should be recited together during
their congregational service; or by taking ‘this is how you should pray’
literally, others read it deliberately, just like Buddhists chant ‘May Buddha’s
blessing be upon us!’ for hundreds of times counting beads of a rosary; they
believe they are accumulating virtuous deeds by doing so, because they
completely forgot the intent of the Lord’s Prayer. So, Luther called the Lord’s
Prayer ‘the greatest martyr’; ‘our’ should be understood that we should pray
more for all believers and mankind rather than for one’s individual happiness.
According to the opinion of scholars, what Jesus
personally taught about prayer when He was addressing the Sermon on the Mount
is only Matthew 6:5-6; later when Matthew was editing the Lord’s Prayer in this
section, he inserted verses 7 and 8 as the introduction of the Lord’s Prayer.
Even if Matthew inserted it, it is very important; as Luke provided definite
materials to understand the Lord’s Prayer outwardly about time and place,
Matthew prepared indispensable materials to understand the Lord’s Prayer
inwardly about its motive and purpose.
When we pray to living God, preliminary knowledge we
should have is: we should not babble like those who pray to an idol that does
not have either an ear or an eye; we are not praying to a god like a stranger
who does not watch over us and who does not like to give us any; when we pray,
we should be conscious that we are asking to Father who knows our necessities of
life before we ask for them and He cannot wait to give us rather good and
valuable things even if we ask for bad and mean things (Matthew 7:11). When we
receive the Lord’s Prayer with such preparation, we can naturally understand
the reason why there is no other comparable thing. (Refer verses 7 and 8 to the
Sermon on the Mount)
2. Calling Name:
Our Father in heaven (Matthew 6:9)
Luke wrote only ‘Father’; some scholars guess Luke’s
is original form after all, and Matthew supplemented ‘our’ and ‘in heaven’
later for being concerned about confusion with gods on earth and own father; on
the other hand, since no one would pray to gods on earth or to own father by calling
‘Father’, there is no chance for a confusion. So, if Matthew added ‘our’ and ‘in
heaven’, other scholars think there are profound hidden meanings, and add all
sorts of explanations about them. After all, let us leave details to the leisurely
work of scholars; what is important to lay believers is to grasp its main point
of this verse. Namely, there is no room to suggest any objection to the fact
that the main point of Jesus’ teaching was to call ‘Father’ when we pray, that
is common in Matthew and in Luke. Jesus told us to pray, calling ‘Father!’ to
God who created universe and all things in it, who led out Israelites, and who
has administered the history of the world.
By understanding one word, ‘Father’, we can
understand the Lord’s Prayer; consequently, it is such an important word that
we can even understand the outline of Christianity by understanding it, just
like we can glance at Paul’s faith in general from Roman 1:1, whole
Christianity is contained in beginning verses of Genesis, and the outset of the
rest of books of the Bible manifest the most important truth. Now, depending on
our attitude of taking this one word ‘Father’, we can either become one who can
truly pray the Lord’s Prayer that is unique in Christianity, or else we can
fall into grievous state; as an old saying goes ‘people are born Catholic’, some
people try to feel ecstasy by submerging oneself into so-called religious
atmosphere by turning the Lord’s Prayer into a skeleton again by chanting it
ever so many times like Buddhists do, even though Jesus taught us to stop
babbling.
Jesus Christ was not the first who called God as ‘Father’;
according to scholars, examples had not been rare since Homer the great poet of
all ages, and especially around Jesus’ time, an idea to call the creator as
father was the fashion. But, the ‘fatherly god’ whom the great poet Homer
imagined could not get out of the sphere of imagination after all; it was not
far from the level of the ‘UNKNOWN GOD’ of people in Athens (Acts 17:23). In
their imagination, they could not find One like God of Israelite who held
Abraham’s wrist when he was going to sacrifice Isaac, and who had Moses to lead
Israelite across Red Sea and wilderness.
In the Old Testament, God was called as ‘Father’ in
many verses in the clearer sense: “You are the children of the Lord your God
(Deuteronomy 14:1). “Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you
and established you”(Deut. 32:6)? Their relationship was: “I will be his
Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten with the
rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men” (2 Samuel 7:14). (Refer to
other verses: Isaiah 1:2, 63:16, Jeremiah 3:4, 19, Hosea 11:1 etc.) What is
more, the Lord said, “Israel is My son, My firstborn.” They understood that
they had special relationship.
But Israelite was son or firstborn as a whole nation,
but not as an individual capacity. And, the nations other than Israelite were
not included in it. In those days, His only begotten Son (John 3:16) came down
to the world, to whom a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11, 9:7, Isaiah 42:1). After we heard His proclamation
that said: ‘He who has seen Me has seen the Father’ (John 14:9), “we cry out, ‘Abba,
Father’, for we did not receive the fearing spirit of bondage again, but we
received the Spirit of adoption” (Roman 8:15, Galatians 4:6). Since that time,
God and mankind entered into a special relationship of Father and children,
which was unseen in the past. And, not being limited to Israelite, all mankind
was able to call God, ‘Abba, Father’ through Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:45, Luke
6:35). We can say that the view of paternity toward God reached its climax.
As I mentioned it before, it is wrong to interpret ‘our’
to mean for us to use this prayer in the congregational assembly. The One who
taught us to pray only before God ‘in the secret place’ would not teach us such
an obvious contradiction. We should interpret this ‘our’ as His teaching,
always to pray for brothers and sisters, for public benefits over personal
happiness, to precedence of mankind over individual, even when you pray in the
secret place. Of course, it does not mean that you should not pray for one
individual or for personal matters. Paul prayed three times for his flesh (2
Corinthians 12:8). The main point depends on what the mental motive is.
Especially ‘Matthew used the phrase ‘in heaven’ many
times, about 20 times, and Mark and Luke each used once. It is possible that he
used it to distinguish Him from earthly father; those phrase ‘in heaven’ can
possible remind of God who is omnipotent, omniscient, full of ‘agape’, who
administers all creatures of the universe, transcending high above this world,
and who is on the throne that is radiating immeasurable glory. Christ taught us
to call ‘Father’ to God when believers pray. How can we possibly explain that profound
and limitless secret meanings are concealed in this phrase? When Christ wanted
to convey a message to mankind about Heaven, He likened it to a vineyard or a
mustard seed or a grain of wheat or Him and the church as a bridegroom and a
bride. For each case, Christ labored painfully about the method of His expression;
‘what parable to be used?’ or ‘how should He say it?’ When the Sadducees, who
say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him a difficult question to
be answered; in the resurrection, what happen to woman who married to seven
brothers? Jesus answered and sighed out to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing
the scriptures or the power of God.” We can imagine how difficult for Him to
deliver a message about things He saw in Heaven to fleshly people who did not
understand it. Salt and sugar are seasonings, preservatives, and white color;
but when He called Christians as ‘the salt of the earth’, there was an inevitable
necessity. A father or a mother is same parent in relationship; but when He
taught us the relationship with God as Father and son, there was an important
reason. We do not call Him king, master, judge, or creator, etc., but we do
call Him simply ‘Father’. Our relationship is completely personal; whipping for
justice on the one hand but serious love at the other hand, and fearing Him but
enjoying His grace, etc. If one utters this single word ‘Father’ lively, his
whole prayer becomes live. Conversely, if this word becomes lifeless, those who
pray are “people who draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their
lips.”(Isaiah 29:13)
3. The First Supplication (April, 1931):
Matthew 6:9 (Refer to Luke 11:2): Hollowed be Your
name.
