📖 Biblical Definition
To hallow means to regard and treat as holy — to set apart from the common and profane. When Christ taught His disciples to pray "Hallowed be thy name," He was teaching them to honor the name of God as supremely sacred, utterly set apart from everything else. To hallow God's name is to revere it, to protect it from misuse, to ensure it is never treated as common or trivial. The command to hallow is also applied to specific times (the Sabbath), places (the tabernacle), and objects (the altar vessels). Everything that belongs to God is to be treated as distinct from the ordinary — not because the objects are magical, but because they are set apart for His service. To fail to hallow what God has declared holy is to profane it.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
To make holy; to consecrate; to set apart for holy or religious use.
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HAL'LOW, v.t. [Sax. halgian.] 1. To make holy; to consecrate; to set apart for holy or religious use. 2. To devote to holy or religious exercises; to treat as sacred. 3. To reverence; to honor as sacred. Webster understood hallowing as an active verb — it requires intention, devotion, and reverence toward what God has declared holy.
📖 Key Scripture
• Matthew 6:9 — "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name."
• Exodus 20:11 — "Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."
• Leviticus 22:32 — "You shall not profane my holy name, that I may be hallowed among the people of Israel."
• Ezekiel 36:23 — "I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
The concept of hallowing has been largely lost — nothing is treated as sacred in a culture that profanes everything.
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Modern culture has lost the concept of the sacred entirely. Nothing is hallowed — not God's name (which is used as a casual expletive), not the Sabbath (which is treated as another workday or entertainment day), not the marriage bed (which is opened to every form of perversion), not the church (which is treated as a social club). When people pray "Hallowed be thy name" in the Lord's Prayer, most have no idea what they are saying. To hallow God's name means to treat it with such reverence that you would never use it carelessly, attach it to your own projects, or invoke it to legitimize your own agenda. A culture that will not hallow anything has already profaned everything.
Usage
• "To hallow God's name is to treat it as the most sacred reality in the universe — not as a casual exclamation."
• "A generation that will not hallow anything sacred has profaned everything — including itself."