In the principles of the previous chapter we see the contrast between law and grace. There is no reference to the law in what follows. Chapter 6 commences with “righteousness” (vers. 1), not “alms"; and then in the “alms” (ver. 2), and “prayers” (ver. 5), and “fastings” (ver. 16) that follow, we get what this “righteousness” is.
Righteousness is consistency with relationship, whatever that may be. So we get in divine righteousness that which is consistent with God in relation to us. Here it is conduct consistent with the believer's relationship. There is to be no seeking praise from men, but to be content with God's approval. The apostle could say, It is a small thing with me to be judged of you or of man's day. It is a very small matter to one who is right with God. Not he who commendeth himself-that is what these hypocrites do—is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. All through it shows that if you are to get human applause you have your reward already, but if you seek it from God alone you won't lose it. We do well to take notice of these expressions. “Your Father which is in heaven” is perfectly right for disciples on earth, but where do you get anything like this in the Epistles, after the Lord went to heaven? There was a place of worship on earth; it is now removed to heaven, where we are encouraged to draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith. If we are in the heavenlies, and realize where grace has brought us, would it not be strange to address God as “Our Father which art in heaven", though quite right for disciples on earth before the veil was rent? After verse 2 we get the details of what is given in verse generally, and a very solemn searching word it is.
These men are called by the Lord hypocrites. It will not be amiss to remember that the Lord calls the religious leaders hypocrites, “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites.” God is not deceived; He does not look on the outward appearance. If their hearts had been right they would not have drawn attention to what they did, for that is what is implied by “sounding a trumpet” before them. It is a fatal thing to seek glory of men. God and the world are always opposed. The Lord says, “I receive not honor from men"; and, “I know you that ye have not the love of God in you.” God looks for the single eye; this is the great point here, and the most important one; for it would settle many a difficulty if our one object were to please the Lord. “Wherefore we are ambitious", says the apostle, “that whether present or absent, we may be well pleasing to Him” (or “acceptable,” not “accepted"). We are “accepted” in the Beloved, and it is “to the praise of the glory of his grace.” There is nothing higher than this; it is the very glory of it. It is altogether of God's grace. Grace— “riches of his grace” — “the glory of his grace” —and this last is the highest. Therefore I labor, “make it my aim,” to be well-pleasing to Him Who has showed me this grace. There is no such thing as laboring for salvation; that would be up-hill drudgery. But having got it I can labor to please Him. Those who seek glory of men shall get it, but this is not glory of God.
But the Lord says also, “When thou doest alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth” (ver. 3). So it is clearly indicated there that we should not only not talk about them (for it is a miserable thing for saints of God to be advertising their own goodness in any way), but we should also not think about it. Self-gratulation is a miserable thing. We ought to remember Luke 17:1010So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do. (Luke 17:10). Let us show the connection, it will quite fit in with what we have in our chapter. In Luke 17:66And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. (Luke 17:6) the Lord shows that whatever obstruction there is, and however formidable against your acting in the gracious way indicated in the previous verses, it shall be removed. But then there would be the danger of your thinking yourself a very gracious person, and so the Lord gives us verses 7-10. However much grace you show in carrying out the Lord’s instruction, say, nevertheless, “We are unprofitable servants.” The Lord won't let us have high thoughts of ourselves at all, for all we have is of grace. So do not let us talk of our goodness or think of it.
What have we to forget as to the past? Sometimes people say, I delight to think of God's past goodness. And quite rightly, for where the words “forgetting those things that are behind” occur, it speaks of a race and attainment. Whatever in our past history that would minister to our pride let us forget; whatever would humble us let us remember: then we are wise. So let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth, means don't dwell upon it. I believe from these words there is much done in the way of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting that is pleasing to God, but which neither the world nor our fellows know anything about. That which is pleasing to God is not displayed here, the time of display will come, but this is the hidden life. Your Father which is in secret is He Who knows the secrets, and He is “not unrighteous to forget your work, and the love that ye have shown to His Name in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” We have no right to speak of people as hypocrites. It must be the One Who can read the heart to say that. Judas was a hypocrite when he kissed the Lord. Peter was not, though he denied Him. Judas never loved the Lord, Peter did.
“They love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets” (ver. 5), that they may pass as very pious people—that is the thought. And from the instruction we have here we must not think it wrong to pray in public; we have other scriptures to guide us about that. In the First Epistle to Timothy we have instructions for the order of God's house; in the second. Epistle we have “a great house” in disorder. The First was written to show how we ought to behave “in the house of God", which is a living God's assembly; so in chap. 2 we get instruction about the prayer meeting, and what we ought to pray for. The words “that the men pray everywhere” show it to be the prayer meeting; the women have as much right to pray in private as men, but here it is the prayer meeting where they must be silent. Sisters have a very honored place, and many a one who has been true to the Lord will have a reward by and by.
