After the instruction that our prayers should not be like those of the heathen, Jesus needed to tell the people how their prayers ought to be different. This section is known as the Lord’s Prayer, and it did become the model of prayer for Christians. Ironically, for many it became almost the same kind of vain repetition as the prayer of the heathen it was given to counter. The prayer comes as model, not form. (Robert Guelich. A Foundation for Understanding the Sermon on the Mount. Word Publishing, Dallas. 1982, p. 284).
The opening phrase of the model prayer addresses God as Father. More specifically, it addresses God as “our Father.” Even more specifically, it addresses “our Father, who art in heaven.” The force of this introduction is to establish a relationship between the one offering the prayer and God, to whom the prayer is offered.
First, we have the designation of “our Father.” This is a title of inclusiveness. There is a relationship of Fatherhood, but it is not exclusive. It is shared by all of his children on earth. He is our Father, not my Father. Secondly, the concept of Father in itself establishes a type of connection between God and us. This is particularly important in the Book of Mormon context because it was their understanding that the Fatherhood of God was literally a transformational relationship.
Mosiah 5:7
7 And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.
The covenantal relationship of the Nephites established the kin relationship with God. Through our covenants we become family and kin with God, with God at the head, as would be a Father. As in a family, we have required relationships of mutual care, trust, and responsibility. Thus for the Nephites, the designation of Father was literally one of kin relationship, and they would have understood that title to be indicative of the nature of the relationship that was expected.
In spite of the kin relationship, our Father, is a particular type of Father, as he is in heaven. This qualifier not only distinguishes God the Father from the rights and responsibilities of our earthly Fathers, but it also indicates the realm of operation. God the Father is not only in heaven he is concerned with heaven. His realm is heaven, and his purposes are directed to the eternal, not to the temporal. In the context of the introduction to the Lord’s prayer, this recognition of the realm of operation for God is significant. When we pray to this God who knows beforehand what we need, we should expect that the needs that are understood and attended to are heavenly concerns. It is our spiritual and eternal welfare that is God’s concern, not our mortal and temporal lives. For the Israel of Jesus’ time, God was concerned with throwing off the bondage of Satan, not the Romans.
The last phrase is “hallowed be thy name.” The term hallowed is an older English form meaning to make sacred. Of course more than the name of God is to be made or held to be sacred. The power of the name was such in the ancient world that it was a representation of the person, and so intimately connected with the person that the invocation of the name might be considered as requiring the presence of the person. The sacredness of the person of God is embodied in the name, and this intimate relationship between person and name is what led to the Jews declining to pronounce the name of God. Of course no human should be so presumptuous as to attempt to demand the presence of God by pronouncing the Name and therefore essentially commanding God’s presence.
The beginning of the prayer therefore establishes and recognizes the relationship that we have before God. He is our common Father, but we are as siblings before him. The nature of our vertical relationship also defines our horizontal relationship. As we approach this person we come as we would to a father, with respect, but with an assumption of the favorable relationship with that Father. In spite of the familiarity of our model of God as Father, we still must understand God as different from our earthly Father. God is concerned with a different realm. Our relationship may be familiar as with a Father, but it is still one of respect for God, which we recognize by noting the sacredness of the person as represented by the Name.
Textual: There are no changes from the Matthean version.