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Luke 11:1-4
A disciple asks for instruction, and Jesus responds with a concise prayer that sets priorities, requests provision, and addresses forgiveness and testing.
Meaning in context
A disciple asks for instruction, and Jesus responds with a concise prayer that sets priorities, requests provision, and addresses forgiveness and testing.
Section 1 of 6
Jesus Gives a Pattern for Prayer
A disciple asks for instruction, and Jesus responds with a concise prayer that sets priorities, requests provision, and addresses forgiveness and testing.
Movement
Salvation for all peoples
Artifact
Orderly account and mission to outsiders
Biblical Timeline
Jesus' Ministry
Luke context: AD 29 - AD 33
Biblical Timeline
Jesus' Ministry
Luke context
Jesus' Ministry / AD 29 - AD 33
Luke context is set in Jesus' ministry, where Jesus' public ministry, teaching, signs, death, and resurrection.
Scripture Text
Thesis
A disciple asks for instruction, and Jesus responds with a concise prayer that sets priorities, requests provision, and addresses forgiveness and testing.
Verse by Verse
A request shaped by example Jesus has been praying in a particular location. After he finishes, one disciple speaks up and asks, “Lord, teach us to pray,” comparing their need to John’s role in training his disciples. The request treats prayer as something that can be learned and practiced.
Addressing God and first priorities Jesus gives words to use “when you pray.” The opening address is “Our Father in heaven,” placing the prayer in a shared, family-like posture (“our”). The first requests focus on God: that God’s name be treated as holy, that God’s kingdom come, and that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Daily provision The prayer turns to regular needs: “Give us day by day our daily bread.” The repeated time markers keep the request grounded in ongoing dependence rather than a one-time supply.
Literary Context
This scene comes in Luke’s long “journey” section where Jesus teaches his disciples what life under God’s direction looks like (Luke 9–19). Luke frequently shows Jesus praying and then teaching from that example; here the disciples’ request flows directly from seeing him pray. The prayer itself is not introduced as a one-time emergency plea, but as something to say “when you pray,” giving it a repeatable quality. Immediately after this passage, Luke continues by urging persistence in asking (11:5–13), which frames the prayer as a doorway into an ongoing relationship of requesting and trusting, not merely a fixed recital.
Historical Context
In first-century Jewish life under Roman rule, prayer marked daily devotion both privately and in community rhythms, and well-known teachers could train students in distinctive patterns of devotion. The disciple’s comment about John teaching his disciples suggests that it was normal for a movement to have a recognizable way of praying. Calling God “Father” fits Jewish ways of speaking about God while also sounding intimate in a disciple setting. The requests reflect ordinary concerns in an agrarian economy—food security, debts, social obligations, and vulnerability to pressure—showing prayer aimed at real daily life rather than temple-only moments.
Theological Significance
Questions
Keep Studying
Forgiveness, relationships, and protection The prayer asks for forgiveness of “our sins,” and it links that request to the community’s practice: “for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” It then asks God not to bring them into temptation, and to deliver them from the evil one, requesting help amid testing and threatening spiritual forces.
Luke presents prayer as something learned in the context of following Jesus. A disciple asks for instruction after seeing Jesus pray, and Jesus answers with a compact pattern (explicit in v.2: “When you pray, say…”).
The prayer starts with God: God is addressed as “Our Father in heaven,” and the first requests focus on God’s name being treated as holy, God’s kingdom coming, and God’s will being done. Only after that does it move to daily human needs—provision, forgiveness, and protection.
The language is communal (“our,” “us”), not only individual. It assumes disciples pray as a people who share needs, responsibilities, and dangers.
1) Exact words or a model? Some read “say” as meaning Jesus intended these precise words to be repeated. Others think Jesus is giving a template: a set of themes to shape prayer (God’s honor and rule, daily needs, forgiveness, protection), even if the phrasing varies.
2) “Daily bread” and “day by day.” Some take this as a straightforward request for ordinary food and material provision. Others hear an added layer: “bread” as a summary for what is needed for life each day, not limited to food. The text itself keeps the focus on ongoing, daily dependence (“day by day”).
3) Forgiveness linked to forgiving others. Some read “for we ourselves also forgive…” as describing the kind of community that can rightly ask for forgiveness: people who practice forgiveness. Others read it more strongly as a condition: divine forgiveness is granted only if human forgiveness is first or perfect. The line clearly links the two, but it does not spell out the exact mechanics.
4) Temptation and the “evil one.” “Bring us not into temptation” raises questions about God’s role in testing. Many interpret it as asking God to keep them from entering situations of severe testing, not as accusing God of trying to trap people. “Deliver us from the evil one” is read by some as deliverance from a personal spiritual adversary, and by others as rescue from evil more generally.
Why the disagreement exists The prayer is brief and poetic, so it compresses big ideas into few words. Several phrases (“say,” “daily bread,” the forgiveness link, “temptation,” “evil one”) can be heard in more than one natural way in plain English, and Luke does not pause here to explain them. Also, this passage sits next to Luke 11:5–13, which emphasizes ongoing asking and trusting; readers differ on how much that later teaching should control how strictly the prayer’s wording is taken.
What this passage clearly contributes Luke 11:1–4 presents Jesus teaching prayer as a distinctive part of discipleship (explicit: the disciple asks; Jesus gives words). It frames prayer as God-centered first (God’s name, kingdom, will) and then life-shaped (bread, forgiveness, protection). It portrays forgiveness as inseparable from community relationships (explicit: “for we…forgive everyone indebted to us”), and it treats spiritual and moral vulnerability as a real concern to bring to God (explicit: not being brought into temptation; deliverance from the evil one). It also portrays God as Father in a shared “our” relationship, grounding prayer in dependence and belonging.