Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
God is a true paternal Father and not a stern judge, and He already knows every need, motive, secret thought and infirmity better than people know themselves, so they can come to Him with confidence in His love. For this reason prayer is not to inform Him or to tell Him a long story, and it must not copy hypocrites who pray to be seen or heathen who think many words will gain a hearing. Vain repetition of meaningless words without thought, desire and understanding, and long tedious prayers for display, lofty language and emotional excess do not please Him. Instead prayer opens the heart to receive Him and brings the soul into harmony with Him, expressing earnest dependence and weakness while asking confidently and receiving grace and strength to do right. He therefore gave a short model prayer that embraces every temporal and spiritual need, teaching that brief, simple, childlike and heartfelt requests with thanksgiving are fully acceptable and keep from asking amiss.
Setting and Wording
The verse belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, which was given especially to the disciples while the multitude also listened and learned from the teaching. It was spoken to the inner circle of followers first, yet the gathered crowd heard and received its instruction as well.
The word Father means that God is truly a paternal Father and not a stern, unfeeling judge as human traditions have portrayed Him. He is the Supreme Ruler, and people may approach Him with confidence in His paternal love.
The Father knows what things are needed before they are asked, and His knowledge of need is certain. He knows human infirmity and will help by His power those who trust fully in Him. He knows the motive that prompts every self-righteous action, that it is the desire to be praised by men. He knows the secrets and hidden thoughts of every soul, and He knows what people need even better than they know themselves. He is aware of every need before asking.
False Prayer Rejected
Be not like them means do not pray like the hypocrites who pray to be seen by others, and do not pray like the heathen who suppose they will be heard because of much speaking and many words. Since the Father already knows what is needed before it is asked, prayer that imitates heathen empty repetition or relies on a multitude of words is excluded. Prayer is therefore not given to inform God of needs, because He knows them beforehand.
Vain repetition is words without meaning, words often repeated without corresponding thought or proper understanding, words spoken without true and earnest desire. It is a careless, unmeaning repetition of many words, and God is not pleased with it. That kind of repetition is what makes many prayers long and tiresome.
Long, tedious, pharisaical prayers offered to be heard of men are unacceptable and unnecessary, especially when they exalt the supposed good works of men. Prayer must not be a display of good deeds or a way to win human praise, but an expression of dependence and weakness before God who is the source and end of all. Humble secret prayer is heard by Him who sees in secret, and its answer may come later when help is needed in a trying situation. Prayer must not use lofty, flowery words, for the acceptable request is humble, simple and earnest, offered with a broken and penitent spirit asking for mercy and pardon. It calls for childlike asking for the things actually needed rather than emotional excess or lofty, empty words, and words that describe a misery not truly felt are hypocritical. Prayer need not be loud or long to bring the one who prays into harmony with God.
Purpose of Prayer
Prayer is not given to tell God what He does not already know, for the Father knows what is needed before it is asked, and therefore prayer is not meant to inform Him of needs, desires, or hidden matters. It is not a long story or account laid before Him as if He must be instructed, since He already knows people as they are and knows the secrets and hidden thoughts of every soul. For that reason prayer does not depend on many words and repetitions to be heard, nor does it need to be long or loud to reach Him.
Its true work is to express earnest dependence and conscious weakness before God, who is the source and end of all, rather than to display good deeds or win human praise. By opening the heart it enables the one who prays to receive Him, bringing the soul into harmony with Him. It does not change God, and it does not take the place of duty.
He who hears sees the soul's struggle with doubt and temptation and recognizes the sincerity of the one who prays. Humble secret prayer is heard by Him who sees in secret and rewards openly. Its answer may not come at once but later, when help is needed in a trying situation.
Although God already knows, coming to Him and asking confidently remains both duty and daily privilege. Asking is a condition to be followed: telling the Saviour what is needed, trusting Him to help do right, and relying on His strength rather than one's own, in order to receive Christ as Helper and rich grace.
There is therefore every encouragement to bring all difficulties to the Father, without needing to reason a case before Him. He will not misinterpret the words in which needs are expressed, but always understands them. Even in physical weakness a person may draw near with certainty that He understands, and may depend on power greater than human power to receive all that is needed in order to impart to others.
