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The First Petition In the first petition or request, we are praying that God’s name would be hallowed or kept holy. But is not God’s name already holy? Of course it is. Why then do we ask that His name would be holy? God has given His name to us so that we would call upon Him for help and every blessing. We, however, do not use God’s name as we should. The problem then is in our use of God’s name. We, therefore, pray that God would help us to treat His name as something holy. God’s name should be treated with respect. It should be set apart from common words and treated as a sacred treasure. All the angels and the saints in heaven do this, but this is certainly not done by everyone in the world. It is, therefore, necessary to pray that we would see His name for what it is and act accordingly. How is this done? Luther answers in the Large Catechism: “When both what we teach and the way we live are godly and Christian. For since in this prayer we call God our Father, we have the duty to conduct ourselves in every situation as His good children, so that we may not be a disgrace to Him but bring Him honor and praise.” Both our actions and our words are involved in keeping God’s name holy. When children lie, damage property, shoplift, or do anything criminal, it reflects badly on their parents. It would be even worse if the children used the family’s good name as a tool for dishonest gain. In the same way when Christians do anything evil, it brings dishonor to our heavenly Father. And it is even worse when we bring God’s name into the picture to help achieve some evil end. Sadly, our heavenly Father is often treated with contempt because of the actions and words of those who call themselves His children. For example, God’s name can become an object of scorn when those who call themselves Christians spread rumors, are unfaithful to their spouses, or are greedy, envious, and so forth. We discussed this when we covered the second commandment. That commandment is about the proper use of God’s name. And the first petition is also about the proper use of God’s name. The difference is that now we are asking for God’s help so that we might keep the second commandment. We pray that God would help us so that we would not misuse His name and instead use it in prayer and giving thanks. We are praying for God’s help so that we would put our faith into practice and treat His name as a great treasure. There is thus a great need for this petition for we certainly need God’s help in keeping each one of the commandments. We can be confident that God will hear us for Christ’s sake. He wants all the world to see that His name and revelation given through Jesus Christ is a precious treasure. |
