December 6: THE THIRD OF TEN

A surface view of religion has people often boasting about how they have obeyed all of the commandments. The fact is that Jesus is the only one who has ever obeyed the letter and the spirit of these Laws. If it had been possible for any one of us to keep the Commandments, Jesus could have stayed in Heaven. But He came to show us what life could be like when lived in his strength. And so we come to the next commandment as written in Exodus 20:7, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”
A surface reading of this command has allowed many people to limit the application to the use of profanity only. Profanity is wrong. There are Bible verses that speak against it, but this is not one of them. No, this command is all about hypocrisy. Using God’s Name in defining who you are and then not living up to it is the sin being described here. Coming out of Egypt, the new name for the Jews would be “the people of God”. They claimed it for themselves, they boasted in it, they flaunted it before other nationalities but they did not live up to being “the people of God.” Paying “lip service” only to a spiritual commitment and not living up to the reality is a worse sin than profanity.
Those who profess to believe and yet do nothing to prove their words become stumbling-blocks to many other people. The old saying “what you are is speaking so loudly that I can’t hear a word you are saying” certainly applies here. It is OK to “talk the talk” if you are going to “walk the walk”. Every Pastor has had to try to explain the actions of one of his parishioners who has brought shame upon the Christian faith by not living a holy lifestyle.
This is one commandment that finds it’s full completion in a Christian who is being empowered by the Holy Spirit. When the Bible says that the followers of Jesus were called “Christians” first in the city of Antioch it was because the people of that city saw the teachings of Jesus being fleshed-out in the lives of their fellow citizens who had now become followers of Jesus. They acted like real imitations of Jesus. They walked like Jesus, talked like Jesus, loved like Jesus, and died like Jesus. They intentionally copied the Jesus life-style, people saw the real thing. They were “little Christs”.
This generation is waiting for Christians to take the teachings of Jesus seriously. People are watching to see if you are going to be the real-thing when it comes to faith.

“Father, help us to live up to our new name when we become Christians
and be arrows pointing people to You. Amen”