In olden days, a governor asked to a commendable
person within his jurisdiction, “What is your wish?” If his wish was suitable –
if the governor could comply with it, his wish was realized. King Herod brought
the daughter of Herodias and swore to her, “Ask me whatever you want, and I
will give it to you. I will give you up to half of my kingdom” As Herodia
instigated, the girl asked for the head of John the Baptist; so the blood of
righteous man was shed (Mark 6:17-30). There was a girl of only ninth grader on
a deathbed, and her bright uncle in a college was staying at her bedside. When
her doctor informed him that her last moment was getting close, he asked her, “Hay,
what is your wish? Tell me! I will make sure your wish come true, even if I
quit my schooling or exchange my life with yours.” Girl’s wish was very simple,
“I wish simply to live.” It was a genuine feeling, without any trickery, to
give his life in place of hers; but it was impossible to do so. Even though he
tried to emphasize ‘the doctrine of the immortality of the soul’ since Socrates,
based on his knowledge gained from the introduction to philosophy class, for a
considerable length of time, not only she was not much consoled but also he who
was asserting emphatically was feeing emptiness himself.
It is impossible to have a man without a wish. But,
when we want our wishes to be heard, we better know who is listening to us. We
should ask to the governor something within his jurisdiction, to King Herod
something within the boundary of Philistine, but we should know that there is
nothing out of a notebook of a college student in the introduction of
philosophy class can console the soul of a young girl who was leaving this
world she was so much attached.
We are asking our wishes to omnipotent God who
created heaven and earth, all creatures in the universe and rule over them; we
are not bowing before granite strangely formed by weathering or toward an idol
shaped and plated with gold by human hands; still, we are not confessing and
submitting to a powerful tyrant. We are telling our wishes to God, calling Him,
“Abba, Father!” The One who hears our wishes is the omnipotent One who rules
the universe, and calling Him, “Abba, Father!” reflects the mentality of whole
Christians. Then, when we call Him Father, with whom we have loving personal
relationship, what is our first supplication? Like the mother of Zebedee’s
sons, entreating Him to grant that two sons may sit, one on His right hand and
the other on the left, in His kingdom, is because we can not discriminate what
to ask for (Matthew 20:20-22). We are entreating to the Ruler of the universe,
being on terms of intimacy of Father and son; wishes suitable to children of
Father.
The greatest and the most sincere wish should be “hollowed
be Your name”; namely the name of God should be made holy. We have intimate
relationship with God, when we call Him ‘Father’; that does not mean we can be too
close to Him while being ill mannered. We ought to realize that the hearer of
Christian’s prayer, calling Him Father, is the Almighty God who rules over the
universe. He is the Holy Being, who is holy, holy, and limitlessly holy; we
have to take our sandals off our feet and we cannot draw near Him (Exodus 3:5,
Acts 7:33, Joshua 5:15). People hid their face before the Holy One, for not
daring to see Him (Exodus 3:6, Isaiah 6:5, 1 King 19:13). When we pay reverence
rightly due to God by acknowledging the Supreme and Holy One, the intimate
Father-son relationship can be established justifiably. If there is the
deficiency in the degree of our reverence, our Father-son relationship becomes
impure. (The view of God in modern men has been deformed in this respect.)
Therefore, Christian’s wish begins with adoration or worship toward God.
The phrase, “hollowed be Your name”, is to express
our wishes indirectly altogether, because it is toward the Supreme Holy God Himself.
We express our wishes indirectly, because the connotation of this indicates
that people do not have power to make God holy or God Himself does not manifest
His holiness, but God manifest His glory through mankind and all other
creatures.
It is a cordial expression to call “Your name” to be
hollowed, instead of directly calling “God”. Israelite who considered them to
be the chosen people of Jehovah and the hair of God, they feared God too much
to call God’s name, and they forgot to pronounce it. It has been a long custom
in Korea too that people awe to call father’s name. Besides, ‘name’ clearly
reveals the intrinsic nature of the entity; therefore, saying ’Your name’ to be
hollowed, instead of ‘God’, expresses the intrinsic nature of God clearer. There
are numerous such examples in the Bible: “He gave the right to become children
of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). “Let those also who
love ‘Your name’ be joyful in You” (Psalm 5:11). “Through ‘Your name’ we will
trample those who rise up against us” (Psalm 44:5). The ‘name’ of the Lord is a
strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe” (Proverb 18:10). “I will
proclaim the ‘name’ of the Lord before you (Exodus 33:19). We can find more
examples elsewhere. ‘The name of Christ’ in the New Testament also indicates
the entity in the same way.
Greek word ‘hagiastheto’ is translated into ‘be
hollowed’, or ‘become holy’. God becomes holy, when we render to Caesar the
things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s (Mark 12:17),
when we consecrate even a earthen vessel to be used as one for an altar;
namely, when we face the Most Holy God with honor and worship which are
naturally due to holy entity of God.
The name of God is intrinsically holy without waiting
for the honor and worship of mankind. But, since the corruption of Adam,
gentiles were: “What may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown
it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew
God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in
their thought, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image
made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.
They exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature
rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Knowing the righteous judgment
of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do
the same but also approve of those who practice them” (Roman 1:19-23, 25, 32).
At the same time, Paul said to Israelite, “You who make your boast in the law,
do you dishonor God through breaking the law” (Roman 2:17-29)? And, through
Ezekiel God said, “I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among
the nations, which you have profaned in their midst” (Ezekiel 36:23).
Neither honor nor worship due to intrinsic nature of
God was found among either gentiles or Israelite. In such time, hallowing God’s
name means gentiles and nonbelievers began to listen to the sound of conscience
of each individual and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as
the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9); so firstly, the glory of God will be
manifested since they realized to worship the Lord who created the universe
rather than all created things without exchanging the incorruptible honor of
God with corruptible idols, and they honored and worshiped God appropriately by
acknowledging God; secondly, the holiness of God is manifested when Jews and
Christians make God pleased by obeying the words “You shall be holy, for I the
Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2, 1 Peter 1:15), they present ‘their
bodies as a living sacrifice’ to God (Romans 12:1). This is the relationship, “He
who sees you (believers) sees Me (Christ) and he who sees Me sees Him who sent
Me.” Not only Christ taught us so, but also His prayer and His whole life were
centered on how God’s name could be hallowed; “Father, glorify Your name” (John
12:28) and “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work, which
You have given Me to do (John 17:4).
4. The Second Supplication:
Matthew 6:10 (Refer to Luke 11:2): Your kingdom come.
“Kingdom” is “Your kingdom”: Namely, a kingdom ruled
by the authority of Jehovah God. And, the original word ‘basileia’ means ‘kingdom’
so it does not mean a constitutional government or a republic, but an
autocratic monarchy. Then, when you unconsciously and mechanically recite Lord’s
Prayer, by saying ‘Your kingdom come’, we ought to realize that we are
declaring our wish that is completely contrary to the current of modern
thought. The meaning of ‘Your kingdom come’ does not mean that we are praying
for the completion of the self-government, the realization of socialism, or
founding a communist government; on the contrary, we are entreating for God to
administer an autocratic monarchy. All modern mankind, especially young Koreans
are displeased with ‘dictatorship’, ‘autocracy’, or ‘kingdom’. We should
realize that it is not an ordinary thing to pray for God’s kingdom to come
quickly even if we understand with our clear consciousness that autocratic God
rules the kingdom.
