The Third Petition
P.C. Barker Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Beautifully does Chrysostom note how, in this petition, following closely upon "Thy kingdom come," Jesus would" bid us, before we come to heaven, make this earth into heaven." Dwell, in this simplest petition, on the following simplest but greatest and most significant facts. If the will of God is done on earth as it is done in heaven, so - I. IT WILL IT BE DONE BY ALL. It is done by all in heaven, and the very form of this petition is not worded for the individual, but for all the wide, the various, the saddened but the beautiful world. II. IT WILL BE DONE WITH THE FULLEST CONSENT OF THE HEART, AND WITH THE UNITED, UNDISTRACTED CONSENT OF ALL THE POWERS. III. IT WILL BE DONE WITH AN EVER-GROWINGLY SYMPATHETIC UNDERSTANDING OF IT. It is beyond us to say that God's will is done even in heaven with (or much less for the mere reason of) a perfect understanding of it. Nay, some of its value may result there, as here, from its being both accepted and "done" in spite of its not being understood. But how much of our understanding of it is blocked by weak sympathy with it, or by absence of sympathy with it; and surely these obstacles will be gone, or ever be giving way! The clearness of sight and of understanding that a perfect sympathy gives, as compared with fitful and imperfect sympathies, must be all gain to the doing of God's will on earth as in heaven. IV. IT WILL BE DONE WITHOUT THAT BITTER PAIN, THAT WORST WEARINESS, THAT COME OF VAIN ENDEAVOUR AND EFFORT SO OFTEN FAILURE. Such descriptions, or even such mere glimpses, as are given to us in Scripture of the worship or the work in heaven are ravishing indeed to meditate. To these we can never absolutely attain "in earth.". To them, nevertheless, we may ever be approximating. The petition teaches us this; and, as offered by countless millions of lips, generation after generation, it is gradually and blessedly leading on to this. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. WEB: Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.