Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 6:12

"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." — Matthew 6:12 (ASV)

St. Cyprian of Carthage: After asking for food, we next ask for the pardon of sin, so that the one who is fed by God may live in God. This provides not only for our present, temporary life, but also for the eternal one, which we may enter if we receive the pardon of our sins. The Lord calls these sins “debts,” as He says elsewhere: I forgave you all that debt, because you desired me (Matthew 18:32). ¹

How good for us, how wise and beneficial, to be reminded that we are sinners who must petition for our offenses. In asking for God's mercy, the mind is reminded of its guilt. So that no one may pride themselves on a pretense of innocence and perish more miserably through self-exaltation, each person is taught that they sin every day, since they are commanded to pray daily for their sins.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This prayer was the weapon that dealt a deathblow to the Pelagian heretics, who dared to say that a righteous person is entirely free from sin in this life, and that the Church is currently composed of such people, having neither spot nor wrinkle. ²

St. John Chrysostom: The laws of the Church, as well as the beginning of the prayer which instructs us to call God Father, teach that this prayer is meant for the faithful. By commanding the faithful to pray for the forgiveness of sin, He shows that sin can be forgiven even after baptism (which refutes the Novatians).

St. Cyprian of Carthage: He who taught us to pray for our sins has promised us that His fatherly mercy and pardon will follow. But He has also added a rule, binding us to the firm condition and responsibility that we must ask for our sins to be forgiven in the same way that we forgive those who are indebted to us.

St. Gregory the Great: The same good that we ask from God in our repentance, we should first turn and grant to our neighbor. ³

St. Augustine of Hippo: This is not said only of monetary debts, but of all ways in which anyone sins against us. This includes money, because a person who does not return money owed to you, when they have the means to do so, sins against you. Unless you forgive this sin, you cannot say, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. ⁴

Pseudo-Chrysostom: With what hope, then, does a person pray who harbors hatred against another by whom they have been wronged? Just as they pray with a lie on their lips when they say, “I forgive,” but do not, so they ask for mercy from God, but no mercy is granted to them. There are many who, being unwilling to forgive those who trespass against them, will not use this prayer.

How foolish! First, because the one who does not pray in the manner Christ taught is not Christ's disciple. Secondly, the Father does not readily hear any prayer that the Son has not dictated. For the Father knows the intention and the words of the Son; He will not entertain petitions suggested by human presumption, but only those which Christ's wisdom has set forth.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Since this great goodness—that is, to forgive debts and to love our enemies—cannot be possessed by the great number of people who we believe are heard when using this prayer, the terms of this agreement must still be fulfilled. The condition is met even if a person has not yet reached the point of being able to love their enemy; it is fulfilled if, when asked for forgiveness by someone who has trespassed against them, they forgive from the heart, for they themselves desire to be forgiven at the very moment they ask for it.

And if a person has been moved by their own sense of sin to ask forgiveness from the one they have sinned against, they are no longer to be considered an enemy. It should not be as hard to love them as it was when they were actively hostile. ⁵

1. Tr. vii, 15
2. De Don. Pers., 5
3. Mor., x, 15
4. Serm. in Mont., ii, 8
5. Enchir., 73