Brief Sincere Manner
In kindness the ignorance of what to pray for as ought was remedied by giving a short sample prayer that frames into words what comprehends every human need. The Lord's Prayer that follows covers temporal and spiritual needs and embraces everything needed, helping to pray without vain repetition. It is a model to be presented understandingly, not confined to its exact words nor limited to simply repeating it.
After presenting special private petitions, praying that model prayer in sincerity with heart and mind and soul comprehends all personal needs in few words. It keeps from asking amiss and gives peace to go forth to work with assurance that nothing amiss has been asked. Even when spoken briefly it is heart-service fully acceptable to God when offered sincerely.
Short, heartfelt prayers right to the point are not wearisome to God or to people. Offered with earnestness corresponding to soul-hunger for the Holy Spirit, they reveal a longing desire for needed strength that can be obtained only from the Source of all strength. Effectual, fervent prayer avails much to the one who seeks God for the wisdom promised to those who ask in faith. The heavenly Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him than earthly parents are to give bread to their hungry children.
Prayer should be brief and direct, stating genuine, actual needs earnestly with heartfelt requests and joyful thanksgiving and gratitude. It includes temporal and spiritual blessings and the Bread of life and wisdom. There is no need to tell a long story or account to inform God, to explain a long list, or to range over everything, since He already knows before asking.
Prayer should be humble, simple, earnest, and childlike, with a broken and penitent spirit asking for mercy and pardon. It calls for childlike trust rather than lofty, flowery words and emotional excess, which are empty. In public worship requests should be stated briefly without disclosing private troubles, while private prayer may be as long and detailed as desired.
Trust Contentment Obedience
The Father's foreknowledge is reason to trust rather than worry about food, clothing, or hardship while serving God and standing for truth, for fearing that self or family will suffer shows lack of faith. He is a benevolent heavenly Father who has done much already and knows all about present lack of money and pressure for means, so distrust and depression and discouragement are without reason. His knowledge instead calls for faith and good courage, for sympathy with one another under pressure, for patient work, and for taking everything to God in prayer with thanksgiving and open praise, with assurance of seeing God's salvation. Christ is at the Father's right hand, and this gives reason to trust God to provide what is needed, including a house of worship. This knowledge is reason for deep gratitude, in contrast to entrusting the distribution of His goods to erring people, whose selfish preferences and mistakes could dishonor God and bring suffering.
He cannot err and sees what finite human judgment cannot, so trouble should drive to Him for guidance and counsel rather than to personal prejudice, weakness, or mistaken judgment. His knowledge and care exceed human understanding, for He sees all things clearly and orders what is best, so reliance belongs on His providence rather than on limited human plans. He knows each person's infirmities and will help by His power when trusted fully, with genuine trust placed in Jesus Christ. His children can therefore trust Him and send silent prayers wherever they are, receiving the help they need.
The verse teaches contentment and yielding the will to the control of the Holy Spirit, so the drive to be rich and the striving for place, position, honor, and recognition must give way. Contentment means working gladly in just the place God assigns where He can look with approval, instead of elbowing a fellow worker aside to make room for personal plans. It forbids exalting one and condemning another, or feeling sore when someone else gets ahead. When envy or complaint rises, the matter is to be taken to the Father in prayer, asking Him to put the impress of His Spirit upon mind and character. Then the one tempted is to turn to speak words of hope, comfort, blessing, and encouragement to some soul with fewer blessings, revealing by right words and unselfish work that the Spirit of God dwells within.
As Father He knows and cares for human need, hearing every spoken word and prayer and seeing each person's sorrows and disappointments. He continually gives grace to meet need, and His care extends to every person. That care is expressed in tender invitations to the erring and impenitent.
The heavenly Father requires walking in the light He gives, for His requirements are always reasonable and just. He cannot accept less than perfect obedience to His commandments. In the Sermon on the Mount He revealed that failure to walk in that light was separating the Jewish people from God, with darkness coming upon them in the same proportion as light had shone upon their pathway.
The verse belongs to the pure gospel given on the Mount that explains God's holy law and sets the holy standard of loving God with the whole heart and loving neighbor as God requires. Diverting mission means from its true object to ambitious human designs, mingling human wisdom with the divine, confusing minds about right and holy methods in business, and unjustly acquiring means at another's expense to please lust for gain and power violate that standard. Such acts prove the doers have not learned the law and its explanation on the Mount. They must repent and be converted and do works worthy of the Christian name, and He calls them to a cleansing and purging of the soul temple.
