The third commandment of the summary of Torah (the Ten Commandments):
You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
In the list of the Ten Commandments, this one, more than any other, seems a bit out of place – particularly in its most used context. However, when examined in the light of its full context in scripture and its originally understood context, I think there is a lesson for all of us to grasp.
Vows and Oaths and Empty Words
Probably the way this verse is most often interpreted is that we should not use God’s (or Jesus’) name as an expletive, or otherwise extraneous manner. This is very wise, and I am sure a part of what is covered by the command. However, if we stop there, we completely miss the heart of this command.
To ‘misuse’ God’s name, or to take in vain (i.e. to ‘make it nothing’) is to attach it to something that to which it does not belong. It is claiming that God has blessed or cursed something, someone or some activity based on your own purposes. Or, as Andy Stanley notes, “the original intent of this command was to prevent people from attaching God’s name to purposes that are not His.”
To take God’s name in vain – to make it nothing – basically is man’s way of pitting God against Himself.
Torah Organization
In the Torah, Jews recognize 613 commands, which are organized thusly:
1) The greatest command, according to Jesus, Hillel (the primary rabbinic school of thought followed by modern Orthodox Jews) and Hillel’s grandson, Gamaliel (Paul’s teacher) is the shema:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
2) The second greatest command is similar to the first, according to Jesus, Hillel and Gamaliel:
Love your neighbor as yourself
The other 611 commands all spring from these two
Out of these 611, the Ten Commandments summarize the remaining 601 commands. So, we can often find insight into the ‘heavier’ commandments by examining the ‘lighter’ commandments which fall under them. For instance, the Seventh Commandment, you shall not commit adultery, encompasses all of the commands listed in Leviticus 18.
So, for the case of the Third Commandment, we should examine some of the ‘lighter’ commands which have traditionally been tied back to it, with these being the primary three:
Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
if a person thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil—in any matter one might carelessly swear about—even though he is unaware of it, in any case when he learns of it he will be guilty.
Do not test the LORD your God
As we examine these, and as we understand the meaning of ‘in vain’, it should become more clear what is going on with this command, and that it is not simply saying God’s name as part of an expletive.
Example 1:
One of the primary modern examples of using God’s name in vain by pitting Him against Himself is found in the core doctrine of the Health and Wealth Gospel. They take the one exception to this command from Malachi:
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
And they pervert it (among other passages) by ascribing health and wealth as the ‘blessing’ promised by God. Basically, the teaching is that if you are being faithful to God, then He will give you good health and material blessings – or, to put it in a different way that better exposes the fallacy – If you are faithful to God, He HAS TO materially bless you with money, power and good health IN ORDER TO demonstrate His love.
Example 2:
Chances are, this one will hit close to home for many of us. How often do we, as Christians or as Churches enter into poor or risky financial commitments by saying “I have faith that God will give me a way to meet this commitment”. How often do churches buy/build lavish new buildings they cannot afford, “on faith that God will provide”? While I agree with the premise of ‘faith promise giving’, all too often, the way it is presented leads people to put God to the test, beyond what He allows for in Malachi.
This, again, pits God against Himself to keep a commitment that we make on His behalf…
Example 3:
For folks in the blogosphere or in leadership positions, it is probably much too easy to make claims of God’s ’stamp of approval’ through the way we communicate:
- You should not question me or my motives because Jesus called me to be his pastor-teacher
- Jesus gave me multiple websites from which to denounce …
- It seemed good to the Lord and me today to …
- Will he do it God’s way (a.k.a. the way I agree with) or (__________) way?
This is not to say that God does not speak to people today, but when we remove any doubt as to whether it is just our belief or the actual voice of God, we violate this basic command.
Example 4:
When going to war or into a fight (be it literal or figurative) claiming to be ‘on God’s side’ (or that ‘God is on our side’) in a particular human quarrel, is a basic violation of the Third Commandment. This doesn’t matter whether it is the Crusades, World War II, the Protestant Reformation or Iraq. While one side may have legitimate issues in which they are in more agreement with God’s direction in scripture, ascribing a “side” to God creates all sorts of moral dilemmas which would seem to pit God against himself.
Basically, let your disagreement/fight/war stand on its own merits (or lack thereof), but don’t bring God’s blessing or curses into it, as you don’t speak for Him.
In Conclusion
Perhaps it was some of the recent articles, or it was seeing Fred Phelps on TV saying “God Hates Fags” and picketing George Carlin’s funeral, or seeing the other abuses of God’s name in the recent press that prompted this article – I don’t know. But I do know that, if God was directing me to write it, He can have that credit, but since I’m writing it, I am sure there are bound to be mistakes…
38 Comments(+Add)
Great post, Chris.
St. Athanasius, in his work On the Incarnation would further add that it is because we all embody the image of God and have represented him so poorly (i.e. taken the Lord’s name in vain) to the world that God saw fit to put on flesh to save our sorry state and show the world rightly who God is.
