#3 You Shall Not Misuse The Lord's Name

Deuteronomy 5:11

"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God,
for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."

When I first sat down to consider what I might need to say about the third commandment, my initial thought that anything I might have to say about it would be insufferably obvious. Most conservative believers that I know read this commandment and think only one thing: That to "take the Lord's name in vain," simply means to use the term "G** D***".

Upon further review, that's not the simple case... its just another bad and typical example of "hermeneutical reductionism." Not and never a good thing...

While the thrust of this commandment gets at how many use the Lord's name to leverage power and influence through oath making, clearly the wider application for all of us is "incarnational." That is to say, that it's not only how we might use his name to convince other's in our determination to fulfill our purpose and intention- or whatever "verbal contract;" we have established. (And by the way, anytime spoken language is used, a verbal contract of some nature is established - even if only ONE person is involved.) It also has to do with how His name is associated with us in terms of what we say and do. To be a "Christian" and to wantonly sin openly, and often, is to abuse the Lord's name before the eyes of the world. If we say "yes" to Christ (and to be Christian) and "no" to the world. Then let our "yes" be truly "yes" and our "no" be truly no. Otherwise, we misconstrue to those who are watching the true nature of God.

J.I. Packer, in his recently published book: The Ten Commandments: provides for us three categories by which we can thing about the Third Commandment

• Irreverence: Cursing God When Bad Things Happen To Us, Such As Job and His Wife's Admonition to "Curse God and Die.
  
• Bad Language: Using God and His Name to "Damn" Other's i.e. channeling or invoking a deity to achieve a selfish end.
• Promise-Keeping: Using God to Assure Other's, That We Intend to Keep Our Oath's, Vows, and Promises.
  

"The godly man will make promises cautiously,
but keep them conscientiously once they are made,
knowing irresponsibility and unreliability here
are great and grievous sins."

Author Unknown

#2 "You Shall Not Make For Yourself An Idol"

Thirty years ago, literally speaking, this commandment would have been regarded as almost nonsensical. Our modernist ideological construct would not have permitted most of us to believe that people would actually create or purchase an actual "idol' with which to worship. That was something that primitive, animistic and uncivilized people did - who lived in far-off and mysterious lands. Now those people are here... and they are no longer "primitive and uncivilized." They are well educated. They are family doctors, corporate business people, civil and chemical engineers and they have penetrated the very heartland of our country.

I recall a number of years ago, as a Youth Minister, having an activity at one of the homes of an Indian family. One of our Youth Interns, while walking about the house, noticed an interesting statuette (a animal figure I believe) on a shelf; and she picked it up and began to show it to a number of our students who had gathered in the room before we started our activity. One of the parents happened to walk in to the room and asked her to please put it back, because as she said in broken English: "they are of our god's that we worship." This Indian woman's husband was a doctor in our small town, midwestern community.

It seems to me that at issue here are a number of important points to consider (I think): 1. Our culture is truly more "poly-thiestic" and "pluralistic" than ever before in our history - again largely because of the kind of immigration encouraged by things like the educational system, and even more so the globalistic economy. 2. The increasing presence and saturation of "foreign gods," and the emphasis and insistence of our cultures new and prevailing virtue called "tolerance," has often encouraged a kind of "syncretism." The playing field for all religious meta narratives has been unceremoniously leveled. Generally, they placed with equal weight, within the market place of ideas, and offered as an ideological buffet. The cultural mindset is that people are free to take or leave whatever doesn't really suit them personally and privately.


Implications for those of us who are Christian are enormous for the following reasons: 1. We have to overcome mis-perceptions of what "Christianity" really is - even, and particularly among those of us who are indigenous to this culture. 2. We can no longer assume Biblical knowledge and a respect for it. 3. Instead of the gospel being the transference of knowledge about who and what Jesus was, it must now, more than ever be the genuine "incarnational presence of Christ" among them - through us... 4. We gotta let go the "proof text" approach. 5. A new commitment to intellectual honesty. 5. The Churches historic missional connection with "westernization" permitted us initially to ride the coattails that came along with "progress," science and technology and the credibility that came along with them. Today, the West and historic westernization is under attack and because of Church's association with it... so is the Church. 6. More unity and collaboration among various denominations (still developing these latter thoughts...)

