Matthew 6:9

THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD

Our Father which art in heaven.’

Matthew 6:9

In this chapter, while Christ seems to be occupied with warning us against the affectations and vanities, the hollowness and formality, the shallow externalism of established observances, He adds injunctions which carry us to the central idea of all spiritual life. These injunctions may be expressed by two words, first, secret communion of the soul with God; and, second, the sense the ever-restful consciousness that this God is our Father.

I. The life of the human soul.—Secret communion with God in the consciousness of His Fatherhood and of our sonship, is, in brief, the life of the human soul. It is in solitude so spent that the life grows and gathers its force; it is there that the strong soul feeds its human nature out of the Divine nature. If there be any of whom it can be said that your life has no such secret and separate inner chamber, consecrated to the Divine presence, then you may depend upon it, it is a poor, superficial, and fading life. It may be ready enough to receive impressions, and clothe itself in all the ordinary religious duties of its time or society; but without that secret communion with the Father in secret, it will lack the vitality and the growth that comes only from the depths of the inner and unseen spiritual life. The gift of God’s grace which transforms the life is always an inward gift, and it is to be specially sought in this secret and separate inward communion. When the soul is thus withdrawn from the external surroundings of life, and is face to face with the all-seeing Father, external relationships are forgotten, external influences and distinctions drop away, and it grows then in real spiritual strength and capacity. We may turn to the Saviour’s own practice for our example of this secret and separate communion with the Father.

II. Detachment from the world.—The special danger to our spiritual life is not so much in any public neglect, as in the neglect of this inner and secret and separate communion with the Father. There can be no true spiritual life without independence of the world, we all agree about that; and there can be no independence without detachment. But independence of spirit, and detachment, may only mean isolation unless these come to be upheld and inspired by some force above us, which is better and stronger than the common life. If a man simply stands aside, why then the world goes on, and disregards him; but, if his retirement is for that communion to which Christ here invites men, and for which He went before us, that they may come forth again fresh from the communion of their spirit with their Father in Heaven, such a man becomes a spiritual power and influence in the society in which he moves. So we may note the impression which Christ Himself made on those around Him.

—Bishop Percival.

Illustration

‘The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for all—for all times and climes, all nations and languages, all sorts and conditions of men, high and low, rich and poor. It is for all periods of life; the child lisps it at its mother’s knee, and the old man prays it as he worships, like Jacob, leaning on the top of his staff. For all places—for city or country, factory or field, down the dark mines or out in the glittering seas. For all our moods of mirth or melancholy, hope or fear—it expresses, instructs, it directs them all. For all degrees of understanding—it is given for little ones and suitable for them, yet so full and comprehensive, that almost all the ancient fathers of the Church and the most learned divines of all ages have written at length on the treasures of wisdom which are laid up therein.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE FATHER’S LOVE

There is no greater secret, of all truth and holiness and joy, than to have correct and grand views of the ‘fatherly’ relationship and character of God. Therefore, by all strange ways, the enemy of our peace tries to misrepresent it. God has made ‘the father’ His metaphor, and one great reason why God has established the relationship of a ‘father’ for this earth is to lead up to Him.

I. Love antecedent.—A ‘father’s’ love must, of necessity, precede the love of the child: long before the child can really know or love him, he has known and loved the child. The child’s love is the response and echo, after long intervals. You cannot conceive the time when God began to love you. But you can very easily date almost the hour when you began to love Him. God had done thousands of things for you before you ever did one thing for Him.

II. Love anticipatory.—Being antecedent, it is always anticipatory. It is a love that always stands in the front. A son little knows and thinks of all that’ a father’ has been thinking for him when he was helpless, and unconscious, and asleep. And you are not conscious of a millionth part of what has been going on within the veil of the great Father’s address to you. When you came into the world, there was everything ready for you; and your life commenced, has gone on all through, a planned one. It has all been a copy of a chart which lay for ever and ever in the breast of Godhead. Therefore it is the Divine love so exceeds the human.

III. Love prospective.—A ‘father’s’ love to his child has always—though the child may not see it—a reference to the child’s future. A ‘father’s’ love always has in itself something of the nature of education—therefore it disciplines you. It is just so with God. His love, and every act of it, always has a future in it. And just as a ‘father,’ being a man, trains his child for manhood, so God, being eternal, trains his creatures for eternity. You can only read a ‘father’s’ love in that light. It is always prospective love, mysterious—just because God sees: a future which His child does not see.

IV. Love’s qualities.—(a) A ‘father’ never magnifies a child’s faults. He always sees excellences more than he sees the bad points. Is that the way in which you think of God’s looking on you? Do not you generally think of God exactly the opposite?—quick to see what is wrong—watching for sins—and, when He sees them, slow to forgive them.

(b) A ‘father’s’ love is always equal to all his children. Can God be partial? And yet you often think of God as very partial, and fancy that He does not love you as much as He loves some other.

(c) A ‘father’s’ love is a very wide thing. It takes in with a large embrace all the little things and all the great things in his child’s life—all and everything.

(d) A ‘father s’ love never dies. Whatever the child may do—whatever the ‘father’ may be constrained to do, upon whatever his child does, it does not alter a ‘father’s’ love. He may punish—he may be angry—he may hide himself; but his love is unchanging. And why is this in the ‘father’? Because his relation approaches and assimilates to God’s relation to His creatures. He is a representative on earth of God. He is a ‘father.’ God is a ‘Father’!

It will take you out of a great many distresses and difficulties if you will only remember ‘the Fatherhood of God.’

The Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

‘The Christian Prayer, like the Christian Faith and the Christian Duty, begins in heaven. Just as the first article of our creed lifts us far away from earth, bringing us to think of “God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth”; just as also the First Commandment lifts us to the same height, and speaks to us of our duty to the same infinite Being; so the Lord’s Prayer opens with an invocation to the Maker and Father of us all. Thus Faith, and Duty, and Prayer are three sides of one great truth. And yet while this first breath of prayer speaks of heaven, it speaks also of home. The Being to whom we speak is our Father, although He is a Father in heaven. While reminded that He is far above out of our sight, we are yet instructed to call Him by the dearest of all earthly names. We have thus a continual chain to bind together earthly associations and heavenly hopes; to raise the one by speaking of heaven, to fix and sustain the other by a connection with our common homely life. And thus, while its daily breath is this ever-widening and deepening prayer of Jesus Christ, the Christian soul may see the glories of eternity cast on its daily life, and also the best associations of its daily life stereotyped, as it were, in eternity.’