How Do You Pray?

In Matthew 6:5 Jesus revealed what those who pray must first consider if they want their prayers to be heard and answered. Again, the Lord assumed that those He addressed were going to pray. He said, “When you pray,” not if you pray. From there, He proceeded to warn against two classes of people whose prayers will not be heard: the hypocrites who pray to be seen of others and the Gentiles who pray with excessive but empty words.

First, he addressed the hypocrites of His nation because of the face they presented to those around them of devotion and obedience to their covenant God while caring only for how they appeared to an observer. The Lord focused on their righteousness (or lack thereof) and what their righteousness (right living) must demonstrate—how they kept their covenant obligations (Matthew 5:20). Deuteronomy 10 defines these covenant expectations: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good” (vv. 12, 13).

Fearing the Lord is rightly understanding who Yahweh is in all His greatness as described in verse 14: “Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.” Obviously, no sinful human can fully grasp the magnitude of this awful truth and thus respond correctly to His awesome holiness in a way that even begins to acknowledge His majestic and glorious greatness. Yet, there must be a desire for God that fully consumes the whole of one’s existence. Fearing Him is to be fully consumed with Him.

Walking in His ways requires careful attention to His Word and responding in love, which is one’s grateful and humble response to God’s elective grace. “Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day” (v. 15). Yet conveys the powerful truth of God’s condescension and desire to relate to chosen creatures. One would think that those to whom He revealed such gracious accommodation would respond with great love and careful obedience.

Praying is communicating, a natural activity, connecting with Him in everything relating to that relationship. Sadly, those who could identify as those on whom God set His heart were not so characterized. Their praying was not motivated by the fear of God and their love for Him. Instead, they were bound to formal worship expressed in externals, devoid of any response to God. These hypocrites fulfilled their obligation to pray, not to engage their God, but to impress only those who watched them. Jesus saw this as self-rewarding and wholly inadequate to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Prayer Is Calling Upon the Father

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites” (Matthew 6:5). Praying is an essential discipline of the Christians life. It is not if you pray but when you pray.” The Lord’s concern here is how we pray when we pray. It is not a ritual performance requiring some special technique that must be learned.

There is no formal instruction in the Old Testament on praying because it is a rather natural activity and there are abundant examples to prove this. The first mention of prayer is in Genesis 4:26 where the ESV reads, “At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.” Seth, who replaced Abel, had a son, Enosh (meaning a male or mankind; Isaiah 56:2), and at that time (probably Enosh’s birth) Seth began to call on the name of Yahweh. There is a problem here with English translations because there is no word for people in the Hebrew and the verb began is singular. The LXX reads, “He hoped [or, had faith] to call on the name of the Lord God.” The text teaches that Seth trusted God and began to call on Yahweh, the name of the true God. The implication is that Seth regarded Yahweh as a Father to whom he could pray.

Moses remarked, “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?” (Deuteronomy 4:7). When Paul wrote that the believers at Corinth should be separated from the world because the church there was the temple of the living God, he cited as proof a general quote compounding many passages in the Old Testament, the end of which reads, “I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18).

Prayer is not intended to inform God, “for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (v. 8). Psalm 17:6 states, “I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words.” This verse provides a clear explanation of prayer—childlike crying out to God, recognizing that one is wholly dependent on Him. Prayer is to be spontaneous, personal, motivated by need, and unconditioned by time or place. It defines the relationship a child has with his father. This is the foundation of Jesus’ instruction: “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:6). Do no miss the wonderful significance of these words, “your Father.” Those who have been born again and have “believed in His name” are given the right to be called “children of God” (John 1:12). These children are assured that they have the ear of their Father. “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6).

Take Heed

In the last article, we examined the danger of doing good out of a wrong motive. Jesus warned, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them” (Matthew 6:1). In this instance, the wrong motive for doing alms is self-promotion. As demonstrated, alms giving is a necessary and expected duty. Citing Psalm 112:9 to support his claim, Paul describes a believer as one who “having all sufficiency” “abounds in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Psalm 112 reads, “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments!” (v. 1). He is a blessed man because, among other things, “He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honor” (v. 9). This is the very thing Jesus encourages kingdom citizens to pursue if practiced solely for the glory of God. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Jesus began by warning His own to beware or, as the KJV reads, “take heed” of practicing one’s righteous acts before others. The warning intimates that there is a very great danger of erring at this point. Many are inclined to believe that the very act of giving alms to the poor, no matter what motivates the giver, would be seen by the Father as acceptable so long as the poor are helped. To the contrary, Jesus made it clear that the motive of the giver is critical to Divine approval. The issue is pride, and God hates that sin.

