These are challenging days for believers. In the small town where I grew up there was one dominant culture. Everyone spoke one language. Most everyone shared the same basic values, beliefs, world view, and moral code. Here were the rules we lived by.
• Sundays were reserved for worship.
• The Bible was an unquestioned authority.
• The Catholic priest and area pastors were known by everyone and were respected as community leaders.
• My fourth grade teacher would read C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia to our class and talk about Christianity.
• Local store owners attended area churches.
• During the summer your friends would invite you to their churches for Vacation Bible School.
• My parents would invite neighbors over for Bible studies and would knock on doors and tell people about Jesus.
In today's world, it is a challenge to live a Christian life.
In many ways, being a Christian was like paddling downstream. Most everyone and everything around you reinforced your faith. But today is a much different day. Here are today's challenges.
• The world, with all its religious diversity and moral complexity, is literally at our doorstep.
• Every moment of every day we are confronted with differing beliefs, values, and world views.
• The Bible is no longer an unquestioned authority.
• Christianity is losing its place as the dominant religion.
• If a teacher were to read C.S. Lewis to her class, she'd likely be fired from her job.
• If you tell people about Jesus, you are ostracized for being intolerant, a fundamentalist, or an extremist.
An engaged couple recently bought a home in my neighborhood. They are a nice young Christian couple. The soon-to-be husband moved in first and began fixing up the house while his fiancée maintained a separate residence.
The soon-to-be husband made it a point of telling people in our neighborhood, "We are not living together until after we get married." How do you think people in my neighborhood reacted? Do you think he got high fives for doing what is moral and right and decent? Not a chance. They are joked about. "Did you hear about that couple that moved in down the street?"
The religious climate today is one of confusion and non-commitment. The world tells us to not take your faith in God too seriously. Always keep your options open. Do not insist that there is one supreme God who rules over all creation or who is worthy of absolute devotion. Embrace the many different ideas about God.
Our God commands that he is the one true God.
It is against this pluralistic backdrop that the first two commandments were spoken by God to the nation of Israel in Exodus 20:2-6 (NIV). "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 idol 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 fathers 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."
God has demonstrated his power and majesty in history in creation, in the Garden of Eden, through the flood, in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and in Israel's deliverance from slavery in Egypt. In time, these Bible stories ought to bring us to place of conviction and devotion and worship concerning the identity of the one true God. As Christians living after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have infinitely more cause to worship the one true God of Israel. We have the whole history of the prophets and of Jesus Christ and the early Church to light our way.
The Ten Commandments provide a pathway for enjoying a relationship with the one true living God. First, an acknowledgement of his existence ("You shall have no other gods before me"). Second, an absolute commitment to worship and obey him as the one true God ("You shall not bow down before or worship any other").
A review of the first two commandments.
Let's get practical for a moment before we get into the third commandment. Regarding the first two commandments, first, do you acknowledge God's existence every moment of every day? One reason I love working in my yard or going fishing is that I find myself continually praising God for his beauty and majesty. The vibrant red of a cardinal sitting on a tree branch, the industriousness of an ant dragging a dead bug four times its size across the sidewalk, the blossoming tulips on our tulip tree in the front yard. How can one not think of God?
Second, the second commandment makes us ask a different question. Do you acknowledge God's will every moment of every day in everything you do? When things are going good, when you're having a bad day whether at work or at home, with friends or alone, do you consider what it means to worship and obey God? Do you carefully weigh God's commandments? Like that couple in my neighborhood, do you choose to live a holy life regardless of what people whisper about you behind your back? Do you feel God deserves your worship and obedience and loyalty? Is your conscience sensitive to the things of God? Do you feel compelled deep in your spirit to serve God?
The third commandment: don't misuse the name of the Lord.
These past few weeks I have been contemplating the third commandment which is found in Exodus 20:7 (NIV). "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name."
On the surface this commandment seems rather straightforward. One summer when I was in high school we were having football practice when one of the players yelled, "Jesus Christ." The football coach, who attended my church, launched on that player. "Are you praying? You better have been praying! We don't misuse the name of the Lord on the football field!"
This week in the State Journal Register they had a great photo of a teenager with a bar of soap in her mouth. How many of you have ever gotten the soap treatment for misusing the name of the Lord? Don't raise your hand or people will know!
This commandment is more than a prohibition against misusing God's name or even swearing by God's name. This commandment is about honoring God's holy name and not doing anything that might bring God's reputation into question.
1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV) says, "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
This past week Lara and I went to the NASCAR race in Michigan. Every week those drivers are out there trying to make a name for themselves. Who's on the pole? Who's leading the field? Who's on top in points? Who is the fastest? The most charming? The fan favorite? Who sells the most merchandise with his name on it? NASCAR is about ego, ego, ego!
Just as bad are the corporate sponsors who spend millions on branding and name recognition. The drivers literally have people who follow them around swapping the hats they wear during interviews or sticking some soda bottle in their hand when the cameras are on. Their cars and suits are plastered with hundreds of stickers and decals. Helicopters and planes fly overhead with enormous banners. It's all one big commercial. It's obscene.
Then there are the fans. Whose autograph did you get? Did you get this person's picture? Did you see that interview? NASCAR fans are obsessed with the name of their driver! Not Jon Morrissette! Jon Morrissette wore his Chicago Bears hat to the NASCAR race. I'm ambivalent. Lara and I have often wondered if you could do personality profiling based on a fan's loyalty. There are Jeff Gordon fans, Tony Stewart fans, and Kyle Busch fans. You don't dare insult the name of a driver unless you're ready to get in fight with a drunk NASCAR fan.
Where is the passion today for God's name?
One has to wonder though, where is the obsession today with God's name? Where is the passion for declaring and defending the name of the most holy God?
Truth be told, we're obsessed with making a name for ourselves. We're obsessed with glorifying ourselves. We want people to know our name, give us credit, give us recognition, give us praise, show us appreciation, and give us our fifteen minutes of fame. Much of what we do is an effort to advance our name. I have this degree and I won this trophy and that championship. I am on this team, have this title, got that promotion, and I am the top (whatever) in my company. I own this, bought that, and am part of organization X. I am friends with X, know Y, and have met Z. I wear this brand clothing and I can afford this accessory.
When it comes to making a name for ourselves, we're extravagant. There is no limit to what we will do or spend. But how concerned are we with glorifying God's name? At the end of the day it doesn't matter who Jon Morrissette is. Acts 4:12 (NIV) says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Earlier I asked two questions. First, do you acknowledge God's existence every moment of every day? And second, do you acknowledge God's will in everything you do? Allow me to introduce a third question. Do you make the most of every opportunity to make God famous?
Are you obsessed with the glory of God or are you obsessed with your own glory? Do you want people to know the saving name of the one true God or are you mostly out to make a name for yourself? Do you do everything for the glory of God? Or do you mostly do things for the praise of men?
A humble reminder is found for us in 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 (NIV). "Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not mere men?"
"What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."
We are to point people to the saving name of God. We're to bolster God's reputation. We're to do nothing to dishonor his holy name.