“Law & order: SPU – Naming and Claiming”
Ex. 20:7; Mt. 5:33-37; Col. 3:17
One Sunday a pastor preached a sermon on honesty. Monday morning he took the bus took get to his office. He paid the fare, and the bus driver gave him back too much change. During the rest of the journey the pastor was rationalizing how God had provided him with some extra money he needed for the week. But he just could not live with himself so before he got off the bus he proceeded to give back the extra money and said to the driver, “You have made a mistake. You’ve given me too much change.” The driver smiled and said, “There was no mistake. I was at your church yesterday and heard you preach on honesty. So I decided to put you to a test this morning.”
We call that integrity. It’s what God calls for in this 3rd commandment: “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God…” It’s also translated “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain….” God is addressing our habit of naming and claiming Him in so many different ways.
To get a handle on the commandment’s meaning we begin by examining THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMING. Names communicate. For example, what do you think of when I say ‘LeBron?’ ‘Michael?’ Benedict Arnold? Bill Gates? Abraham Lincoln? Hillary? Barak Obama? Each name communicated something to you. NAMES REFER TO OR REPRESENT THE ESSENCE OF A PERSON.
This was particularly true in Biblical times. Names were both symbolic and doorways to personality. Isaac, for example, meant ‘laughter’ because his mother – 99 year old Sara – laughed when she heard she was pregnant. Esau meant ‘hairy’ – because he was harrier than his twin brother and his hair was instrumental in his deception of his father. Samuel meant ‘asked of God’ because he was born in answer to sincere prayer. God changed Abram’s name to ‘Abraham’ because he would be the father of many nations. Jesus was named ‘Savior’ because He would die on the cross to save His people. Jesus gave Peter his name because he would be the rock upon which Jesus would build His church. Names were living and potent symbols of the persons who bore those names. The name was inseparable from the person. So God is claiming that misusing His name has something to do with misrepresenting the essence of God.
NAMES ALSO LINK A PERSON TO WHAT IS SAID OR DONE in their name. If you say, “Bill told me to…” Bill is immediately associated with what you say next – whether or not it’s true. Dave Stone refers to the fellow who spent $100.00 to have his family tree looked up – then spent $1,000.00 to have it hushed up! He didn’t want his name associated with what he discovered. He didn’t want that as his identity. Similarly God does not want to be associated with anything that misrepresents his essence. Some people desire to, and in fact do, change their name – for a variety of reasons they no longer like or want to bear the name they were given. But God named Himself to perfectly represent who he is. Gary North put it beautifully: “One way for a modern American to begin to understand this commandment is to treat God’s name as a trademarked property. In order to gain widespread distribution for His copyrighted repair manual – the Bible - and also to capture greater market share for His authorized franchise – the Church – God has graciously licensed the use of His name to anyone who will use it according to His written instructions. It needs to be understood, however, that God’s name has not been released into the public domain. God retains legal control over His name and threatens serious penalties against the unauthorized misuse of this supremely valuable property. All trademark violations will be prosecuted to the full limits of the law. The prosecutor, judge, jury, and enforcer is God.” God does not want to be linked to things He does not approve or would not say or do.
NAMES ALSO CONTAIN POWER. If you want to sell your basketball you could have me sign it first. Do you think the value of the ball has just increased? ... Of course not! But if you can get LeBron James to sign your basketball, what do you think will happen to its value and price? Right – it will increase dramatically. Names have power.
Similarly God is present in His name. Claiming His name raises the stakes. Therefore to use His name is to call God as an active witness in what we are saying or doing. To name God is to claim God’s participation, power, and approval. The same is true for Jesus’ name. Remember the day Peter and John were headed to the Temple and walked past a beggar. In response Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” And the man was healed. To name His name is to claim His power. That’s why our call to worship this morning came from Philippians 2: God gave Jesus the “Name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on e earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Paul taught that “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” To claim His name is to call forth His power. As Joy Davidman put it, His name is like a high voltage wire – it contains dynamic life-giving and life-destroying power. The 3rd commandment states that God’s name has significance – be careful how you use it.
It’s obvious from what I’ve said so far that there is A WRONGFUL USE OF GOD’S NAME. What would be some ways I could misuse or abuse your name? … How would you feel if I said untrue things about you? … What if I used your name to justify something I did that was not right? …That gives us some insight into the misuse of God’s name.
One way to misuse God’s name, to take His name in vain, is through PROFANITY. This is, in fact, what most of us, when we were young, were taught was the sole meaning. And it is an important meaning. The word ‘profane’ comes from the Latin ‘pro’ meaning ‘in front of’ and ‘fane’ which means ‘temple.’ So ‘Profane’ means to take the holy and sacred out of the temple, or to act unholy right in front of God Himself. Paul addressed it in Ephesians 5:4 – “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place…” Such talk degrades God. If you name God, you claim for Him what you say about Him.
Another misuse of God’s comes by CASUAL OR CARELESS CONVERSATION. It’s so easy for athletes, while trying to give God the glory for their ability, to demean God by ‘thanking God for helping me score the touchdown’ – does God really help him run over a defensive back who is also a Christian – and, if so, what does it say to that defensive back whom God obviously didn’t help? Such attempts at casual, even if sincere thanks, can demean and misrepresent God. Back in 1999 NBA player Jayson Williams described Michael Jordan as ‘Jesus in tennis shoes.’ It might have been a compliment to Jordan, but it demeaned the supremacy of God and reduced His deity. And think about the phrases we’ve coined to back political positions. Environmentalists and others asked “What would Jesus drive?” (I wanted to answer, “If you really want to be like Jesus, walk!”) The other day I heard there’s a movement, in light of the tragic BP oil disaster, that is asking “Where would Jesus drill?” (Quite frankly, if Jesus wanted to drill, wherever He drilled would work – after all He’s Jesus!) My point is that it all trivializes God and reduces Him to self-serving slogans. And it’s no different when people want to get married in the church and buried in the church but never otherwise darken the door of the church or attempt to live according the vows they took in the church. It’s nothing more than casual, careless conversation invoking God for selfish ends.
