Taking the Lord's Name: the force of the first three commandments

Like many of you, I’ve been praying for our Prime Minister, that by God’s grace his heart might be opened to the light of the knowledge of God’s glory as it’s displayed in the face of Christ. On Easter Sunday, the PM spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life and I pray that his words weren’t hollow, but that they expressed genuine, saving faith.

As disciples of the Lord Jesus, I expect that we frequently take his name to our lips, we carry his name in our thoughts, we raise up his name in our actions.

I wonder how often our words, our thoughts, our deeds are hollow, empty. How often do we misuse the name of the Lord (that is, we take it in vain)?

I’m thinking of the third commandment, of course, but the name of the Lord is central to each of the first three commandments. I’d like to take us back to the Decalogue to consider the force of those first three commandments and to contemplate our use of the Lord’s name.

So, let’s go to Exodus 20.

Exodus 20:1–7 NIV

And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

Taking God’s name in vain

You shall not misuse the name. The first thing to note is that God has a proper name, a personal name, which he revealed to Moses and to Israel. It’s a name which is repeated four times in the seven verses we have just read together and which occurs over 6,000 times in the Old Testament. It’s the name, Yahweh.

At it’s most basic level, the third commandment means that we don’t misuse God’s personal name. We don’t take God’s name to our lips in the form of a curse. Nor do we use the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, as an expletive.

But there’s so much more to the third commandment than this!

We know that God’s personal name, Yahweh, has meaning. It’s meaning approximates to something like, “I am who I am”. It’s a weighty name isn’t it? It immediately causes us to ponder the glory of God’s incommunicable attributes: his eternity (without beginning or end); his immutability (the same yesterday, today, and forever); and his independence (not served by human hands as if he needed anything).

So God’s name is not just a label, it has meaning. And the meaning of the name instructs us about the nature, the character of its bearer. God’s name expresses his reality.

Let me give you another example to emphasise this point. In Exodus 20:5, Yahweh describes himself as a jealous God. In Exodus 34:14, we learn that his name is Jealous. You see, he’s Jealous by name and jealous by nature. His name expresses his reality.

You shall not misuse the name. The force of the third commandment, then, extends to each and every aspect of God’s reality, as expressed by his personal name. We must not misuse the name of God or take what that name reveals to us of his reality in vain.

Now, we need to consider what is meant by in vain. It’s a word which means futile, worthless, empty, pointless. How do we use the name of God - that is the revelation that we have received of his real nature and work - in a way that is worthless and empty?

Matthew 15:8–9 NIV

“ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’”

The answer from the Lord Jesus’ own teaching is that we take God’s name in vain when we use it insincerely. When we take the Lord’s name to our lips and bear it in our actions but lack love for him in our hearts, then our words and deeds are in vain. They’re wasted words and worthless acts, because they lack integrity.

Three requirements for acceptable worship

Notice that the Lord Jesus (quoting from Isa 29:13) connects this vanity with worship. The worship of our lips is in vain if it isn’t motivated by love for God in our hearts. And that connection to worship takes us back to Exodus 20, because the first three commandments (actually, the fourth, too) are all connected with the worship of God. That’s no surprise when you consider that these commandments were given to God’s covenant people, whom he had rescued from slavery in Egypt for the very purposes that they might worship him.

We saw that God’s name is Jealous and he is a jealous God. He’s jealous for the holiness of his name, that it be hallowed; he’s jealous for the true and proper worship of his people.

Exodus 20:5 connects that jealousy to the second commandment; Exodus 34:14 connects it with the first commandment. And I suggest to you that God’s jealousy for the honour of his name is at the heart of the third commandment too.

How, then, do these commandments preserve the honour of God’s name? What do they require? How do we distinguish them?

The first commandment is the one which forbids idolatry - you shall have no other gods before (or besides) me. God’s jealousy for the holiness of his name means that he will not, indeed he cannot, share his throne. So, the first commandment is a demands for exclusivity in worship.

The second commandment appears to address idolatry also - you shall not make for your an image… But it is different from the first. In the first commandment, the problem is with other gods. In the second commandment, the problem being addressed is a false view of Yahweh, a distortion of his reality, which leads to a distorted form of worship. The holiness of Yahweh’s name means that it cannot be compared to anything in his creation. Although God graciously allows himself to be likened to earthly things for our instruction, the likeness is only ever partial. We have to remember that he is unique, beyond comparison and incapable of reduction to an image, whether in the form of a golden calf or anything else in the created order. If the first commandment required exclusivity in worship, the second commandment demands truth.