Greek word ‘elthato’ was translated as ‘arrive’ in
old versions but as ‘come’ in newer versions. ‘Your kingdom come’ is one simple
sentence. Its meaning seems to be self-evident but this seemingly self-evident
sentence is one of rare examples which have been interpreted in many different
ways from olden times till now. For example, if 500 believers recited it in
unison in a church, each one would visualize different kingdom as they interpreted
it 500 different ways. (Omitted about 5 lines, which explained how Japanese and
Chinese translated in their Bible.)
‘Come’ can be interpreted as it comes gradually,
namely it advances and progresses little by little; ‘Your kingdom come’ can be
taken as ‘Heaven comes on earth gradually’, and if it is lopsided, a church
turns into a superficial charity organization which devoted itself to the
movement of building Heaven on earth zealously. Of course, each one will have
different idea about the concept of Heaven built on earth. Everyone can picture
the Heaven of his own: some religious people will imagine the mansion of a
missionary as Heaven on earth; some learned people might be envious of the
golden state, the United States of America, as the shadow of Heaven; or Denmark
in the matter of agriculture, or communist Russia, or any other thing of
individual choice.
On the other hand, by rejecting such gradual, progressive
view of Heaven, some pious devotees take eschatological interpretation of ‘come’
that the perfect kingdom of God will be established later on the Second Advent,
for they regard the movement of building Heaven on earth as a heretic. However,
in reality, every one of those who take eschatological view will of course have
his own imagination and belief when it comes to detail such as the timing of
the Day of Judgment, the form and substance of the kingdom after its
establishment, etc. Also, some who take eschatological view do not reject
progressive view at all, while some who take progressive view wish the
completion of Heaven as their final object; they are subtly intertwined in
reality. Each case cannot be discussed in detail here; we just want to study
the substance of the meaning of ‘Your kingdom come.’
Originally, Israelites strongly have longed for the
coming of the kingdom of Messiah. Therefore, when Jesus was spreading Gospel of
Heaven after John the Baptist was arrested, people tried to make Jesus a king,
namely they tried to establish the kingdom of Messiah; that 12 disciples dreamed
of the Messianic kingdom at the end can be learned from the betrayal of Judas
Iscariot, Peter’s admonition (Mark 8:32), and the request of James and John,
the sons of Zebedee (Mark 10:37), etc. If we examine this thought from the Old
Testament: The Lord says, “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I
am coming and I will dwell in your midst” (Zechariah 2:10). Ezekiel said, “My
tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall
be My people (37:27). “And the name of the city from that day shall be: The
Lord Is There” (48:35). Isaiah said, “The stretching out of his wings will fill
the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel” (Isaiah 8:8).
If we read other verses
such as Isaiah 25:8, 35:10, 65:17, 19 and 2 Chronicles 6:18, etc., they
prophesied repeatedly that the old shall be gone and the new will come; that
God will swallow up death and will wipe away tears; that sorrow and sighing
shall flee away and new heavens and a new earth will be created; that the
imperfect world shall be gone and the perfect Kingdom of Messiah will come.
This idea continued till the New Testament era and righteous and pious people
longed for this kingdom to come. “Now there was a
man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting
for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him” (Luke 2:25). Joseph
of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for
the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body (Mark
15:43). “Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our
father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven” (Mark 11:9-10)! “While they were listening to this, he went on to tell
them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the
kingdom of God was going to appear at once” (Luke 19:11). We can
understand the situation how righteous people at the time of Jesus longed for
the Kingdom of God, namely the kingdom of Messiah that was promised through
prophets. When this came to disciples, this heavenly news became clear as an
established fact visible to us as Paul said, “Now there is in store for me the
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me
on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his
appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). Of course, it was because the meaning of ‘heaven’
and ‘come’ became clearer when Jesus, who had been in God’s bosom, came down
from heaven. So, let us find the meaning of ‘Your kingdom come’ as written in
the New Testament with words as spoken by Jesus in the following.
The first evangelical
voice of Jesus was, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee,
proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”
(Mark 1:14-15). That was what John the Baptist, who came to ‘prepare the way of
the Christ, and make His paths straight, proclaimed on the shore of the Jordan
River, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2-3)! And the
first sentence of the Sermon on the Mount was, “Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Once, on being
asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The
coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will
people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in
your midst”(Luke 17:20-21); and He said, “But if it is by the
Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon
you” (Matthew 12:28). Namely, He meant that the kingdom of God has come within
us already. And, He also talked about the development and accomplishment of the
kingdom of God; He told them another parable:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and
planted in his field” (Matthew 13:31). Regarding its completion, He said, “And
this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony
to all nations, and then the end will come.” And, He also said, “For I will not
drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come" (Luke 22:18. Refer to
Luke 23:42, Matthew 28:9, Acts 3:21).
To conclude
based on above verses, we should not be infatuated with others who said “Here
it is, or “There it is,” and it has come within us or in our midst; we should
not insist it to be today or tomorrow, for it has come already to believers and
to people who are born again; it is not enlarged by the campaign or work of
people, the kingdom of heaven become flourishing like a mustard seed while the
Words of God are being spread to the world like a farmer is watering to
seedlings; if we, together with all creatures in the universe, heartily long for
the kingdom of God where the righteous sun shines and receive it as a little
child will (Luke 18:17), we shall see that our prayer will be answered in the
end.
When a
Christian prays “Your kingdom come,” he does not necessarily wishing for an earthly
paradise; he does not aspire to attain improved living conditions. We are
praying that self belong completely under the reign of God, and that whole
world obey thoroughly to the rule of God. Therefore, people who have tasted the
bitter taste of life are able to do such a prayer; it should be like the
prodigal son’s feelings, “But when he came to his senses, he said, “How many of
my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with
hunger!” (Luke 15:17); it must be wailing repentance of people whom God gave
over to a depraved mind because they did not like to retain the knowledge of
God (Romans 1:28-32); this kind of prayer can well up from people who share the
feelings of the psalmist of Psalms 13.
5. The Third Supplication (September 1931):
Matthew 6:10: Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.
This third supplication of the Lord’s Prayer as we
remember is recorded only in the Book of Matthew, not of Luke. Therefore, some
people think this third supplication is relatively less important part of the
Lord’s Prayer, but it is definitely not so. On the whole, as all the members of
one organic body have equal value (1 Corinthians 12:12-31), no part of the Lord’s
Prayer can possibly be eliminated, leaving other parts alone. When we utter the
Lord’s Prayer as living words out of our mouth, the first sound ‘Father’
comprehends the whole Prayer as mentioned before. Next, the first supplication,
‘Hollowed be Your name’, is filled with great truth that cannot be expressed
adequately with speech or writing. The first half of the Lord’s Prayer is
claimed to be related to spiritual things or important things directly related
to God, but the part belong to the second half is not entirely concerned about
fleshly things, worldly things, or self-interest or selfish desire. If we can
chant the last word ‘amen’ in unison with full liveliness, we may discover the
complete meaning of the Lord’s Prayer and grasp the Christianity on the whole.
