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The importance of purity of heart

In the first book we finished talking about “mercy” and now we begin talking about “purity of heart.”

Purity of the heart means purity of the eye with which we see God, and there is no doubt that our concern for purity of the heart increases as much as what we see with the heart is great.

Purity of heart and people's praise

No matter how much we care about the purity of our heart, we cannot prevent some impurities from creeping into it, such as people praising us for our good deeds. If you behave in an evil manner, it will be harmful to you. If you want to live a righteous life without anyone praising you, you will be upset because their failure to praise you for the righteous life is evil. If they do not praise you, they have sinned, and if you praise, you will be in danger from their praise, unless your heart is pure.

Your heart will be pure when you walk uprightly, not to please people, but to praise the truth itself. Therefore, you will walk uprightly even if no one praises you, but you realize that their praise of the truth is beneficial to them, as long as they do not praise you but glorify God who dwells in you, whose temple you are. Thus the saying of the prophet is fulfilled, “My soul shall boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear and be glad.”(1)A pure eye does not look for praise when doing the truth, nor does it care about how people look when doing good, for it does not do it to please them. If you only look for their praise—those who, out of ignorance of what is in man’s heart, even praise vain deeds—then you will be willing to falsify your deeds so that they appear good, and in doing so your heart will be double-hearted. A heart is not pure unless it rises above the praise of people, cares for God alone, and strives to please the Examiner of hearts alone.

The less you yearn for people's praise, the more your pure heart will produce deeds that deserve greater praise.

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Be careful not to do your righteous deeds before men, so that they may see you.

Beware of behaving righteously for this purpose, lest your happiness be centered on how people look at you, “otherwise you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.” And your loss of heavenly reward is not because of how people look at you, but because you behave with this purpose. For what does he mean when he says in the introduction to the sermon, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”(2) That is, the goal is not to praise people, but to glorify the heavenly Father.

In this chapter, the Lord did not forbid us from doing righteousness before people, but He warned us against doing it for the purpose of appearing before them.

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The Apostle says, “For if I still sought to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.”(3)While he asks to please them in another place, saying, “Just as I also please all men in everything.” Those with little understanding may think that there is a contradiction between the two statements.

He said that he did not please people, because he was accustomed to doing righteousness to please God, not people, and he who loves God wants to change people’s hearts, and this requires pleasing them, not as a reward for our good deeds, but because he who does not present himself as an example to those he desires to save has not pleased God, and at the same time they cannot imitate those who have not pleased them.

This is like a man searching for a ship to reach his homeland. In his search, he says that he is not searching for the ship, but for his homeland. In saying this, he is not lying, because he is not searching for the ship itself, but for the sake of reaching his homeland. Thus, it is appropriate for the Apostle to say, “In pleasing people, I do not please them, but I please God, for I do not aim to please them for their own sake, but I desire that those whose salvation I seek will imitate me.”

This is similar to what he said about the gift that was collected for the saints, “Not because I seek the gift, but because it abounds to your account” (Phil. 4:17). He does not seek the gift for its own sake, but because it is their fruit. When they willingly offered what he asked of them, he declared their progress not according to the gift he received, but as evidence of their love.

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And when he finished saying,Otherwise you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.He only referred to the warning against seeking people’s praise as a reward for our actions.

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Charity and purity of heart

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“So when you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.”

We must not desire to appear as hypocrites, those who appear to men to be something other than what is in their hearts. They impersonate other people. He who plays the role of Agamenom in a tragedy… does not become the same character but impersonates his own, and for this reason he is called a hypocrite. It is the same in the Church or in any aspect of life. He who assumes an appearance other than what is in him is a hypocrite. He pretends to be righteous, hiding his true self, placing all the reward of his deeds in the praise of men… These do not receive a reward from God, who searches hearts, but a punishment for their deception. They have received their reward from men. Therefore He says, “They have received their reward,” and He says to them, “Depart from Me, you deceivers, for you have taken My name and have not done My works.”

He who gives his charity for no other reason than to gain human glory will receive his reward, not for the sake of gaining human glory, but simply for having acted with that aim. But he who does good and does not desire the praise of men will be praised and many will benefit through him, imitating him, without himself feeling that he has any benefit from their praise.

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Giving charity in secret

But when you do alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Augustine discusses what is meant by “your left hand” from which charity is hidden: is it the unbelievers, the enemies, the wife, or the love of people’s praise?

