Trespasses

You may have seen at a level-crossing gate a notice saying, “Trespassers will be prosecuted” or “No trespassers”.  To trespass means to go where you ought not to go, and there are two reasons why trespassers must keep off railway lines.  First, they might cause an accident to a train; and secondly, they might get injured or even killed themselves.

Now, when we say in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses”, we mean by trespasses, not, going where we ought not to go, but doing what we ought not to do.  In other words, trespasses is another word for sins, and by sins we mean all thoughts, words and acts which are wrong in God’s eyes, including not doing what we ought to do.