Author: Rory Anderson (Page 1 of 2)

Does God Judge or Not?

March 13, 2025 / Rory Anderson

Judgment is all over the place in the Bible. There is even an entire book of the Bible called Judges! Judgment is a concept that is woven into our very being. Ironically, secularists and misguided Christians alike love to misquote Jesus in Matthew 7:1 when He says, “judge not,” a topic I will cover later in this book. God’s judgment is perfect and good. He judges the righteous and the wicked alike. Here are some examples of God’s judgment:

God judged Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience and banished them from the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3)
God judged Noah to be a righteous man and chose him to build the Ark. (Genesis 6)
God judged Abraham to be righteous in his obedience to sacrifice Isaac. (Genesis 22)
God judged Israel multiple times throughout the Old Testament and depending on their obedience or wickedness He blessed them or cursed them, respectively.
God judged various people and called them be judges over Israel themselves. (Book of Judges)
Jesus judges the disciples on the boat in storm as cowardly and faithless. (Matthew 8, Mark 4, Luke 8)
Jesus judged the moneychangers and merchants who were set up in the temple as thieves and kicked them out.
Jesus judges and wages war in Revelation 19:11.

There is a lot of judgment in the Bible. But you may be surprised to know that many people believe there is a contradiction in the Bible about God’s judgment. The supposed contradiction is that God judges and He does not judge. Their proof is the very words of Jesus Christ Himself:

“And if anyone hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”
John 12:47

So does God judge or does He not? I already went through some examples above where God judges the good and the bad all the time! And then we have a verse right in the middle of the Gospel of John that appears to contradict all of that. How are we supposed to understand what Jesus was saying in this passage? Or is there really a contradiction here?

Let’s look at the context of John 12:47 first. Without getting too bogged down in details, the context tells us the Jesus is addressing the people who are struggling and fighting their belief in who He is. Starting in verse 44 and going all the way to verse 50, Jesus’ monologue is as follows:

“He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me see the One who sent Me. I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My words, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him on the last day. For I did not speak from Myself, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment – what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.”
John 12:44-50

Jesus is speaking in the present tense – or at least the present tense as it was 2,000 years ago. He tells us He came into the world to be the Light for us, to save the world. When He was speaking to His listeners He was saying that the primary purpose for being sent to the world was for their salvation. He wasn’t saying He’d never judge ever. He wasn’t there to judge anyone in the final, salvific sense. He was there to provide salvation. The judgment from Christ comes at His second coming. He will judge all of mankind eventually.

Note that there was no weaseling out of a problem in this supposed contradiction. Again, just like many other examples it usually just takes a basic reading of the text in context to understand what the Bible actually says.

Do Genesis 1 and 2 Contradict Each Other?

March 12, 2025 / Rory Anderson

Short answer: no.

Long answer: nooooooooo.

Genesis is the first book of the Bible and it lays down much of the groundwork for the Hebrew and Christian faiths. It explains the origin of man’s sinful nature, man’s various original languages, and multiple and varied pictures of the Messiah to come. But perhaps the most common concept that people think of when the book of Genesis is mentioned is the creation of the universe.

Genesis 1:1 famously begins, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. Chapter one then gives the order of events in which God created everything. It is as follows:

Creation of light and its separation from the darkness.
Creation of the sky and it separating the waters above from the waters below.
Creation of the dry land and vegetation.
Creation of sun, moon, and stars.
Creation of flying animals and water animals.
Creation of land animals and man.

Genesis chapter 2 appears to have a slightly different order in that man was created before the vegetation and animals (man in 2:7, vegetation in 2:9, and animals in 2:19). So was man created before or after the vegetation and the animals? Let’s take a look at the text overall.

Genesis chapter 1 lays out creation is a very step-by-step fashion: God said “X”, X was created, it was good, that was day number one; rinse and repeat for each of the following days. When you get to chapter 2 Genesis changes the perspective for the reader. In chapter 2 the focus is the creation of man and the Garden of Eden, and the mandate of not eating of the forbidden fruit. In the midst of these details the author supplementally mentions that other things were created also, but NOT specifically in the order it reads in. How do we know? Because no creation order is being presented in chapter 2.

