Lord’s Prayer: Part 7 The Power and the Glory

The final line of the Lord’s Prayer is,

For Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever Amen

This doesn’t appear in all versions of the prayer found in the Gospels. It seems like some early church communities used this line and others didn’t, hence way sons manuscripts contain it.

This reminds us that God is the ruler of a kingdom. It is therefore not a democracy, but a monarchy. Christians don’t get a vote in the Kingdom of God, but instead are the subjects of the Lord.

Those who live in a modern republic may not fully comprehend the power the king had over his subjects in the Pre-Modern World. We are so used to the democratic process and having our voices heard through the ballot box. But in God’s kingdom we can petition the Lord, but ultimately it is His decision. If we don’t like it, we can’t vote God out of power and replace Him with someone else. If we are part of the Kingdom of Heaven, all we can do is submit to His will. Or leave.

In the prayer we say to God that all power is His. In the context of the kingdom, the power is His authority to rule.

Matthew 28 v 18

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Christ’s authority extends to the whole of Creation. A government rules over a nation, but from a Christian perspective, Jesus has the right to rule even over those nations which do not recognise His authority.

This is why Paul encourages Christians to follow the national authorities.

Romans 13 v 1

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

There is no authority outside of God’s control. Though he does allow presidents and prime ministers to make their own decisions. These leaders will be judged more harshly by God, sometimes in this life, but certainly on the Judgement Day.

From a Christian perspective, does democracy break the connection between God and the ruler. In our Modern world, it seems sovereignty has appeared to move from the Divine to the People. But I would say God still has all authority. And He uses the will of the people to bring about His plans.

The line continues to say all the glory is God’s. Glory comes from the word which means ‘to give weight to’. It could be translated as giving honour. By saying this prayer, we are giving God the honour due Him as the creator of all things.

When we say forever and ever, we pray God will reign without end in eternity. We tend to have a particular idea that eternity means an unending series of events, heading off into infinity. This isn’t completely correct.

Eternity is a difficult concept for us temporal creatures to grasp. And in fact, time is a tricky thing to fully comprehend too.

Much like how the colour blue exists, but we all experience that colour in our own subjective way. Depending on the make up of our eyes. Time is similar. Sometimes we experience time as galloping by, especially as we age. Yet, at some points it feels much slower. Do you remember Summer holidays seem to last for ages when we were children? Children experience time much slower than an elderly person. When we are having lots of new experiences, time seems to slow down too.

Another way to define eternity is how the Divine experiences time. We can’t know what this is like, but we can make some reasonable assumptions.

We know eternity is unchanging. It is unaffected by time from our perspective. As God’s Kingdom is forever, it is eternal. His power, authority and glory is fixed. They can’t be shaken or dislodged. They cannot be replaced, due to obsolescence or disrepair, as they are eternal and outside a temporal experience of time.

Eternity is timeless. It isn’t a series of events, always followed by others. But it is also more than a single defined event. It is beyond description. Our language doesn’t have the words.

Eternity is too complex for us to understand. If it was easy, then it would have been written down in Scripture.

The final word of the prayer is Amen, which means So Be It. This is the point of the prayer where we understand what this is all about. It is us submitting to God.

The Lord’s Prayer is the most common prayer in Christianity. By praying it, we bring ourselves in line with God’s will. We are effectively repeating Christ’s Prayer in the garden,

Luke 22 v 42

Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.