When the 1960s ended, San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district reverted to high rent, and many hippies moved down the coast to Santa Cruz. They had children and got married, too, though in no particular sequence. But they didn’t name their children Melissa or Brett. People in the mountains around Santa Cruz grew accustomed to their children playing Frisbee with little Time Warp or Spring Fever. And eventually Moonbeam, Earth, Love and Precious Promise all ended up in public school. That’s when the kindergarten teachers first met Fruit Stand. Every fall, according to tradition, parents bravely apply name tags to their children, kiss them good-bye and send them off to school on the bus. So it was for Fruit Stand. The teachers thought the boy’s name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it. “Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?” they offered. And later, “Fruit Stand, how about a snack?” He accepted hesitantly. By the end of the day, his name didn’t seem much odder than Heather’s or Sun Ray’s. At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses. “Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?” He didn’t answer. That wasn’t strange. He hadn’t answered them all day. Lots of children are shy on the first day of school. It didn’t matter. The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children’s bus stops on the reverse side of their name tags. The teacher simply turned over the tag. There, neatly printed was the word, “Anthony.” Luanne Oleas in Salinas, California, Reader’s Digest
Names are important to us, especially our own. A name is more than a means of identifying someone. It conveys information about our family, social and economic status, race and sometimes religion too. The mere mention of some names would elicit an immediate emotional response from you. What images come to mind when I say Sadam Hussein or David Letterman? How about Graham or Gotti? Have you ever known anyone who named their baby boy, Judas, or their baby girl, Jezebel?
Those names conjure up images that even nonreligious people resist. If you’ve had children there were certain names you would not consider because they reminded you of someone you did not like in school. On the flip side, we tend to name our kids after people who we feel good about. Names are important.
In the third of the Ten Commandments we find that God is protective of his name. We are commanded to proceed with extreme caution in handling the name of the Almighty.
"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. NKJV
"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. NIV
God is so concerned about the proper use of his name that there’s a promise of punitive action if it’s misused. Literally, God told his people not to lift up or take up his name with emptiness. Those of you who grew up reading an older translation of the Bible may remember this commandment as saying, “Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” Vanity means “nothingness” or “trivial.” To take God’s name in vain means that it has been treated lightly, not taken seriously.
The Jews were diligent concerning this commandment.
God’s name was so sacred to the Jews that it was pronounced only once a year by the high priest when giving the blessing on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27).
Michael G. Moriarty, The Perfect 10: The Blessings of Following God’s Commandments in a Post Modern World, p. 80
This reverence for the name of God holds true even today. One seminary professor told his students of a time when he was studying Hebrew under an orthodox Jewish rabbi. On that particular day, the students were reading the Hebrew text out loud. One of the rules of the class was that when you came to the name of God you were not to pronounce what was in the text. Instead, students were to say “Adnonai” which is the Hebrew equivalent of “Lord.”
Here’s a little Bible study lesson for you. If you’re reading the Old Testament and come across the word “LORD” in all capital letters, it stands for YHWH, God’s covenant name. YHWH basically means “the One who Is.”
“YHWH” = “LORD” (Jehovah, Adonai, Yahweh)
Back to the story: In the class with the Jewish rabbi, one of the students inadvertently pronounced the name of God. Upon hearing it, the rabbi groaned loudly, put his hands over his ears and fled from the classroom. No one saw him for several days. When he finally surfaced again they found that he considered himself so unworthy of hearing the name of God that he spent days in prayer asking for forgiveness.
What’s the big deal with God’s name? Why must we take it so seriously?
Giving God a “bad name” might diminish or demolish people’s belief, respect, and awe for God, a tragedy for a world that needs holiness. Laura Schlessinger, The Ten Commandments: The Significance of God’s Laws in Everyday Life, p. 63
Taking up God’s name, but not taking him seriously determines how others view God. When we represent God, by taking on or taking up his name we’re sending a message about who we think he is. Look at it this way: Your character affects God’s credibility.
C.R. Smith was one of the founders of American Airlines, and he once made a stopover in Nashville, Tennessee. When he did, he found two desks in the American Airlines corridor of the airport. On one, a phone was ringing away. Sitting at the other, with his feet propped up, was a man reading the newspaper.
Smith walked up to him and said, “Your phone is ringing.”
“That’s reservations. I’m maintenance,” the man replied.
Furious, Smith walked over to the desk, picked up the phone, and began talking to a man who urgently needed to get to California. Smith rattled off the schedule from memory to the man and hung up. The man from maintenance couldn’t believe it!
“Say, that was pretty good!” he said. “Do you work for American?”
“Yes, I do,” Smith answered. “And you used to.”
It’s important to learn what to take seriously – and who. Nothing should be taken more seriously than God, and giving God His proper respect starts with His name, because His name represents who He is. James Emery White, You Can Experience an Authentic Life, p. 29-30
I want to give you three ways to think of this commandment. Three ways that we can break it.
