WORD OF THE WEEK: HALLOWED

A study of old and/or unique words from the Bible that are worth knowing.

hallowed (halōd) from the Greek word ‘hagiazo’ meaning ‘to make holy, purify, consecrate, sanctify.’ It comes from the Greek word ‘hagios’ (where our word ‘holy’ comes from) meaning ‘sacred, most holy;’ ‘to render or acknowledge to be venerable.’ Side note: venerable means ‘accorded a great deal of respect, especially because of age, wisdom, or character’

    ‘Hallow’ and ’hallowed’ appear thirty-five times in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament we find its use limited to one statement made by Jesus which was recorded in both Matthew 6:9 and Luke 11:2.

“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name…” (Matthew 6:9 NKJV)

    God’s name is to be holy, set apart as sacred, and special. It should be spoken only in reverence and sincerity as we approach His throne with thanksgiving (1 Thessalonian 5:17-18) and for help (Philippians 4:6-7, Hebrews 4:16), or when we make mention of His goodness and declare His greatness to others around us as we share the joy we find in Him.

    Consider the ten commandments that God wrote on the tablets of stone (which Moses taught to the Israelites), the first three pertained to properly reverencing Him (see Exodus 20:2-6 for the first two), and the third is this:

“You shall not take the name of the LORD you God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7 NKJV)

    Pronouncing God’s name preceded by “oh my” has become so common an expression that I’ve even heard those who deem themselves atheists using it without thought of what they have actually said. Some have attempted to lessen the wrongness of the phrase by replacing God with ‘gosh’ (a worldly euphemism for ‘God’), ‘goodness,’ (consider Mark 10:18 and Psalm 16:2), or the more recent three-letter short-formed version, but all are still thoughtless statements sprouted from the original.

"But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.” (Matthew 12:36 NKJV)

    We must be careful of every word or phrase we use in our daily speech, and most importantly, we must be careful to hallow God in our mind and heart – hallow His name and hold it in proper reverence – so that we speak it carefully.

When speaking God’s name, make it your A.I.M. to:

• Give it your full ATTENTION; you are speaking of/to your heavenly Father and Creator.
• Speak of/to Him with sincere INTENTION, remembering all He has done and continues to do for you. 
• Make specific MENTION of His wonderful goodness, majestic greatness, and awesome glory (proclaim His praises, 1 Peter 2:9).  

    Read and consider how the psalmists spoke to/of God, begin with Psalms 100, 105, and 78.

    Let's do all we can to remove mindless words from our speech and teach ourselves to truly hallow God and His glorious, sacred name! It is worthy of our every effort!!

You can do it! So can I!!