Matthew 6:9
Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,’
One meaning of the word “our” in the prayer taught by the Lord Jesus (Matthew 6:9) is to show that God is the Father of all believers as a community or group. God the Father does not belong to any one individual; every believer shares the same God, the Father in heaven. No one has the right to claim that the Father belongs only to a particular group or person. This is intended so that every believer acknowledges togetherness as fellow members of God’s family and shared struggles in following Christ. Thus, if an individual or a group of Christians does not share the same struggles borne by believers throughout the ages, they are not truly children of God.
In the following lines of the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord Jesus also uses the word “us”: “Give us this day our daily bread”; “forgive us”; and so on. The struggles found in the Lord’s Prayer—such as forgiving our enemies, not leading us into temptation, and so forth—are the same struggles that every believer ought to experience. In 1 Peter 5:8–9, Peter writes, “Be sober-minded and watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of sufferings.” In this sense, it can be understood that all believers worldwide will experience similar suffering in the struggle against the devil, who is described as a “roaring lion.” By recognizing that resisting the devil is neither easy nor light, we become better able to accept our fellow believers who share the same fight and sufferings with us.
A true Christian will have a biblical and spiritual mindset, even if they belong to a different church or denomination. A mature believer will treat all other believers as brothers and sisters, regardless of church differences or doctrine. Conversely, even within the same church, if the chemistry is different, the relationship will feel strange. So, although denominations differ, believers must remain united inwardly.
In John 15:5, Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” The Lord is the vine, and we are His branches. Those branches are the ones that will produce fruit. The fruit produced will necessarily share the same nature because it comes from the same vine, even though the branches differ.
Paul also states that all believers have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism (Ephesians 4:5). One Lord means we must serve the same Lord; one faith means we have the same quality of conduct; and one baptism means we share the same willingness not to love the world because we were buried with Christ. Thus, despite differences, believers must accept one another just as Christ accepted them.
There is no perfect church today. However, we must understand that every believer, regardless of church or denomination, remains a child of God. This is bound up in the word “our” written in the Lord’s Prayer. Even if they come from different churches, if they follow the Lord Jesus together, people will have an inner testimony: “You are my brother/sister.”