Before all things, the Teacher of peace and the Master of unity does not want us to pray for ourselves alone. We do not say My Father, which art in heaven, nor give me this day my daily bread; nor do we ask that only my own debt should be forgiven me; nor do I request only I not be led into temptation, and delivered from evil. No, our prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one, but for the whole people, because we the whole people are one.

Oh how great are the things contained in the Lord's prayer! How many and how great! They are briefly collected in the words, but are spiritually abundant in virtue! Absolutely nothing passed left out of these prayers and petitions. This prayer is a compendium of heavenly doctrine.

Pray like this, says Jesus, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” The new man. The one born again and restored to God by grace, calls God “Father” because he has become God’s son. So the man who has believed in His name, and has become God's son, ought from this point onward give thanks and declare that God is his Father in heaven. By doing so he bears witness that he has renounced his earthly and carnal father and that he knows and has only a Father in heaven..

How great is the Lord's indulgence! How great His condescension and abundance of goodness towards us! He desires us to call Him, “Father,” and to call ourselves sons of God, even as Christ is the Son of God! None of us would dare to call ourselves that unless God Himself had allowed us to do so.

“Your kingdom come.” Here we ask that the kingdom of God may come to us, even as we also ask that His name may be made holy in us. God always reigns and his kingdom has never ceased to be, but we pray that this kingdom, which god promised to us and which we have acquired by the blood and passion of Christ, would come to us. We ask that we who are his first subjects in this world, may reign with Christ in the next world. 

Christ Himself is the kingdom of God since He is Himself the Resurrection and in Him we too will rise again. so “the kingdom of God” may also be understood to be Jesus, since in Him we shall reign.

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We do not pray that God should be able to do what He wills, for no one can resist God, but we pray that we may be able to do what He wills. Since the devil hinders us from obeying God with our thoughts and actions, we ask that God’s will may be done in us by God’s help, protection, grace and mercy, since no one is able to do God’s will by his own strength. 

We also ask that the will of God may be done both in heaven and on earth because we possess a body from earth and a spirit from heaven so we are earth and heaven. So we pray that God’s will may be done in both our bodies and our spirits. Between our flesh and spirit this is a struggle. Every day they disagree with one another so that we cannot do the good things we want to do. Our spirit wants to do heavenly things, but the flesh lusts after earthly and temporal things. So we ask for God’s help to bring them into agreement so that our soul may be preserved.

And finally, because the Lord commands us to love our enemies, we also pray for those who have not yet begun to be heavenly. We ask that God’s will be done in them. That is we pray that all men would be saved.

“Give us this day our daily bread.” This may be understood in two ways, both spiritually and literally. First, Christ is the bread of life. This bread does not belong to all men, but only to those of us who call him “Our Father” because we understand and believe. Also it is “our” bread because we are in union with Christ’s body. So we ask that the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper) should be given to us daily so that we may not, by the committing of some heinous sin, be prevented from partaking of the heavenly bread. That is to be separated from Christ's body.

As he himself says, He is the bread of life (John 6:58), so anyone who receives his body in the Eucharist is living, but anyone who is withheld from communion is separated from Christ’s body and is held at a distance from salvation (John 6:53). This is why we ask that our bread—that is, Christ—may be given to us daily, so that we may not depart from his sanctification and body. 

Second, the words may also be understood as asking only for our daily food and support since by faith we have renounced the world and rejected its riches and pomp. Just so we only ask for what is sufficient for today since we are prohibited from thinking about tomorrow. It is repugnant to seek to live long in this world since we ask that the kingdom of God should come quickly. And we should be content with what we have because the rich fall into temptations and lusts which drown men in sin and destruction.

“And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.” After we pray for our supply of food we ask for the pardon of sin. So that he who is fed by God may also live in God. For just as we pray that our temporal life may be provided for, we also pray that our eternal life may be provided for through the forgiveness of our sins. 

Lest anyone should flatter himself by believing he is innocent, and by exalting himself more damn himself, it is necessary and good that we are daily reminded that we are sinners and encouraged to pray for forgiveness. As the Apostle John says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And we know that the Lord is faithful to forgive our sins because He himself taught us to pray for our debts and sins and promised to forgive them when we ask. 

Further, He has clearly added the law that we should ask that our debts be forgiven in the same way that we ourselves forgive our debtors. For we cannot obtain forgiveness unless we ourselves have forgiven those who sin against us. As Jesus says “With what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you.”

With the words “And suffer us not to be led into temptation” Jesus shows us that the adversary can do nothing against us without God permitting it. And since no temptation is permitted to do us evil unless God allows it, all our fear, devotion, and obedience may be turned towards God. God only allows evil to have power over us either for punishment when we sin, or for glory when we are proved. 

Furthermore, when we ask that we may not come into temptation, we are reminded of our weakness. We are reminded not to proudly and arrogantly take the glory for either our confession or our suffering. So that by first humbly and submissively confessing, and then by attributing everything to God, whatever we ask for may be granted by his own loving-kindness.

The conclusion of the prayer is a brief clause, which comprehensively sums up all our petitions and our prayers: “But deliver us from evil.” This describes all the evil things which the enemy attempts to do against us in this world, and against which God will faithfully and surely protect us who pray for his help. And once we have asked for God's protection against evil, and have obtained it, then we stand secure and safe against everything which the devil and the world tries to do against us. After this there is nothing more for which we need to ask. For the man who is guarded by God, there is nothing at all to fear in this life.