We also misuse God’s name by REMAINING SILENT when God’s name is taken in vain. The Heidelberg Catechism states it well: it says that God’s will in this commandment is, ‘That we neither blaspheme nor misuse the name of God by cursing, perjury, or unnecessary oaths, nor share in such horrible sins by being silent bystanders.” The prophecy of Hosea (4:1) is apropos for our day: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.” As Michael Horton pointed out, the problem is not just that the government has taken God out of the schools or courthouses but that Christians have taken Him out of churches and removed public acknowledgment of God from our personal and public lives. Or as David Stone put it, if some person perpetrates abuse on someone else, somebody must stand up to the perpetrator and let him know that his behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Should we expect any less when God – when Jesus our Lord and Savior – are abused? As John Calvin once said, “When a master is attacked the dog will bark.” When Branch Rickey was manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, he was at a meeting negotiating a contract for pro football to be played at Ebbets Field. Suddenly he threw down his pencil and declared the deal was off. When others, with bewilderment, asked, why Branch replied “Because you’ve been talking about a friend of mine, and I don’t like it.” When they protested that they didn’t know what he meant he reminded them of their constant profane use of the name of Jesus Christ. The men apologized and negotiations continued.
There are also times we COMMIT FORGERY with God’s name. It can happen two ways. One – we claim and sign His name and support for sinful, evil, questionable actions. A good biblical account is that of Nahab and Abihu in Leviticus 10:1-3. They tried to offer sacrifice in the name of God in their own way and were killed by God for doing so. They tried to sign God’s name to their actions. We’ve seen the same thing with Apartheid in South Africa, with Hitler’s use of God’s name in the Holocaust in Germany, with the atrocities of the Crusades by Christians, and with upholding slavery in the early history of our own nation. And – two – we also commit forgery when we take credit for what God has done. Remember Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon? He looked out over his great kingdom and said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built…?” From that moment on he came under the judgment of God.
Perhaps the most frequent misuse of God’s name is through HYPOCRISY. Integrity is the state or quality or being upright, honest, whole, and complete; it’s when words and actions match up. To be hypocritical is to be the exact opposite – to say, vow, or confess something and then not do it or live by it; words and actions do not match up. Since we bear the name of Christian, our word ought to be as reliable and trustworthy as God’s. Because His people have so often lacked integrity, God has repeatedly spoken against hypocrisy. Isaiah 48:1 – “Listen to this, O house of Jacob…you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and invoke the God of Israel – but not in truth or righteousness…” Jesus spoke his harshest words against the religious leaders of His day because of their hypocrisy. He summarized it succinctly (Mt. 7:21), “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of the father in heaven.”
We are hypocritical when we say we love God but do not show love to our neighbor, when we call Jesus Lord but do not make Him our top priority in our decisions, when we claim God as King and ruler but live by our own standards, when we claim we trust God but live with constant worry, or when we claim everything belongs to God but do not give to God accordingly. Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven.
There are certainly other wrongful ways of using God’s name, but let’s accent also the RIGHTFUL USE OF GOD’S NAME. It begins with GIVING GOD HIS DUE CREDIT. Psalm 96:8 says “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.” It’s a Psalm dealing with worship. We develop our habit of giving God His due credit when we worship faithfully. When we worship faithfully we are much more able to do as Paul exhorted (Col. 3:17) “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” If you cannot credit, or give glory to God in what you are about to do, don’t do it! And whatever you do, do it in such a way that God receives the glory. Give God His due credit.
We also use God’s name in a right way when we REFLECT HIS NAME through our character and deeds. We’ve touched on that in thinking about integrity and hypocrisy. But more than that, it means we are to live with impeccable credentials morally and spiritually. Someone once said that we need to live a couple of rungs above the rest of society, but that is not good enough. Society’s standards keep getting lower and lower so if its standards are our baseline our character and behavior will keep getting lower as well. We must live by the laws and standards God lays down so that we can, indeed, be God’s special, holy people.
Once again, we’re talking about integrity. Our profession must be substantiated by our performance. Joshua told the Israelites (Josh. 24;14), “…fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness.” John wrote (1 Jn. 3:18) “…let us not love in word or speech but in deed and truth.” Just remember that such integrity of life and character landed Jesus on a cross – it is not popular or easy. But it is what being God’s special people is all about.
Thirdly, we uphold God’s name when we ACCEPT AND DO THE WILL OF GOD. It comes down to an issue of the heart. Jesus said (Matt 12:34-37): “’You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.’"
Jesus spent His ministry telling people that He came to do the Father’s will. As he faced the agonizing, torturous death on the cross He bowed down in the Garden of Gethsemane for a time of gut-wrenching prayer. But here’s how He settled the issue – “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Heart and life, profession and performance all matched up. Jesus lived with integrity and led others into the presence of God.
It is our calling, our assignment, our orders to live in such a way that if people want to know more about God they can look at us and see Jesus. If you are going to name and claim His name, be sure, in the depths of your heart, you want to live like Him. “’For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.’" Let’s ask for the Holy Spirit to help us.