1- Non-believers: If we understand the word “your left” to mean non-believers, this means that we are not wrong if we are concerned with pleasing believers alone, even though the Lord forbids us from making our goal to please people, whoever they may be.

On the other hand, those who are pleased with you may imitate you, so we must do good not only before believers, but also before non-believers, so that they may glorify God with the good works we do, and accept salvation.

2- Enemies: If “the left, which we do not know what our right hand is doing” was the enemy, then why did the Lord heal people with His mercy, while the “enemy” Jews were around Him?! And why did the Apostle Peter bring the wrath of the enemies upon himself and the rest of the disciples, by healing the paralytic who was asking for alms at the Beautiful Gate?(4)?!

If it is necessary for us not to let the enemy know what charity we give, then how do we carry out the commandment, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him with bread”?

3- The wife: Lustful people are accustomed to considering the wife as the left hand from which we do not know what our right hand does. This is a false and ridiculous opinion. I would not have wanted to point it out if many had not fallen into it. It is well known that women are more stingy in spending on household needs, so men hide from them what they give in charity so as not to cause family disputes. As if only men are Christians, and as if the commandment did not exist for women. Otherwise, what is the woman’s left hand from which she hides her charity?! Is the man considered the wife’s left hand?!

This interpretation corrupts the text, as each party considers the other to be a leftist in relation to him, because each of them disposes of the family property without the will of the other party. Such a marriage is not Christian.

 Each of them should fulfill the Lord’s command to give alms. If one of them opposes the command, he is an unbeliever; then one of them is a believer and the other an unbeliever. Thus the believer should fulfill the commandment that requires him to win the unbeliever, by calm understanding and good conduct. The believer should not hide his good deeds from the other party in order to be able to attract him to the fellowship of the Christian faith. Theft should not be committed by one party giving alms without the knowledge of the other.

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4- The desire for people’s praise: If we compare the Lord’s speech about righteousness in general, “Beware that you do not practice your righteousness before men to be seen by them; otherwise you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven,” with His specific speech about charity, “So when you do charity, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men,” we will find a correspondence between them.

So what does the Lord mean by his saying, “But when you do alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” except not to behave like hypocrites who know what their left hand is doing. Their left hand is their “desire for praise” and their right hand is the fulfillment of the commandments. Thus, the combination of the two together means that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

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What does the Lord mean when he says:So that your charity is in secret“Except for a good conscience, because human eyes cannot see it and it cannot be expressed in human language. Many people’s actions differ from what their consciences contain. Therefore, giving charity internally belongs to the right hand, while giving outwardly belongs to the left hand. In other words, let your charity come from within… because many give charity with a pure intention despite not having the means to give charity. On the contrary, many give charity externally without having an internal intention. They want to appear merciful in order to gain worldly honor or a temporal goal. These people give charity with their left hand and not their right.

There is a third category that stands in the middle between the two. They give charity with sincere intentions, but it is tainted by the love of praise or the desire to achieve a fleeting, temporary goal. That is why the Lord forbids us from giving charity with the left hand, and from mixing the actions of the right hand (sincere intention) with the left hand (love of showing off or having a temporal goal)…

When we discuss the purity of the heart, we say that it is not pure unless it has one goal. This does not happen as long as the heart serves two masters, that is, if the purity of his heart is marred by his love for worldly things, he does not strive to purify it by directing it towards spiritual things alone.

Prayer and purity of heart

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And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners that they may be seen by men.

I do not see here any need to repeat the same rule that we should observe. The Lord of Glory repeated in the “Prayer” what he said about charity, warning us against striving to seek this reward that delights the ignorant.

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But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret.

Aren't these the deceivers our hearts that came in the psalm: “What you say in your heart, regret it on your beds”?(5) But entering the closet would be trivial if we left the door open, for impurities would break in, enter inside us and attack our inner man. What is outside are visible, fleeting things, which enter through the door, that is, through the senses, into our thoughts and with the noise of their imaginations hinder those who pray. Therefore the door must be closed, that is, the senses must be restrained, for spiritual prayer is directed to the Father. We offer prayer from the depths of the heart to the Father who is in secret.