“When thou prayest,” etc. (ver. 6). As a general rule in the scriptures, long prayers are in private, and short ones in public. We get the Lord spending the night in prayer. There is more about the Lord praying, in Luke's Gospel than in the other three. He is there the Son of man, in dependence. The Lord was going to choose the twelve, and the night before, He spent in prayer. Here is a blessed lesson for us. It shows how careful we ought to be in undertaking anything-to do it in communion with God's thoughts. That is where fasting comes in, unknown to any but God; that which is laid on the heart being so absorbing that food for the body is not thought of. The Lord said, on the mount of transfiguration when the man brought his boy and the disciples could not cast the demon out, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” There may be that in our experience which requires much prayer and fasting. “Enter into thy closet, etc.” I remember a man who no, doubt entered into the closet and shut the door, but all the neighborhood knew when he prayed, for he prayed so loudly! You do not want to make a display or to let others know of it. A shut door implies that. Daniel was in accordance with Solomon's prayer, when he prayed with his windows opened toward Jerusalem, for there was a house of prayer then on earth. What we see in him is not ostentation but fearlessness of man. What a privilege we have now, far beyond what these disciples knew. We can pray to our Father in secret amid the greatest bustle which the world ever knew. Look at Nehemiah 2:1-41And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. 2Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid, 3And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? 4Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. (Nehemiah 2:1‑4). There was a secret in his own soul; his heart went up to God before he answered the king. You can do it in secret amidst the antipathies of everyday life.
Repetitions are not wrong. The Lord Himself prayed three times in Gethsemane; but verse 7 speaks of vain repetitions. Have not I seen such instructions as, that it is a good thing for the soul to repeat the Lord's prayer ten times and such like? There you get the thought; the heathen thought they would be heard for much speaking, but a soul may be very stammering yet the Lord knows the heart, the meaning of a sigh, when we cannot put it into words, and before ye ask, your Father knoweth. He loves to hear us! “Let me see thy countenance; let me hear thy voice,” what wonderful grace! How can I have a comely countenance when looking up to God? It is the comeliness of Christ and the sweetness of Christ's voice.
“After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven” (vers. 9-12). This is the disciples' prayer and the perfect thing, from the Lord's lips. But, as pointed out already, it is for disciples on the earth. When Paul is praying he says, “I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom every family in heaven and earth is named” — not to “Our Father which art in heaven,” for in the same epistle he speaks of us as already seated in heavenly places in Christ. Besides, the Lord told His disciples, “I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come he shall guide you into all truth.” They would be put into an entirely new position with new desires. No form of prayer is given the saints after the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost.
Turn to John 16. The Lord is going away, and He says, “In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily I say unto you Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give it to you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name, ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full” (vers. 23, 24). These disciples whom the Lord taught this prayer had asked nothing in His Name. That means that since redemption is accomplished, the believer stands in the same relationship as Christ, and asking in His Name is realizing that. To go back. This is an individual thing, but “Our Father” because it is a common privilege. The Lord says, “My Father and your Father.” This is right for us now, but it is un-intelligent to add “which art in heaven,” for we are in the heavenlies too, in Christ. If one's eyes are opened to see what the teaching of the Epistles is, we see how it is all of grace, and one would not look down on any who may use it, not knowing better. Those to whom this prayer was given could not be spoken of as “praying in the Holy Ghost” because He was not yet given.
“Hallowed be Thy name.” This is true in every dispensation. “Thy kingdom come.” What we have before us now is something nearer to us than the kingdom—the coming of the Lord to take us to heaven, because we belong there. “Looking for that blessed hope,” that is the nearer thing to us. But this prayer will all be fulfilled in the millennium. The believer now is “elect... through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” Directly God begins a work in a soul, that soul is sanctified to obedience, and we are admonished to be “not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is"; and the will of the Lord is different for a saint now from what it will be for others at a later day. Paul's desire for the Colossians was that they “might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding?” Is it not becoming that we should be dependent on God?
“Give us this day our daily bread.” Many a saint of God would almost break his heart if he thought his income would come to an end in twelve months' time. But this implies that we look to Him and as having no other resource for today's needs.
“And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” The Christian is put on different ground altogether. “Forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.” The fact that God has forgiven us should make us forgiving of others. There is eternal forgiveness, and there is governmental forgiveness in the word. In Colossians we read, “having forgiven you all trespasses” and the blessing of the new covenant is “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more"; while the teaching of Hebrews is “He hath perfected forever” —in perpetuity— “them that are sanctified.” Sin can never be imputed as guilt to a believer; we are perfected forever, and have no more conscience of sins. But does a Christian sin? And does he not need forgiveness? Yes, in God's government. Communion is interrupted by sin, and so “if any man sin.” The standard is that we sin not, but if any man sin God has made provision for it, “we have an Advocate with the Father.” An eternal relationship has been formed; the Righteous One is my righteousness. If the believer should have sinned, there is one Who takes up my case in the presence of God, and makes me conscious of the sin. There is a cloud on my conscience, I am bound to confess it, and I am led to confess it. “If we confess our sins” —that was true at first when I came as a poor sinner— “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” And if I come as a saint, it is still true for me now, and thus it is that communion is restored.
(To be continued)