Heaven on Earth Relationships

“We love because he first loved us” (). There is a correction that must be made to the translations which say “We love him because he first loved us.” In adding the word “him” to the Scripture, they have altered the meaning. Originally, the text says that all our appropriate love stems from the fact that “he first loved us.”

How could we love without knowing God’s love? Any love not learned from God would be a forgery. So for us to love one another we must love God, and to love God, we must understand what that relationship is supposed to look like.

One of the best ways for us to see what our relationship with God should look like, and therefore what love should look like, is to look at the model prayer to see the relationship between beloved creatures and the loving Creator.

HEAVENLY FATHER—6:9

Jesus began the model prayer with two descriptions of God: 1) Father and 2) who is in Heaven. Both descriptors are important for us to understand our relationship to the God who loves us. First, God is “our Father.” Although God is transcendent (far better than we are and far better than we could imagine being), he has established relationships with each of us. It is no wonder that when the Father sent the Son, that the Spirit said his name would be “Immanuel, which is interpreted ‘God with us.’” He is God with us. “We have beheld his glory.” “The Word took on flesh and dwelt among us” (). As “Father,” he is the one who gives us life (spiritual and physical), provides for our life (our physical needs and spiritual needs), and gives our life meaning (since we are from him, he determines what our existence should be).

But God is also our Heavenly Father. “We address God intimately as Father, but we immediately recognize his infinite greatness with the addition in heaven.”[1] This reminds us that even though he is “ours,” he is not like us. God said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (). When we approach our Father in prayer, or in life, we should remember that he is in Heaven above and we are on earth below. He is why Heaven is Heaven, and we deserve Hell without his grace.[2]

HOLY FATHER—6:9

Along those same lines, God is our Holy Father and we are instructed to pray “Hallowed be your name” (). This could also be translated “make your name to be sanctified.” It is in imperative—we are asking God to do something. We are asking God to make his name to be “Hallowed” or “Holy” or “sanctified.” All three English words are used to translate the same Greek word “ἁγιασθήτω.” This means that we are to treat God’s name with “reverence” (BDAG) as we are asking God to make everyone on earth treat his name with reverence. But is it just God’s “name” which is to be holy? Of course not. His “name” refers to his entire person. To treat his name as holy is to treat the entirety of God as holy.

Isaiah said, “But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (). says, “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.”

COMING SOVEREIGN KINGDOM—6:10

We pray for God’s kingdom to come in the sense of culmination, but we recognize that his kingdom has already been consummated on earth in our midst. To pray for God’s kingdom to come is to pray that God’s will would be fully obeyed on earth by us. We continue to pray that “God’s will would be done on earth even as in Heaven.” This is not only the way that God’s kingdom “comes,” it is also the way in which we become the kingdom. We see this submission to the Father in Jesus’ on prayer when he said, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours, be done” (). Jesus exemplified what it means to set our human will aside so that God’s will is sovereign as it should be and is in reality.

DAILY BREAD—6:11

SHARED FORGIVENESS—6:12, 14-15

DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL—6:13

Now that we have a better understanding of our relationship with God, we can proceed with our own relationships.

We should pursue relationships that honor God as holy, as Father, as Provider, as Savior, and Deliverer.

In our relationships, we should reflect these Divine attributes. We should honor one another as image bearers, we should provide for one another, we should “save” one another, and we should lead others away from evil.

Are our relationships with God and others helping us to Heaven?

[1] Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 144.

[2]“Bonnard points out that when God is called “Father” in the Synoptic Gospels the word is always on the lips of Jesus. This is not a commonplace of ancient religion, but a new understanding of the nature of God Jesus taught his disciples. It is characteristic that his followers should address God as “Father,” and distinctive because others, both Jews and Gentiles, even if they addressed God as “Father,” tended to begin their prayers with titles stressing God’s greatness, lordship, and the like.” Leon Morris, The Gospel according to Matthew, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 144.