Taking God's Name In Vain

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).

We live in a very casual society, one in which few things are taken seriously and almost nothing is sacred. In such an irreverent climate the words of the third commandment must seem awfully strict. But the principle it contains is desperately needed.

“Vain” (shav) means empty, worthless, frivolous, to no purpose. The Hebrew verb nasa means to take up or lift up. A good rendering of this command would be, “You shall not lift up the Lord’s name lightly.”

The third commandment naturally flows from the two before it. “Although there is no God besides Jehovah, the absolute One, and His divine essence cannot be seen or conceived of under any form, He had made known the glory of His nature in His name” (Keil). While we usually give our children names because they sound nice, a name in Biblical times was meant to say something about the person who wore it.

At the burning bush, a reluctant Moses asked God for a name to identify Him to the Hebrews. God replied, “I AM” (Exodus 3:14). From this Hebrew word (hayah, to be or exist) comes the name translated “Jehovah” (yhwh). In the next verse God calls Himself “The Lord [Jehovah] God of your fathers,” adding, “This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.” In the very name of Jehovah there was testimony of His eternity and power. Just as a man’s name represents his character to those who know him (cf. Proverbs 22:1), so the name of God represents all His attributes: power, wisdom, authority, love, mercy, etc.

Likewise, the New Testament speaks of “the name” of Jesus as much more than just a name. Believing on His name or calling on His name means placing our trust in Him and submitting to His Lordship (cf. John 1:12; 3:18; Acts 2:21; 22:16; Romans 10:13). Doing things in His name means not just invoking His name (see Acts 19:13-16 for proof of the futility of that), but acting by His authority, in a manner consistent with His will, and from a relationship with Him (cf. Matthew 18:20; John 13:13-14; 1 Corinthians 1:15).

The command of Exodus 20:7 is against irreverent and empty treatment of God Himself, not merely His name. The focus is not on an attitude of contempt toward God (the first commandment deals with that), but rather one of carelessness. And as Israel was to reverence Jehovah’s name, we are also to honor His name — His person — and that of His Son, Jesus.

Consider a few of the ways men take up God’s name lightly:

Invoking His name thoughtlessly. It is said that the Jews were so careful about the third commandment that they eventually allowed God’s proper name to be uttered only by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement. With disuse, its true pronunciation was forgotten. The more generic terms Adoniah (Lord) and Elohim (God) were substituted. That’s quite a contrast to our time, in which many folks only use the name “God” or “Jesus” as an exclamation of anger or surprise. (Are euphemisms like “Geez,” “Gosh,” etc., really any different?) Such trivial use of the name of God certainly qualifies as “unwholesome speech” (Ephesians 4:29) and “foolish talking” (5:4). It shows disrespect for the One to whom the name belongs.

False or frivolous oaths. Have you noticed that the person who’s always “swearing to God” that his words are true is usually a chronic liar? Paul called God as witness to the truth of his words (Galatians 1:20; 2 Corinthians 1:23), and we can infer from this that taking an oath of truthfulness (such as in court) is not sinful. But any such vow before God is a serious matter. The Pharisees, it seems, viewed only certain kinds of oaths as binding, effectively using a “technicality” to lie with impunity (Matthew 26:13-22). In contrast, Jesus calls for integrity in speech without the need for swearing (Matthew 5:33-37). People shouldn’t require an oath of us before they will trust our words.

Careless worship. Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, offered strange fire to the Lord and perished. God had said, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored” (Leviticus 10:1-4). The worship of God demands reverence. He is the focus, not us. There is no real reverence in empty ritual or stuffy formality (cf. Matthew 6:7). The same is true of the sensationalism and entertainment that passes for worship these days. And it is just as true when we sing or pray or gather around the table while our minds are a million miles away. All such praises are as careless and empty as the strange fire of Aaron’s sons. “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Mark 7:6).

Disobedience in daily life. The Jews may have forgotten how to pronounce God’s name, but they still managed to profane it. God spoke of how the people’s disobedience had defiled His holy name among the nations (Ezekiel 36:20-23). We who are created in God’s image treat Him profanely when we disobey His laws. That is even more true of the Christian, who is “being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Colossians 3:10). Our disobedience brings reproach on Him. Paul urged servants to honor their masters “so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed” (1 Timothy 6:1). His instructions to wives carried a similar admonition (Titus 2:5). Warning of false teachers, Peter said, “many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed” (2 Peter 2:2).

