Ten Words #3: Don't Misuse My Name

By -
"Don’t make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God."

Rules are subject to many interpretations and applications. If laws were easy to understand and follow, we’d have no need for a Supreme Court.

For ancient Jews and modern Christians alike, it’s not easy to apply commandments such as this one. Many Jews believed that God’s actual name was so sacred that they dared not misspeak it. They went to such great lengths that they refused to even speak or in some cases write the divine name YHWH. They believed this was a way of honoring the third commandment.

When I was a kid, folks interpreted this in a similar manner. We got in trouble for saying the name of Jesus or God in a flippant manner. Combining God’s name with a curse word was a horrendous sin! Even speaking replacement words like geez or gosh was cause for harsh rebuke from my parents. This is how we took care to not make wrongful use of God’s name.

While I still believe it’s a good idea to speak God’s name in right ways, I think this only scratches the surface of understanding the third word. God’s name has honor. People who belong to God represent God and God’s name in this world. When people who wear God’s name do dishonorable things, they cheapen and disgrace the name of God.

People sometimes boldly claim that God endorses their agendas. They allege knowledge of what God wants. Some back up their actions by saying that God is on their side.

This happens more often than one might think. Ku Klux Klan members have always claimed to be acting for God. German soldiers wore belt buckles that read "God with us." ISIS soldiers say they are doing God’s will. When we launched our response after 9/11, prominent banners read, "Kick A^% & Take Names. God Bless the USA!" A clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses claims that she is acting upon God’s authority. When we attach God’s name to our projects, can we be sure that we are using God’s name in a proper and right way?

In Phil 1:27, Paul tells his Christian friends to "live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ." Most of our translations leave out the "citizen" language. But it’s there. As citizens of heaven, we wear the name of God! Our words and our actions should reflect God’s name in a "worthy manner."

To me, this is a far more challenging application of the third commandment than our (mis)use of slang words.  Ask yourself, "Do I wear God’s name in a worthy way?" That should make all Christians think about whether or not they make rightful use of the Lord’s name. It certainly makes me stop and think.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Love It or List It: We Sold Our Church Building

By -
Image
On October 8, 2023, we held our last worship service in our home of 59 years. We're moving on to a temporary location while we wait for God to reveal where our more permanent home will be. It's been a journey for which there is no solid road map, but we feel blessed by what's happening. We formed a giant circle for the final song at our longtime, northeast Fresno home. In late January, our elders announced a shock decision. We would be selling our church building and moving on. Among the elders, it was an uncontentious and unambiguous decision. They 100% believed it was in the church's best interest to put our property on the market and find a new home. Many congregations have hard choices to make about aging properties that are oversized for today's churches. Selling seemed the most desirable option to our board in our circumstances. I wrote about that decision back in January. You can read about it here . I had an inside seat to their decision-making process. As a
Read more

Galatians 4:1-7 & The Confusing Apostle Paul

By -
Image
Does Galatians 4:1-7 confuse anyone as much as it does me? After studying this for some time, I am prone to agree with the words of 2 Peter 3:16. "There are some things in [Paul's letters] hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures." I hope I'm not one of the ignorant and unstable people. But I'm in the camp of folks who can say that Paul's writings are occasionally hard to understand. Let me clarify what I'm having a hard time clarifying. I don't really think it's difficult to understand Paul's point in Gal 4:1-7. The broader context makes it clear. Paul says that the Law of Moses is inferior to the promise previously made to Abraham. Gentile Christians, he writes, are descendants of Abraham because they share the same faith in God (3:6-7) that Abraham had (Gen 15:6). They therefore don't need to obey Jewish rules and customs. That's his point. from Anthony
Read more

Still Freezing in Abilene

By -
Image
So I've been in a class all week titled "Missional Ecclesiology." It's taken me most of the week just to figure out what the title even means, but it's been a thoroughly invigorating week. Basically, the class is about how church can become a people who are more fully dedicated to the Kingdom of God. Of course this brings up all kinds of questions. If we are going to reshape our churches to more accurately resemble a pursuit of God designs for creation and humanity, what exactly is his aim? Is he merely interested in us going to heaven? Is that what salvation means? And how do we live our communal life in a way that nurtures this vision of salvation? These are deep questions and not so easily dismissed. For example, when I grew up in church, the primary concern was to be saved from sin and not go to hell. So how did we answer this concern? By baptizing people in the right way for the right reason so that they could have assurance of going to heaven. But as we look
Read more