Note 201 — TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Preliminary Note.—We rightly hesitate to analyze or criticise any prayer; the language of devotion is too sacred. How much more when the prayer is the intimate communing of the only begotten Son with his Father, a prayer which no soul can ever comprehend, and none can therefore ever interpret. Nevertheless, it would not have been recorded if it had not been intended for our profit; and it can only be for our profit as it is made the theme of our reverent study. In this exposition of it I avoid as far as possible verbal and textual criticism, giving results rather than discussions. These the student can find in other commentaries, especially Tholuck and Meyer. For the same reason I eschew theological polemics. Socinian, Arian, and Trinitarian have fought over the words and phrases of this sacred prayer, each, and perhaps the one not more than the other, evolving from it arguments for his philosophy of the character of Christ, and of life here and hereafter. Into such conflicts I have no heart to enter. The student will find them indicated, and even illustrated, in Alford. I have sought by meditation to enter into the spirit of this, the most sacred utterance of our Lord, and I seek with simplicity to aid others in meditating upon it; if through such meditation the spirit of the believer is brought into unity with the Spirit of his Lord, it is enough. The prayer is not didactic; certainly not dogmatic. The office of public prayer—and by giving to his church a record of this prayer our Lord has made it public—is not to teach a system of theology, but to deepen the springs of spiritual life, by leading the sympathetic soul into the presence of God. This prayer has a twofold aspect. It is a revelation of the communings of the only begotten Son with the Father; it thus presents to the church Christ as the Son and Intercessor, pleading for his church, and shows us what are his most secret and sacred desires for us. These are four: election out of the world and preservation from its evil; sanctification and consecration unto and in the truth; the perfect unity of love, in God and with one another; and spiritual appreciation of and participation in the glory of the Father and the Son in the eternal life. But since we are all brought through Christ into the adoption of the sons of God, this prayer is also an example and inspiration for us. It is, in a sense, Christ’s second and fuller answer to the request of his church universal, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” The Lord’s prayer is given at the outset of our Lord’s ministry to those who are just learning the Fatherhood of God. This prayer of intercession is given at the close of our Lord’s ministry, to those that had learned from him both what were their own wants and what their heavenly Father’s grace had provided for them. The former is the model for the universal church, young and old in Christian experience; the latter is an inspiration to those who, through the teachings of their Lord, have come into fellowship with God and his Son Jesus Christ. It is not without significance that it follows close upon the teaching that Christ is the vine and we are the branches, that we see the Father in seeing the Son, that after Christ is gone and is seen no more, he will yet be really present and spiritually perceived, and that we are to ask in his name of the Father, who has himself loved us. It is thus the Holy of Holies to which the preceding instructions have been as outer courts conducting us. The key to its true interpretation I believe will be found in two facts: (1) that it immediately precedes and is a spiritual preparation for the impending Passion, which in a measure the disciples shared with their Master; and (2) the only glory which the N. T. recognizes is a glory of character, not of circumstance or condition. Thus Christ’s prayer here is that he may be sustained by divine grace in the hour of trial, so that the character of the Father may be manifested by him in his patient fidelity to the end, and that, through his example and his Father’s influence, his disciples may be made like the Father and like the Son in the glory of their love. See further on ver. 1.