This is not to trifle with a paradox under no circumstances. If we touch any
part of a living creature, we can feel the lively throb of life.
If the Lord’s Prayer becomes ‘the greatest martyr’ as
Luther called and only the skeleton of it is being recited repeatedly, part of
it might be useless and other part might be particularly important phrase. If
it is not such a skeleton, all parts of it should have equal importance.
Therefore, instead of making the first supplication as the annotation of the
second and the third supplications or including the first and the second supplications
in the third supplication as some scholars’ leisure work, we want to carefully
consider how the third supplication is related to our faith. If we rewrite the
verse: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Without saying who
prays or what religion he has, the purpose of a prayer has been to achieve ‘the
will of self’ through all ages; we pray in an attempt to attain our wishes
which are secretly kept at the bottom of our hearts; in many instances, we
usually pray for wealth, fame, a distinguished achievement, or the blessing of
descendents. There are many remains where Sung-gye Lee (The founder of Lee
Dynasty in Korea.) and other heroes prayed for 100 days to attain a throne or
power; these simply show what kind of usual prayers our ancestors have had.
Yet, it is surprising that the prayer Christians
should do is completely different; we should pray not for our wishes to be
achieved but ‘Your will be done.’ Usually, we pray to realize our will, and we
cannot pray unless our will has been moved. Nevertheless, Jesus wants us to
pray ‘Your will be done’. Needless to say, ‘Your’ means ‘God’s; there is no
such a contradictory concept. Therefore, a certain scholar called this phrase
‘the suicide of prayer’; he had a point. We pray to accomplish our will, but we
pray for God’s will be done; it is worse contradiction than a living creature
suicides. But, this contradictory concept distinguishes Christian’s prayer from
that of a pagan. This is an important point that shows a unique feature of
Christian’s prayer.
It does not mean that a Christian should not have a
wish for himself. Paul said, “Do not
be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). Request to God
‘in every situation’: It does not mean that you request only noble and
spiritual things, without asking for daily bread: Of course, it does not mean
that you should ask for like an adult, not like a child, does.
Everything is permissible, so just ask for it. Also, do not adhere to
face-saving or do not take heed to emotion arising in social circles. At times,
wrestle until dawn as Jacob wrestled with God (Genesis 32:24), or we might
demand persistently for a year or even for our lifetime, even if we lose our
face. And, God is pleased with such a prayer of trust, enthusiasm, and honesty;
it is a separate issue whether He answers our prayer or not.
However, we ought to know that we can pray to our
Father. Since we are praying to Father, there should be no distance; since we
are asking to our Father, we should ask without hesitation or without doubting
His love, even if our honest prayer has not resulted in effective answer or it
seems to be so because He delays giving His answer. Namely, Christians may demand
persistently and irrationally on one hand, but appending James’ condition: "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do
this or that" (James 4:15). It is not to accomplish my will by forcing
God, but to get God’s answer if my wish matches His will. Jesus’ prayer on the
mount Gethsemane most clearly teaches us this point:
Going a little farther, He
fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from Him. “Abba,Father,” He said,
“everything is possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will,
but what You will” (Mark 14:35-36). He started by stating
His wish prominently, but He ended obediently to God’s will as melting wax in a
hot summer day. He prayed wishing His prayer to be answered, and He would not
stop praying because it would not be answered. Without concerning about its
effectiveness, He expressed His trust to His Abba, Father. This is Christians’
prayer. Apostle Paul prayed three
times for his flesh. Though he was not healed, he rather thanked to the Lord (2
Corinthians 12:8-10).
In the phrase ‘on earth as
it is in heaven’, heaven where angels carry out God’s purpose obeying His will
perfectly (Psalm 103:19-20, Daniel 7:10) is contrasted with earth that has been
disobedient since the first man Adam. We are to pray that God’s purpose to be
accomplished even on earth perfectly. ‘On earth as is in heaven’ is an
independent clause, which can modify not only the third supplication but also
the second and the third ones; there might be slight difference of connotation,
but the meaning is similar in general. Therefore, the kingdom of God will come
where God’s purpose is accomplished, and His name will be exalted perfectly in
such a nation.
6. The Fourth Supplication:
Matthew 6:11: Give us today our daily bread. (Ref.
Luke 11:3)
Those up to the third supplication were about
heavenly things, but three supplications starting from the fourth supplication
are about earthly things or about us. Among those three, the fifth supplication
and the sixth one are about spiritual things, but the fourth supplication is
completely about flesh. Therefore, since olden days, reverend fathers and some
scholars claimed that this clause of seeking bread was unworthy of the divine
nature of the Lord’s Prayer as a whole; by interpreting ‘bread’ in different
meaning, they concluded that Lord surely taught us to seek for ‘spiritual
bread’, for He would not have taught us to seek for inferior bread for flesh.
There are numerous clauses in the Bible that support such an opinion.
Believers have food that the world does not know
about (John 4:32); food for believers is to take the words of God and to do the
will of God who sent Him (John 4:34). Believers already received the right to
become children of God through the authority of Him (John 1:12); ‘but our
citizenship is in heaven’ (Philippians 3:20). ‘Believers already have eternal
life and will not be condemned; they have crossed over from death to life’
(John 5:24). No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed
remains in Him (1 John 3:9), for everyone born of God overcomes the world (1
John 5:4). Only thing for us to seek first is ‘His kingdom and His
righteousness’ (Matthew 6:33); the thing for us to do is not ‘a matter of
eating and drinking’ (Romans 14:17); the work of God is to believe in the One
He has sent (John 6:29).
Looking at these verses, some heretics believed that
interpreting ‘daily bread’ spiritually as ‘bread of God’ or ‘the true bread
from heaven’ (John 6:32) would make the word of Christ more sacred; for it is
the last thing that Jesus Christ would have taught us to pray for food of flesh
and other five supplications of the Lord’s Prayer are all spiritual in nature.
Even though they did so to be faithful and devout to
Christ, they ended up doing wrong to Christ. ‘artos’ in Greek means bread; but
it means all necessary things for our living such as clothes, food, and house,
needless to mention here. Scholars who toiled to interpret a word clearly
referring to flesh as spiritual meaning made an error as great as their effort.
‘The Son of Man’ who grew up in poverty must have
felt keenly the necessity of bread. He was not only the Son of God but also
‘the Son of Man’ with blood and flesh. He did not talk about an impractical
theory or a futile argument just for a joke. He who was going to mitigate His
hunger and thirst with figs knew well that ‘hunger makes us weak and thirst
makes us impatient.’ By saying ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every
word that comes from the mouth of God,’ He knew that He was a citizen of the
kingdom of heaven as well as a Man living on earth; He also knew that He was a
spiritual being who eats bread made of wheat flour for His bodily living just
like other ordinary people. Believers are not different in earthly living;
believers as well as nonbelievers live under the control of same laws for all
matters; all of us are like earthen vessels, which are to be broken and are to
be returned to soil soon. We have endless hope of throbbing with eternal life
at one hand (2 Corinthians 4:7), and, at the other hand, our life is full of
unbearable agony even though our life will disappear like a weed that cannot be
found again where it used to be (1 Peter 1:24); in a way, believers have dual
life. Therefore, that Jesus taught us to pray for daily bread for us to live
bodily life is not a base teaching, definitely not a slip of the tongue, but a
necessary prayer for the realities of life.