When the author of Genesis mentions the creation of the animals and His bringing them to Adam for naming in 2:19-20, the language used tells us that “out of the ground Yahweh God had formed [the animals]”; in other words, it was something God had already done by the time the writer gets to this point in chapter 2. Another way to word it would be, “By the way, God had already made these animals previously and brought them to the man that he more recently made.” So then why doesn’t the text read that way if that’s what’s attempted to be communicated? Chapter 2 was not written as a step-by-step, ordered account of creation. It was written to more detail the creation of man and simply mentioned the creation of other things in passing.

The second chapter isn’t even trying to attempt an ordered creation account. Then why do people read it incorrectly? Because they’re trying to read their own understanding into the text instead of taking the text as it is written. It’s a pretty simple understanding but people routinely over complicate things they read. More often than not, opponents of the faith try to make up issues that don’t really exist, then people hear these false claims and buy into them without actually reading the source material.

February 3, 2025 / Rory Anderson

Only Begotten Son?

February 3, 2025 / Rory Anderson

Several years ago, a young student from one of my classes asked me what John 3:16 means when it says “only begotten Son”, primarily concerned with what it means that Jesus was “begotten”. I wasn’t prepared to answer justly and it wasn’t exactly in the scope of my planned lessons at the time. Things are different now. This one’s for you, Houston.

John 3:16 is one of, if not the, most memorized Bible verse ever. It’s also probably one of the most misunderstood, if only slightly. But that slight misunderstanding has implications on a Biblical scale (heh) that reaches across not only the New Testament, but the Old Testament and beyond. I will briefly be addressing the overall message of John 3:16 and mostly discussing it through a textual perspective. Some of this article will involve what the Greek says, but don’t let that discourage you from reading and learning. Without further ado let’s find out what John 3:16 is really saying.

Context First

John 3:16 happens in the midst of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee who recognized Jesus’ authority when he said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (John 3:2 ESV). Jesus responds, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” They then go on to have an exchange about what being “born again” means and Jesus ends with the topic of eternal life saying, “so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life” (John 3:14 ESV).

The ultimate topic here is salvation and discerning between those who are of God and those who are not.

The Sons of God

The very next sentence is the verse in question:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 LSB

Now you may have noticed I used a different Bible translation here. That was on purpose. Different English translations have slightly different wordings. For example, the difference between the English Standard Version (ESV) and the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) is that while the LSB has “only begotten Son,” the ESV simply says, “only Son”. In fact, let me point out this phrase in a few English Bible translations:

ESV – “only Son”

LSB – “only begotten Son”

NIV – “one and only Son”

NKJV – “only begotten Son”

KJV – “only begotten Son”

HCSB – “One and Only Son”

CSB – “one and only Son”

ASV – “only begotten Son”

NASB – “only Son”

So your initial question may be, “Why are there so many differences?” That is a question I’ll address at a later date and is not relevant to the current discussion. In the meantime, we are focusing on the fact that in the English we see there is a common idea being conveyed here: Jesus is God’s only Son. Yes, I realize that may be obvious. It’s something we learn early on in church and early on in our Christian lives. However, reading any Scripture means reading it in the context of all of Scripture. For example, even though we just agreed Jesus is God’s only Son, what do you do when you come across this verse:

“…the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.”
Genesis 6:2 ESV

Or this one:

“When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He divided mankind, He fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.”
Deuteronomy 32:8 ESV

Or this:

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord.”
Job 1:6 ESV

Or these:

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
Matthew 5:9

“…for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
Luke 20:36

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.”
Romans 8:19

” Oh yes! A contradiction!” the edgy atheist cries in excitement.

Fear not, for we can utilize critical thinking to overcome an absolutely simple understanding of the text. There is no cause for concern. We simply need to read.

