YOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF YOUR LORD GOD IN VAIN……for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His

name in vain. EXODUS 20:7

Which of these do you think constitute ‘taking the Lord’s name in vain’?

Writing ‘God bless’ at the end of an

emailSaying ‘oh my god’ when you hear a piece of

shocking news

A church leader having an affair

Making a promise in God’s name to prove how serious you are

Writing OMG in a text

Predicting the end of the world

Getting divorced Non-Christians getting married in a

churchHolding homosexual speed dating in

church

The Crusades (1100s)

We often think of this commandment as forbidding the use of phrases like ‘oh my god’ and ‘Jesus Christ’ in the ‘wrong’ context

This is indeed part of it, but it’s not the full picture

A closer translation of the original Hebrew verse is ‘do not carry the Lord’s name in vain’

What God is commanding is far more serious than simply not saying ‘oh my god’ like your friends probably do

Let’s look at what He’s actually saying…Vain: "devoid of real value, idle, unprofitable - without real significance, value or importance..."

On their journey, the Israelites encountered many different tribes with various different gods

‘Prophets’ of gods like Baal or Marduk would say things like ‘in the name of Baal, there will be a famine’

This instilled the prophets with authority; even though these gods didn’t exist, carrying their name added a divine weight to what the prophet was saying

In His third commandment, God was warning the Israelites not to do the same thing

He didn’t want the Israelites using his name whenever they liked, simply to evoke fear or to justify nonsense prophecies and immorality

This makes sense - God has a reputation to protect!

So, what God’s ultimately forbidding is the use of His holy, righteous, just and wholly good name in the wrong context

This of course includes using it as an obscenity or in casual speech But most importantly, we’re being forbidden from using God’s

name to justify immoral, selfish or unauthorised actions For example:

‘God told me to leave my husband for my secretary’

‘I feel the Lord’s telling me to gamble’

‘Our Church predicts that the world will end in 2012’

‘Jesus hates gay people - they’re all going to hell!’

This is reiterated in Leviticus 19:12, which states: ‘do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God’

Religion can cause lots of problems when it takes the Lord’s name in vain…

"We do not have the right to exercise

authority over God... God

copyrights, He trademarks, He

patents His name.”

CALL YOURSELF A CHRISTIAN…?

Some people call themselves Christians, but live as if this were merely a label

They proclaim God’s power over their life while behaving as though He doesn’t exist

In which ways could such a lifestyle defile the name of the Lord?  

'You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder.’ (James 2:19)

“If Jesus came back and saw

what was being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.” Woody Allen

WHAT’S IN A NAME? Why’s it so important that we don’t misuse God’s

name? He’s commanded us not to - and prescribes harsh judgement for those that do His name is ‘holy and awesome’ (Psalm 111:9), and its usage should reflect thisThe Church gets into trouble when it uses God’s name to justify controversial teachings or immorality; this affects how the world sees Jesussatan uses blasphemy as a tool for undermining God’s almighty power

AS WE PRAY, I’D LIKE US EACH TO BEGIN OUR

PRAYERS WITH ‘HALLOWED BE YOUR

NAME’, AS A REMINDER THAT GOD’S HOLINESS COMES BEFORE ALL OF

OUR DESIRES