Taking the Lord’s name in vain

Most people associate taking the name of GOD in vain with using it joined with expletives or in other expressions that lack proper reverence. While those practices can be offensive to those who hold GOD in the highest esteem and worthy of all honor, this isn’t the context that the command of GOD warns about.

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. (Exodus 20:7 NKJV)

The verse above is referring to associating yourself with GOD when there is no actual covenant relationship. Similar to a woman taking the name of a man and purporting herself as His wife when there has been no marriage or union formed. The Lord says those who take His name in deception or in vanity will not be innocent before Him. This is a serious offense because it does harm to the reputation of GOD in the earth by misrepresenting GOD’s values and the glory of His holy nature. I must say it is aggravating to see the name of Christ being associated with so many factions that are contrary to what He represents. A false identification with GOD fosters corrupt narratives of Christianity which compounds the difficulty of trying to reach people who Satan is actively luring away to destruction.

I have experienced this personally when I was a teenager. My family lived next door to a man who identified as a Christian minister and wore a clerical collar all the time. This minister who was probably in his late forties had young homosexual men in and out of his apartment with regularity. As I stated, I was a teenager at the time, and they even tried to entice me into experimentation. Though I had not committed my life to GOD at the time, I knew that homosexuality was outside of GOD’s design and rejected their advances.

There are broader and higher profile instances of deceptive associations with GOD’s name that I can cite. For instance, the United States pledge of allegiance, and the inscription on currency which says, “In God we trust.” It is seen in the swearing in on the bible at presidential inaugurations, as if there is some sincere reverence for its content and authority. For those only concerned with a veneer of godliness with out true worship of Him and without a true desire to see His will done in the earth, that is enough. However, for those who truly love His name and worship Him in spirit and in truth, this deceptive association is evil and harmful. It is time for the true worshippers of GOD to come forth and lift up His standards in the earth.

The partisan propaganda of the two main political parties in America both champion ideologies that are in conflict with the ways and statutes of GOD, so that neither can claim to be Christian in nature. Both sides are doubleminded in their attempt to stand for what is right, and at the same time attempt to please their financial backers and constituents. Neither can be trusted because neither is loyal to what is right. I would have to say though that the most harmful party is the one which associates with the religious right and tries to deify republican policies as Christian based. On the democratic left, they are admittedly unattached to Christianity or any one belief system as a determiner of what is right.

Those who are in religions which associate themselves with Christ the Savior are more accountable to demonstrate the righteousness of GOD and His love. By taking His name they are professing an allegiance with GOD and authority to represent Him. They are the true blasphemers and hypocrites and adulterers when they condone the evils of warmongering, oppression, marginalization, extortion, and other practices that put financial profit before obeying the commands of GOD. Holy scripture is clear when it proclaims that the love of money is the root of all evil but the religious right refuse to hold corporations and oligarchs responsible for the decimation of public health by removing government oversight and regulations which protect the health and interest of people over the interest of greedy corporations and shareholders. They compromise the integrity of public health by handing over the pillars of healthcare, education, law enforcement, and democracy to private entities whose main concern is financial profit. They justify this by saying the government has failed to serve the needs of the people while they strip the government of funding for the very programs needed through diminishing the tax base by giving the wealthiest entities tax shelters. They decry big government because they want to be free of regulations which dip into profits because of the funding required to create safe and sustainable work environments in the interest of public health.

Don’t confuse this article as partisan bias. It is a call for those who have been snared in the apostasy through the deception of misinformation and seduction of riches to repent and surrender to the true Savior of the world, Christ the Lord. The Savior that laid His life down so that people of all nations could be saved, and not by American policy but by the truth of GOD as captured in the gospel of Christ.

⁹ But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. ¹¹ But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, ¹⁴ that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, ¹⁵ which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, ¹⁶ who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:9-16 NKJV)