And the third commandment, as we’ve seen, is a call for sincerity of heart, wholehearted devotion.

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 NIV

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.

Anything less than that is a misuse of the great name of our God; it is to treat lightly that which is of the greatest weight and value.

Exclusivity, truth and sincerity. That is what God seeks in the worship of his covenant people. He wants to be worshipped: absolutely, accurately and authentically.

Indeed, “the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:23 ESV). Don’t we find the same requirements expressed here in the Lord’s teaching? Exclusivity (worship him), sincerity (in spirit) and truth?

If the Lord was jealous for the honour of his name under the Old Covenant, should we expect him to be any less jealous under the New Covenant? When we consider the far greater revelation of that name, given to us through the appearing of his Son, the answer is surely not!

Revelations of reality under the new covenant: responding to the I AM

So, let’s consider that greater revelation of the name and reality of God under the new covenant and think about our response to it. I want to take us to John’s gospel, which has such a focus on the name of the Lord. Seven times, John records that the Lord revealed something of his nature and work in the form of an I AM statement, statements that recall the self-disclosure of Yahweh at Sinai.

Let’s look at those seven statements and consider how we should respond to the holiness of the Lord’s name, which they disclose. In each case, I want us to consider the requirement for exclusivity, truth and sincerity.

I am the bread of life (Jn 6:35)

Time is short, so we can’t spend long on each of these wonderful declarations. Let me show you the way my mind has been exercised to consider a response to these statements, borne out of the requirements of the first three commandments.

Exlcusivity: in each case, the “I am the” introduces a claim to be the exclusive source of something. Which other god will you worship as the source of..... In this case, as the supplier of bread, the bread of life? In this first statement, the Lord claims to be the exclusive source of eternal life.

Truth: with whom or what shall we compare him? A number of these passages even contain the qualifying word “true”; so, in John 6:32, Jesus describes himself as the “true bread from heaven”. And each of the statements has OT connotations, which we have to understand to accurately perceive the uniqueness of the Lord’s name. The Lord cannot be compared with the manna or any other food that spoils, since people who eat such food die. He is real food, true bread. And anyone who feeds on the true bread will live forever.

Sincerity: the statements themselves (or the surrounding context) spell out the authentic response to what is being revealed. Here, the sincere response is to come to him - to come hungry and thirsty for him - and to believe in him, to receive him, and so to be fully satsfied in him. And once we’ve discovered that our greatest desires can be satisfied in him, we don’t hunger and thirst as we used to or for the things that used to attract us. The Lord recognised the insincerity of the crowd’s response. They came to him because they had eaten well at the feeding of the 5,000. They were motivated only by the thought of a good meal, by what they could receive from him. How sad, if we who have fed on the bread of life, who have tasted the goodness of the Lord, were to come to him that way. That would surely be a misuse his name.

I am the light of the world (Jn 8:12)

Exclusivity: the declaration “I am the light” is a claim to be the exclusive source of guiding truth.

Truth: John comments, with respect to this teaching: yet no one seized him (Jn 8:20). What the Lord had said was something for which a man might expect to be lynched.

He spoke these words in the temple courts on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, a festival which commemorated God’s provision for his people during their wilderness wanderings. Now, a major feature of that Feast was the lighting of giant lamps in the women’s court in the temple, which celebrated the way God led his people through the wilderness by the light of his presence - the pillar of cloud, which at night became a pillar of fire.

And Jesus stood in front of these great lamps, so full of meaning for the Jews, and declared, “I am the light of the world”. Do you see what he’s saying? He’s claiming to be the one whose glory guided and shielded Israel, with cloud and fire, all the days of their 40-year journey in the desert.

The Pharisees questioned the validity of his testimony but he explained to them that his testimony was valid, even if he testified alone (which, by the way, he didn’t). Why? Because he wasn’t just a prophet, a mere witness to the light. He couldn’t be compared to Moses. That’s like comparing the light of the moon with the light of the sun. He himself was the true light (Jn 1:9): the one to whom the shekinah belongs. He is the light, not just a reflection of it. And not only the light for Israel, but the light of the whole world!