Yet, if we interpret it as shown above, there are
timid scholars and devout believers who are concerned about praying for things
for flesh as heathens do; even if bread clearly means food needed for daily
living, they hold fast to their view that this one clause out of six must be
base in comparison to others, by interpreting the asking phrase, ‘give us…’ was
not taught by Jesus actively but He ‘permitted’ us to pray for flesh; at the
other hand, by interpreting such a way, they want to see a clear difference
from heathen’s prayer that asks for things for flesh in this world only.
We already mentioned it is wrong idea that praying
for necessities for bodily living is base, and it is also wrong idea to
differentiate our prayer from that of heathens based on the kinds of materials
in our prayer. Of course, it is true that the prayer of Christians – like
Lord’s Prayer – put more emphasis on heavenly things or spiritual things, while
heathen’s prayer mostly asks for only things for flesh. But, it is all right
that the fourth supplication of the Lord’s Prayer and heathen’s prayer are the
same; for example, they can ask for the same materials. ‘The difference should
be the attitude of the prayers, not the kind of materials they are asking for.’
Christians do not call on different gods to find one god who will answer their
prayer effectively; they pray to their Father even if their prayers do not get
answered. They pray heartily for their daily bread not only when they are in
need but also when they are millionaires already, just like a slave watches the
hand of his mistress. Not only they pray when they do not have job, but also when
they completed good work at the end of a day, without eating bread as their
right but considering themselves as an ‘unworthy servant’ (Luke 17:10).
God causes His sun to rise on the evil, and sends
rain on the unrighteous; He raises the birds in the air and the lilies of the
field. Even if we do not pray, we know we will have enough food to live on.
Therefore, Christians pray not because they worry that God would not give them
bread, nor because they feel poor in need of bread. Believers know well that their
whole livelihood depends on God’s support. So, Christian’s prayer is nothing
but an expression of a child who trust his father. So called Christian’s prayer
is from all born-again Christians owing to Christ, the poor or the rich, the
lowly or the noble, the sick or the healthy, who cannot hold back their trust
from out-flowing toward God the Father. Not only it is not base for us with
flesh to ask necessary things for bodily living but also it is natural thing to
depend on and to trust father for all spiritual matters as well as even fleshly
things, to be sure.
The Greek word ‘epiousion’ that is translated as
‘daily’ in the fourth supplication, has been interpreted in several different
ways since olden days; (1) necessary for subsistence, (2) many scholars read as
‘on that day’, (3) but it might be most appropriate to read as ‘following day’
and interpret it as a prayer asking for ‘bread needed for future days’. Namely,
if we pray in the evening, it means food for tomorrow, and if we do in the
morning, bread needed to sustain our life for that day.
And, ‘today’ was used in Matthew, but ‘each day’ was
used in Luke, and the forms of the verb ‘give us’ are different; meaning:
Instead of ‘give us once’ in Matthew, give us ‘continuously’ in Luke; but,
actually both mean the same. Namely, Luke was simply ‘asking for food needed
for each day, today’s portion for today and tomorrow’s for tomorrow’,
definitely not ‘to store so much of it that it will be consumed in several
years’. The characteristic of this prayer lies where we ask for our daily
necessities to Father who demands profound relationship to His children. (Refer
to the parable of a rich man who built a larger warehouse in Luke 12 and the
story about manna in Exodus 16.)
Thus, it is definitely not self-centered corruption
to pray for bread in order to sustain our bodily life. As far as thorough
God-centeredness is concerned, the first supplication of ‘hollowed be Your
name’ and the fourth supplication of ‘give us today our daily bread’ are the
same in essence; they are both equal expression of faith and identical
manifestation of love. And, the spiritual as well as bodily life of believers
is based on daily living in each day in principle; for the life in absolute
faith can not be any other than daily living in each day (James 4:13-16). One,
who can kneel before Father and pray naively ‘give us today our daily bread’ as
Christ did, is blessed because he is poor in spirit and the kingdom of heaven
is his (Matthew 5:3).
7. The Fifth Supplication (October 1931):
Matthew 6:12: Forgive us our debts, as we also have
forgiven our debtors. (Refer to Luke 11:4)
Though we are not the same as King David, who said,
“…according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions” (Psalm 51:1),
all believers’ sincere desire is to request our past sins to be forgiven. The
second half of the Lord’s Prayer is consist of the request of people or the
supplication about earthly things; the fourth supplication prays only for daily
food for body, but both fifth and sixth supplications are about spiritual
things; out of those, the sixth supplication entrusts matters in the future,
while the fifth supplication requests about things happened in the past. While
we live in body, we need food to nourish our body and it is a reasonable demand
to pray to Father as mentioned before. But, Christians are urgently compelled
to pray for spiritual things more than bodily things.
It is told that we know etiquette when food and
clothes are well provided, but it is also said that we can die gladly if we
hear the way in the morning in certain circumstances. It is true that a day in
a Lord’s courtyard is better than thousand days on earth. Experience rather
than a theory proves well that Christians eagerly burn with spiritual request
more than bodily one. Also, though both are supplications for spiritual things
and supplication for the matters in the future is not unimportant, an earnest
supplication for the forgiveness of inequities we committed in the past is a
true and urgent request from the bottom of our heart; it is common fact well
known to experienced Christians and we can see that it is in very natural
order. Unless the relationship between God and people is restored to right
relationship by disposing old sins, entrusting God to protect us from future
temptation is futile, daily bread cannot be valuable, and praise and
thanksgiving out of our mouth are in vain because they cannot possibly reach to
God.
Therefore, if we were poets, we should begin the
first verse, ‘blot out all my transgression’, like King David did; if we were
in a situation where we could pray only in one verse, we should pray for His
compassion so that He would first forgive our sins, like the criminal hung on
the cross who said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke
23:42).
Since it is our honest desire from the bottom of our
heart that our past sins are forgiven and it is like a preparatory part of all
prayers, all Christians without exception pray about it most vividly,
naturally, and eagerly. But, to some believers who tend to think deeply, this
supplication seems to contain numerous contradictions and questions, compared
to other verses. Therefore, some honest believers might stop their prayer when
they come to the fifth supplication. Accordingly some of them give up reciting
the Lord’s Prayer loudly out of their mouth.
As it was mentioned before, the Lord’s Prayer should
be our prayer to God everyday. Matthew used ‘debts’ while Luke used ‘sins’; the
duties we have not fulfilled to God, namely ‘debts’ to God, are ‘sins’. Jesus
taught us this in a parable of a king who settled accounts with his servants in
Matthew 18:23-35. Yet, all the sins, whether they were great or small and
serious or trifling, we had committed during the times of unbelievers were forgiven
already when we believed Jesus. Our old self, the body of sin, was crucified
with Jesus (Romans 6:6), and we became pure since that time. Therefore, it is
obvious that ‘forgive us our sins’ does not refer to past sins committed before
we believed in Jesus. Therefore, the sins mentioned here are evidently our sins
committed knowingly or unknowingly since we became believers of Jesus, and we
are praying for those to be forgiven. Sins make the space between God and
people filled with dark clouds and segregate them. Not only we invigorate our
energy by taking food for our body everyday, but also we should remove
obstacles between God and people everyday by maintaining spiritual respiration
so that sins committed on that day ought to be forgiven in the same day.