The Lord gave a parable about those who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous” while treating others with contempt (Luke 18:9). In the parable a Pharisee was contrasted to a “sinner”—a despised tax collector. The Pharisee pridefully boasted, “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (v. 12). However, the sinner was accepted because he prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” from a broken and humbled heart (v. 13). The Savior concluded, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (v. 14).

A great danger lurks in one’s doing whatever he will, especially good works, to promote himself for his own praise and glory. Such an one already has his reward and will have no recognition from the Father in heaven. Instead, with relentless self-examination, one must guard his own heart. He must be brutal against self-deception for “if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31). Instead, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:5). The admiration of shallow-minded onlookers is nothing compared to the honor that the humble servant of Christ will receive on that day when “his horn is exalted in honor.” He will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant . . . enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21).

Giving Alms

Matthew 6 opens with a new section of the Sermon on the Mount, warning kingdom citizens against the wrong motives in their practice of righteousness. As noted, the previous section focused on what one practices as righteousness (right living); whereas this section focuses on how one is to practice that righteousness.

Jesus began the section presenting a general application of the principles necessary to the practice of righteousness. This presentation uses three acts that are typical of all religions: alms, prayer, and fasting. For example, the Koran teaches these three duties as necessary for one to enter paradise. Prayer carries a man halfway to paradise; fasting brings him to the gates, and alms give him entrance. Mohammad took these principles from Judaism and, no doubt, misapplied their function because of what he observed in the practice of them by the Jews. As mere religious acts, these things are worthless and do nothing to improve one’s status with God. As disciplines in our spiritual walk before God, they are important. What is more important is for whom we do them. The error of the Jews was that what they did they did “to be seen” by those around them (v. 1).

The Lord is not arguing that giving to the needy is unnecessary. The Lord clearly designated almsgiving as righteousness (v. 1). He assumed that His disciples were already in the habit of relieving the needs of the poor. However, what Jesus warned against was using benevolence deliberately to seek public recognition—the praise of men being the objective of the obedience.

The term translated alms is derived from the root meaning to have compassion or mercy. In other words, it is not that we give to the poor so much as what drives or motivates us to do so. Giving to relieve the needy is simply what ought commonly to characterize humanity. God requires His covenant people to practice benevolence (Deuteronomy 15:7, 8; Leviticus 25:35; Job 29:16; Psalm 41:1; Proverbs 14:21; 19:17; 21:13; 28:27).

Paul charged the Corinthian saints to be “cheerful givers” so that they may “abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8), supporting this by citing Psalm 112:9: “He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” Paul used only the portion of the psalm he wanted for his point, but an additional phrase ends the sentence: “his horn is exalted in honor.” Horn is a symbol for strength and power. The psalm describes the “blessed man” who is defined by his character, conduct, and destiny. The question is, who exalts him in honor? The scribes and Pharisees sought praise from others. Jesus argues that one should seek only that which comes from the Father. All glory is to be given to the Father through Jesus Christ. “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:13).

Do No Harm

Proverbs 3:30 reads, “Do not contend with a man for no reason, when he has done you no harm.” But what if someone does you harm? Are we free to avenge ourselves on someone who hurts us? As has been shown in previous articles, the scribes and Pharisees hijacked for personal use the instructions God gave to magistrates to administer justice in Jewish society.

In a recent conversation, the subject of the death penalty came up. Many people in the name of love sincerely believe that the death penalty is wrong because it is seen as revenge. Would it not be better to let the murderer live with the memory of the crime, hopefully regretting the deed? Also, what if the one being executed was really innocent of the crime? Is injustice to be the norm in this fallen world?

While sincere people may have good reasons to oppose the death penalty, the plain teaching of Scripture must override all arguments to the contrary. Sinful humans are not in charge of justice because even sincere people are affected by the deep corruption of their sinful natures. The very ones who protest the injustice of the justice system have no qualms about seeking personal vengeance on those who have wronged them. True, justice ought to step in and right wrongs, but, sadly, we live in a world full of injustice, much of which must wait until Judgment Day.

Believers have a higher calling. We represent the King of righteousness in a fallen world. Therefore, nothing is be taken personally by us even when it personally affects us. Thus, Jesus focuses on how His own are to respond to wrongs even when there is little hope of justice. Do not resist the evil, but rather love the evildoer. That is a revolutionary thing. When seeking the good of those who harm, people notice. It reveals sons of the Heavenly Father, who makes the sun to shine on rebels and sends rain on those who hate Him. Should we not do good to our enemies as well?

We are to be perfect (v. 48), the word meaning end, goal, or limit. It does not mean that a human could possibly attain the absolute perfection of God but is here used to encourage the relative goal of one who aims to be like God in moral character. The term is often used of the relative maturity of children as compared to what is expected of adults.