And your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

The Lord of Glory gives us a lesson not about the importance of prayer, but how to pray. This is as He did on the subject of almsgiving, where He did not speak about its necessity, but about the spirit in which we offer it. And while He teaches us about purity of heart, the heart needs a struggle with one goal, that is, one that aims at eternal life.

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And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Just as it is a characteristic of hypocrites to love to appear, so it is a characteristic of pagans to repeat their words, thinking that by doing so they will be answered. This repetition does not stem from their training in purity of heart, but rather from their training of the tongue. And by this vain endeavor they try to change the will of God, thinking that God, like man, is deceived by many words.

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

The ignorant person needs many words to learn and become cultured, but what need does God have for such words in prayer when He knows everything?! All past and future matters do not hide from His knowledge and His word, but are present before Him.

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Is there a need to pray with the tongue?

If the Lord of Glory teaches us to pray with few words, and teaches us the Lord’s Prayer, then what is the need for it as long as He knows all things before they happen, and knows what we need before we ask Him?

To answer this question, we must persevere in our requests to God, not in words but by being occupied with them and directing our thoughts with pure love and sincere longing. The reason the Lord teaches us these thoughts through words spoken in prayer is to restore the thoughts during prayer.

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Is there a need to pray?

What is the need for prayer at all, whether in thought or in tongue, since God knows what we need before we ask Him, unless the mere fact of our standing up to pray calms and purifies our hearts and makes them more ready to receive the spiritual gifts of God that flow to us. God is always ready to give His spiritual and intellectual light, but we are not always ready to receive this light, because of our love for temporal things, and because of our darkness that stems from our desire for temporal things.

Hence we must strive to pray, that our hearts may be lifted up to the Lord, who is ever ready to give us, if we are to take what He gives us. Lifting the heart up to God purifies the inner eye, to the extent that it is able to imagine these temporal things. Thus the heart can bear the true light, the divine ray, without any words or expression. Thus it is not only ready to bear this light, but to remain in it with unspoken joy, without any distress, and thus we truly and truly complete the blessed life.

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The Lord's Prayer

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Let us now consider what the Lord has taught us to pray to Him. He who taught us prayer is the one who answers it. He says: “Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven… etc.”.

Our father

Our prayer should be in accordance with the “good” will of the One to whom we pray, by glorifying Him at the beginning of the prayer. That is why we are commanded to begin only by saying “Our Father who art in heaven.”

Indeed, there are many words scattered throughout the pages of the Bible that glorify God, but we never find a commandment for the Jewish people to say “Our Father,” that is, to pray to Him not as sons but as slaves, that is, while they still live according to the flesh.

I say that they did not take God as their father, and they could have done so if they had not disobeyed the law which they were commanded to keep, so the following texts came:

“I have nourished and brought up children, but they have rebelled against me” (Isa 1:2).

“I said, ‘You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High’” (Psalm 82:6).

“If I am a father, where is my honor?” (Malachi 1:6)

These texts show their non-acceptance as children of God, and they are a prophecy of what will happen to Christians who take God as their father, as the Evangelist says: “He gave them the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). And the Apostle Paul says: “As long as the heir is a child, he is no different from the slave” (Galatians 4:1), referring to the spirit of adoption that we have received, and by which we cry out, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15).

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In truth, we are called to share in the inheritance with Christ, and to receive the spirit of adoption, not according to our merits, but by the grace of God. Therefore, this grace takes its place in the opening of our prayer by saying “Our Father.” Love springs from our calling Him “Our Father,” because what is dearer to children than their Father?! People also find in praying with this word the boldness to take what they were about to ask for because they received such a great gift, which is to call God “their Father.” If God has granted them to be His children, what gifts does He deprive them of?!

Finally, what anxiety comes over the mind when God calls us “our Father” without proving his worthiness as the son of such a great Father? If a common man were allowed to call one of the great and advanced in age his father, would he not be disturbed? And would he not dare to call that great man his father because of his lowly origin, poverty, and illiteracy? How much more would be our condition when we call God our Father? Let us be terrified if our lives are marred by great shame and extreme degradation… which cannot be found in our father, considering that the great man fears that the poor man should be related to him because of his poverty. Truly, the great despises the poverty of the poor, which the great man himself is exposed to, but God will never be attached to shame and degradation. Thanks be to God’s mercies, which require us to call Him “our Father,” that relationship which we obtain without paying any price on our part, but which we have acquired by His good will.