Without getting bogged down in a ton of details (details I will cover in a later post), just know for now that in Old Testament theology, the phrase “sons of God” was almost always understood to be the heavenly council of God. There are spiritual beings other than God. Don’t let this shock you. This is NOT a new idea. A few examples would include Satan, Gabriel, Michael, the angels that appeared to Lot in Genesis 19, and the angels that appeared to Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds in the early New Testament.

The idea that actually is foreign to most Christians is that there is a whole council of beings to which God delegates responsibilities and duties and dominions. In the Old Testament, they are referred to as the sons of God. Some are good; some rebelled.

So how does knowing that help us with the text of John 3:16? Various Biblical texts say there are multiple “sons of God,” but John 3:16 says God has only one Son. Right? At the risk of sounding like the serpent in Eden, does John 3:16 really say Jesus is God’s only son? Let’s take a look at the Greek.

A Lesson in Greek: Monogenes

We are going to take a brief look at the Greek text from which we get our English understanding. The Greek word from which we get the phrase “only begotten” or “one and only” is μονογενης or in the English alphabet “monogenes,” pronounced like mono-guh-nays.

Monogenes is a Greek word that for many years has been translated “one and only” or “only begotten”. This is because for so long, the understanding was that monogenes came from two different Greek words: mono, meaning “one”; genao, meaning “to beget”. This can be confusing as it raises some implications such as God the Father begetting God the Son; or rather, that Jesus had some sort of beginning. This obviously can’t be true because Jesus is God the Son and therefore has always existed. Jesus is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

How then do we understand the phrase found in John 3:16 “only begotten Son”? Well, it wasn’t until later when Greek scholars learned that monogenes actually derives from the two Greek words: mono, meaning “one”; and genos, meaning “kind” or “class”. Literally speaking, monogenes means one of a kind or rather, unique. Jesus Christ is God’s unique Son. Properly translated John 3:16 should read:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His one unique Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus is One of a Kind

Jesus Christ is God the Father’s Son and He is unique amongst all others. Jesus is One of a Kind. There is none like Him. John 3:16 sets Jesus apart from all else and all others. Jesus’ uniqueness is, in part, why we look to Him for salvation. He is the One and Only.

Only Jesus can provide salvation.

Only Jesus can provide forgiveness of sins.

Only Jesus can suffer what must be suffered in order for our sins to be forgiven.

Only Jesus has all authority in Heaven and on earth.

Only Jesus is the one in whom we believe in for eternal life.

Only Jesus is the bread of life.

Only Jesus is the door through which we enter the sheepfold.

Only Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

Only Jesus is the True Vine.

Only Jesus is the Light of the World.

Only Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

Only Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

To Die Is Gain

January 30, 2025 / Rory Anderson

“For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor; yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continued with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.”
Philippians 1:19-21 NKJV

The letter to the Philippians was written by the Apostle Paul while he was in prison awaiting trial. But Paul knew even then, in the midst of pain and trial, his greatest desire would be that Christ is magnified, or glorified, whether he himself lived or died. Verse 21 – one of my personal favorite verses – sums up everything that Paul is saying in the surrounding sentences. He says, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

To live is Christ: This is a statement of the focus of Paul’s earthly life following his conversion on the road to Damascus. To live is to serve Christ, to live is to bring honor and glory to Him and Him alone, to live is to make known to the world the grace and mercy that is offered up in Christ\’s sacrifice on the cross. While we live here on this earth, our worship is to be directed, living in obedience to the Father, basking in the glory of His Son; all that we do while here is to glorify God.

To die is gain: This is a statement of the focus of Paul’s life to come. To die is to gain complete fellowship with Christ, to die it to gain the life abundant. He knew that no matter what happened or how much was lost or gained while here on earth that crossing over to eternity can only be counted as gain.