God is a true paternal Father and not a stern judge, and He already knows every need, motive, secret thought and infirmity better than people know themselves, so they can come to Him with confidence in His love. For this reason prayer is not to inform Him or to tell Him a long story, and it must not copy hypocrites who pray to be seen or heathen who think many words will gain a hearing. Vain repetition of meaningless words without thought, desire and understanding, and long tedious prayers for display, lofty language and emotional excess do not please Him. Instead prayer opens the heart to receive Him and brings the soul into harmony with Him, expressing earnest dependence and weakness while asking confidently and receiving grace and strength to do right. He therefore gave a short model prayer that embraces every temporal and spiritual need, teaching that brief, simple, childlike and heartfelt requests with thanksgiving are fully acceptable and keep from asking amiss.
Setting and Wording
The verse belongs to the Sermon on the Mount, which was given especially to the disciples while the multitude also listened and learned from the teaching. It was spoken to the inner circle of followers first, yet the gathered crowd heard and received its instruction as well.
The word Father means that God is truly a paternal Father and not a stern, unfeeling judge as human traditions have portrayed Him. He is the Supreme Ruler, and people may approach Him with confidence in His paternal love.
The Father knows what things are needed before they are asked, and His knowledge of need is certain. He knows human infirmity and will help by His power those who trust fully in Him. He knows the motive that prompts every self-righteous action, that it is the desire to be praised by men. He knows the secrets and hidden thoughts of every soul, and He knows what people need even better than they know themselves. He is aware of every need before asking.
False Prayer Rejected
Be not like them means do not pray like the hypocrites who pray to be seen by others, and do not pray like the heathen who suppose they will be heard because of much speaking and many words. Since the Father already knows what is needed before it is asked, prayer that imitates heathen empty repetition or relies on a multitude of words is excluded. Prayer is therefore not given to inform God of needs, because He knows them beforehand.
Vain repetition is words without meaning, words often repeated without corresponding thought or proper understanding, words spoken without true and earnest desire. It is a careless, unmeaning repetition of many words, and God is not pleased with it. That kind of repetition is what makes many prayers long and tiresome.
Long, tedious, pharisaical prayers offered to be heard of men are unacceptable and unnecessary, especially when they exalt the supposed good works of men. Prayer must not be a display of good deeds or a way to win human praise, but an expression of dependence and weakness before God who is the source and end of all. Humble secret prayer is heard by Him who sees in secret, and its answer may come later when help is needed in a trying situation. Prayer must not use lofty, flowery words, for the acceptable request is humble, simple and earnest, offered with a broken and penitent spirit asking for mercy and pardon. It calls for childlike asking for the things actually needed rather than emotional excess or lofty, empty words, and words that describe a misery not truly felt are hypocritical. Prayer need not be loud or long to bring the one who prays into harmony with God.
Purpose of Prayer
Prayer is not given to tell God what He does not already know, for the Father knows what is needed before it is asked, and therefore prayer is not meant to inform Him of needs, desires, or hidden matters. It is not a long story or account laid before Him as if He must be instructed, since He already knows people as they are and knows the secrets and hidden thoughts of every soul. For that reason prayer does not depend on many words and repetitions to be heard, nor does it need to be long or loud to reach Him.
Its true work is to express earnest dependence and conscious weakness before God, who is the source and end of all, rather than to display good deeds or win human praise. By opening the heart it enables the one who prays to receive Him, bringing the soul into harmony with Him. It does not change God, and it does not take the place of duty.
He who hears sees the soul's struggle with doubt and temptation and recognizes the sincerity of the one who prays. Humble secret prayer is heard by Him who sees in secret and rewards openly. Its answer may not come at once but later, when help is needed in a trying situation.
Although God already knows, coming to Him and asking confidently remains both duty and daily privilege. Asking is a condition to be followed: telling the Saviour what is needed, trusting Him to help do right, and relying on His strength rather than one's own, in order to receive Christ as Helper and rich grace.
There is therefore every encouragement to bring all difficulties to the Father, without needing to reason a case before Him. He will not misinterpret the words in which needs are expressed, but always understands them. Even in physical weakness a person may draw near with certainty that He understands, and may depend on power greater than human power to receive all that is needed in order to impart to others.