Here we find a teaching also for the rich, and for those of high birth - which the world cares about - that when they become Christians they should not boast over the poor and those of low birth, because they all call God "Our Father" a title which they cannot utter with truth and piety unless they know that they are brothers.

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who is in the heavens

If Christians who are called to eternal inheritance would understand the words “in heaven” to mean “in the saints and righteous,” for God is not limited by a specific place. The heavens are the part of the world that is elevated above the material bodies, yet they are material, and so are limited by a certain amount of space. If we think of God as being in the upper part of the world, the birds would be better off than we are because they live near God. However, it is not written, “The Lord is near to the tall and the mountain dwellers,” but, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.”(6) A reference to humility. If the wicked were called “earth,” so the righteous are called “heaven.” It was said of them, ““For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” (1 Corinthians 3:17). If God dwells in His temple and has called the saints His temple, then the saying “who is in heaven” means “who is in the saints,” since the comparison between the righteous and the wicked spiritually is appropriate to heaven and earth materially.

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This contrast between the heavenly and the material is evident in our standing during prayer facing east, where the sun rises, not because God dwells there only, rejecting other places in the world, but because the orientation of our earthly bodies toward the most sublime of bodies (the sun) prepares the mind to turn toward God, who is higher than its nature.

 This method is very suitable for all stages of worship and is also highly beneficial, as it enables the minds of adults and children to comprehend God. Those who still comprehend visible beauty but are unable to comprehend the beauty of heavenly things, these people need to distinguish between heaven and earth, so that their thinking will be sound. If they think that the God they think of is in a material form in heaven rather than on earth, then in the future when they learn that the spirit must transcend the heavenly bodies, then they will seek God in the spirit and not in a visible body (heaven). Then they will be able to distinguish between the spirits of sinners and the spirits of the righteous, for they have already distinguished between heaven and earth. Thus they will be able to seek God with sound faith or sound reason, as being in the spirits of the righteous rather than in the spirits of the wicked.

Therefore, the phrase “who is in heaven” is understood to mean “the hearts of the righteous, that is, in His temple.” The praying person desires that God also dwell in him. He strives for God to dwell in his heart by doing righteous deeds, which attracts God to dwell in his spirit.

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After clarifying who we are going to reach and where he lives, we now look into the requests we are asking, which are:

First - Hallowed be your name

We make this petition, not because His name is not holy, but that we may see Him holy, that is, we may not see anything more holy than Him, fearing to oppose Him. For it is said, “God is known in Judah, and His name is great in Israel” (Ps. 76:1). This is not to be understood as if His name were greater in one place than in another, but is great wherever we call Him great. Thus His name is said to be holy wherever He is called with reverence and feared to oppose Him. This is what we seek to accomplish by preaching the Gospel, that the name of the one God may be called by the dispensation of His Son.

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Second - Let Your Kingdom Come

He teaches us that the day of judgment is coming at the time when the gospel is being preached among the nations.(7)This is where God’s name is sanctified. However, saying “Thy kingdom come” does not mean that it is not present.

Some may think that the phrase “let him come” means that he will come to earth as if he had not reigned on earth since the foundation of the world until now. However, the true meaning is that he will declare your kingdom to men, like the light that appears to the blind and who closes his eyes as if it did not exist. Thus this kingdom appears unclear to those who are ignorant of it, although the kingdom of heaven has never been separated from the earth. As for the second coming of the only-begotten Son from heaven, he will not allow anyone to be ignorant of the kingdom of God. When he comes, men will not perceive the kingdom of God in the way that those who understand now perceive it, because they will see him judging the living and the dead, making a distinction and separation between the righteous and the wicked, and God dwelling in the righteous. Then they will no longer need anyone to teach them, but as it is written. All are “taught by God.” Just as the greatest of the heavenly angels, the holy and blessed, are wise and blessed now because God alone is their light, so in eternity the life of the saints, blessed in all its aspects, is completed, for the Lord promised, saying, “For in the resurrection… they will be like the angels of God in heaven.”(8).

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Thirdly - Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

A - Just as Your will works in the angels, the inhabitants of heaven, so that they are completely attached to You and enjoy You completely, and their wisdom is not tainted by error, and their happiness is not touched by misery, so let Your will also be in Your saints, the inhabitants of the earth. For although their dwelling place is heaven, and although they will be changed into a heavenly image, yet they are taken from the earth. The angels indicated this by saying in their hymn, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”(9)When our will is in accordance with God’s will, then His will is fulfilled in us as it is in the heavenly angels, then there is no resistance in the way of our happiness. And this is peace.