That phrase “to die is gain” is unusual, really. Most of us don’t think of death as a good thing at all, and definitely don’t relate death to gaining anything. We think of it as a loss of life, and it is – for those who are lost. And don’t get me wrong, grieving for those who pass on is necessary; however, we can rejoice in knowing that for those of us who are saved, we will have lived a life that glorified God while we were here – even in the midst of trial – and will enjoy Him forever once we leave this earth to be with Jesus.

Paul writes in his second letter to the Corinthians in chapter five, “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” A gaining of a life abundant is obtained when a child of God – one who has acknowledged their sins, confessed them to God and received forgiveness (provided in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ the Son) – is absent from the body, because then they are present with the Lord.

Ambassadors for Christ

August 24, 2024 / Rory Anderson

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

‬‬
II Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭20‬ ‭NKJV

If you’re a Christian trying to figure out how to live in this world I’d like to put some things into perspective for you. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us we are “ambassadors” for Christ. What is an ambassador? An ambassador is someone living in a foreign land who advocates or representatives for their homeland. So an American ambassador living in the UK is a citizen of the United States but lives abides by the laws of the UK. But his citizenship to the US affords him certain protections while abroad.

The same thing goes for us as believers. We are not of this world, but of the kingdom to come. We are living in a foreign land, abiding by much of the rules and laws here, but our allegiance is to the Lord first and foremost. We just so happen to be living here.

So if we are ambassadors in this world, what’s our job? Paul says it’s as if God Himself is pleading through us to those around us: be reconciled to Christ! God uses those who are already saved as walking billboards and loudspeakers to tell the lost to repent and be saved! We represent our homeland. We represent the Lord our God. We are representatives of the God who saves. Have you been a good representative?

Biblical Prayer – Part 4: The Example of Prayer

May 31, 2024 / Rory Anderson

“In this manner, therefore, pray:

‘Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'”
Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV

Christ’s teaching on prayer so far is a wonderful and practical guideline on His expectation of our prayers, what not to do with our prayers, and His commanding our prayers. But He doesn’t stop there – He also gives us a through example of prayer. I mean, it’s most commonly known as The Lord’s Prayer for cryin’ out loud! This example is perhaps one of the most well-known prayers in history. And for good reason: it’s pretty thorough.

I won’t get too bogged down in the nitty-gritty in the following verses, and I’m certainly not going to address the textual variations of the end of this prayer either (each of those things would require significant in-depth study and writing, and those topics are not the focus of this series anyway); however, I will say briefly that regardless of the original ending to this prayer there remains a blatant truth: we should look to the Scriptures and Christ for our instructions to pray. God is the Almighty Creator of prayer and it would be of utmost importance to see what He says about how He wants us to communicate with Him. So let’s check out what this passage tells us.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Verses 9 and 10 of the Lord’s Prayer show us a few things: 1.) God is our Father and we pray to Him; 2.) He is in Heaven; 3.) His name is to be hallowed – kept holy; 4.) We are to desire His kingdom and will here on earth as it already is in Heaven. If I could sum it up in one sentence it would be that God should be the audience, object, and focus of our prayers. It seems obvious enough, but so often we make prayer about ourselves rather than about Him. Not that we can never make requests, but what do we desire more? Our will or His? This example of prayer shows us that God is the most important aspect of our praying – not us.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

Verse 11 shows us that God is the supplier of our needs. Not our wants. Not what we think are our needs. He provides our actual needs to sustain us every day. What Christ communicates here is that we need to ask Him to reveal our real needs to us and ask Him to meet those needs.

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

Aren’t we as believers already forgiven of our sins? So why do we need to ask for forgiveness? Because even though we are justified (declared righteous) before God, we still sin sometimes (read: everyday). While we may sin less than before our conversion, we now live a life of war against the desires of the flesh. Some battles we lose. And we need forgiveness for when we give in to our temptations. First John chapter 1 tells us that if we say we are without sin, we are liars and the truth is not in us. Yes, we may be saved by Jesus and on our way to Heaven when we die, but don’t be deceived into thinking we can’t sin anymore. Seek forgiveness of your sins from the Father in your prayer time.