And how many times have people tried to paste the name of Jesus onto things that were not done by His authority or for His cause? “It is awful…in how many instances God’s name is taken in vain, by the use of it to sanctify unholy ends, justify unrighteousness, and give to error what dignity and force can be gained from an appeal to divine authority” (Young). The examples are legion, from the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition to the Ku Klux Klan, from the false teachers of the first century to modern TV evangelists peddling their spiritual snake oil. As one writer said, “We may do many things in the name of the Lord, but that does not make them the Lord’s things” (cf. Matthew 7:21f).

Proper reverence toward God begins in the heart, the source of all we do and say (Matthew 15:17-20; 12:34-37). We will not treat God lightly if we truly regard Him as holy. “This commandment, like the rest, must be kept positively, or it cannot be kept negatively. If we are found making a serious and habitual use of God’s name in a right way, then, and only then, shall we be kept effectually from using it in a wrong one” (Young).

“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11). “For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.…Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name” (Psalm 96:4,8).

No Other Gods/No Idols

“I am the LORD your God…You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 2:2-5).

“I am the LORD your God.” The Ten Commandments begin with the reality of God. He doesn’t explain or defend His existence, He states it as fact. We may disbelieve, but He still is. He doesn’t argue to prove His word is true, He presents it as absolute. We may reject it, but it is still truth. The first two commandments establish God’s authority to command and our duty to obey.

But what is so clearly presumed in these laws is not so in the world. Our friends and neighbors don’t all believe in God, and those who do often define “God” differently. A 1994 Barna Research study found that 30% of adults “embrace an unorthodox definition of God, such as a state of higher consciousness.” You and I can expect to meet more and more people who believe in a God, but not the God of the Bible.

The world’s view of truth is getting blurrier. In that same Barna survey, 72% either “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed that “there is no such thing as absolute truth; two people could define truth in totally conflicting ways, but both could still be correct.” You and I can no longer presume that our neighbors believe in a single, absolute, God-given truth.

In fact, our society is losing respect for religion in general. Many folks think that any beliefs which might be called “religious” should be confined to church buildings or living rooms. Yale professor Stephen Carter described the modern opinion that “religion is like building model airplanes, just another hobby: something quiet, something private, something trivial — and not really a fit activity for intelligent, public-spirited adults” (The Culture of Disbelief, p. 22). You and I can no longer presume that everyone around us will be tolerant of our convictions. We may face a future of increased hostility toward our faith.

All this means that serving the true and living God is becoming as tough for Christians in America as it was for the Israelites among their pagan neighbors! No commandment is more often repeated in the Mosaic Law than these first two. And sadly, no law was more frequently broken. Beginning even at the foot of Sinai (Exodus 32), idolatry reared its ugly head again and again throughout Israel’s history. God’s prophets cried out against it continually (cf. Isaiah 44:15-17; Jeremiah 2:27-28). Only after the return from Babylon does the problem seem to have subsided. Israel’s failure gives us all the more reason to think about the challenges of these first two commandments.

I understand that many of our Lutheran and Catholic friends treat these two commandments as one (they separate the law against coveting into two). Such mistakes are evidence that we have trouble seeing any difference between the worship of false gods and the making of idols. While the two usually went hand in hand, there is an important distinction. Commentator James Smith sums it up smartly, observing that the first commandment deals with the “who” of worship, while the second addresses the “how.”

“You shall have no other gods before Me.” Both Old and New Testaments emphasize God’s oneness (Deuteronomy 4:4; Ephesians 4:6). If there is one God, then He alone is worthy of worship and service. “You shall worship the LORD your God, and serve Him only” (Matthew 4:10; cf. Deuteronomy 6:13).

Idolatry is not confined to ancient societies or third-world cultures. It’s alive and well any time someone or something takes first place in our hearts ahead of God. When we define happiness by how much stuff we have, we worship the god of wealth (cf. Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5). People can become our gods, too — and not just popular stars. We may exalt family (Matthew 10:37), preachers and teachers (1 Corinthians 3:4-5), and of course, self (Luke 9:23). Just about anything can become our god if we let it. But God is “a jealous God” who demands our undivided loyalty.

