Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 6:8
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
8. for your Father knoweth before ye ask him ] Our Father knows our wants, still we are bound to express them. Why? because this is a proof of our faith and dependence upon God, which are the conditions of success in prayer.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 8. Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of] Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven, and to put him in mind that THERE is his Father, his country, and inheritance.
In the preceding verses we may see three faults, which our Lord commands us to avoid in prayer:-
1st. HYPOCRISY. Be not as the hypocrites. Mt 6:5.
2ndly. DISSIPATION. Enter into thy closet. Mt 6:6.
3rdly. MUCH SPEAKING, or UNMEANING REPETITION, Be not like the heathens. Mt 6:7.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
8. Be not ye therefore like untothem: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before yeask himand so needs not to be informed of our wants,any more than to be roused to attend to them by our incessantspeaking. What a view of God is here given, in sharp contrast withthe gods of the heathen! But let it be carefully noted that it is notas the general Father of mankind that our Lord says, “YourFather” knoweth what ye need before ye ask it; for it is notmen, as such, that He is addressing in this discourse, but His owndisciplesthe poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, hungry andthirsty souls, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, whoallow themselves to have all manner of evil said against them for theSon of man’s sakein short, the new-born children of God, who,making their Father’s interests their own, are here assured thattheir Father, in return, makes their interests His, and needs neitherto be told nor to be reminded of their wants. Yet He will have Hischildren pray to Him, and links all His promised supplies to theirpetitions for them; thus encouraging us to draw near and keep near toHim, to talk and walk with Him, to open our every case to Him, andassure ourselves that thus asking we shall receivethus seeking weshall findthus knocking it shall be opened to us.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Be not ye therefore like unto them,….. Do not be imitators of them, and follow their ways, who have only the dim light of nature to guide them; it would be shameful in you to do as they do, when you have a divine revelation for your direction; and especially, because
your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him; and therefore have no need to make use of many words, or much speaking, or long prayers. The omniscience of God is a considerable argument, and a great encouragement to prayer; he knows our persons and our wants before hand; and as he is able to help us, we have reason to believe he will; especially since he stands in the relation of a Father to us.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “Be not therefore like Unto them,” (me oun homoiothete autois) “Therefore you all do not become or exist in your religious behavior like them,” like the heathen-acting Pharisees who were publicly pious but privately pernicious, wicked, even thieves who absconded widows of their estates, after enticing their confidence through long, pious prayers, Mr 12:40.
2) “For your Father knoweth,” (oiden gar (ho theos) ho pater humon) “For God who is your Father knows,” perceives or comprehends, your condition and needs and is concerned with their supply, giving to all life, breath, and all things through His daily mercies, La 3:22,23; Act 17:28.
3) “What things ye have need of,” (hon chreian echete) “What things you have a need of or for,” Php_4:19; Dan 2:19-23. Though God knows our needs, He desires that we express them to Him, for things worth having or receiving as gifts, are worth asking for. With this thought in mind, our Lord proceeded to give the model or exemplary prayer, Mat 6:9.
4) “Before ye ask him.” (pro tou humas authesai auton) “Before you ever begin to ask him,” Luk 18:1; When man seeks first, as a first priority, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things are Divinely committed to him, sufficient to meet every need, Mat 6:33; 1Jn 3:22.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. For your Father knoweth This single remedy is sufficient for removing and destroying the superstition which is here condemned. For whence comes this folly of thinking that great advantage is gained, when men weary God by a multiplicity of words, but because they imagine that he is like a mortal man, who needs to be informed and solicited? Whoever is convinced, that God not only cares for us, but knows all our wants, and anticipates our wishes and anxieties before we have stated them, will leave out vain repetitions, and will reckon it enough to prolong his prayers, as far as shall be necessary for exercising his faith; but will reckon it absurd and ridiculous to approach God with rhetorical embellishments, in the expectation that he will be moved by an abundance of words.
