Matthew 6:12,13 - Forgive us our debts

6:12

Next comes forgiveness. If we wanted we could take this as a command and almost treat it as a Law, but I do not believe this is helpful (this is not in anyway to belittle in anyway the seriousness of having an unforgiving heart). Rather we should look at the spirit of this, as Jesus has done with the Law as a whole. Forgiveness is the oil which keeps the church going. A car engine, no matter how good it is, will cease up if there is no oil. Likewise any relationship, any church will cease up if there is no forgiveness. The church is founded on forgiveness. If God had not forgiven us the church would never have started, neither you nor I would be allowed into the kingdom. In the same way we need to forgive each other. Every church leader, every husband or wife, every mother or father, so or daughter, church member will get some things wrong and do some things wrong. If there is no forgiveness then when this happens relationships or churches will break down. There does, of course, also need to be repentance when things go wrong as well.

6:13

We can very tied up in debates about why would God even think of leading us into temptation. “Temptation” can also be translated “testing”. Perhaps we should take a more practical approach. We need help, left to our own devices we will fall into temptation at some point, especially if we become proud or over-confident. We also need to be delivered from the evil one. We do need to fear Satan, but we do need to be aware of him, his plans and his power. And we need to pray for God’s protection. The “for yours is the kingdom ...” is only found in later manuscripts and is probably an addition.