“You shall not make for yourself an idol…You shall not worship them or serve them.” We usually think of “idolatry” as the worship of pagan gods, which involved carved or graven images that represented those gods. But Israel’s idolatry wasn’t always aimed at other gods. At Sinai, Aaron fashioned the molten calf and declared, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD” (Exodus 32:5). There was at least a pretense of worshiping the true God. Micah the Ephraimite made images from silver that was dedicated to Jehovah (Judges 17:1-5). Even under the rule of good kings, the people often sacrificed to God at the “high places” that had been built for idol worship (cf. 2 Chronicles 33:17).

Here is where the distinction between the two commands is important. God forbade the worship of images even if they were associated with worshiping Him. The invisible God needs no earthly dwelling place or physical form (Deuteronomy 4:12,15; Acts 17:24-25). But it seems the people longed for a God they could see and touch. They wanted to worship Him in a way that was familiar and comfortable — and appealing to their neighbors. The second commandment stressed that “the worship of God must not be transferred from the realm of the spirit to that of the senses” (Smith). That thought echoes in Jesus’ statement: “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). It is Christ Himself who is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).

So these first two commandments really address the sin of making God in our own image. False gods are the product of man’s imagination. Idolatry tries to create a god we can manage — one who likes what we like, hates what we hate, gives us what we want, and stays out of the way the rest of the time. God warns us against trying to re-create Him in our own likeness. Yet our attempts to do so know no bounds.

We do it through man-made religion. We add to or take away from God’s revealed pattern of worship and service, wanting to do as we like and expecting Him to go along. Nadab and Abihu did so and paid with their lives (Leviticus 10:1-3). Jesus condemned his own generation for “teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Matthew 15:9). Merely calling a thing “worship” or “ministry” or “religion” doesn’t give it God’s approval. The numerous unscriptural changes men have made in the church’s worship (images, incense burning, instrumental music, etc.) and work (institutions and societies of every description, fund-raisers, political and social projects, etc.) are really just attempts to bring God down to our level.

We do it through man-made morality. Paul’s description of the savage hedonism of his world (Romans 1) sounds uncomfortably like our own. When God is just a thought and truth is just an opinion, every man becomes his own god (cf. Judges 21:25). Even many professed believers let “I feel” trump “God says.” (cf. Jeremiah 17:9). We want a God who is “reasonable” instead of holy and just. We want a God who lets us make our own rules.

In short, we want a God who is like us. But God is not like us (Isaiah 55:8-9). He expects us to worship Him, not our conception of Him. He wants us to serve Him, not second-guess Him. Let the first two commandments return us to these principles. Like the Thessalonians, let’s “turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

The Ten Commandments Today

If you want to succeed ― in anything ― never stop working on the fundamentals.

I have vivid memories of that concept from my youth. My basketball coach always stressed the fundamentals: dribbling, shooting, passing — and lots of running. In piano it was the same: lots and lots of scales and exercises. In any endeavor, no matter how much you learn or how far you develop, you always have to pay attention to the basics.

The first 17 verses of Exodus 20 contain a brief list of regulations which have come to embody the “basics” of Bible morality. They are part of God’s great covenant with Israel, but these few commands are special. God apparently spoke them in the hearing of all the people (see Exodus 20:19-22; Deuteronomy 4:10-13). And He Himself engraved them on tablets of stone (Exodus 32:15-16). The Hebrews called them “the Ten Words” (Exodus 34:28). We know them as the Ten Commandments.

Of course, the Ten Commandments as they appear in Exodus 20 are part of a covenant that is no longer binding. Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law of Moses and took it away (Ephesians 2:14-16; Hebrews 8:13; 9:15-17; Galatians 3:24-25). While some have argued for the continuance of the Ten Commandments based on a distinction between the “moral” and “ceremonial” parts of the Law, the Scriptures make no such distinction. The whole Law was nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).

The Ten Commandments are important to us because they are repeated as fundamental teachings of the New Testament. “You shall not murder” is not binding because of Exodus 20, but because of such passages as Romans 13:9 or Galatians 5:21. “You shall not steal” is not binding because we find it in Exodus 20, but because we find it in Ephesians 4:28 and 1 Corinthians 6:10. Only the sabbath commandment is not repeated in the New Covenant. And though the sabbath law is not binding today, its principle of worship and reverence toward God certainly is.

