Verbal Vandalism & The Third Commandment

Introduction:

“I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” – Matthew 12:36-37

How does that make you feel?

I mean a few of you are on the quieter side. So maybe your response to that verse is pretty neutral. But some of you are not on the quieter side. Some of you (including me), sometimes find themselves talking just to talk.

Turns out there are three categories of speech.
We know about good speech: Praise, instruction, encouragement and admonishment…
We know about bad speech: Mean things meant to inflict harm, lies, etc…
But we might not know about vain speech. And honestly, it would be good for us to think about it. Careless talk causes more problems than we realize.

I’m sure some of you have had date nights blown up with careless speech…

Good speech, Bad speech, Vain or Careless Speech – and the headwaters of that category is the third commandment. If you can understand and apply the third commandment, you’ll be well on your way to…

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

Learning how to control your speech in general begins here… As well it should. God deserves to be honored most of all.

When you use God’s name in vain… you’re really telling lies about God.

Verbal Vandalism

Why? Because we have a word-based religion rather than an image based.
As Dov mentioned last week, we’re a word based religion. We aren’t an image based religion, we’re a word based religion. And this means that our vandalizing is verbal.

How is God represented to us? Listen to this quote from an old baptist pastor with the last name Pepper - and yes he had his doctorate - so…

“His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” In like manner we, conceiving God as having certain properties, characters, methods, and so forth, call him Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, King, Judge, the Eternal, the Almighty, the All-seeing, the Heavenly Father, Immanuel, Holy Spirit, and the like. On the other hand, when we give the Supreme Being no specific title, the general phrase “Name of God” stands as a compendium of our conceptions of God, a human epitome of Deity.

When we use God’s name, we’re not just using a name.

God’s name not only signifies all his various titles—that were little to say: it also signifies his nature, his attributes, his character, his authority, his purposes, his methods, his providences, his words, his institutions, his truths, his kingdom; in short, all that God is, all that God says, all that God does, all that God bids. Thus comprehensive is the phrase “Name of God.”

Boardman, George Dana. The Ten Commandments: A Course of Lectures.

God’s name is more than just a name. God’s name is the representation of all that he says, does, and commands.

So taking God’s name in vain is verbal vandalism.

And your messing with the fundamental ingredients of Christianity.

1. So what does this look like? How does one take the name of the Lord in vain?

Your understanding of this text is going to depend on your understanding of the word vain. It has traditionally been quite broad. Here’s the Westminster Catechism:

The sins forbidden in the third commandment are, the not using of God’s name as is required; and the abuse of it in an ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane, superstitious, or wicked mentioning or otherwise using his titles, attributes, ordinances, or works, by blasphemy, perjury; all sinful cursings, oaths, vows, and lots; violating of our oaths and vows, if lawful; and fulfilling them, if of things unlawful; murmuring and quarreling at, curious prying into, and misapplying of God’s decrees and providences; misinterpreting, misapplying, or any way perverting the Word, or any part of it, to profane jests, curious or unprofitable questions, vain janglings, or the maintaining of false doctrines; abusing it, the creatures, or any thing contained under the name of God, to charms, or sinful lusts and practices; the maligning, scorning, reviling, or any wise opposing of God’s truth, grace, and ways; making profession of religion in hypocrisy, or for sinister ends; being ashamed of it, or a shame to it, by unconformable, unwise, unfruitful and offensive walking, or backsliding from it. (WLC 113)

Let’s take one particular motivation: When the name of God or the word of God is invoked to establish improper authority, credibility, power, etc…

Just to give you a sense of what that’d look like, I’ll take three areas that won’t be so convicting.

Perjury
You swear to tell the whole truth so help you God. The invocation of God’s name is meant to communicate, “I fear God – he will not hold me guiltless if I swear by his name and then lie.” This is intended to get others to trust that you’re telling the truth. And in many respects, you can’t have a high trust society if you don’t have a reverent society. If people don’t fear God…

Chesterton - “If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments.”

Remove the fear of God and you’ll wind up with a low trust society. Low trust societies need a billion more rules.

Diversity is our strength. Not in this respect. You can’t have a nation with multiple versions of God. That’s going to lead to the state taking the role of God.

If you want to understand the end game of religious pluralism, look to the Roman Empire. When the empire is comprised of many religions, caesar emerges as the unifying religion.

Imagine a world where people just told the truth in court and in congress.

Politics
Invoking God’s name to support their agendas

Preaching
Binding people’s conscience to things God would not have them be bound by
Knowingly or unknowingly preaching false doctrine
Misrepresenting God by emphasis (gentle and lowly, etc…)

One of the easiest ways to take the name of God in vain is to have the wrong ideas of God in mind. Suppose 100 people are taking the pledge of allegiance – one nation under God… – how many of them have the right conception of God when they say that?

Now let’s move on to some areas that do affect us:

Performative Pietism
Pietism has to do with holiness, but here I’m talking about a kind of performative pietism.

1. Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's Chosen People.
2. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian church.
4. Baptists do not recognize each other in the liquor store.

Some Christians turn up their “Jesus speech” to an 11 when in the company of certain Christians.

And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” – Mk 12:38-40

Another example would entail invoking the name of God at strategic moments to appear more spiritual than you really are.

Saying you’ve prayed for someone but haven’t – that’s

Prophecy & Promptings
High: The utilization of God’s name (Thus sayith the Lord)
Low: I prayed about it. The Lord is leading me. Etc…

“Many [Christians] now rely far more on inward promptings than on their Bible knowledge to decide what they are going to do in a situation.” – DA Carson

I . . . know by experience that impressions being made with great power, and upon the minds of true saints, yea, eminent saints; and presently after, yea, in the midst of, extraordinary exercises of grace and sweet communion with God, and attended with texts of Scripture strongly impressed on the mind, are no sure signs of their being revelations from heaven: for I have known such impressions [to] fail, and prove vain.

Profanity (high / low)
High – using the name of God as a swear word
If you are a gosh person – you’d better go out of your way to hit that SH
Low – being a Christian and doing sinful stuff.
Jesus loves you bumper sticker – driving like crap

Publicity
If people know you as a Christian and you misrepresent him.

Parenting
I’m not putting this here because I have ever seen any Parents in Providence do this. I’m actually putting this here because I wonder if there are any adults here who had an authority figure twist God’s name, God’s word, etc… to get something they wanted – which wasn’t at all what God wanted.

Conclusion:

This isn’t one of those things where we would join the Jews and say, “Keep God’s name outa your mouth.”

Like many things, the best way to avoid the negative behavior is engage in the opposite positive one.

Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved
Pray to the Father
Openly praise God