But, there arises a strong opposition against this
view. All Christians have been forgiven for their sins already, ones who were
really cleansed should not commit sins again, so they do not have to pray for
their sins to be forgiven. Believers cannot commit sins; if they do, it is a
proof that they are not really saved yet. St. John wrote, “No one lives in Him
keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known
Him.” “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed
remains in Him” (1 John 3:6, 9). So, even if same sins were committed as of
old, those are not to be called sins; but, regardless how they are called, the
facts remain the same sternly.
Of course, we count ourselves dead to sin but alive
to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11). Since the root of our sin has been cut
off, ‘sin shall not be our master’ (6:14). Because our past sins have been
purified with the blood of Christ, we are clean without any speckle of dirt (1
John 1:9, 2:1-2). But, it is true that we have duality in our life in the
flesh. Just like remaining stump of a cut-off plant often shoot out buds and
come into flowers, the plant of our sin that was cut off often regenerates its
root in our spirit and attempt to graft small branches to it. The superfluous
power of the flesh attempts to revive its power at all possible opportunities.
Apostle Paul sincerely confessed, ‘For in my inner being I delight in God’s
law, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war
against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work
within my members.’ He lamented, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me
from this body of death” (Romans 7:22-24)? Honest believers experience the same
feeling in common. Once we realize the fact that the law of my mind of inner
being does not commit sins but another ‘law of my body’ makes us to sin, we
should not sit tight vaguely, doing nothing but holding fast to a religious
doctrine; going one step forward, sins we commit each day ought to be forgiven
by repenting them on the very same day so that we can live a day as a
regenerated being filled with lively spirit like children, or start a life
journey of a day.
Because we have been educated that the secret of
self-culture is to ‘examine oneself three times each day’ as a disciple of
Confucius said, we are apprehensive of the teachings of Paul in a sort,
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on
toward the goal to win the prize…” (Philippians 3:13-14). However, wasting a
whole night merely thinking and examining sins already committed is not the
fruitful means for our life. Remembrance of accumulated sins not only makes our
conscience dull but also makes us unable to understand what the redemption of the
cross is, and unbelieving God’s love and power lead us to shallow faith and
faithless conducts. Even if we had committed sins tens of thousand times in the
past, we ought to dispose them thoroughly; after they are cleansed, we should
forget those completely; when we face new sins, we should face them with a
sensitive and fearing mind of a innocent maid.
As seen above, the supplication, ‘forgive us our
debts’, is necessary to maintain fresh and healthy growth of our spirit each
day by cleansing it. Whenever we recite the Lord’s Prayer in real life, we feel
unique difficulty if we come to the fifth supplication, because a sort of
condition, ‘as we also have forgiven our debtors,’ is attached, which is
different from other supplications. In order to avoid this difficulty, scholars
attempted different interpretations; for example, the verb ‘forgiven’ used in
Matthew is ‘aphekamen’, an aorist tense to express a past action, ‘have already
forgiven’ in English. At the other hand, ‘aphiomen’ was used in Luke to express
present tense, ‘forgive now’ or ‘will forgive in the future’. They tried to
avoid the difficulty of this supplication by taking Luke’s milder expression
rather than Matthew’s stronger one; they interpret that it is sufficient for
our sins to be forgiven and we would forgive others who sin against us at the
same time. But, for being very cramped expedient, Jesus added verses 14 and 15
after the Lord’s Prayer, apparently He disapproved such a temporizing means;
not to give us any room for an excuse, He said, “For if you forgive men when
they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do
not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Elsewhere,
He repeatedly said the same meaning more than a couple of times; Mark 11:25
says, “When you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive
him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” There are same
teaching in Matthew 5:23-24 and 18:23, etc. Thus, the purport of Jesus’
teaching is very clear. If we want our sins to be forgiven by God, it is
precondition for us to forgive others’ sins.
But, how can we practice it? We do not have ability
to love our enemy. Therefore, by praying for us to forgive the sins of others
and by borrowing the power of Holy Spirit, we can gain experience in forgiving
the little offense of our brothers; then, we praise God, knowing how great
God’s love is who forgives our great sins; for we are moved by His great love,
we are able to forgive the sins of others again. As Paul said, “Be kind and
compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God
forgave you (Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13), we need to practice loving
others; then we try to become children who gradually resemble our Father, till
we love our enemy without taking vengeance upon them, and we can ‘be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48).
It is so obvious fact: “If
anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does
not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen (1
John 4:20).” First of all, we should forgive our brother whom we have seen, and
go forward before God as His children to ask our sins to be forgiven. Of
course, our deeds cannot be the condition of exchange with God’s forgiveness,
as the Bible teaches us throughout. When we try to forgive little offense of
others, we realize how great and deep our sins are and how immense the grace of
God is, so that we can gradually shatter our self to pieces till we can humbly
pray, “Forgive us our debtors, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Thus, a
complete relationship between God and people can be established then.
8. The Sixth Supplication:
Matthew 6:13: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever, Amen. (Refer to Luke 11:4)
Earnest desire of Christians from the bottom of their
heart that their past sins to be forgiven is manifested as the fifth
supplication, “Forgive us our debts.” But, can we be content with repeating the
fifth supplication, simply because “where sin increased, grace increased all
the more” (Romans 5:20)? Definitely not! Even if we have sinned tens of
thousand times, if we supplicate with a little faith, God does not consider it
troublesome to forgive us ten thousand times, and cleanse us with hyssop until
we become whiter than snow (Psalms 51:7) as we can see vividly. But, what is
sin? It is not a sphere of imagination or a conceptual one. One who really
tasted the pain of ‘sin,’ one who experienced the difficulty of forgiving
other’s unrighteousness against him, children who realized God’s ‘grief’ when
He forgive us, cannot but desire deep in one’s heart that ‘one wishes not to
fall into new sins again.’ A patient is happy when a confident doctor cured his
disease with proper treatments. However, rather than tasting the same happiness
again, it is wiser for him to exercise actively so that he does not fall into
the pain of sickness again. Therefore, it is proper that the sixth supplication
comes after the fifth supplication, and it is the end of our supplications.
Thus, looking at the order of the expression of
Christians’ wishes, this sixth supplication is natural; looking at the purpose,
the substance is clear. Incompetent children ask for daily bread to Father in
the fourth supplication; children who committed sins against Father ask for
forgiveness in the fifth supplication; children who realized their weakness ask
for Father’s protection in the sixth supplication; all of these are in series
which manifest the utmost trust between Father and son. Yet, if we consider the
sixth supplication in detail, possibly there have been problems in several
aspects from olden times.
Greek word ‘peirasmos’ has two meanings; the first
meaning is ‘temptation’ into which Satan lead people, luring with suffering or
pleasure in order to capture them as prisoners with evil purpose; the second
meaning is ‘trial’ through which God tests and trains people with good intentions.