Brief Sincere Manner
In kindness the ignorance of what to pray for as ought was remedied by giving a short sample prayer that frames into words what comprehends every human need. The Lord's Prayer that follows covers temporal and spiritual needs and embraces everything needed, helping to pray without vain repetition. It is a model to be presented understandingly, not confined to its exact words nor limited to simply repeating it.
After presenting special private petitions, praying that model prayer in sincerity with heart and mind and soul comprehends all personal needs in few words. It keeps from asking amiss and gives peace to go forth to work with assurance that nothing amiss has been asked. Even when spoken briefly it is heart-service fully acceptable to God when offered sincerely.
Short, heartfelt prayers right to the point are not wearisome to God or to people. Offered with earnestness corresponding to soul-hunger for the Holy Spirit, they reveal a longing desire for needed strength that can be obtained only from the Source of all strength. Effectual, fervent prayer avails much to the one who seeks God for the wisdom promised to those who ask in faith. The heavenly Father is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him than earthly parents are to give bread to their hungry children.
Prayer should be brief and direct, stating genuine, actual needs earnestly with heartfelt requests and joyful thanksgiving and gratitude. It includes temporal and spiritual blessings and the Bread of life and wisdom. There is no need to tell a long story or account to inform God, to explain a long list, or to range over everything, since He already knows before asking.
Prayer should be humble, simple, earnest, and childlike, with a broken and penitent spirit asking for mercy and pardon. It calls for childlike trust rather than lofty, flowery words and emotional excess, which are empty. In public worship requests should be stated briefly without disclosing private troubles, while private prayer may be as long and detailed as desired.
Trust Contentment Obedience
The Father's foreknowledge is reason to trust rather than worry about food, clothing, or hardship while serving God and standing for truth, for fearing that self or family will suffer shows lack of faith. He is a benevolent heavenly Father who has done much already and knows all about present lack of money and pressure for means, so distrust and depression and discouragement are without reason. His knowledge instead calls for faith and good courage, for sympathy with one another under pressure, for patient work, and for taking everything to God in prayer with thanksgiving and open praise, with assurance of seeing God's salvation. Christ is at the Father's right hand, and this gives reason to trust God to provide what is needed, including a house of worship. This knowledge is reason for deep gratitude, in contrast to entrusting the distribution of His goods to erring people, whose selfish preferences and mistakes could dishonor God and bring suffering.
He cannot err and sees what finite human judgment cannot, so trouble should drive to Him for guidance and counsel rather than to personal prejudice, weakness, or mistaken judgment. His knowledge and care exceed human understanding, for He sees all things clearly and orders what is best, so reliance belongs on His providence rather than on limited human plans. He knows each person's infirmities and will help by His power when trusted fully, with genuine trust placed in Jesus Christ. His children can therefore trust Him and send silent prayers wherever they are, receiving the help they need.
The verse teaches contentment and yielding the will to the control of the Holy Spirit, so the drive to be rich and the striving for place, position, honor, and recognition must give way. Contentment means working gladly in just the place God assigns where He can look with approval, instead of elbowing a fellow worker aside to make room for personal plans. It forbids exalting one and condemning another, or feeling sore when someone else gets ahead. When envy or complaint rises, the matter is to be taken to the Father in prayer, asking Him to put the impress of His Spirit upon mind and character. Then the one tempted is to turn to speak words of hope, comfort, blessing, and encouragement to some soul with fewer blessings, revealing by right words and unselfish work that the Spirit of God dwells within.
As Father He knows and cares for human need, hearing every spoken word and prayer and seeing each person's sorrows and disappointments. He continually gives grace to meet need, and His care extends to every person. That care is expressed in tender invitations to the erring and impenitent.
The heavenly Father requires walking in the light He gives, for His requirements are always reasonable and just. He cannot accept less than perfect obedience to His commandments. In the Sermon on the Mount He revealed that failure to walk in that light was separating the Jewish people from God, with darkness coming upon them in the same proportion as light had shone upon their pathway.
The verse belongs to the pure gospel given on the Mount that explains God's holy law and sets the holy standard of loving God with the whole heart and loving neighbor as God requires. Diverting mission means from its true object to ambitious human designs, mingling human wisdom with the divine, confusing minds about right and holy methods in business, and unjustly acquiring means at another's expense to please lust for gain and power violate that standard. Such acts prove the doers have not learned the law and its explanation on the Mount. They must repent and be converted and do works worthy of the Christian name, and He calls them to a cleansing and purging of the soul temple.