That is to say, the command to not take the Lord’s name in vain can go beyond just avoiding certain practices or words but ought to make us consider how we live and deal in all our interactions – for it is God’s image we are reflecting, knowingly or not.
peace,
Chad
Chris,
Excellent post. I have thought about this myself for sometime now, although in regard to the practices of some other people in the world (i.e., those of certain religions who blow up themselves and others ‘in the name of God.’).
Your further application is well put too. Many people within the ‘church’ have taken it upon themselves to simply say, “blah, blah, blah, God, blah, blah, blah” and think that it is AOK because they have. In my conversations with atheists at my own blog, this is one of the things that perturbs them most about Christians.
As Christians, it should anger us too. We need to be careful how we use G-D’s Name–the Name at which every knee will bow and every tongue confess.
Great post!
jerry
Chris L.,
I never thought about the prosperity gospel as being a way in which the Lord’s name is taken in vein – makes sense… also makes sense in the “God Hates Fags” sense as well.
Would we be on thin ice then anytime we said “God told me…”?
Neil
Neil,
“God told me…” is nefarious at best because anyone can insert anything into the elispsis, what do you think?
People have used that line to murder their own children in the bathtub. Others have used it to hole up in a tower demanding money for colleges. Others use it to bilk widows of their savings. I think it is one thing to believe it in the heart, “God told me to be a missionary” for example; it is something else entirely to claim it de facto as validation of our actions. It may be true, granted; but, I would prefer for the most part if people left God out of it (and the devil for that matter too). We should just claim our own responsibility (but I believe in free will too) for our own actions.
I prefer to let the Scripture be God’s voice and not much more. What happens in private, in prayer, IMO, should stay in private. In other words, do we need to be privy to every person’s motivation for their actions? I think not. God has been blamed for too much, his Name blasphemed among the gentiles, and too many times used so loosely as validation or proof that it frightens me to imagine that someone could be so brazen. I shudder to think of the times I have used it so carelessly. Mercy, mercy!
Good reply and good thoughts. What do you think?
jerry
I think I’ve heard quite a few pastors take the Lord’s name in vain. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard a pastor say something along the lines of, “the Lord told me” or “God says”. I often wonder if they even begin to realize the seriousness of those statements.
This post was great until it poked purposely one particular individual. Once again, this site and those who publish their pieces here, show that it is just a shill for ADM opinions.
It reminds me of the justification piece for Tim Reed’s quoting of a crude poem and George Carlin’s life.
I am sure this will be called a rant, but, examine thyself! The very post in a sense proves that you also take God’s name in vain by promoting your POV vs. those of the ODM’s?!
Huh?
My opinions are my own – not necessarily God’s. It’s nice when they line up, and rather preferred, but it doesn’t always happen.
To follow your logic, every time you compare two points of view, you’d be taking God’s name in vain, and that’s just crazy-talk.
As for the quotes chosen, this article was first published on my personal blog, where a good number of readers (who tend to be people I know IRL) don’t have clue #1 who I was quoting (which I purposely left off) for a few of them. I would note that the final quote:
is a rather general one that frequently gets abused across the Christian blogosphere…
PB-
Whether you think it is about an individual or not, do you disagree with the truth of the statement? yes or no?
Chad,
No, I do not, except that it is almost verbatim of an ad-hominem attack on another thread. I think that it is true, but I do not think it is necessarily using God’s name in vain, just my opinion.
I think we also need to throw in a line about casual use, as well as substituting initials in posts…example
OMG
Jimminy Cricket
Oh my gosh
oh my goodness (who is your goodness??)
Jiminy Christmas
Casually, like Jesse Duplantis (as an example) placing glory to God at the end of every sentence.
Like I said, good article. I think in this context, it seemed like a closeted slam on one particular individual
Huh? Since when is God’s name Jimminy Cricket? I think you’ve missed the point…
“thyself”?
who says that?
(nathan chuckles)
“when we remove any doubt as to whether it is just our belief or the actual voice of God, we violate this basic command.”
Uh-oh, Rob’s in trouble:
“It was in that moment that I heard a voice. Not an audible, loud, human kind of voice, but inner words spoken somewhere in my soul that were very clear and very concise. What I heard was, ‘Teach this book, and I will take care of everything else.’ ” (Velvet Elvis, 040)
Better get to rebukin’ him for making “claims of God’s ’stamp of approval” through the way [he] communicate[d]“.
Ken,
From reading the section in question, it appears that he leaves room for doubt, and I don’t see him putting God’s stamp of approval on what he teaches (which is a key nuance you ignore).
Oh yeah, but of course I’m wrong.
This does sound like he’s in doubt: “inner words spoken somewhere in my soul that were very clear and very concise.
Also, I don’t find any quotes of him saying – “God told me to preach, so who are you to question me”?
Ken,
If you find somewhere that Rob uses his belief in his calling as proof for argument and not as personal testimony, I will agree with you 100% that he has violated the spirit of the Third Commandment.
