The Introduction and First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name.

How great is our God? He is pretty awesome. Not only does he invite us to pray to Him, but He invites us to believe He is our true Father and that we can approach Him as His beloved children. He understands just how feeble and inept we are at accomplishing anything apart from Him. So, He Himself has given us words and the form of what our prayers may take in the Lord’s Prayer. “Therefore,” Martin Luther says in his Large Catechism, “there is no nobler prayer to be found upon the earth than the Lord’s Prayer. We pray it daily, because it has this excellent testimony, that God loves to hear it.”

So, what exactly are we praying for in the Lord’s Prayer?

First, we pray that the Lord’s name would be, “hallowed.” Outside of the Lord’s Prayer, I’m willing to guess that not many of us use the word, hallowed. Hallowed means to make holy or honor as holy. In Ezekiel 36, God teaches us that His name is holy regardless of how we regard it – whether as holy or as common. And so, we cannot make God’s name holy, but what we pray for is that we would regard God’s name as holy among us.

There are two ways how we regard God’s name as holy. First, when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity and second, we lead holy lives according to it.

God’s Word makes things holy (John 17:17) and therefore, the pure teaching of God’s Word is of first importance. When God’s Word is taught, it is empowered by the Holy Spirit to create and build up faith in Jesus Christ for those who hear it. This faith in Jesus makes precious eternal human beings holy before God. We are a new creation, having been born again of water and spirit (John 3:5). Our holiness before God is fully dependent upon Jesus. When we believe in Him, not only is God’s name holy among us, but we ourselves are made holy.

As a new creation in Christ, Christians are given a new heart and a new spirit. In Ezekiel 36:27, God promises to, “Put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” New creatures do new things. This is the second way we regard God’s name as holy, by leading a holy life according to God’s Word. This holy life is marked by obedience to God’s commands to the best of our ability and by fulfilling the law through loving good works done for our neighbor.

When our teaching or understanding of God’s Word is false or when we sin against God and do not follow His commands, we still have the invitation to pray and confess our sin to God. He is our dear Father who is quick with mercy and rich with grace in Christ Jesus.

Pr. Schultz is writing a column every other month in the Lutheran Ambassador covering basic theology taught in the Lord’s Prayer.