Additionally, Christ insinuates that we are to be forgiving of others who sin against us. He tells us that we should be forgiving our offenders the way the Father has forgiven us – freely and without grudge.

“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

The first chapter of James tells us that God does not tempt men to sin. So why does this example of prayer in Matthew 6 say to God to not lead us into temptation? A cursory reading of this line in modern English can lead us to think this was a bit redundant. But if I may help convey the real message here, I’d say this to you: God does not tempt us, He leads us away from it. I think the misunderstanding of this line comes from the second half of the sentence “but deliver us from the evil one”. We usually don’t make the connection here, but Jesus isn’t saying “Father, don’t lead us into temptation” only. The real idea here is, “Father, lead us out of temptation.” First Corinthians 10 tells us that God will provide a way out of every temptation, but this passage in Matthew shows us that we must request that God make that way known to us and to lead us out of that temptation and away from the evil spiritual entities that entice us.

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

As stated earlier in this writing, there is some debate over the ending of the Lord’ Prayer and whether it should be included in the text or not. I am not going to discuss this debate one way or the other as that will be for another time. The one thing I will say is that whether this is the original ending or not, one truth remains: God should be the focus of our prayers and we should look to the Scriptures for the God-directed instruction on how we should pray. Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. It seems pretty important that not only should God be who we address in our prayers, but we should reiterate the adoration of the One who gave us the ability to pray in the first place.

Final Thought

The Lord’s Prayer is the subject of countless sermons, Sunday school lessons, books, debates, etc., and MUCH more could be said about it than I said. My hope is that this series has been a good foundational overview of Christ’s instruction and example to us of what God expects of us concerning prayer. I hope that this has been instructional, practical, and eye-opening in some way for you. If it’s been beneficial for you, then wonderful! Praise be to God. This series should not be where your study of real, Biblical, God-centered prayer ends. Continue reading your Bible and look to it for how we should pray.

Biblical Prayer – Part 3: The Exhortation of Prayer

May 30, 2024 / Rory Anderson

“In this manner, therefore, pray…”
Matthew 6:9 NKJV

So far we have seen that God expects us to pray and gives us guidance on what not to do. Today’s post will be similar to the expectation of prayer, but shorter and a bit more blunt. If you’re just doing a cursory reading over this passage, you may miss an important command: pray. I use the word “exhortation” because of the alliteration, but in case it’s a new word to you it means “a command”. There is an exhortation to pray. God explicitly commands it.

Jesus says, “In this manner, therefore, pray…” Much of the time when reading this passage, we just focus on the Lord’s prayer and it’s guidelines for our praying. But this first phrase is Jesus literally telling us to pray. Why point this out? Because not only is prayer expected of us, but we are commanded to pray. It’s not just that God wants us to pray and prefers it – He has instructed us to pray. So consider this: if God gives a command, and we do not obey that command, what do we call that? Sin. Yes, it’s that simple.

Now the question is, am I sinning in every moment that I’m not actively praying? No. But if you completely neglect to pray, then yes that would be sinful. We can serve and be obedient to God by praying to Him.

Biblical Prayer – Part 2: The Exception to Prayer

May 29, 2024 / Rory Anderson

“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”
Matthew‬ ‭6:5-8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

One of the best ways to learn about something, is to learn what something is not. In fact, we do it all the time, whether we are aware of it or not. Take for example one of the most basic concepts in math: addition. When you learned addition, you learned that it was combining two or more numbers together to find the sum of those numbers. But whether you realized it or not, you also learned that addition is not subtraction. It’s also not multiplication or division. Even if there may be similarities between some of those concepts you learned those distinctions.

Jesus teaches us about prayer by starting with what not to do. He teaches us the distinction between real, godly prayer and counterfeit prayer. This is the what NOT to do in praying. Jesus gives two things not to do – and tags them with what we should do instead:

Don’t pray hypocritically.
Don’t treat God like a genie.

