Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Matthew 6:11

"Give us this day our daily bread." — Matthew 6:11 (ASV)

The last petitions explicitly request things for ourselves. The first is “bread” (GK 788), a term used to cover all food (cf. Proverbs 30:8; Mark 3:20; Acts 6:1; 2 Thessalonians 3:12; James 2:15); it may further suggest all of our physical human needs.

We must pray for our needs, not our greeds. It is for one day at a time, reflecting the precarious lifestyle of many first-century workers who were paid one day at a time and for whom a few days’ illness could spell tragedy. “Daily” is a difficult word to translate, most likely meaning “for the coming day.” Jesus thus instructs his disciples to pray: “Give us today our bread for the coming day.” This may sound redundant to Western readers, but it is an urgent petition to those who lived from hand to mouth.

The idea of God “giving” the food in no way diminishes responsibility to work (see vv.25–34) but presupposes not only that Jesus’ disciples live one day at a time (cf. v.34) but that all good things, even our ability to work and earn our food, come from God’s hand (cf. Dt 8:18; 1 Corinthians 4:7; James 1:17). It is a lesson easily forgotten when wealth multiplies and absolute self-sufficiency is portrayed as a virtue.