DMLJ: We come now to quite a new section, and it runs right through this sixth chapter. Here we have what we may well call a picture of the Christian living his life in this world in the presence of God, in active submission to God, and in entire dependence upon Him.
The phrase "do not use meaningless repetition" has a very specific meaning in Matthew 6:7. Jesus says that the heathens or Gentiles pray this way. At the time all Gentiles had a pagan form of religion. A common practice for them was to excite themselves into an ecstatic state. They wouldn't use actual words but make sounds which are meaningless but rhythmic.
The phrase in English is one word in Greek, Battalogeo. It only appears in this one verse. It means to makes sounds like batta with your mouth. The closest thing we have in our current culture is how Pentecostals and other Charismatics "speak in tongues." If you have heard them they don't really say anything. But they make repetitive, rhythmic sounds with their mouth. They get very emotional and into a pagan-like ecstatic state. They claim it is the Holy Spirit, but this practice isn't the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues at all. Paul describes it as "speaking in a tongue" in 1 Corinthians 14. No words are spoken. No message is communicated. It is a purely emotional experience pagans used to worship their gods.
The phrase "do not use meaningless repetition" has a very specific meaning in Matthew 6:7. Jesus says that the heathens or Gentiles pray this way. At the time all Gentiles had a pagan form of religion. A common practice for them was to excite themselves into an ecstatic state. They wouldn't use actual words but make sounds which are meaningless but rhythmic.
The phrase in English is one word in Greek, Battalogeo. It only appears in this one verse. It means to makes sounds like batta with your mouth. The closest thing we have in our current culture is how Pentecostals and other Charismatics "speak in tongues." If you have heard them they don't really say anything. But they make repetitive, rhythmic sounds with their mouth. They get very emotional and into a pagan-like ecstatic state. They claim it is the Holy Spirit, but this practice isn't the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues at all. Paul describes it as "speaking in a tongue" in 1 Corinthians 14. No words are spoken. No message is communicated. It is a purely emotional experience pagans used to worship their gods.
https://thecrosssectionrmb.blogspot.com/
https://thecrosssectionrmb.blogspot.com/