From Nathan Nettleton Pastor, South Yarra Community Baptist Church Melbourne, Australia

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THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God.

Introduction - to read and think about before the group meets

Of the ten commandments, the prohibition of blasphemy is surely the most often trivialised and misunderstood. Perhaps the old translation - thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain - was partly to blame for the popular misconception that blasphemy is nothing more than using the names "God" or "Jesus" as exclamations or swear words. Out of respect for Jesus, you might try retraining yourself to scream something other than his name when you jam your finger in a door, but that is not what this commandment is about. Tragically, the misconception has left us blind to the prevalence and seriousness of blasphemy, and led us to think that it is a trivial matter, of concern only to puritanical great-aunts. When a Moslem leader called for Salman Rushdie to be executed for blasphemy, the shock felt in our society was not because we thought Rushdie had been misinterpreted (although he may have been), but because we couldn't imagine that blasphemy could be seen as a matter of life and death.

The literal meaning of the Hebrew wording of this commandment prohibits invoking God's name in connection with something that is "empty", "void" or "false". What is being condemned then, is any attempt to implicate God in an agenda that is not worthy of God, and especially any attempt to use God's name to back up assertions that are false or harmful. Blasphemy is speech which makes God a part of our lies.

The reasons why it is God's name that is protected here have also been obscured by the popular misconception about swearing. It may help to think about the ways we talk about our own names in phrases like "making a name for yourself", "clearing your name", "giving yourself a bad name", or "dragging your name through the dirt". Our names are bound up with our reputations, and the ways our names are used or the things they are associated with can make or break our reputations. Sometimes particular names disappear from use because of the associations they now conjure up - how many children do you know called Adolf, Judas, Jezebel, or Azaria?

Names are often used to guarantee or authorise something. Phrases like "ordered in the name of the Governor", or "acting in the name of Australia", or "speaking in the name of God" are all about using a name to give authority or legitimacy to what is being said or done. Perhaps it is this idea of "using" God's name that is crucial to our understanding of blasphemy. We are not entitled to use God. God is not to be treated as an instrument to achieve our purposes or a means to achieve our ends. When we speak God's name, we are summoning the authority and presence of God, and if we do that to serve some purpose that is not God's purpose, we are guilty of blaspheming. If you falsely claimed to be acting "in the name of the Governor", you would be guilty of an offence at law, and if the actions you took in that name were especially abhorrent to the Governor, then you could expect even harsher penalties. To falsely claim or imply that you are acting or speaking "in the name of God" is to implicate God in actions or statements for which you yourself should bear full responsibility. And if those actions or statements are especially abhorrent to God, then your blasphemy is all the more serious.

Examples of this can be found throughout history and around the world today. The Crusades in the Middle Ages, when armies were sent "in the name of God" to massacre Muslim people and impose "Christianity" by force were a monstrous blasphemy which still tarnishes the name of Christ throughout the middle east. Hitler's armies marched with the words Gott mit Uns (God with Us) blasphemously emblazoned on their uniforms. George Bush jnr has regularly used religious rhetoric to blasphemously imply that God is authorising American foreign policy and military campaigns.

But one does not have to be a world power to make wrongful use of the name of the Lord. Christians regularly, and perhaps unthinkingly, offer their prayers "in the name of Jesus". We had better be pretty sure that our praying has been shaped by the prayer and spirit of Jesus before we go alleging that Jesus is implicated in the agendas being pursued in our prayers. Many Christians blithely explain away their decisions by claiming that God told them what to do, and so shift the blame for the consequences of their actions onto God. A person can legitimately claim to have sought God's guidance in reaching a decision, but still openly retain full personal responsibility for the validity of their discernment and consequent actions.

For Christians, the potential for blasphemous misuse of God's name is even wider, because we have a unique relationship with the name of Christ. In baptism we take on the name of Christ and become part of the body of Christ. God has, at enormous personal risk, entrusted us with the name of Christ, and now everything that is done by those who are known as Christians has an impact on the reputation of the God who is made known to us in Christ. This is especially true of the things we say or do together as a church, but it is also true for each individual who has been baptised in Christ's name and sealed with the sign of his cross. When our actions are selfish, judgmental, divisive, or devoid of love, compassion and integrity, God's reputation is sullied. And if we compound our offences by trying to cover them up and refusing to apologise and make good, then God's name is dragged through the mire. To know God's name and to be known by God's name is an extraordinary privilege, a privilege which must not be abused.

Further reading: Lev 19:12; Philippians 2:10-11; Ecclesiatstes 5: 1-7; James 5:12

Scripture readings for the group meeting: Exodus 20:1-17 or Deuteronomy 5:6-31 Matthew 22:34-40 Matthew 5: 33-37

Background In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spells out what it means to obey the spirit of the law and not just the letter. In this case he refers to laws concerning swearing oaths and making vows, and recasts the former. Swearing an oath involved using the name of God, or a suitable substitute, as a guarantee of the truth of what was being stated. It was similar to the idea of making statements "under oath" in our legal system. It creates a legal distinction between situations in which making a false statement would be a crime, and those in which it would just be morally questionable. Jesus abolishes this distinction for his followers, calling on us to be a thoroughly truthful people who stand behind all we say ourselves, and do not need to drag God into it to stand guarantor for our statements. Abstaining from swearing oaths does not in any way provide opportunity for falsehood, because as a people who bear God's name, every thing we say and do will bring credit or discredit to God's name. We are to be so truthful that oaths would be superfluous.

Discussion Starters

1. Have you ever been on the receiving end of statements or actions in which an appeal to the authority of God was used in a way which felt manipulative, false or disrespectful?

2. Have the actions of others ever given you a bad name? Does your experience shed light on God's attitude to blasphemy?

3. How does it feel to think of yourself as one whose every action reflects on the reputation of Christ? Given that we are far from perfect, what might that mean for the ways that we deal with our own failings and with the people we hurt?

4. Are there ways that you use the name of God which you feel you might need to reconsider in light of this study? Can you discuss any of them with the group?