Ten Words #3: Don't Misuse My Name
"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 sp...