Dear Church, The 3rd commandment says, “Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”. Now admittingly when Christians hear this, they think of people ‘out there’ who use a particular curse word. Agreeably so there is no word in the human language that so strongly convey one’s absolute irreverence to a Holy God whose name is hallowed. But it shouldn’t take us by surprise when we realize that the word or words we often hear among the non-Christians is not really what the Bible talks about when it says not to take the Lord’s name in vain. Paul writes to the Philippians about Jesus, “Therefore God exalted him (Jesus) to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil 2:9-10). We who profess Jesus Christ as our lord and savior – we who take his name as part of our identity, when we deliberately and continually disobey his commands to love God and love each other, we are taking the name of the Lord in vain. We misrepresent Christ, either intentionally or through ignorance of His word. Jesus said quite candidly in Luke 6:46, “why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I tell you”. So, the clearest way we take our Lord’s name in vain is identifying ourselves to be among Christ’s followers and not living like one. It is convincing and humbling to know that we could be taking the Lord’s name in vain without a word coming out of our mouths. Let’s turn to the Lord and seek forgiveness. Be encouraged, |