1. We honor or dishonor God with our lips.
This is how most of us identify the most often misuse God’s name. It has become very common to hear God’s name used as a by word or even as part of profanity. I hope you think about this today in your own life.
2. We honor or dishonor God with our life.
Maybe you have never thought much about this one but how we live our lives is an indicator of how we honor or dishonor God. Remember, everything I say this morning, and any morning for that matter is based on a belief system that God created us and that He sets the rules for how we are to live. If you believe in God as creator, then you must accept that He knows best and that when we live contrary to His plans, principles and even rules that we are dishonoring our Creator.
3. We honor or dishonor God with our loves.
The most startling thing about this study of the Ten Commandments for me has been the way they all really hinge on the first two. In my opinion, the last eight are just manifestations of belief in the first two. That is why Jesus summed up the commandments with His words in the New Testament, “Love the Lord you God with all you heart, mind and soul, and then He added that we are to love our neighbors like we love ourselves.”
The bottom line is what you love you live for. What is in your heart is what you worship. For some of you it may be your work, or a relationship, or many things but our loves tell a lot about our keeping of this commandment. Jesus taught that where your treasure is there you will find your heart.
Let’s examine some ways that we may misuse His name.
Vacant vows
This is really what the letter of the law was all about. God assumed that his people would invoke his name when taking oaths. God’s point is that when his name is taken up in an oath, the one who makes it had better follow through. If you make a vow or a promise or take an oath in his name and then faithlessly neglect to do what you said, you’ve smeared the name and reputation of God. You’ve proven that you don’t take him seriously. In this commandment God tells his people to follow through with their promises. He is faithful and expects his followers to be as well.
Jesus took it a step further. By his day, the Jewish people had established an informal system of oath-taking. If you swore by God you were bound to it. But if you wanted to weasel out of your vow you could make it you promise on something or someone else. For example you could say, “I swear on my mother’s grave.” When you wanted to escape the vow you could later follow up with, “Ha, ha, she’s still alive!” The closer your vow was to God the more seriously you had to take it. The further away from God and his name you moved the more latitude you had with the truth. Jesus revealed the stupidity of such a system with these words:
“Again, you have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Do not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you have made to the Lord.’ But I say, don’t make any vows! If you say, ‘By heaven!’ it is a sacred vow because heaven is God’s throne. And if you say, ‘By the earth!’ it is a sacred vow because the earth is his footstool. And don’t swear, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for it is the city of the great King. Don’t even swear, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Your word is enough. To strengthen your promise with a vow shows that something is wrong.” Matthew 5:33-37 (NLT)
In other words, be faithful to all your vows and promises. Back up all your words with integrity whether you invoke an oath or not. If you claim to follow God, then follow through with faithfulness to your words. After all, your character affects God’s credibility.
If you have past church experience you probably link the third commandment to the next point. We can misuse God’s name through abusive speech.
Abrasive speech
In a technical sense, profanity is not a violation of the third commandment. In fact, according to the letter of the law unless you pronounce the covenant name of God (and we don’t know how it’s pronounced anymore) you can’t violate the specific point of the law.
Don’t use this as a cop out. The letter of the law might not get you, but the spirit of the law will. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you carry around the name Christian which means “little Christ.” Your words reflect the character of your Lord. That’s why there’s a specific prohibition about profanity in the Bible.
Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. Ephesians 5:4 (NRSV)
Remember that your character affects God’s credibility. The words you say shape other people’s opinion about God’s reputation.
I include in this category, those flippant uses of terms related to God’s name such as times when someone expresses anger or surprise and says, “Oh God!” or “Jesus Christ!” or “Oh Lord!” or “Oh my God!” If you’re actually speaking to God reverentially it’s okay, but if you’re casually tossing out his name to fill in your verbal gaps it’s profanity. Profanity literally means “away from the temple.” Profanity occurs when we take something sacred, like the name of God, and treat it irreverently.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Romans 12:14
You do not have the right to tell God to damn anyone or anything. Your and I are called to speak only blessings and not curses.
Profanity really says something about the person who uses it. William Ward said “Profanity is the use of strong words by weak people.” Jesus said that the words we use expose what’s on the inside of us – for better or worse.
A good person produces good deeds from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil deeds from an evil heart. Whatever is in your heart determines what you say. Luke 6:45 (NLT)
Inconsistency between words and deeds
This commandment goes beyond our words. The way you live can be a smear on the name of God. Speaking to religious hypocrites, the author of Romans wrote:
Well then, if you teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? You tell others not to steal, but do you steal? You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you do it? You condemn idolatry, but do you steal from pagan temples? You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it. No wonder the Scriptures say, “The world blasphemes the name of God because of you.” Romans 2:21-24 (NLT)
Years ago in Germany, there was a young Jewish boy who had a profound sense of admiration for his father. His family’s life centered on the acts of piety and devotion prescribed by their religion. The father was zealous in attending worship and religious instruction, and he demanded the same from his children. While the boy was a teenager, the family was forced to move to another town in Germany. There was no synagogue in the new town, and the pillars of the community all belonged to the Lutheran church. Suddenly the father announced to the family that they were going to abandon their Jewish traditions and join the Lutheran church. When the stunned family asked why, the father explained that changing religions was necessary to help his business.
