Yeshua Explored
19th June 2023
Name
How easy is it to blaspheme?
“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name”. (Exodus 20:7)
This has become …
We must learn to respect each other in words as well as actions, so we must be careful how we speak, otherwise we may be (perhaps unwittingly) committing an offence against society and be dealt with accordingly.
Mind your tongue! It’s harder than you think when we begin to realise that casual blasphemy is endemic in our society, without an eyebrow raised to some of the most vile insults to our Creator God. What the World does is its own business, it is not up to us to judge. But we are free to pay a close inspection to Christian behaviour, both in general and specific to our closest Christian friends … and, of course, ourselves.
So, thinking now about ourselves, are we condemning ourselves in our speech? It’s serious business if we remember the example of these two chaps condemned by Paul:
… of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:20)
Have we inadvertently committed grievous sins? Who am I to say? Who am I to judge? But we serve a God who forgives and it would be a good exercise if we all paused now and asked Him to forgive us for any past infractions on this issue. The thing is that we may also have to cover any future infractions because most of the words and phrases mentioned are so much a part of the English vocabulary, we probably are unaware when we are using them. But it’s good to get before God on this and just assure Him that we’ll do our best.
And it’s important that we do make an effort, if we are trying to become more like Jesus and less like the mould that the World would like to force us into. Here’s one for you young ‘uns to set a good example to the rest of us:
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12)
Our speech is one of our main interfaces with the World. Is our speech as clean as it could be?
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” (Matthew 15:17-19)
Whatever way you view it, perhaps, as Christians, our everyday language should reflect our beliefs. One word that ought to be used more is blessing, though it may seem a touch sanctimonious if over-used.
You’re a blessed man! How blessed you are!
Perhaps there are better words we can incorporate into our speech?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)
Do you have other alternative sanctified words that we can use? If so, please get in touch, it would be such a blessing.
It’s just that what may seem trivial and irrelevant to us may actually not be so, but even irreverent to Him whom we love and follow. Isn’t the point of loving someone (or Someone), the act of taking time to find out if you are pleasing or displeasing Them? Yes, there have been over three millennia since Moses came down that mountain with those stone tablets, and yes, we are living in New Covenant days, but if God instructed the Hebrews not to take His name in vain then, should that not also be so for Christians today?
Would you be disrespectful to a parent, a teacher, a friend’s mother, your doctor or bank manager? You would be if you used their name in a casual curse. Would you look at a desperate situation and exclaim Donald Trump or Piers Morgan?! If you did it would seem odd, even comical, but crying Jesus Christ would not result in an eyebrow to be raised, although, in early days, we could have been facing a death penalty for blasphemy! If we truly love Him, shouldn’t this make us cringe and pass comment, or isn’t this appropriate in the current climate? By not passing comment wouldn’t a very different message be conveyed? That we don’t take our faith seriously enough? If we are brave enough to pass some sort of comment, we are reinforcing our belief that we are not just following a religion, but that, at the heart of this religion, is a relationship with a very real Divine Person and it pains us to hear Him disrespected so! This would be so ‘left field’ that, for some people, it is likely to get you more noticed than one of the traditional evangelistic approaches. It says a lot about a faith system if it doesn’t just promote its central figure but that it gets very hurt when this Figure is insulted. Contrast this with Islam, which sends out warriors with bombs and machetes in response to any disrespect of their ‘prophet’!
So mind our tongue we must, even if it means taking a moment or two before we speak. Better to seem considered and safe than rash.
We will end this chapter with an interesting news report:
A town in northern Italy has introduced a fine for those who take the Lord’s name in vain. The city council of Saonara, a town near Padua has introduced a law making it illegal “to blaspheme against any faith or religion” and utter foul language in public. The town has a population of 10,000 residents and anyone found in breach of the new law could find themselves facing a fine up to €400 (£360). The town’s mayor, Walter Stefan, said the move was designed to get rid of uncivilised behaviour. Mayor Stefan told the Daily Telegraph: “With this law, you will not be able to cause offence to any religion, we have to respect the faithful.” The mayor who is a practising Catholic, said it was designed to protect all faiths, not only Christianity.
Perhaps too little too late? This is an extract from the book, Sinner’s Charter: Are the ten commandments for today?, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/the-sinners-charter-260-p.asp