But if God knows what things we have need of, before we ask him, where lies the advantage of prayer? If he is ready, of his own free will, to assist us, what purpose does it serve to employ our prayers, which interrupt the spontaneous course of his providence? The very design of prayer furnishes an easy answer. Believers do not pray, with the view of informing God about things unknown to him, or of exciting him to do his duty, or of urging him as though he were reluctant. On the contrary, they pray, in order that they may arouse themselves to seek him, that they may exercise their faith in meditating on his promises, that they may relieve themselves from their anxieties by pouring them into his bosom; in a word, that they may declare that from Him alone they hope and expect, both for themselves and for others, all good things. God himself, on the other hand, has purposed freely, and without being asked, to bestow blessings upon us; but he promises that he will grant them to our prayers. We must, therefore, maintain both of these truths, that He freely anticipates our wishes, and yet that we obtain by prayer what we ask. As to the reason why he sometimes delays long to answer us, and sometimes even does not grant our wishes, an opportunity of considering it will afterwards occur.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) Your Father knoweth.This truth is rightly made the ground of prayer in one of the noblest collects of the Prayer Book of the English ChurchAlmighty God, the Fountain of all wisdom, who knowest our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking. Comp. St. Pauls We know not what we should pray for as we ought (Rom. 8:26). But why then, it may be asked, pray at all? Why make our requests known unto God (Php. 4:6)? Logically, it may be, the question never has been, and never can be, answered. As in the parallel question of foreknowledge and free will, we are brought into a region in which convictions that seem, each of them, axiomatic, appear to contradict each other. All that can be done is to suggest partial solutions of the problem. We bring our wants and desires to God (1) that we may see them as He sees them, judge how far they are selfish or capricious, how far they are in harmony with His will; (2) that we may, in the thought of that Presence and its infinite holiness, feel that all other prayersthose which are but the expression of wishes for earthly good, or deliverance from earthly evilare of infinitely little moment as compared with deliverance from the penalty and the power of the sin which we have made our own; (3) that, conscious of our weakness, we may gain strength for the work and the conflict of life in communion with the Eternal, who is in very deed a Power that makes for righteousness. These are, if we may so speak, the lines upon which the Lords Prayer has been constructed, and all other prayers are excellent in proportion as they approach that pattern. Partial deviations from it, as in prayers for fine weather, for plenty, and for victory, are yet legitimate (though they drift in a wrong direction), as the natural utterance of natural wants, which, if repressed, would find expression in superstition or despair. It is better that even these petitions, though not the highest form of prayer, should be purified by their association with the highest, than that they should remain unuttered as passionate cravings or, it may be, murmuring regrets.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
“Do not therefore be like them,
For your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him.
After this manner therefore pray you.”
So they need not think that they should wear down God’s resistance, or try to ensure that He really did know what they wanted by their constant repetition, as though there were any doubt about the situation. Rather they should recognise that even before they begin to pray their Father knows precisely what they need before they ask Him. They are coming to One Who is fully aware of all their circumstances. Their praying should therefore be for the purpose of enjoying being in their Father’s presence, in order to bring glory to Him, and in order to pray for the establishing of His Kingly Rule, the Kingly Rule of Heaven.
The truth is that our aim should not be for personal benefit at all (apart from spiritual benefit, and that kept until the end), for we should be recognising that, if we are walking with Him our Father already knows our personal needs, and has not forgotten them. Our concern therefore should be for His glory, in the happy confidence that He will certainly not neglect our interests. These words very much link up with and parallel Mat 6:32, indicating that this passage is not just a later insertion, but an essential part of the whole narrative.
This idea of God’s personal care for His own people occurs in a similar way in the Old Testament. The hapless know that they can commit themselves to Him, and He is the helper of the fatherless (Psa 10:14). In a context of want and hunger, those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing (Psa 34:10). No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly (Psa 84:11). For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with good (Psa 107:9). Thus they can look to the Lord as their Shepherd, so that they will lack nothing (Psalms 23). And Mary could therefore cry, ‘He fills the hungry with good things, and the rich He sends empty away’ (Luk 1:53). And this is because they seek the Lord, and love Him, not because of the urgency of their prayers for the things in question.
The question here is not whether they pray a set prayer, or whether they pray freely from the heart. What matters is that in either case it is genuinely from the heart. And He now goes on to emphasise this fact by giving them what might be seen as a set pattern of prayer. It was a prayer of such simplicity that it outshone all other prayers of the time, which had a tendency to be rather verbose and complicated. We are so used to the spiritual simplicity of Jesus’ words and teaching, and of this prayer, that we fail to recognise how remarkable it all was. Jesus basically thrust aside all the waffling, and the ostentation, and the complicated theology, and made things available to the common man. That was not to say that there was no profundity behind it. Indeed the full depths of the Lord’s Prayer have yet to be fathomed. But His remarkable ability was to be able to be profound and simple at the same time. Even a child could understand Him, and yet men would grow old in seeking to do so.