The problem is which one of the two meanings is applicable to this verse.
Whether we interpret it as ‘temptation’ or as ‘trial,’ both get into a
difficulty to some extent. Firstly, if we take it as ‘temptation,’ it is
meaningless to ask God not to tempt us, because “God cannot be tempted by evil,
nor does He tempt anyone” (James 1:2). Secondly, if we interpret it as a trial,
instead of avoiding or withdrawing from what God gives to train us, ‘we should
rejoice in our sufferings’ (Romans 5:3); and Christians, who ought to ‘consider
it pure joy, whenever they face trials of many kinds (James 1:2), seem to be
irrational if they try to avoid any trials.
Temptation is from Satan and trial from God, so the
difference in objective of those two is like the difference between heaven and
earth. However, if we think it over again, it is scholars’ leisure business to
pry into temptation or trial in the Lord’s Prayer. In a practical problem, we
cannot differentiate Satan’s temptation from God’s trial, and we do not need to
differentiate them. The temptation that Adam and Eve encountered with ended as
temptation (Genesis ch.3), but the Satan’s temptation Job faced ended in God’s
trial (Job chapter 1 & 2). Namely, Satan tries to tempt people by taking
advantage of God’s trial, and God tries to bring loved one to trial by taking
the opportunity of Satan’s temptation. Therefore, at the beginning, from a
person’s point of view, it is not possible to know if it is Satan’s temptation
or God’s trial. So depending on the attitude of the person who faces a problem,
one can either cave in to Satan’s temptation for being unable to cope with God
given trial, or at the other hand, another can willingly put up with Satan’s
temptation by considering it as suffering and discipline which Heavenly Father
gives to loving children in order to train them (Hebrews 12:6-12).
So, rather than wasting our effort to separate and
distinguish temptation and trial from the beginning, let us accept both
meanings as original Greek word has; the most urgent practical need is to
determine our attitude to cope with the situation when we face a temptation or
a trial. Even if God has approved the trial, mankind has to pass through it
with all our strength; if it is Satan’s temptation, the more we should fight
bravely until we win a victory. In fact, the most challenging problem of life
is how to be victorious.
In general, the surest way to win a war is to know
what the substance of enemy is before anything else; tactics of campaign are
secondary issue. It is possible that others in outer world cause us temptation
like Eve in the case of Adam, but as James said, “Each one is tempted when, by
his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed” (James 1:14) in most
cases. Our fleshly desire always becomes our strong enemy of our spiritual
work. Needless to say, we should realize external temptation and internal
desire and refrain from them, but more important thing than that is to
recognize the existence of ‘Satan.’ He is not a merely personified imaginary figure
of fleshly desire. Since Bunyan saw Satan with whom Luther fought and Satan
tempted both Job and Jesus, our battle should start by understanding the
substance of Satan clearly, who definitely exist just as God exists.
Since we have confirmed that Satan is our enemy with
whom we have to fight desperately even to death, we need to fight against
Satan’s schemes, putting on the full armor of God, with the belt of truth
buckled, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, with our feet fitted
with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, taking up the shield of
faith, and taking the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit
(Ephesians 6:11-17). Yet, how strong our enemy’s fighting power? Paul said,
“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the authorities, against the power of this dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). And Peter said, “Our
enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Against such a brutal enemy’s camp, how our battle
strategies should be? First of all, we need to acknowledge that enemy is as
brutal as a lion but we are as weak as sheep. The first step toward victory is
to fully recognize that Satan is absolutely strong one while we are powerless
without any room for argument. As it is in all wars, the biggest cause of
defeat in a war against Satan is to hold enemy in contempt. While fully
recognizing the powerlessness of our self but without fear, we will fight with
full weapons furnished, praying in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds
of prayers and requests and being alert and always keep on praying, when we
cannot avoid head-on collision out of necessity against our will.
But, the head-on collision with Satan is only when we
cannot avoid it; if possible, we should avoid all-out frontal attack against
Satan; it is not because we are cowards but because the wise man avoids
dangerous place. If Satan attacks us like a roaring lion and like the ruler of
the kingdom of the air, we should not decline a battle against him even though
‘our spirit is willing, but the body is weak’ (Matthew 26:41). However, there
is a great gap to cross between Satan’s tactics and our defense strategy. If
Satan incites us with clear sins, it is not too difficult to refuse it. When
Satan tempted Eve, he did not incite her to disobey God. As a certain scholar
guessed, Satan probably praised Eve’s beauty at first. At the moment she
accepted those words of praise, they were already ready to be expelled from
Eden. Who possibly knew that an ordinary word really could turn out to be a
huge bombshell that can determine the destiny of their whole life! To a man who
called Him, “Good teacher,” Jesus answered him right away, “No one is good –
except God alone”; there was a great reason for not accepting it.
Therefore, a person, who knows his weakness vividly
and has seen the power of Satan, would not use brute force, like trying to
catch a tiger with bare hand; he would rather choose to withstand it, avoiding
a head-on collision or a battle, whenever it is possible. We believe that the
sixth supplication of the Lord’s Prayer sends this message. We have praised the
courage of Han Shin who crawled through under the groin of scoundrels rather
than fighting with them, when they ordered him an insulting command to do so;
Satan’s case is particularly so. Paul wrote, “For when I am weak, then I am
strong (2 Corinthians 12:10). Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of
you, I never will” (Matthew 26:33). And he also declared big words, “Even if I
have to die with you, I will never disown you” (v. 35), but he suffered a
crushing defeat before a rooster crew three times; on the other hand, Jesus,
appeared like an incapable child, said, “My Father, if it is possible, may this
cup be taken from me” (Matthew 26:39), wishing to escape the time of
crucifixion on the Cross, but Jesus won a triumphant victory on the Cross at
the end; we ought to learn a lesson from it. Satan is not an enemy we can
easily fight off, but only God can easily defeat him; naturally, we ought to
entrust the matter to omnipotent One.
The verse, ‘deliver us from the evil one’, is not in
the Gospel Luke. Original Greek word translated as ’the evil’ means ‘evil man’,
‘devil’ if gender is masculine, or ‘evil’, ‘evil thing’ if gender is neutral.
However, because it is not clear whether the gender is masculine or neutral in
this verse, several interpretations have been suggested. From the context, it
seems appropriate to read it as ‘devil’, by taking it as a masculine gender.
The second half of this verse is neither an independent supplication nor the
repetition of the first half. The first half is wishing to avoid the temptation
from Satan while the second half is asking to keep us off from Satan himself
(apo) in more positive expression, an idea advanced one step further.
All scholars agree in their opinion that the
recitation at the end, ‘For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever, Amen’, was added afterwards. After the Lord’s Prayer lost its
significance and used as a prayer recited in unison at the church for the sake
of formality, it was inserted so that the congregation and the priest could
harmonize with each other. Directly, it modifies the later part or the entire
sixth supplication; indirectly, the Lord’s Prayer as a whole. The original
source is known to be from 1 Chronicles 29:11, but it is a natural recitation
overflowing from the mouth of the men who has prayed from the first supplication
to the sixth whole-heartedly.
(Supplemental
study of the Lord’s Prayer is completed.)