God placed Israel among the nations to demonstrate how wise and good God’s laws were compared to those of their Gentile idol-worshiping neighbors (Deuteronomy 4:6). The response expected would be, “What great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law” (Deuteronomy 4:8). The moral example Israel failed to be God has called His church to be. “You are the salt of the earth . . .. You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13, 14). If believers merely respond to wrongs in a normal human way, even in a good way, God gets no glory at all.

Who Is My Neighbor?

Remember, the often-repeated error with this section of the Sermon on the Mount is that Jesus was establishing a kinder and more spiritual replacement of the law given on Mount Sinai. Rather, Jesus restored the correct intention of the law by rectifying the errors of the Jewish teachers. The last sections (vv. 38–20, retaliation and loving your enemies) correct the errors of the scribes and Pharisees pertaining to how one responds to his enemies.

Lest we should be too hard on these teachers, we need to be reminded that we are all very prone to interpret the words of Scripture to agree with our own prejudice. We also need to understand the rabbis’ perspective. The theology of Judaism at the time of Christ was shaped by the Jews’ reaction to Gentile treatment from the time of the Babylonian Captivity. It is not difficult to sympathize with their deep-seated dislike of those who treated them so badly. However, nowhere in Moses does “hate your enemy” appear as either stated or implied. That concept was twisted out of Leviticus 19:18: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” The Jews read neighbor to equate with “sons of your own people.” Those who were not “of your own people” were exempt from the command. If such people did harm, hate and retaliate would be a proper response.

This insight is supported by the lawyer’s response to Jesus in Luke 10. He had asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life (v. 25). Jesus answered by asking him what was written in the law and how he understood it. The man rightly answered by giving the twofold summation of the law, to love the Lord and your neighbor. Jesus agreed and affirmed, “Do this and you will live” (v. 28).

The lawyer, knowing his personal failure which led to the original question, but unwilling to humble himself in the matter, sought justification by asking, “who is my neighbor?” (v. 29). The rabbis restricted the term to refer only to those related to them or, even more specifically, to those of their own party. The Old Testament defined the term more broadly. Generally speaking, a neighbor was anyone with whom one had some contact. Thus, a neighbor was any fellow creature made in the image of God. These qualify as those who are to be loved [cared for] as one does for himself. “When a stranger [foreigner] sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:33, 34). This includes not only those with whom we get along but, as Jesus develops here, “Love your enemies . . . so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:44, 45).

Fight the Good Fight

In a sermon on “The Sufficiency of Scripture in Disciple-Making,” delivered at the 2013 conference for the National Center for Family Integrated Churches, Voddie Baucham made and defended this observation: “In modern American Christianity, we will not tolerate biblical, spiritual, and theological maturity in men. . . . Nothing above mediocrity.” What ought to be a normal indication of spiritual life is seen as unacceptable, uncomfortably challenging to the average Christian who will not endure such maturity. He noted that when a young man pursues his faith with unusual zeal, he is told that he should go to seminary because he is evidencing God’s call to ministry. Such maturity will not be allowed anyone not called, for ordinary Christians must settle for modest and sub-normal spirituality.

Paul admonished Timothy, “Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12). This charge summarized his previous warning against those who wandered from the faith, suffering many wounds in their aberrant desire for gain (vv. 3–10). Instead, Timothy is urged to “flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness” (v. 11). This quality of spiritual life must characterize every redeemed and ransomed soul.

The enemy works to get Christians to settle for a spiritually mediocre life while pursuing worldly comforts and material gain. Many think that the mere hope of heaven should be enough to mark their faith. Thus, Jesus’ standard for His followers (Luke 9:23) is largely ignored because it is thought to belong only to those who desire a higher but optional level of devotion. This is wrong and betrays the false hearts of mere professors.

Paul closed his letter to the Roman church with a plea: “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together [wrestle] with me in your prayers to God on my behalf” (Romans 15:30). He was calling on them to join his struggle. Pursuing, striving, and fighting takes real effort, the kind of effort that contrasts the mediocrity characterizing the spiritual lives of most Christians. In Ephesians Paul explains that all believers need to prepare themselves fully for the spiritual war directed against them. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities” (Ephesians 6:12). Wrestle is a synonym for striving in Romans 15:30, involving the same strenuous effort expected of all believers in this gospel age. Praying is one spiritual discipline little exercised today as evidenced by the anemic condition of the church. Prayer is hard work. When Paul exhorts the saints to “to stand” (vv. 11, 13, 14), he does not mean that standing should be passive. The command to “Stand therefore” (v. 14) is modified by the participle “praying” in verse 18. We stand by praying, and praying is wrestling together against spiritual powers working against us. Our success in praying also depends on our pursuing “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.”

May God grant us grace and enablement to “Fight the good fight of the faith” as we enter a new year and a new decade.