B - These requests can also be understood as us asking that God’s commandments be obeyed as they are in heaven as well as on earth, that is, just as the angels obey God’s commandments, so should humans obey them as well. God’s will is fulfilled by carrying out His commandments, and the Lord of Glory Himself confirms this by saying, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me.”(10)He also repeated, “For I have come down… not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”(11)And he says, “Behold my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”(12)God’s will is fulfilled in those who carry it out, not because by carrying it out they make Him will it, but because they do what He wills them to do.

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C- There is a third interpretation of these requests, which is that His will is for sinners as it is for the saints and righteous. This interpretation can be understood in one of the following two ways:

(1) To pray for our enemies who do not want to spread Christianity and the universal Church, as if we are asking, saying, “As the righteous do your will, so may the wicked (unbelievers) do it by turning to you.”

(2) We ask Him to give each person what he deserves, and this will happen on the Day of Judgment when He rewards the righteous with reward and punishes the sinners with punishment, when He separates the sheep from the goats.(13).

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D - The interpretation of heaven and earth as the spirit and the body is not a wrong interpretation, but rather it is in complete accordance with our faith and hope. For when the apostle says, “So then I myself with my mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin,” we find that the spirit (mind) does the will of God. In the resurrection from the dead, death is swallowed up in victory, and this mortal receives immortality, for this is what was promised to the righteous according to the prophecy of the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 15:42, 45). Just as His will is perfectly accomplished in heaven (in the resurrection from the dead), so let it be accomplished on earth also, and just as the spirit follows God and does His will without any resistance, let the body also not resist the spirit with its bodily qualities and habits.

In eternal life, the will is not only present before us. In its implementation, we find complete peace. While in the present life, the Apostle says, “For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.”(14) Because we still do not fully carry out God’s will as it is in heaven, that is, we do not fully carry it out in the body as in the spirit.

God's will is done in our healing, because we bear it worthily... but we pray that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that is, as we delight in the law of God in our hearts according to the inner man.(15)Thus we ask to change our bodies so that there is nothing in them that resists this pleasure in God’s law, whether by our pleasure or sorrow for the things of the world.

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E - This request can also be understood as, "Let His will be done, as it is in our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, so let it be in the Church also." It is as if we are saying, "Let your will be done, as in the man who carries out the will of the Lord, so let it be in the woman who is betrothed to him also," because it is fitting for us to understand heaven and earth, as if there were a man and his wife, since the earth bears fruit through heaven.

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Fourth: Give us this day our daily bread.

1- Daily bread may mean the essential needs of this life. These students referred to the Lord’s saying, “Do not worry about tomorrow,” by saying, “Give us today.”

2- It may mean partaking of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we take daily.

3- It may mean spiritual food, as the Lord said, “Do not work for food that perishes.”(16) And also “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”(17)But the question to be considered is which of the three points of view is more correct? Because some are surprised how we pray for the material needs of this life, such as food and clothing, for example, while the Lord says, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink.”(18) He asks us to offer the Lord’s Prayer with great passion, even asking us to close the closet while praying it, “Seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” How can someone ask for temporal things without caring about what he asks for in prayer?!

Indeed, He did not tell us to seek the Kingdom of God first and then seek other things, but He said, “And all these things will be added to you,” meaning they will be given to us even if we do not ask for them. But I do not know how He asks us not to ask for other things in prayer while in the Lord’s Prayer we are pleading passionately to receive them?!!

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As for understanding daily bread as the sacrament of the Eucharist - that is, the body of our Lord Jesus - we find some who object to this because they do not participate daily in the Lord's Supper. In order to defend their daily non-participation in it, and the church officials have helped them in this by not deterring them, therefore they do not understand it as daily bread. Because if they looked at it as daily bread, they would consider themselves committing a great sin after participating in it... However, this is not the place to discuss this group now.