Don’t Pray Hypocritically

What NOT to do: First, don’t pray like the hypocrites. So… what do the hypocrites do? Jesus tells us: standing in the synagogues and on the street corners “that they may be seen by men”. That is a description of people who outwardly pray to God, but inwardly are hoping that people praise them for their public displays of “godly” affection. These hypocrites want people to look at them and say, “Wow, they are so holy and successful!” They are seeking the approval of men for their prayers, not God. Jesus isn’t saying we shouldn’t pray in public; He’s saying that we should pray with the intent of bringing praise to God, not us.

Some of you may read this and think you’re not guilty of this hypocritical behavior because you’re not actively seeking a street corner to pray on or an audience to pray in front of. But have you ever noticed that when you’re asked to pray publicly (maybe to close a service or to pray over food) your prayers tend to be more pristine or polished than when you pray by yourself? While praying publicly, we tend to think that we need to say the right words to that we don’t come across as theologically ignorant to the people around us. But who are we trying to please, God or man?

Instead: Make your prayer private and intimate. Prayer is our one-on-one communication with the Father. When we go to our private place it allows us to focus on our talking with God. It helps to create a physical environment where there are no distractions and helps us to create a mental environment where we can focus on the Father. This does not prohibit public prayer, but the intent and audience of your prayers matter.

Don’t Treat God Like a “Genie”

What NOT to do: Second, don’t pray with vain repetitions. In other words, your many words and repetitions don’t impress God nor do they convince Him to grant your requests. That kind of prayer is empty and useless. Prayer is not a magical spell or chant wherein we say the magic words and God responds with, “You said the right words in the right order, your wish is My command.” No. God is not concerned with the length of our prayers or how many syllables each word has or the number of times we address Him by one of His proper names. God is concerned with your heart.

Prayer has become habitual and ritualistic in the sense that we pray simply as a means of routine. It’s easy to get into a routine and follow a formula every time we pray. That’s not to say that opening or closing or speaking similarly each time is wrong, but we should be aware of what we are saying and why we say our words when we pray. Remember that prayer is communication with the Almighty God. It is not mindless meditation.

Instead: Jesus is telling us that when we pray, our prayers should be God-directed and purposeful, not man-pleasing and ritualistic. Need some inspiration? Look to the Psalms.

Biblical Prayer – Part 1: The Expectation of Prayer

May 28, 2024 / Rory Anderson

I bet I can guess exactly when you pray. Before meals and before bedtime, right? Do you pray at church when someone else is “leading the prayer”? Do you pray when things get rough? Do you pray when things are wonderful? Do you pray before reading/studying your Bible or before starting your day?

When we first examine Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Matthew 6, we typically see how He tells us what not to do in prayer. But if we are carefully reading then we will see that we’ve already missed His first point. Jesus says, “When you pray.” He does not say, “If you pray.”

Why is this so important to point out? Because there is a great different between those two phrases. If Jesus said “if you pray”, then He would be leaving the choice of prayer up to his audience. It would be of no consequence whether one prayed or not. The idea of if has a connotation of wavering and unknown. Saying if makes it sound like “it’d be nice if you prayed, but if not that’s cool, too.” But that isn’t the language Jesus uses here. Instead, He says “when”. This phrase tells us that Jesus expects us to pray. Jesus makes the assumption that we will pray.

Therefore, the first thing we should know about Biblical prayer is there is an expectation of prayer – Christ expects us to pray. In other words, prayer is not optional. It is a duty of the believer. You must pray. It is expected of you. In fact, in his first letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul says, “pray without ceasing”. We should always be ready to pray and always be in a Spirit of prayer. We as believers have the Holy Spirit literally living within us and we should be in regular communication with our God.

Extra Thought

While many of us can recognize that prayer is a necessity and is expected of us, we still find ourselves struggling to start praying anyway. Whatever the reason (fear, unconfessed sin, hopelessness) Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We can boldly approach the throne of God in prayer because Jesus Christ (our High Priest) sympathizes without weaknesses. He is a compassionate High Priest and desires to hear our prayers.