Father knows his needs before he asks. Instead of elaborating the opening words of the prayer, `Our Father',

with subdivisions upon `Re-generation', etc., let us see that the real import is in the fact that the believer does

not say `my', `me', but prays, Hallowed be THY name, THY kingdom come, THY will be done.

In the corresponding portion (verses 25 to 34) undue anxiety concerning food and drink and clothing is

forbidden; the Gentiles seek these things; instead of so doing, the Lord says:

`Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you'.

The only prayer for temporal needs in the model given by the Lord is the clause, `Give us this day our daily

bread'. The word which is translated `daily' is epiousios, and apart from the one other occurrence in the parallel

passage of Luke 11:3, this word is entirely unknown in either Biblical or Classical Greek - it seems to be a word

invented by the Spirit of God to express His purpose. Literally we might translate it `The bread which cometh

down upon us'. We cannot believe it possible for any Jew in the days of Christ to have missed the allusion to

the manna of the wilderness. It gives point to the prayer to notice this. Pilgrims journeying through the

wilderness are here. They have no continuing city, but seek one to come. Their great prayer is for the coming

of the kingdom. For the rest, just the daily manna will suffice until the land of promise shall be reached.

To have seen the Sermon on the Mount in the light of the wilderness, with its teaching concerning suffering

and glory, endurance and crown, temptation and perfecting, would have saved many a page of useless argument

as to the meaning of `temptation' in this prayer, or whether the basis of the Sermon be `law' or `grace'. Future

blessedness is held out as a `reward' to those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, who seek first the

kingdom, who go on unto perfection.

Perhaps a few words upon the `evil eye' of verses 22-24 may be appreciated. Edwin Hatch in his Essays in

Biblical Greek under the word poneros, `evil' gives as a secondary meaning `grudging', `niggard', and cites

passages where `the grudging eye', `the eye of the miser', `the niggard eye' are placed in antithesis to liberality.

The Hebrew word for evil (ra) is usually translated poneros, but is sometimes translated baskanos. This use of

poneros in the sense of `niggardly' or `grudging', especially in connection with the idea of the `evil eye', throws

a clear light upon a well-known passage of the Sermon, which if taken in its context will be seen to refer not to

goodness or badness in general, but specially to the use of money:

`Lay not up ... treasures upon earth ... treasures in heaven ... where your treasure is, there will your heart be

also. The light (lamp) of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single (liberal), thy whole body shall

be full of light. But if thine eye be evil (grudging, poneros), thy whole body shall be full of darkness ... Ye

cannot serve God and mammon' (Matt. 6:19-24).

Matthew 20:15, `Is thine eye evil, because I am good?' may be rendered, `Art thou envious at my being

liberal?' This strong emphasis upon the snare of wealth brings the parallel of Matthew 19 closer. `The strait

gate' which few find and the `eye of the needle' are the same.

One cannot have the niggard's eye, or lay up treasure on earth, or seek first the things of self, or walk the

broad and easy road, if one seeks perfection and an entrance into the kingdom. Matthew 5 to 7, Hebrews,

Philippians, and Revelation 2 and 3 may each have their distinct departments in the Divine Plan, but one great

principle runs through them all.

We have sought to show that the Sermon on the Mount, while not the `Laws of the Kingdom' or the `Charter

of the Church', gives exhortations and commands to those believers who in a period of rejection look forward to

the kingdom, and give up all in their desire to be counted worthy to obtain an entrance and receive the reward.

It will be confirmatory evidence to show the parallels that exist with the epistle to the Philippians. We

already know that Philippians is the epistle of the Prize. It stands to the church of the One Body in the same

relationship as the Sermon on the Mount stands to the subject of the kingdom of heaven. While the sphere of

these two parts of Scripture varies, the underlying principle is the same.

(1) The Place of Self - We observed that the believer is urged in Matthew 6 to `seek first the kingdom of God',

so in Philippians 2, the Apostle writes:

`Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others ... For all seek their own,

not the things which are Jesus Christ's' (Phil. 2:4,21).