There is a consideration that must be taken into account by those who realize the necessity of not adding or deleting any word from the Lord’s Prayer, which is that if Communion is understood to be the daily bread, how can we pray the Lord’s Prayer only once a day, or even if we pray it two or three times before we partake of the Lord’s body and blood, we cannot pray it after we have received it, otherwise it is as if we are asking Him to give us what we have already received, or is there something that compels us to celebrate the Eucharist in the last hours of the day so that we can pray it all day long?!

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Now it remains for us to understand daily bread as spiritual bread, that is, the fulfillment of the divine commandments. As the Lord says, “Labor not for food that perishes,” moreover, it is called daily food in this time, as long as this life is measured by days. The truth is that as long as the soul passes through periods of elevation and decline, that is, sometimes it desires spiritual things and other times bodily things, the soul is as if it were refreshed by food at one time and hungry at another. Daily bread is necessary to satisfy the hungry and raise up the fallen. Just as our body is satisfied with food in this life, because it feels loss, so when the soul suffers from temporal desires, it experiences what can be called loss before God, and so it is refreshed by the food of the commandments. Moreover, it is said, “Give us this day,” that is, as long as it is called today, that is, as long as we are in this life, because in eternal life we will be refreshed abundantly by food without it being called daily bread, because the result of the succession of days will come to an end. “Today” means the present life, as it was said, “Today, if you hear his voice,” explaining the Apostle in his letter to the Hebrews, since the time is called today.

But if someone wants to understand daily bread as the food necessary for the body or the secret of the Eucharist, then in this case he must take the three meanings together, that is, we ask for the bread necessary for life, the body and blood of the Lord, and the invisible Word of God.

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And leave us what we owe as we leave our debtors

Undoubtedly, by the debts for which we ask forgiveness, he means our sins. Those about which the Lord said, “You shall not go out from there until you have paid the last penny”… He is not speaking here of forgiveness of a monetary debt, but of forgiveness of all the wrongs committed by others against us. For He had previously commanded that our monetary debts be forgiven by a previous commandment, “And if he desires to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.” We are not obliged to give up everything we have lent to others, but to those who are unwilling to pay it to the point of suing them. The apostle warned us, “The servant of the Lord must not quarrel.”(19)Therefore, forgive those who do not wish to fulfill their debts, whether they express their desire secretly or openly. Because the desire not to fulfill their debts is for one of two reasons: either because of the inability to fulfill their debts or because of their greed and love for the money of others, and both cases are considered poverty. The first case is material poverty, and the other is poverty in character. Whoever forgives the debt of such a person has forgiven a poor person, and thus performs a Christian act.

But the important thing here is that a person should be prepared to forgive the debt he has lent. If he seeks calmly and gently by all means to recover the debt, not aiming only at getting his debt as much as he desires to bring the debtor to his senses, because if the debtor is able to pay and does not pay, this will be harmful to him, then by the creditor trying to recover the debt he is not committing a sin but is rendering a very great service by trying to prevent the other from destroying his faith by his love of other people's money, which is a matter that is unparalleled in its seriousness.

From this we understand that the fifth request does not concern monetary debts, but rather everything that others commit against us, including their failure to pay the loans they have borrowed from us. Because whoever refuses to pay what he has borrowed from us, while he is able to pay, sins against us. If we do not forgive this sin, we will not be able to say, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive ourselves.”

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In fact, if we pray this petition without forgiving those who ask us for forgiveness, we will have committed a mistake, because we desire forgiveness from our Father, the Most Merciful, without forgiving others. On the other hand, the commandment to pray for enemies does not command us to pray for those who ask us for forgiveness, but rather for the enemies, because the one who asks us for forgiveness is not considered our enemy. It is not appropriate for a person to consider the one who asks for forgiveness for him as his enemy, so let him pray for him without forgiving him.

Therefore, if we want forgiveness for the sins we commit against our Father, let us forgive all the sins committed against us. We have already discussed the subject of revenge sufficiently.(20).

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Sixth - And lead us not into temptation.

In some manuscripts it is written “and lead us not,” which is equivalent to “lead us not,” because the Greek word has both meanings. Some pray, “Do not allow us to be led into temptation.” God does not lead man into temptation, but allows those who have been deprived of His help to be led into it, according to the hidden wisdom of God, and according to the merits of those whom He allowed to be led into temptation.

