The Lord is addressing Jewish disciples and leading them out of their previous thoughts and feelings and ways into the new principles of the kingdom of heaven, which He was about to introduce. This is important to remember for understanding either the meaning or the object of the prayer. It does not contemplate, as it was not addressed to, the whole human race indiscriminately; it does not express the state, want and feelings of every person who has holy desires after God or a due fear of coming wrath.
The Lord's prayer supposes discipleship and the relationship of children with a Father.
Accordingly the prayer, viewed in its structure, naturally divides into two sections. The first portion is made up of the desires proper to righteousness in the largest and highest sense-the atmosphere, I think I may say, in which our Lord Himself lived and moved here below. The second part is composed rather of supplications suited to those who were needy in every way, but withal true objects of grace. The first three petitions form one division, and the last four the other.
The Lord takes up the disciples where they were. If He had uttered the as-yet-undeveloped truth which was revealed when redemption was wrought and the Holy Spirit thereon given, His language would have been unintelligible to the disciples. If anything had exceeded what was suitable to their then state, if experience or worship proper to accomplished redemption had been supposed, it would not have been the perfect prayer it was for them. [40]