The condition on which answer to prayer depends.
The reference to prayer seems to be introduced here as an "aside;" but the connection is not difficult to trace. Our Lord had been calling his disciples to duties which would make the most serious demands on them. They would be sure to feel the need of sustaining and supporting grace, such as comes only from God. Then let them be quite sure that they could always have this grace for the asking; but let them be also quite sure that they would not get the grace apart from the asking. In dealing with this familiar passage, it is usual to fix attention on the apparently unlimited promises of answer to prayer. "Ye shall receive." It may, however, be that thus our Lord's point is missed. He put emphasis on the "asking," the "seeking," the "knocking," as if he had said, "You must ask, if you would have a good hope of receiving." Compare "For all these things will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them;" "Ye have not, because ye ask not." The three terms, "ask," "seek," "knock," have been shown to represent an ascending scale. They are each what the man himself must do; the condition on which alone he gains the blessing. Are we ever conscious, then, of failing powers in the Christian life? we may never say that we are straitened in God: it must be that we are straitened in ourselves. We expected God to give, but we did not meet his conditions, and ask. An objection should be dealt with, which is perhaps oftener felt than expressed—If God knows everything we need, why does he require us to ask? The answer is twofold.
1. If he does require us to ask, there must be reasons for his so doing, in his Divine Fatherhood; and children should obey when they do not understand.
2. We can see that the asking becomes an agency of spiritual culture to us. It nourishes that dependence which takes us out of ourselves, and checks self-confidence. It might be added that it helps to keep before us the connection between our blessings and God's providings. The condition that we must ask may be shown to work out into
I. HE WHO "ASKS" MAKES REQUEST.
II. HE WHO "SEEKS" PRESSES HIS REQUEST.
III. HE WHO "KNOCKS" PERSISTS IN HIS REQUEST.—R.T.