As we study the Ten Commandments, we should bear in mind a few important things:

First, they are Divine revelation. God gave these commandments to regulate the lives of His covenant people. In Christ, we are partakers of a better covenant with better promises (Hebrews 8:6); so it’s no surprise that this New Covenant contains these same basic teachings of morality. That both testaments follow the same ethical principles speaks of the unchanging nature of God who gave them (cf. Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8).

Second, they are commandments. News anchor Ted Koppel famously observed that what Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai was not the “Ten Suggestions.” God spoke, and Israel understood their obligation to obey. We are under law to Christ (1 Corinthians 9:21); so if these commandments have been repeated to us, then we must obey, too. “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). God’s instructions are “for our good always” (Deuteronomy 6:24). We ignore them to our own hurt. Cecil B. DeMille, who directed the movie The Ten Commandments, remarked, “It is impossible for us to break the Law. We can only break ourselves against the Law.”

Third, every prohibition also affirms a positive truth. Eight of the Ten Commandments are stated as negatives (“You shall not…”). Yet they say as much about what I should do as what I shouldn’t. “You shall have no other gods” teaches me to respect the Lordship of Jehovah. “You shall not murder” teaches me to respect the life of my fellow man. “You shall not steal” teaches me to respect his property. “You shall not commit adultery” teaches me to respect his marriage (and my own). “You shall not bear false witness” teaches me to live in honesty and integrity. These ageless principles show us not only evils to avoid, but values to cherish and uphold.

The Ten Commandments are not the sum total of God’s law — for Israel or for us. The Mosaic Law involved much more than these few statutes. And the gospel certainly calls us to more than mere adherence to a handful of precepts (cf. Mark 10:17-22). But perhaps no other passage of Scripture better sums up the principles in which Biblical morality is rooted. “In some ways, they have been God’s code of ethics for every dispensation — Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian. These principles govern man’s relationship to God, his neighbor, and himself” (Mark White).

It goes without saying that our society sorely needs to return to the principles of the Ten Commandments. Instead, we frequently hear of efforts to have these immortal words removed from classrooms and courtrooms across the land. Yet even if that happens, we can still ensure that they aren’t removed from our hearts. A better life, a better family, a better society, and a better church all begin with these God-given directives. Let’s learn them again.

(To be continued)

Lotto Fever

When I returned to Florida after finishing college in 1990, I had to get used to something new: Florida now had a lottery. This meant, among other things, that a trip to the convenience store was suddenly far less convenient. Now it involved waiting in line behind at least one person buying lottery tickets. I remember chuckling at one elderly lady whose ticket had won her a whopping five dollars. “Let ’er ride!” she shouted with glee, and used her winnings to buy five more tickets.

You’ve no doubt noticed that lotto ads now conclude with an admonition to “please play responsibly.” This has come about because of two unpleasant realities. First, a great many people playing the lottery are hovering near the poverty line. Few things are more pathetic than to watch someone who can barely afford shoes belly up to the counter and buy a stack of lotto tickets. Second, as with any other form of gambling, the lottery can be addictive — literally. According to Focus on the Family, one hotline for problem gamblers said that over 40% of its calls were from lottery players. The “play responsibly” line just shows that states don’t want to take credit for contributing to the problems of poverty and addiction.

Let’s be clear: the lottery is gambling. A formal statement at the Florida Lottery website acknowledges this. You wager a certain amount of money on the chance that you will win a much larger amount. The vast majority of players lose their money, most of which goes to the tiny number of winners. Statistically, you stand a better chance of being struck by lightning than winning the lottery (especially in Florida!). It’s a virtually guaranteed loss. Maybe that’s why one pundit has called the lottery “a tax on stupidity.”

But for disciples of Jesus, the issue is not stupidity, but sin. The entire premise of gambling — from horse races to card games to state lotteries — is covetousness. It is the consuming desire for wealth. The term “covet” usually denotes wanting what belongs to someone else — and isn’t that exactly what moves people to gamble? Unlike earning money through labor or investment, in gambling a person can only win if others lose.

God commanded Israel, “You shall not covet…anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17). Jesus warned, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). Paul calls the covetous man an idolater (Ephesians 5:5) and says that such people will not inherit God’s kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:10).

A covetous heart can make a person do many evil things. Gambling is only one. Its being endorsed by the state in the form of a lottery changes nothing. “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things…” (1 Timothy 6:9-11).