Walking With Christ

Matthew 6:9
Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

This is how the Lord’s Prayer begins. It’s one of the most famous and well-known prayers in the entire Bible. Today, I want to focus on a single word: “hallowed.” This is a continuation of two previous messages. In the first (from 9/26/2024), we discussed how the meanings of words can shift over time. The second message (from 9/30/2024) spoke about cisterns that could hold no water.

How do these two ideas relate to the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer?

One of the words from the first message was “perfect.” In Greek, the word teleios had a richer meaning in the past. It often referred to something being complete, lacking nothing—in other words, holy. When Matthew 5:48 says we must be “perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect,” we know that’s not possible for us. We are not, and cannot be, perfect. But God is holy and perfect. Here, “holy” and “perfect” are near synonyms in describing the complete and flawless nature of God. In fact, hallowed is just another way to say “holy.” Some Bible translations even replace “hallowed” with “holy.”

This brings us to an important point. God’s name is not just holy; it’s perfect. If His name is perfect, it’s also complete. And if His name is complete and holy, we can say that every aspect of God’s nature is holy and complete. But here’s where it gets interesting: while we can come to understand one part of God’s nature deeply, it’s impossible to study any aspect of Him in isolation. Each part of God’s character is interconnected with the whole. In this, it’s possible to understand God’s entire nature by starting with a single aspect.

How does the message about broken cisterns relate to this?

Think of the word “empty.” A synonym for “empty” is “hollow.” Now, notice how “hallow” and “hollow” are only one letter apart. The enemy often imitates what God is, offering something that seems close but is ultimately false. A hallowed (holy) name reflects God’s completeness, while a hollow name represents emptiness. Something hollow is empty, with a void inside that longs to be filled. The broken cistern can’t hold water, but it’s still filled with air—just as a person who is spiritually hollow is filled with something, but not with the living water that God offers.

So the question for today is this: do you want to be hallowed or hollow, complete or counterfeit? This is the choice we face daily.