“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” – Exodus 20:7
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, life, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. – Luther’s Small Catechism
The other day I heard a story about a young woman who got an internship with NASA. In celebration, she tweeted about her new position, using some rather vulgar language. Someone tweeted back that she should watch her language. She tweeted back to them with more vulgar language, once again bragging that she was working for NASA. The other person then tweeted back that he knew, because was on a NASA oversight board…and that she was no longer working for NASA.
Why did this young woman get fired from her internship? Because NASA cares how people use their name and what their name is associated with.
God cares, too. He wants us to use His name for good things, like praying, praising, giving thanks, and even calling on Him when we are in trouble. He doesn’t want us to use His name for evil things, like lying, deceiving, cursing, and the satanic arts.
As followers of Jesus, we represent Him to many people who don’t know Him. If we are constantly lying and cheating others in His name, that is giving them the wrong idea of who Jesus is. If instead, we love and respect others in His name and praise Him for the blessings of life, we convey to others who Jesus truly is. That’s good.
The incredible thing is that God puts His name on us in the first place. We are all sinners. We are rebellious. We constantly do the things which should get us “fired” from being one of His people. Yet, He continues to forgive us and call us His own. He keeps His name on us and declares us righteous and holy. This speaks the second part of this command,
“for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”
This is true. However, when Christ forgives us, He removes the sin from us, cleansing us of all unrighteousness. He makes it as though we had never sinned. So, once God has put His name on us and declared us forgiven and righteous, we do not have that sin on us anymore. Jesus took every time that we misused God’s name upon Himself and paid the price so that we could be held guiltless…and so you are guiltless in Christ.
Heavenly Father,
I am sorry for all the times I misused Your name. Please forgive me and cleanse me. Help me to use Your name for what You intend.
Amen.
In Christ’s Service,
Pastor Kurt
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