Wealth is as perilous as ever it was. Luxury still corrupts the soul. Plain living is most conducive to high thinking. It is easier always to be a Christian in a peasant’s hut than in Cæsar’s household. For the Christian life is a simple, spare—may I not say a severe life. Therefore Christ warned us against riches when he said, “How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God.” Therefore here He teaches us to ask for simplest, barest necessaries—“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Let me go on to notice further that in offering this prayer:—
(3) We pray for others as well as ourselves. How does the petition read? “Give us this day our daily bread.” The prayer is in the plural, not the singular. It is not “Give ME,” but “Give us” our daily bread. Christ will not let us forget the fact of brotherhood. He will not let us forget that we are members of a great family. He will not let us forget what moderns call “the solidarity of the race.” We must pray for others as well as ourselves. Christ when He was on earth gave us an improved edition of the commandments. Moses had ten commandments in his code. Jesus reduced them to two. And the two commands in the code of Christ were—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength,” and second, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Now this petition illustrates that second commandment, and embodies its spirit. We are “loving our neighbours as ourselves” when we say “Give us!” This is a prayer for our brother’s need, for our brother’s want. We are remembering him, bearing his burden when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” When we uttered that prayer this morning we were praying for the poor and needy everywhere—the poor in Bournemouth, the poor in vast London yonder, the poor the wide world over. But, do you not see, you cannot pray for the poor and needy and then turn a deaf ear to their cry. The genuineness of this prayer must be proved in action. I often ask God to bless the work of this Church, but I should simply be mocking God if I left it there and did not at once proceed to put whatever power and energy I possess into the work for which I have been praying. And so I should consider I had prayed a sham prayer if, after saying “Give us this day our daily bread,” I was not ready even at cost of sacrifice to help to provide bread for those who lack. The gospel of charity and mutual helpfulness is in the verse. At this blessed season appeals come to us from all quarters on behalf of the orphan, the widow, the friendless, and the poor. There are multitudes of our brothers and sisters in bitter need. We have prayed “Give us this day our daily bread,” making their cause our own. May not the true answer to that prayer be, that God will bid us contribute to their need out of our abundance and plenty? The best proof of the sincerity of our prayer would be that we should go forth during this week and carry into some desolate homes a little Christmas gladness and joy.
Yet again notice that in offering this prayer we pray:
(4) For what is legitimately and honestly our own. “Give us,” so runs the petition, “our daily bread.” I do not think it is at all fanciful to interpret this pronoun OUR, as Dr. Dods does, to mean that the bread we pray for must be our own and not another’s; that is to say, it must be fairly earned and honestly come by. “Except a man work,” so says the Scripture, “neither shall he eat.” The divine law is that the bread a man eats should be bread won by his own labour. But there are plenty of people in this world who try to live out of the labour of other people. They are busy, as the saying is, “taking the bread out of other people’s mouths.” They do this not simply by deception and theft and robbery—they do it also by unfair competition, by false dealing, by bogus company promoting, by stock-exchange gambling, by oppression, injustice and wrong. There are those among us who devote their talents to the task of drawing hard-earned money out of the pockets of English people without giving value in return. They want to live and grow fat on the bread of others, not on bread of their own earning. But what we have to pray for is our own bread, bread honestly and fairly earned. That little word “our” stands there to warn us against all dishonesty, trickery, fraud, injustice. The man of business must be able to say that every sovereign of his profits has been gained by fair and honest trading. The artisan must be able to say that every penny in his week’s wage has been earned by good and faithful labour. The master who pays his men less than their due, the man who wastes his master’s time, the shopkeeper who resorts to sharp practices—in fact, any one who strives to get hold of money otherwise than by fairly and squarely earning it, are all sinning against the spirit of this prayer which teaches us to say, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Just one word more before I close. I have said that the primary and essential reference of this petition is to bread, this material bread that nourishes the life of our bodies. But we need not exclude altogether from our thoughts that spiritual bread, that Bread of Life, to which the old Fathers saw reference here. Man does not live by bread alone. Man is not a mere animal. God breathed into man the breath of life, and he became a living soul. And the soul needs fit nourishment even as the body does, and that fit nourishment the soul finds in Jesus Christ. He is the “Bread of Life.” This petition is also the right prayer for the hungering soul, “Give us this day our daily bread,” for our souls need a daily supply. The supply of yesterday will not do for to-day, any more than yesterday’s dinner will suffice us for to-day’s work. You cannot live on the memory of past spiritual experiences. You cannot live on the remembrance of blessed fellowship with your Lord held long ago. You cannot live on the recollection of mercies received months or years back. For every day you need a fresh gift of grace. The manna of old only held good for one day. It had to be gathered fresh every morning. The manna of one day grew corrupt and worthless before the next. So it is with the bread of our souls. You must get it fresh every day. For every day you must get new stores of grace. This is the prayer for you and me, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Give! yes, this also is a gift. You cannot buy “the Bread of Life.” Its price has never been quoted in the markets. No money could purchase it. But what no money could purchase is offered to you and me for nothing. God never sells. God is a king, He gives. Buy? No, you cannot buy, Can you buy pardon? Can you buy peace? Can you buy redemption? Can you buy heaven? No, you cannot buy; but what you cannot buy God will give. Listen, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Listen again, “Everyone that thirsteth let him come and take of the water of life freely.” Listen yet again, “The gift of God is eternal life.” Giving! This is royal giving. Hungering souls come to God—come to God for the Bread of Life. There is in the Father’s house enough and to spare; why hunger ye any more? Why spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Your father is waiting to give you all you need. He is only waiting to hear you say, “Evermore give us this bread.”
VII
“Forgiveness”
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”—Matt. vi. 12.
“And forgive us our sins; for we ourselves also forgive every one that is indebted to us.”—Luke xi. 4.
My exposition of the Lord’s Prayer brings me this morning to speak a few simple words upon the two great fundamental facts of the Gospel—man’s need of forgiveness, and God’s willingness to bestow it.