And submitting to temptation is different from testing a person. Because without testing a person is not approved. And he is tested to approve himself, as it is written, “He who has not been tested, what does he know?”(21) Or he tries to recommend others, as the Messenger said, “Your experience is your experience.”(22) “Which in my body you have not despised.”(23) Because from these circumstances the apostle learned that they were steadfast because they did not abandon love because of the persecutions that befell the apostle according to the flesh. As for God, He knows us before we are tempted because He knows all things before they come into being.

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So when it is said, “The Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God,” “to know” means to know the truth about yourself. This is as if we were to speak of a day as being joyful because it makes us happy, or as being cold and frosty because we feel it. This is often the case in public conversations, or in teaching others, or in the Bible.

If the heretics, the enemies of the Old Testament, think that the saying “The Lord your God is testing you” is something that marks God Almighty as ignorant, then let them look at what is stated in the Gospel about the Lord: “But he said this to test him (i.e. Philip), for he himself knew what he was going to do.”(24)Since the Lord knows the heart of the one He tests, why does He test him? The truth is that He tests him so that the one being tested may know the truth about himself and blame himself for thinking that there is not enough to satisfy the multitude.

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The prayer here is not that we may not be tempted, but that we may not enter into temptation. Since every man must be tested by fire, he should not pray that the fire may not touch him, but that he may not perish, for the earthen vessels are tested by the furnace, and man is tested by tribulations (Wisdom of Joshua 27:6). Joseph was tempted by the temptation of adultery, but he did not enter into temptation (Gen. 39:7-12). Susanna was also tempted without entering into temptation (Dan. 19:22). Many of both sexes were tempted without entering into temptation. But Job was the greatest of them, for he stood wonderfully firm in the Lord his God…

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… Some heretics are annoyed by Satan’s request that God test the righteous, and I do not explain this matter to them, but I ask them to explain to me the Lord’s saying to His disciples, “Behold, Satan has asked for you to sift you like wheat.”(25)And his saying to Peter, “But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.”(26)By explaining these two texts to me, they have explained to themselves how Satan asks God to test the righteous…

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The temptations that occur through Satan are not by his power, but by God’s permission, as He allows them either to discipline us (punish us) or out of His love for us to test and train us. There are different types of temptations. The temptation into which Judas fell by selling his Master is different from the temptation of Peter who denied Him out of fear.

I believe that there are general temptations to which people are subjected because of their human weakness, no matter how good their conduct is. An example of this is when a person becomes angry with another while guiding him in the path of truth, and thus departs from the calmness required by Christianity. Therefore, the Apostle Paul says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man,” while at the same time he says, “But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). He clearly shows that we do not pray that we will not be tempted, but that we will not be led into temptation, because if we fall into a temptation that we cannot bear, we will be led into temptation. If serious temptations arise against us, so that our submission to them would be fatal to us – whether due to circumstances in our favor or against us – then he who does not submit to them, captivated by the joy of victory, has dispensed with the troubles of the enemy.

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Seventh - But deliver us from the evil one.

We pray not only that we may not enter into the evil one, from which we were freed by the previous petition, but we also pray that we may be delivered from the evil one into which we have fallen before, and so that we may not fear any temptation. However, as long as we are in this life, we bear the marks of our death into which we have fallen captive because of the seduction of the serpent, so we do not hope to be in this state now, that is, without temptation or evil, but our hope is to be like this in the future, and this is the unseen hope, for as the apostle says, “But hope that is seen is not hope.”(27).

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Seven Orders Tab

We must distinguish between the seven requests on the basis that some of them pertain to temporal life and some of them pertain to eternal life.

Temporal life passes away and ends, but we hope for eternal life. Therefore, eternal things are higher than temporal things, even if we cannot pass through them as long as we pass through temporal things.

1- The first three requests: Its realization begins in this life.

The sanctification of God's name began in a clear way with the coming of the humble Lord and the coming of His most majestic Kingdom, which is not announced after the end of the world but at its end. And the execution of God's will on earth as in heaven (whether it means the wicked and the righteous, or the spirit and the body, or the Lord Christ and the Church, or all of these together) will bring our blessedness to completion at the end of the world.

2- The other four requests: It seems to me to be specific to this present life.