Sincerity: How do we respond authentically? God’s jealousy for his name demands that those who have the light, follow the light wholeheartedly. You see, this is a moving light, a wilderness-guiding light. When the cloud moved, Israel followed. How are we walking? Do we still prefer the cover of darkness?

1 John 1:6–7 NIV

If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

If we say we love him, yet continue to walk in the darkness, we lie - that is, we misuse the name of the Lord.

I am the gate; I am the good shepherd (Jn 10:9, 11)

We’ll take the next two ‘I am’ statements together, since they’re closely related and form part of the same address that the Lord gave to the Pharisees.

Jesus is the gate because he’s the good shepherd. You see, the good shepherd came to call his own sheep out of the sheep pen and to lead them to good pasture. And, having led them out of the sheep pen, the shepherd takes them to his own enclosure - a place where they can, at night, come in and rest securely and, during the day, go out and enjoy the liberty of the pasture. That security and liberty is all possible because those sheep enter the enclosure through the gate, through the shepherd, who calls his sheep by name.

The Pharisees believed that the gate of the kingdom would be open to them on account of their adherence to the path of righteousness. But the Lord’s teaching was that the gate comes first, then the path. And the gate is narrow! It’s exclusive! And the Lord Jesus is the gate - it’s a claim to be the exclusive source of salvation, security and liberty.

Matthew 7:14 NIV

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

It’s wonderful to note that although the gate is small and the path has an appearance of narrowness to it, it’s the path that leads to the liberty of life. Indeed, the Lord explains that very claim to be the gate by adding “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10).

For the sheep who enter through the gate, security and liberty are guaranteed. Do you worship him for that? Do you run wholeheartedly to name of the Lord as to a strong tower? Or are you, like the Pharisees, inclined to secure a righteous standing before God by works of the law. When we do so, we deny ourselves the freedom for which Christ has set us free and we misuse the name of the Lord.

Our Lord is the gate because he’s the shepherd. He’s the exclusive source of salvation because he’s the only Saviour. He’s the exclusive source of redeeming love.

“The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep”. Once again, there’s a qualifier - he’s the good shepherd, the true shepherd. With whom can he be compared? Not with the leaders of Israel! The Pharisees, the chief priests, the teachers of the law are described as hired hands, under-shepherds who abandon the sheep to save themselves in the face of danger.

They cannot be compared to the shepherd-king, who owns the sheep. He knows them, he cares for them, he loves them even to the cost of his own life.

The only authentic response to the truth disclosed by this name is whole-hearted and unwavering devotion to his voice. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (Jn 10:27).

To call him good shepherd and yet despise his discipline, resist his rebuke, or be ignorant of his voice - that is to take the Lord’s name in vain.

I am the resurrection and the life (Jn 11:25)

He is the exclusive source of hope.

The truth of Christ’s resurrection underpins the Christian’s faith and hope in the promises of God. Without the resurrection our faith is futile. The victory of Christ’s death and resurrection brings the promises of God into the present. Wasn’t that the lessen to Martha? We still welcome the promises from afar; but, in Christ, we taste them in the here and now!

Living by believing is the wholehearted response to the reality that is expressed by this name. Appropriating the promises of God and enjoying a present taste of them, even as we wait their culmination in a coming day.

I am the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14:6)

He is the exclusive means of our access to the Father in worship.

He is the true priest. He is quite unlike the other high priests, not needing to make atonement day after day, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.

The response of the sincere heart is to hold unswervingly to that hope - confidently entering into the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain that is his body!

I am the vine (Jn 15:5)

He is the exclusive source of fruitfulness. The one in whom the Father is well-pleased.

He is the true vine, the true Son. The Jews believed that Israel was God’s Son. But where Israel failed, the true Son succeeded, loving his God and Father will all his heart, soul, mind and strength. His life bore much fruit to the glory of his father.

Abiding in him is sincere response. Only by remaining in the true Vine can we bear fruit that is pleasing to God.

Conclusion

At the end of his gospel, John concludes:

John 20:31 NIV

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

You see, the jealousy God has for his name is for our good. He requires to be worshipped exclusively, in truth and sincerely - for he knows that such worship results in life, abundant life. In view of his mercy, let us not misuse the great name of our holy God, but less us take his name into our words, thoughts and actions in way that honours him absolutely, accurately and authentically.