But we should note what its emphasis is. It is the prayer of a disciple. Its whole concentration is on the fulfilling and carrying forward of the purposes of God and on the desire to be fitted for that purpose. It does not include a prayer for ‘things’ for the basis of it was that their Father was well aware of their needs for those, and would provide them without their needing to ask (Mat 6:8; Mat 6:25; Mat 6:31). It concentrates on what is most important, the fulfilling of God’s will and purpose.
‘After this manner therefore pray you.’ We note here that the prayer is a pattern to follow and not just a prayer to be prayed. Jesus was certainly not saying, ‘just repeat this and you have prayed enough’. He was saying, this is the pattern that you should keep in mind when you pray. And there can be a danger that by simply being repeated by rote it might lose something of its power. On the other hand as long as it is understood it is in fact vibrant with significance.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Warning against such absurd practices:
v. 8. Be not ye therefore like unto them; for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him. The Christians should differ from the heathen by a sharp distinction. They shall not be like the heathen; there shall be no point of resemblance between their worship and that of the heathen. Their idea of prayer is essentially unlike that of the Gentiles. “Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue. The eloquence of prayer consists in the fervency of desire and the simplicity of faith. The abundance of fine thoughts, studied and vehement motions, and the order and politeness of the expressions, are things which compose a mere human harangue, not a humble and Christian prayer. Our trust and confidence ought to proceed from that which God is able to do in us, and not from that which we can say to Him. ” Another point bringing out the absurdity of “babbling prayers: our needs are known to God before we make them known in our prayers. As a true Father He is concerned about the wants and troubles of His children, and gets His information often before they are aware of their lack, Isa 65:24. “God commands us to pray, not indeed that we with our prayer should teach Him what He should give, but rather that we should realize and confess what kind of goods He gives to us, and will and can give much more; so that by our prayer we instruct our
selves more than Him.”
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 6:8. Be not ye therefore like unto them This argument would be forcible against all prayer in general, if prayer were considered only as a means of making our wants known to God; whereas it is no more than an act of obedience to our heavenly Father, who has commanded us to pray to him, chap. Mat 7:7 and made it a condition of his favours; an expression of our trust in him, and dependence on his goodness, whereby we acknowledge, that all the benefits we receive come from him, and that we must apply to him for the attainment of them. “These words, says Dr. Heylin, are highlyinstructive, and may serve to give us a solid and practical knowledge of the true nature of prayer.” The proper end of prayer is not to inform God of our wants; omniscient as he is, he cannot be informed: the only thing wanting is a fit disposition on our part to receive his grace; and the proper office of prayer is, through the merit of Christ and the grace of his Spirit, to produce such a disposition in us, as to render us proper subjects for pardoning and sanctifying grace to work in; or, in other words, to remove the obstacles which we ourselves put to his goodness. Now the principal obstacles are, worldly-mindedness and self-love; whereby our desires cleave to earthly goods and corrupt selfish interests:but in prayer we suspend these desires, our heart being through grace turned so God only; and by whatever means we attain such a holy posture of mind, they are the proper means of true devotion. As long as our minds are attentive to God only, by whatever sentiment that attention is maintained, so long we pray. When such attention flags, we must renew it by passing on to some other consideration proper to keep our heart attached to God through Christ, and open to receive his pardoning or sanctifying communications.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 6:8 . ] seeing that you are expected to shun heathen error.
, . . .] so that, this being the case, that is superfluous.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Ver. 8. Be not ye therefore like unto them ] God would not have his Israel conform to the heathens’ customs, nor so much as once name their idols, Exo 23:13 ; Psa 16:4 . No more should Christians (as some are of the opinion). a That of Cardinal Bembus is somewhat gross concerning their St Francis, quod in numerum Deorum ab Ecclesia Romana sit relatus. But this is like the rest; for if we may believe Baronius, we may see their lustral water and sprinkling of sepulchres in Juvenal’s sixth satire; lights in sepulchres, in Suetonius’ Octavius; lamps lighted on Saturday, in Seneca’s 96th Epistle; distribution of tapers among the people, in Macrob. Saturnals, &c.