The first petition, “Give us this day our daily bread,” whether it means daily sustenance, spiritual bread (the Word of God), or the Eucharist, our food, concerns this present life called “today.” Not because spiritual bread is not eternal, but because what is called daily bread in Scripture is offered to the Spirit by words or in some temporal way, and certainly these words or in any temporal way, and certainly these words (languages) and others will not be found in eternal life when we become taught by God.(28). Where we no longer learn the light of unspoken truth by bodily movements (i.e. by the tongue or any other method of teaching), but each person drinks from it with the purity of his mind. Perhaps for this reason it is called (bread) and not (drink), because bread needs to be broken and chewed to be transformed into food. The soul, when it eats from the Holy Book, needs to open it and discuss what is in it, but drinking. When it is prepared, it flows into the body without any effort being expended. The truth is now called (daily bread), but in the next life it is drunk, where there is no need for discussion and argument, as if it were broken or chewed.

The second petition, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” is for this life only, because there is no need for forgiveness in eternal life, where there are no sins.

The third request, “Lead us not into temptation,” concerns this temporal life, which is surrounded by temptations. As for the other life, there are no temptations in it, as “You cover them with the covering of Your face” is fulfilled.(29).

The fourth petition, “But deliver us from evil,” concerns this life as well, where we desire salvation from evil and salvation from evil itself, into which we have fallen because of the judgment of death upon us according to God’s justice.

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Order of the seven orders

It seems to me that these seven requests correspond in order to the seven Beatitudes mentioned at the beginning of the sermon.

1- If the fear of God is what makes the poor in spirit blessed and attain the kingdom of heaven, then let us ask God to sanctify His name among people also through His fear: “The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.”(30).

2- And if through piety the meek are blessed and they inherit the earth, then through our meekness and lack of resistance His kingdom will come upon us, or He will come with His majesty from heaven, so we will rejoice and hear the saying, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”(31)For the prophet says, “My soul will glory in the Lord; the humble will hear and rejoice.”(32).

3- If through knowledge He makes those who mourn happy and they are comforted, then let us pray that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, because when there is harmony between the spirit and the body (as if they were heaven and earth), we will not be sad. For there can be no sadness except where there is conflict between the body and the spirit, so we say, “I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind.”(33)And we bear witness to our sorrow in a terrifying way: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?”(34).

4- If it is the possibility that makes those who hunger and thirst for righteousness blessed and satisfied, then let us pray to God to give us daily bread today, this bread with which we are nourished, strengthened, and reach a state of complete satisfaction.

5- If by seeking advice the merciful are blessed and they are shown mercy, then let us forgive those who sin against us (i.e. show mercy) so that He may forgive us our sins.

6- If through understanding the pure in heart are blessed and they will see God, then let us pray to God that we will not enter into temptation, so that we will not be double-hearted and seek not only true good in our actions but also temporal things. So that the temptations that arise from our not obtaining the things that people think are joyful and delightful will not have power over us.

7- If wisdom is what makes peacemakers blessed and called children of God, let us pray to be freed from evil so that we may be children of God and rejoice in the spirit of adoption, “Abba, Father.”(35)

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Let us consider the interest of the Lord Christ in the request for forgiveness of the sins of others above all other requests. He wants us to be merciful, so that we may escape misery, by forgiving our sins. Only by this request do we enter into a covenant with God, and say to Him: “Forgive us as we forgive.” If we lie, our prayers become futile. For the Lord said, “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

(1) Psalm 34:2.

(2) Matthew 14:5-16.

(3) Galatians 10:1.

(4) Acts 4:3.

(5) Psalm 4:4.

(6) Psalm 18:34.

(7) Matthew 14:24

(8) Matthew 30:22.

(9) Luke 14:2.

(10) John 4:34.

(11) John 6:38.

(12) Matthew 12:49,50.

(13) Matthew 25:33-46.

(14) Romans 18:7.

(15) Romans 22:7.

(16) John 27:6.

(17) John 6:41.

(18) Matthew 25:6.

(19) 2 Timothy 2:24.

(20) Part One Chapter 19, 20.

(21) Wisdom of Joshua 11:34.

(22) According to the translation of the English text as well as the old version M.SS.

(23) Galatians 14:4.

(24) John 6:6.

(25) Luke 31:22.

(26) Luke 22:32.

(27) Romans 8:24.

(28) John 6:45.

(29) Psalm 20:31.

(30) Psalm 9:19.

(31) Matthew 34:25.

(32) Psalm 34:2.

(33) Romans 23:7.

(34) Romans 24:7.

(35) Romans 15:8.