The youngster was bewildered and confused. His deep disappointment soon gave way to anger and a kind of intense bitterness that plagued him throughout his life. That disappointed son, disillusioned by his father’s lack of integrity, eventually left Germany and went to England to study. He sat daily at the British Museum, formulating various ideas and writing a book. In that work, he introduced an entirely new world-view, envisioning a movement that would change the social and political systems of the world. Drawing from past experiences with his father, he described religion as an “opiate for the masses” that could be explained totally in terms of economics and personal gain. Today, millions of people still live under the system invented by this embittered man, and millions more suffered under previous regimes that incorporated its values. His name, of course, was Karl Marx, and his idea was communism. And it all began with his father’s misuse of the name of God for the sake of profit. James Emery White, You Can Experience an Authentic Life, pp. 33-34
Nonexistent relationship with God
It is possible to go through the motions of religion and church life, but be utterly devoid of a vital connection with Christ. Jesus said that on judgment day there will be some surprises:
“Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven. On judgment day many will tell me, ‘Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Go away; the things you did were unauthorized.’” Matthew 7:21-23 (NLT) Some people use God’s name for personal gain. God’s name has been invoked to sanction all sorts of evils such as the Crusades during the Middle Ages, slavery in America, the Nazi agenda in Germany, segregation in the South and even American militarism. We must be exceedingly careful. Just because we’re Americans doesn’t mean that God sanctions everything we do around the world. Beware of those who take up God’s name in a cause, but have no real relationship with him.
The misuse of God’s name for personal profit is easily applied to certain televangelists who use the name of God to make a buck off of overly trusting people, or politicians who mention God’s name in the right places and the right times in order to gain a certain constituency of voters. It is widely known that former president Richard Nixon courted evangelist Billy Graham’s personal friendship for political advantage. When Billy read the Watergate transcripts for the first time, chock-full of Nixon’s profanity, manipulation, cover-ups, and power plays, he became so upset that he went into the bathroom and vomited. James Emery White, You Can Experience an Authentic Life, p. 33 It can happen with average people too. Start a real relationship with Christ. You don’t have to pretend. All you have to do is call on the name of the Lord for forgiveness and begin following him. Make sure your relationship is real because your character affects God’s credibility.
Rather than follow the Jewish path and avoid even mentioning the name of God, let’s go the opposite direction and intentionally take it up, but keep in mind whose character we’re representing.
To be honest with you this commandment is all about respect and reverence for God. When you and I really grasp and embrace who God is it makes a profound and radical difference in how we live our lives. No longer can anyone accuse us of being one day Christians. Our lives on Monday through Saturday will match with our actions on Sunday.
Let the way you speak and act and live more closely reflect the one you believe in and follow. Here’s the advice of the Bible:
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. Colossians 3:17 (NIV)
We must constantly evaluate our words and attitudes and deeds and ask ourselves if they’re God-honoring. What does my conversation imply about my God? Is how I’m treating this person in line with how Jesus responded to people? Am I going after personal purity that reflects the holiness of the Lord? The preacher wasn’t going to allow any Sunday school teachers to compromise the standards of God’s Word so he called one of his teachers into the pastor’s study. It was the late 1950s and the teacher was none other than Willie Nelson. The pastor said, “Willie, either you quit playing in beer joints or else you quit teaching Sunday school.” Nelson replied, “You must be nuts.” But the minister didn’t back down. Nelson recalled, “he had to choose between satisfying the congregation—including the hypocrites—or siding with a musician who drank and smoked and cussed and picked his guitar and sang in dance halls. I decided to stay with the beer joints.” Nelson also said, “The preacher sounded so wrong to me that I quit the Baptist Church.” Willie Nelson’s decision to choose the beer joints over the church led him to other avenues of religious thought. He noted, “I discovered a world full of people who believed in reincarnation. The King James version of the Bible was later written to cover up the fact that Jesus had discovered reincarnation. The Aquarian Gospel had a great impact on me. It explained everything to my satisfaction.” Compromise never leads to an oasis, it just deceives you with a myriad of mirages. Houston Chronicle, Nov. 3, 1988, Special Five-Part Series, “Willie: An Autobiography”
Follow God’s example and go over an above what’s expected. To truly represent God and honor his name we are to stand out as beacons of light through our words and deeds. Jesus said,
“…let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” Matthew 5:16 (NLT)
Your character affects God’s credibility. If you take God seriously the people around you will too.
“Christ is not looking for part-time followers.” —Anonymous Author’s files
Steps to keeping this commandment:
I will guard my language at all times.
I will develop a respect and love for God and who He is.
I will live so that my life is a reflection of God.
I will search for God daily through prayer.
