Misuse

DEVOTION

EXODUS

MISUSE

Ex 20:7

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

NIV

It would seem right to think about a person who takes the witness stand, at least in years past, when asked to swear or affirm. The current oath of a witness has certain modifications depending on the court, or the persons taking the oath. Some religious groups refuse to swear by the name of God, the Quakers being one of them.  “Do you solemnly (swear/affirm) that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, (so help you God/under pains and penalties of perjury)? Do you solemnly (swear/affirm) that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, (so help you God/under pains and penalties of perjury)?” So the word affirm can be used, and under pains and penalties of perjury instead of so help you God. The point is that if a person swear by “so help you God” and lies they have taken the Lord’s name in vain. But that certainly has little to no bearing on our daily lives. So how would we misuse his name? It would also seem right that any response to something that included, “OH my God” would as misuse. Even the variation of, “Oh my gosh” is an attempt to say the first without using the name of God. We certainly make every effort to refrain from either phrase which implies the name of God casually or misuse. But is it possible that once we have told people we are Christians, that is followers of Christ, and we are representing God to the world, that when we do not tell the truth, we are misusing his name. Some people say they are Christians, but have no personal relationship with the Lord, or they are not actually born again, but simply attain a mainline denomination which neither preaches a person needs to be born again to enter the kingdom of God, or anything else completely truthful about the scriptures. But as far as our own lives, when we tell of our faith in God, when we profess our Christ following, then we need to tell them the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help us God. So what is this truth? The gospel of course. That said, then would we be misusing his name if we do not tell everyone the truth of the gospel? Calling ourselves by his name but not living by his name might be another form of misuse. If we call ourselves Christian but live as an unbeliever is certainly misuse. What type of behaviors would fit as living as an unbeliever? We cannot include sin as even as believers we still sin. So then are there other behaviors that would imply a misuse of his name, of identifying ourselves by his name? Would not trusting him for every aspect of our lives qualify as unbelief and thus misuse? This sends our mind into a spin as to how many different ways we could not be trusting him. It is not about creating a list of do’s and don’ts, but rather living as a believer in Christ, completely. This is not even about being a faithful church attender, but living a daily life trusting in him for our whole being, everything we are, everything we have and we do. That includes telling the truth, the gospel message to all. Perhaps we cannot actually verbalize it in every setting, but we can live the truth in such a way we are not misusing his name.