For your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye need, &c. ] And therefore answereth many times before we ask, Isa 65:24 ; as he did David, Psa 32:1-11 . He prevents us with many mercies we never sought him for; that our praises may exceed our prayers. “I am found of them that sought me not,” saith God; but yet in the same place it is said, “I am sought of them that asked not for me,” Isa 65:1 . Importing, that we never seek to him for grace till effectually called by his grace. Howbeit, no sooner is any truly called, but he presently prayeth. Say not then, if God know our needs, what need we open them to him? The truth is, we do it not to inform him of that he knows not, b or to stir up mercy in him, who is all hearts, and perfectly pitieth us: but, 1. Hereby we acknowledge him as a child doth his father when he runs to him for food, Luk 11:13 ; Luk 2:1-52 . We run that course of getting good things that he hath prescribed us, Jer 29:11-12 . Which Moses and Elijah knew, and therefore the former turned God’s predictions, the latter his promises, into prayers, Exo 9:33 ; 1Ki 18:37 ; 1Ki 3:1-28 . Hereby we prepare ourselves holily to enjoy the things we crave; for prayer both sanctifieth the creature and increaseth our love and thankfulness, Psa 116:1 ; Psa 4:1-8 . Prayer prepareth us, either to go without that we beg, if God see fit, as David when he prayed for the child’s life, and was fitted thereby to bear the loss of it; or else to part with that which we have got by prayer, for the glory of God the giver of it. Those that make their requests known to God with thanksgiving, shall have (at least) the “peace of God that passeth all understanding,” to guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. , Php 4:6-7 They shall have strength in their souls, the joy of the Lord shall be their strength, the glory of the Lord shall be their rereward, Psa 138:3 ; Neh 8:10 ; Isa 58:8 . In their marching in the wilderness, at the fourth alarm, arose the standard of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali; these were the reguard of the Lord’s host; and to these were committed the care of gathering together the lame, feeble, and sick, and to look that nothing was left behind. Unto this the prophet Isaiah seems (in that text) to allude, and so doth David, Psa 27:10 ; “When my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will gather me;” and this comfortable assurance was the fruit of his prayer.
a Non male dixit Tertullianus, Philosophos esse Haereticorum Patriarchas.
b Non sane ut Deus instruatur, sed ut mens nostra construatur.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8. ] , , , ; , , , . Chrys. Hom. xix. 4, p. 249. ‘Ipsa orationis intentio cor nostrum serenat et purgat, capaciusque efficit ad accipienda divina munera, qu spiritualiter nobis infunduntur.’ August. de Serm. Dom. ii. 3 (14).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 6:8 , , infers that disciples must not imitate the practice described, because it is Pagan, and because it is absurd. Repetition is, moreover, wholly uncalled for. : the God whom Jesus proclaims “your Father” knows beforehand your needs. Why, then, pray at all? Because we cannot receive unless we desire, and if we desire, we will pray; also because things worth getting are worth asking. Only pray always as to a Being well informed and willing, in few words and in faith. With such thoughts in mind, Jesus proceeds to give a sample of suitable prayer.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
knoweth. Greek. oida. Very significant in this connection.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8. ] , , , ; , , , . Chrys. Hom. xix. 4, p. 249. Ipsa orationis intentio cor nostrum serenat et purgat, capaciusque efficit ad accipienda divina munera, qu spiritualiter nobis infunduntur. August. de Serm. Dom. ii. 3 (14).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 6:8. …, before, etc.) We pray, therefore, not with the view of instructing, but of adoring, the Father.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
your: Mat 6:32, Psa 38:9, Psa 69:17-19, Luk 12:30, Joh 16:23-27, Phi 4:6
Reciprocal: Jer 3:19 – Thou shalt Mat 23:9 – for Mar 10:51 – What Joh 16:19 – Jesus Rom 1:7 – God Rom 8:27 – And he 1Th 3:11 – God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6:8
Prayer is not for the purpose of informing God about our needs for He already knows that. It is an occasion of showing our faith in the Heavenly Father.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 6:8. Therefore, because these things are heathen; the temptation to adopt or retain heathen worship will arise.
For your Father, etc. Another and more important reason for avoiding such practices. Our prayers do not tell our Father of our needs, but simply confess our consciousness of them, and our trust that He can and will supply them. Both of these feelings must precede answer to prayer. Hence the reason holds good against vain repetitions, not against childlike petitions.