The Lord's Prayer: A Line-by-Line Breakdown

The Lord's Prayer has been prayed, by conservative estimates, billions of times. It appears in the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 6) and in a slightly different version in Luke (chapter 11). In Matthew, Jesus introduces it by telling his disciples not to pray with empty repetition but to pray like this. The prayer he offers is remarkable for its compression. In eight sentences, it covers the nature of God, the conditions for receiving prayer, the basic human needs, and the moral requirements of the one praying.

Here it is in its most familiar version (the doxology at the end -- "For thine is the kingdom..." -- appears in some manuscripts and is used in many Protestant traditions but not in the original text):

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen."

"Our Father"

The prayer begins with the first-person plural. Not "My Father" but "Our Father." This is intentional and important. Christian prayer, even when prayed alone, is not a private transaction between an individual and God. It is the prayer of a community -- the church, humanity, God's people broadly. You enter this prayer as part of a "we."

The word "Father" was unusual in first-century Jewish prayer. Jews addressed God in many ways, but "Father" with this directness and intimacy -- the word Jesus used was "Abba," which is closer to "Dad" than to "Father" -- was distinctive. Jesus was not arguing that God is literally male. He was claiming a specific kind of relationship: close, personal, parental, caring.

"Hallowed be thy name"

"Hallowed" means honored as holy, treated as sacred. This is a petition, not just a description. The person praying is asking that God's name -- which in Jewish tradition means God's reputation, character, and presence -- be treated with the reverence it deserves. By human beings. By the one praying.

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"

This is perhaps the most radical line in the prayer. "Thy will be done" is not a passive resignation to whatever happens. It is a petition for God's intentions to be made real in the physical world, as fully and completely as they already are in heaven. It is a prayer for the world to be transformed. For justice to exist here as it does there. For healing, for peace, for the end of everything that God does not want.

"Give us this day our daily bread"

The word translated "daily" is unusual -- it appears almost nowhere else in Greek literature. Scholars debate whether it means "for today," "for the coming day," or something like "the bread we need for existence." What is clear is the request: the necessities of life, asked for one day at a time. Not a warehouse supply. Not wealth. Just what is needed for today.

"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us"

This is the line most people trip over when they think carefully about it. The request for God's forgiveness is conditional -- linked to the petitioner's own practice of forgiveness toward others. Jesus elaborates on this in the passage that follows the prayer: if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you. The two movements are connected. Receiving mercy requires practicing it.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"

This line has generated theological debate. Does God lead people into temptation? The Book of James says explicitly that God tempts no one. Most interpreters understand this petition as asking for God's protection from the circumstances and pressures that lead to moral failure -- the situations, relationships, and moments that make bad choices easy. "Deliver us from evil" is a petition for protection from the active force of harm in the world.

"Amen"

"Amen" means "so be it" or "truly." It is an affirmation of what has been prayed, an endorsement of the whole. It is also, as noted elsewhere on this site, the most useful word in American Christian practice.

The Lord's Prayer has been prayed by slaves and by presidents, by martyrs and by people half-awake in Sunday morning pews. Its longevity is not accidental. In eight sentences, it contains an entire theology of what prayer is, who God is, and what the one praying needs. That is an achievement in compression that has held up for two thousand years.