For instance, when my youngest daughter was 10 months old, she had open heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect. It was probably one of the scariest times in my life, and my wife’s, as well. Before we even got to the hospital the morning of her 6+ hour surgery, while I was praying for her, a great sense of peace came over me and – if there was any time in my life that I believe I heard the voice of God, it was then – I heard a voice tell me that everything was going to be fine. That peace allowed me to be more of a comfort and help to my wife during that time, and 8 years after that surgery, all praise be the Lord’s, she is doing fine.
Simply believing that you’ve heard God’s voice is not violation of this commandment – using it as proof or credentials, as God’s stamp of approval on your opinions – is what is being addressed.
That’s not anywhere near the same thing as saying “God told me this, who are you to question me?” I think we all have the capacity to hear God’s voice if we listen. God speaking to us doesn’t make us perfect, by any means. One doesn’t have to look very far in Scripture to see that the people God annointed were still royally screwed-up.
What I see as major way of taking God’s name in vain is when we act on our own will, but say God is the motivation. Like when someone says, “God gave me this plan” or “God’s will for your life is…” I think statements similar to those can be made as long we preface it by saying “I believe that” or “In my opinion…” Otherwise, it’s like we’re using God as our fall guy – if the plan doesn’t work, we can always blame God.
That is a great distincition, ChrisL.
Ken, I don’t say much when you comment because I have found it to be a waste of time and amounting to nothing more than idle talk, but I have to ask something: are you ALWAYS looking for someone or something to burn at a stake or protest against? It is as if you are incapable of reading something like the OP and simply affirming the truth of it. Rather, you seem to always be looking for the devil behind the rock. I dont know you from Adam, and unfortunately all we know of each other in this medium is what we write – based on that, I feel for you. I have never known a pastor with as critical a spirit as you. I only pray that this is something that comes out when you blog and is not how you conduct yourself in ministry.
peace,
Chad
Phil – God told me that you are very shallow spiritually…
in my opinion.
I agree. It also has the added expectation that if you disagree with them, you are disagreeing with God.
The question becomes then, how do they mean it? I know some who use it as shorthand for, “It appears to me that the Lord is leading…” – which can be confusing. others use it more literally.
Neil
Chris L,
You wrote;
This is precisely what I was saying in my original reply when I wrote:
As I continued, I think it is best if such thoughts were kept to the self. Thanks for agreeing with me!
jerry
So if God speaks and says to Rob something like you just teach the book and I’ll take care of the rest. Is this infallible?
What does take care of the rest mean? God will keep him from doctrinal error? Does God speak non-authoritatively? Shouldn’t we look at Rob’s teaching of the book now to be as Scripture?
By the way boys the argument: “You’re worse than Rob doesn’t work.” By default I’m an idiot in your site so you might wish to iron with God speaking directly to Rob. How do we know God did? Maybe it was a seducing spirit, which is what I happen to think.
Let’s say it this way: What if I also heard I heard a voice. Not an audible, loud, human kind of voice, but inner words spoken somewhere in my soul that were very clear and very concise. What I heard was, “He doesn’t know Me.”
Ken,
I wonder if you read the responses of others.
If you bothered to read all of VE you would know that Bell is not at all saying that he is God’s mouthpiece. That was the only point of the OP, as far as I can tell, and that is what would be considered taking Gods name in vain. The problem is not with God speaking to humans or humans hearing God speak. The problem is with how that is then used and translated to others. Some use it to weild power and authority, others simply use it as a testimony to God’s power (as Rob did).
As far as answering your question about what does “I’ll take care of the rest” mean, I think it’s obvious. Mars Hill is one of the most biblical and missional church in America. One might even say that “God added to their number daily.”
You have made that claim before. So are you saying God told you Rob Bell isn’t saved? Or are you just being ambiguous?
Ken, the issue can be resolved quite easily if you can answer these simple yes/no questions without being pithy:
1. Does God still call people into the ministry? yes or no
2. Can that calling sometimes be characterized as God speaking to someone? yes or no
3. Is it wrong to then use that calling to lord over others and equate your words with God’s? yes or no
This is out of context, but if I heard someone say “God said ‘Teach the book and I’ll take care of the rest’” I’d assume what they meant was – preach the word and let the Spirit convict/apply.
Neil
Honestly, I’d assume you misheard and the word “he” was actually the word “you”. I’ll take Rob’s fruit to yours any day of the week.
…and twice on Sunday
10 times on Sunday
Yeah Rick. What’s your point?
Just watch out for the Kool-aid my dear loving brother.
heck, 10 times daily…at least
After all this time, I feel like you don’t know me at all Ken. I’m an Iced Tea guy. Love it. And I’m not sure you and I are brothers.
I know, how very unemergent of me.
Do you mean that one of us is not in Christ? Isn’t that the kind of thing you accuse ODMs of doing there Joe?
And I’m not sure you and I are brothers…in good standing.
Better.
Find me a quote Ken, I’ve posted quite a bit all over this thing we call the blogosphere. Surely, if I’ve accused you of that, it will be out there somewhere. I didn’t say we weren’t, I just said, I’m not sure.