Millions of people have prayed the Lord’s prayer, but not really understood what it meant. One of the most confused phrase is the text translated in almost all English Bibles: “Hallowed by thy name.” The difficulty with this translation is that many people are confused. The worst is the word “hallowed”. Is it talking about praise, or honor? Not exactly. It comes from the English word “holy”, and it means “to make pure, to separate out”. So the phrase actually means, “Father, please make your name holy” or “Sanctify your name.”
Isn’t God’s name already holy?
God himself is holy. He is the Most High above all powers and gods and no one can compare with Him. He cannot sin and is pure in all he does. God’s angelic servants are constantly repeating “Holy, holy holy” of God to speak of his unending holiness. But in this prayer we are not speaking of God himself, who cannot ever be unholy. Rather, we are talking about his reputation.
If we tear down someone’s “name” we are not talking about the word by which they are called. Rather, we are speaking of their reputation, or the honor with which they are held by others. So if someone’s name is dirtied, we mean that people are talking trash about that person, that his reputation is dishonored. This is what Jesus is talking about here. He is borrowing a phrase from Ezekiel 36, where God said that his people had made his name “unholy”, or, torn down his reputation, because of their sin.
So, to paraphrase our prayer, we would better be saying, “God, give your reputation honor again.” This is very similar to another prayer Jesus prayed, “Father, glorify your name.” (John 12:28). Again, it is a request for God’s reputation to be world-wide and positive.
How did God’s name become unholy?
“Son of man, when the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. Therefore I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols. Also I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them. When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name.'” Ezekiel 36:17-20
In Ezekiel 36 and in Jesus’ teaching it is clear that God’s reputation was dishonored because of the actions of his own people. The actions of God’s people were in opposition to God’s commands. And so they became hypocrites. When God’s people are sinful and hateful, then those who are looking from the outside think that there must be something wrong with God. And when God has to punish his people, then others think that God wasn’t strong enough to save them from His own punishment.
When some who claim to be God’s people do things that destroy God’s reputation, they are actually breaking the third command of ten—“Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” (Exodus 20:7). Those who do not have the lifestyle of God’s people—that of a holy people (Leviticus 11:44; I Peter 1:15-16)—, but they take the name of God, they are using God’s name in a way that destroys God’s holiness. And God will not accept a people that tears down his holy reputation.
So God’s reputation is torn down because those who don’t know about God look at the inadequacies of those who claim to be God’s people and so decide that God is less than he really is. We see this today when we hear statements like “The church is full of hypocrites” and “Christianity is evil, look at all the violence it caused,” and “God can’t even take care of his own, why should I trust Him?”
What are we specifically praying for?
We want this situation to reverse. Rather than having God’s reputation be torn down, we want God to be honored by all peoples, whether they worship him or not. We are praying that everyone on the whole earth would honor God for who He is—the holy, merciful, all powerful, loving God of Jesus Christ. This will be done by the gospel being spread throughout the earth (Matthew 24:14).
But it also relates to God’s people, just as the dishonoring of God’s reputation related to his people. First of all, we are asking that God’s people who are acting as hypocrites would be judged. There will be a separating between the obedient and the hypocrite in God’s people—God is giving us the opportunity to do it ourselves, or else He will come and do it for us (Matthew 13:37-43; I Corinthians 5:12-13). Secondly, we are praying that God would give his people the ability to live for Him through his Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Third, we are asking that God would forgive His people their sins and give them a second chance to be pure and holy (Ezekiel 36:25). And lastly, we are asking that God would restore good fortune to his purged, purified, forgiven people.
In the end, in praying “Hallowed be your name” we are asking for Jesus’ ministry to be completed among his people. Jesus himself separated the hypocrite from the pure in heart. Jesus himself gave his people the Holy Spirit to purify and empower his people. Jesus himself forgave the sins of the lost. And Jesus himself healed the sick and desolate who were once rejected and punished because of their sin. Jesus was in the business of sanctifying God’s name.
However, Jesus’ people seem to have forgotten Jesus’ task, despite praying the prayer daily. They are no longer concerned with making God’s name holy among the peoples. They welcome the hypocrites and turn away repentant sinners. They ignore the Spirit’s power to be holy and loving, preferring to see the Spirit as a super-power pill, or to just avoid Him altogether. They want to restore people’s fortunes through the world, rather than the power of God. They are ignoring that God’s reputation is being torn down, and they are avoiding the self judgment that they are the ones causing the destruction of God’s name to happen.
When we pray “Hallowed by thy name”, let us be asking God to act like God’s people—holy and righteous.
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