사도신조

- 사도신경(복음의 7대 연합이 담겨진 내용)

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.)

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.