Commandment # 1 - "You Shall Have No Other gods Before Me"

Deuteronomy 5:7

Strikingly, the initial thing about this Commandment is how utterly unique this command would have been in a primitive culture that was incredibly polytheistic as well as syncretistic. It must have sounded REALLY strange to the Israelites within the Canaanite culture, that of all things, Yahweh would demand their singular fidelity. It would have appeared to them in fact as almost atheistic. And given the prevailing view of gods as being indigenous as well, down right dangerous.

There is no getting around it that the Christian God demands that we be exclusive over and against all other manifestations of any other gods in the world in which we live. For more on this, its worth reading: Four Views of Salvation in a Pluralistic World (Zondervan 1996) where the authors lay out this argument within a contemporary context. Additional studies involving the emerging phenomena of 'Post-Modernism" would also be very helpful as well! Jamie Smith's popular book: "Who's Afraid of Post-Modernism" is a good start.

The real issue for the Christian who buys into the exclusive demand of the 1st Commandment has to do with how this is perceived within our current contemporary culture. In particular, the ability to travel, internet search engines, the visual media and the phenomena of globalism has raised substantially, the intermingling of a myriad of global cultures. Some might find it fascinating, for example, that an increasing number of work environments are providing accommodation's to those who wish/need to worship at their office site.

The USA is post-Christian not only because of the culture's rejection of the Christian meta narrative; but also due to the emergence of, and embracing of, other meta narratives introduced from throughout the world. None of this is about to go away any time soon... if for nothing else, other than that globalism will not permit it to go away.

The ideological dynamic of our world is no different today than it was in the ancient history of Israel; and as it was in the Mediterranean Basin in the toxicity that it presents to other worldviews themselves. Therefore, I think its crucial to remember that those of us who claim an exclusivist position will often be perceived as: Insensitive, Against Diversity, Elitist, Arrogant, Uninformed, Uneducated, Non-Affirming, Naive, Simpleminded and Bigoted/Prejudiced. And some of us will be summarily dismissed, censored and even disciplined (within the work place etc.) because of the perception of "intolerance."

Our trajectory by which we engage our pluralistic, mult-cultural and poly-theistic culture must change. We can no long afford any traditional assumptions on this issue. Instead of confidently and exclusively, declaring from the front - to those who do not know God, we must carefully merge in from the side and walk alongside as we authentically live life with them. Let the power of the authenticity of our faith - the "in Christ" presence that the Apostle Paul talks so much about, to be a primary means by which we share the gospel.

The Decalogue

Contemporary Christianity and The Ten Commandments

This past month or so, I've been reading John Stott's excellent book: Through the Bible, Through The Year, Baker Pub. 2006 (ISBN-13: 9780801012679). In his section on the 10 Commandments, Stott awoke within me a fresh perspective and new appreciation for the 10 Commandments. He demonstrated me to see once again that the beauty, depth and richness of these apodictic (1) commandments can be truly accessible and helpful to contemporary people.

Inspired by what I have read I recently decided to do a sermon series on The 10 Commandments. I don't feel particularly qualified, for all kinds of reasons, tackling something that significant and crucial. To be honest, before I started the series (in the back of my mind) I always sort of felt they were a bit archaic...maybe a bit outdated in their Old Testament construct.

In addition, I suspect they represent those particular passages of scripture that are so well known, that their common everyday application is usually nothing more than symbolic at worst, and "proof texty" at best. And to be completely nakedly honest, my experience with those who most often quote the 10 Commandments, often left me with the uncomfortable impression, that they tend to be highly (almost irrationally) conservative, repressively fundamentalist and "other-worldly." So much of their discussion on this topic frequently laced with those virulent cultural assumptions that defy any reasonable hermeneutic. So, I really wasn't interested in giving that perspective any more energy and reintroducing it back into circulation within my congregation.

The major problem with how many use the 10 Commandments is how to seat them contextually within the scriptures. Because the context of them is "covenantal." That is to say that Yahweh, Moses and the People of Israel, were the primary participants - not the rest of world. Does this mean that the 10 Commandants have no relevance to the "non-covenantal" people? Absolutely not! But it does and should change the manner by how we approach them with them. Significantly! We should assume observance and obedience to those who are people of the covenant. But for those who are not right now... our tact must be different. They must see it, before they can be called to believe it... Most have never seen it...

(1) Principles that are true for all people, in all places at all times. Versus the "casuistic" (or) case-laws (if this, then that...) that made up much of the rest of the Pentateuch.
Not in the sense of their irrelevant.