Beginning 1520.
1. the prayer of our Lord and Savior, that is, the holy Lord's Prayer, is said and prayed before and behind. Before you, then: The petitions in this holy prayer are thus ordered one below the other from beginning to end. The very first and greatest is the sanctification of the name of God; when this is accomplished, all things are accomplished.
Secondly, the name of God cannot be fully sanctified unless this life, which is not lived without sin, that is, without dishonoring the divine name, has its end, and the kingdom of God comes. Therefore, so that we do not desire the kingdom of God for our own sake, the sanctification of the divine name is set first, so that in this opinion we should ask to be saved and to enter the kingdom of God; not so that it may go well with us, but so that the name, honor and glory of God the Lord may be praised and honored. For when God's name is praised, it follows from Himself that we are well and blessed.
Third, the kingdom of God cannot come unless the will of God is done. Now the will of God is this, that we be sanctified from sins, crucifying our sin and vices through the cross and death of Christ our Lord, and that we be sanctified from our sins.
Therefore, in this life, one prays that this will happen.
Fourth, because we strive to do the will of God and work against sin, we need special help, that is, the Word of God and the Sacrament of Christ. For the Word of God is our daily bread, with which the spirit is fed and the flesh is killed. Although by the daily bread also the bodily bread may be understood.
Fifth, since we are not without sin during the time we are working in this life and words, and even though our sins are forgiven before God, we do not know it firmly and completely; therefore we ask for assurance of our conscience, by which we may be sure and certain that our sins are forgiven, and thus with a joyful heart accomplish the will of God in words and deeds.
(6) Sixthly, when we have obtained the assurance of our conscience that our sins are forgiven us, it is necessary that this assurance be constantly maintained. For since we are challenged with many temptations, and stand in them according to the will of God, we do not yet ask to be delivered from such temptations and to be forgiven.
1) Jenaer: dem.
*This small writing is found, attached to the previous writing, in three editions by Silvanus Otmar in Augsburg under the title: "A short useful interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, in front of it and behind it". In the first of these there is at the end the indication: "completed on the 23rd day of the Jenner in the 1520th year" (thereafter our time determination); likewise in the last, but the last has in the title the year 1521. Furthermore, our writing is found attached to three Augsburg editions of the Sermon of Prayer and Procession in the Week of the Cross under the title: "Brief Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, Before Him and Behind Him." The first two of these editions were also published by Silvanus Otmar, the last one presumably by Hans Fxoschauer in Augsburg (not, as Weller No. 1555 assumes, by Jörg Nadler, which the Erlangen edition, 2nd ed., vol. 16, p. 68, No. 8, has recorded. Cf. Weim. Ausg., vol. II, p. 173, G.]. Finally, as Walch indicates in the preface to the 7th volume, p. 14, and the Erlangen edition, vol. 45, p. 208, as an appendix to an edition of the aforementioned sermon, under the title: "Kurze Auslegung des Vaterunsers hinter sich und vor sich," which is said to have appeared in Leipzig in 1520. In the collective editions: In the Jena one (1564), Vol. I, p. 358 d, under the heading: "Kurze und gute Auslegung des heiligen Vaterunsser, vor sich und hinter sich gemacht, von Doctor Martins Luther. Then in the Altenburger, vol. I, p. 544; in the Leipziger, vol. IX, p. 374, and in the Erlanger, vol. 45, p. 208. We give the text according to Walch's old edition, which differs from that of the Jena edition only by one variant. The text of the Erlanger is worse.
but we pray that we may be entertained, blessed, and not led into temptation.
(7) Seventh, when we have sought all that is God's, and have done nothing else in ourselves but that is God's, let us then be careful for ourselves, and finally pray that we may be delivered from evil, so that we may put God first and ourselves last, and so exalt God and humble ourselves, that we may be first and exalted in God.
8) The holy Our Father is also prayed behind oneself, as it is prayed by people who pray only with their mouths and not with their hearts. The same people seek more their own honor and glory, and a name in themselves, subordinating the glory of God. First of all, they want to be free from evil and to be free from it, so that they alone may live in bliss and have pleasure in themselves.
(9) Secondly, when the same people come a long way, they desire that they also be not led and guided into temptation,
but want to be without evil and not worry whether it is the will of God or not.
(10) Thirdly, after this, the same people ask forgiveness of their sins [not from the heart], 1) or perhaps never.
Fourth, much less do the same people ask for the bread,
Fifth, for the sake of God,
13. sixth, for the kingdom of God.
(14) And the seventh, for the glory of God these men ask from afar, but desire and covet first of all their own glory, their own kingdom and authority, and their own will.
15 Therefore it is to be noted that in the first three petitions the word "to whom" is written, and in the following ones these words "us" and "our" are written, for an instruction that we should first seek and desire God's glory, kingdom and will, and after that ours; but yet not otherwise, except in and with the things that concern God's glory, kingdom and will, amen.
1) Added by us.