십계명(Ten Commandments)
십계명(十誡命, 히브리어. עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְּרוֹת 아세레트 하디브로트, 라틴어. Decalogus 데칼로구스)
유대교와 기독교에서 중시하는 계명이자 모세 율법의 핵심이다.
십계명은 우리가 승영하는 데 필요한 영원한 복음의 원리이다.
주님은 고대에 모세에게 그것을 알려 주셨으며(출 20:1-17), 후일의 계시에서 그것을 다시 언급하셨다.
십계명은 복음에서 절대적으로 필요한 부분이다.
이 계명에 순종하는 것은 다른 복음 원리에 순종하는 것을 쉽게 한다.
십계명은 성경에 있는 열 가지의 법으로서 하나님께서 출애굽을 한 후 얼마 지나지 않은 이스라엘 국가에게 주신 것입니다. 십계명은
본질적으로 구약 성경에 포함된 613개의 계명들이 요약된 것입니다. 처음 4 개의 계명은 하나님과 우리의 관계를 다루고 있습니다.
나머지 6개의 계명은 우리들끼리의 서로의 관계를 다룹니다.
십계명은 성경의 출애굽기 20장 1-17절과 신명기 5장 6-21절에
기록되어 있으며 다음과 같습니다.
1. 너는 나 외에는 다른 신들을 네게 두지 말라.
이것은 유일하고 참되신 하나님 외에 어떤 다른 신을 숭배하지 말라는 것입니다. 다른 모든 신들은 거짓된 신들입니다.
2. 너를 위하여 새긴 우상을 만들지 말라.
또 위로 하늘에 있는 것이나 아래로 땅에 있는 것이나 땅 아래 물 속에 있는 것의
어떤 형상도 만들지 말며 그것들에게 절하지 말며 그것들을 섬기지 말라 나 네 하나님 여호와는 질투하는 하나님인즉 나를 미워하는
자의 죄를 갚되 아버지로부터 아들에게로 삼사 대까지 이르게 하거니와 나를 사랑하고 내 계명을 지키는 자에게는 천 대까지 은혜를
베푸느니라.” 이 명령은 우상, 즉, 하나님을 눈으로 볼 수 있게 나타내는 것을 금하는 것입니다. 하나님을 정확하게 묘사할 수
있는 우상을 만드는 것은 가능하지 않습니다. 하나님을 묘사하는 우상을 만드는 것은 거짓된 신을 숭배하는 것입니다.
3. 너는 네 하나님 여호와의 이름을 망령되게 부르지 말라.
여호와는 그의 이름을 망령되게 부르는 자를 죄 없다 하지
아니하리라.
이것은 주님의 이름을 헛되이 취하지 말라는 명령입니다. 우리는 하나님의 이름을 가볍게 취급하지 않아야 합니다.
우리는 오직 존경하고 공경하는 방법으로 하나님을 언급함으로써 하나님께 대한 경외심을 보여야 합니다.
4. 안식일을 기억하여 거룩하게 지키라.
엿새 동안은 힘써 네 모든 일을 행할 것이나 일곱째 날은 네 하나님 여호와의 안식일인즉
너나 네 아들이나 네 딸이나 네 남종이나 네 여종이나 네 가축이나 네 문안에 머무는 객이라도 아무 일도 하지 말라. 이는 엿새
동안에 나 여호와가 하늘과 땅과 바다와 그 가운데 모든 것을 만들고 일곱째 날에 쉬었음이라 그러므로 나 여호와가 안식일을 복되게
하여 그 날을 거룩하게 하였느니라.
이것은 우리가 주님께 전념하고 쉬는 날로서 안식일(토요일, 한 주간에 마지막 날)을 따로
챙기라는 명령입니다.
5. 네 부모를 공경하라.
그리하면 네 하나님 여호와가 네게 준 땅에서 네 생명이 길리라.
이것은 부모님을 항상 존중하고 공경하라는 명령입니다.
6. 살인하지 말라.
이것은 다른 사람을 계획적으로 죽이지 말라는 명령입니다.
7. 간음하지 말라.
이것은 자신의 배우자 외에 다른 누구와도 성관계를 하지 말라는 명령입니다.
8. 도둑질하지 말라.
이것은 자신이 소유하지 않은 그 어떤 것도 그것을 소유한 사람의 허락 없이 취하지 말라는 명령입니다.
9. 네 이웃에 대하여 거짓 증거하지 말라.
이것은 다른 사람에 대해 거짓으로 증언하는 것을 금하는 명령입니다.
이것은 본질적으로 거짓말을 하지 말라는 명령입니다.
10. 네 이웃의 집을 탐내지 말라.
네 이웃의 아내나 그의 남종이나 그의 여종이나 그의 소나 그의 나귀나 무릇 네 이웃의 소유를
탐내지 말라.
이것은 자신의 것이 아니면 그 어떤 것이라도 갈망하지 말라는 명령입니다.
탐낸다는 것은 위에 열거된
계명들(살인, 간음, 그리고 도둑질에 관한 계명들) 중 하나를 어기게 할 수 있습니다.
어떤 것을 하는 것이 잘못이라면, 바로
그것을 하려는 욕구 또한 잘못된 것입니다.
많은 사람들이 십계명을 지키면 죽은 후에 천국 가는 것을 보장하는 한 묶음의 규율로 잘못 알고 있습니다. 이와 반대로, 십계명의
목적은 사람들로 하여금 그들이 율법을 완벽하게 지킬 수 없다는 것과(롬 7:7-11) 따라서 하나님의 자비와 은혜가 필요하다는
사실을 강력하게 깨닫게 하는 것입니다. 마태복음 19장 16절에 나오는 부자 청년의 주장과는 반대로 누구도 완벽하게 십계명을 지킬
수 없습니다(전 7:20). 십계명은 우리 모두가 죄를 범하였고(롬 3:23), 그러므로 오직 예수 그리스도를 믿는 믿음을
통해서만이 얻을 수 있는 하나님의 자비와 은혜가 우리에게 필요하다는 것을 보여줍니다.
십계명의 대부분은 우리가
해서는 안 되는 것들을 열거하지만, 그것들은 또한
해야 할 일들을 나타내기도 한다.
구주께서는 십계명을 두 가지 원리, 즉 주님에 대한 사랑과 이웃에 대한 사랑으로 요약하셨다.
“네 마음을 다하고 목숨을 다하고 뜻을 다하여 주 너희 하나님을 사랑하라 하셨으니
“이것이 크고 첫째되는 계명이요
“둘째도 그와 같으니 네 이웃을 네 자신같이 사랑하라 하셨으니”(마태복음 22:37-39)
1. You Shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything. And you shall not bow down to them or worship them.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
1. 너는 나 외에는 다른 신들을 네게 있게 말지니라.
2. 너는 아무 형상이든지 너를 위하여 우상을 만들지 말고, 그것들에게 절하지 말며, 그것들을 섬기지 말라.
3. 너는 너의 하나님 여호와의 이름을 망령되이 일컫지 말라.
4. 안식일을 기억하여 거룩히 지키라.
5. 네 부모를 공경하라.
6. 살인하지 말지니라.
7. 간음하지 말지니라.
8. 도적질하지 말지니라.
9. 네 이웃에 대하여 거짓증거하지 말지니라.
10. 네 이웃의 집을 탐내지 말지니라.