Living in the Name of God

LIVING IN THE NAME OF GOD

Colossians 3:17

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

The Name of God is Holy.

Leviticus 22:32 (Amplified Bible)

Neither shall you profane My holy name [applying it to an idol, or treating it with irreverence or contempt or as a byword]; but I will be hallowed among the Israelites. I am the Lord, Who consecrates and makes you holy,

This in itself makes it something that is not to be used vainly. Holiness means that something is set apart. It is pure, undefiled by outside contaminations. If one will not take the name of the Lord in vain they must not use it in any way that will detract from its holiness.

In a very practical way we can determine if we are using the name of the Lord wrongly in the way that we join it to other things. This will take the form of personal evaluation of at least three areas:

1. Purpose of use

2. Effect of use

3. Integrity of use.  

PURPOSE IN THE USE OF GOD'S NAME

Purpose of use is an internal thing. It has to do with what the person who is using the name intends to do with it. It is not always able to be discerned through externals. However many times it can be.

Exodus 20:7

"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

Any use of the name which is not obviously in the purposes God outlines in His word is not in the proper purpose.

For example when a person uses the name of God or Jesus as a swear word the purpose is meant to defile the name. It is a profane use and therefore a vain use. Vain here means in a blasphemous and slanderous manner.

Leviticus 24:11

The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name and cursed. So they brought him to Moses.

Invoking the name of God for Him to act in a way not in line with His character is also a wrong purpose. Asking God to damn someone to hell for instance is a vain use of His name. It is not God's desire to place anyone in eternal perdition. It is wrong therefore to invoke any curse in God's name.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

THE EFFECT OF THE NAME OF GOD

When we are speaking of using God's name in vain as far as effect we mean that though we use it in a proper manner it has no effect. A biblical example of this is found in the seven sons of Sceva who sought to cast out devils using the name of Jesus.

Acts 19:13-16

But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." ¹⁴Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵And the evil spirit answered and said to them, "I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" ¹⁶And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Their purpose was proper and their form of using the name was correct as well.

God desires for devils to be cast out in the name of Jesus. He wants the power of darkness to be overcome.

In this way the Jewish men were had the right desire for the possessed man and were acting in accordance with God's revealed will.

What was the problem? It is twofold.

First and foremost if we are using the name of the Lord for any proper purpose, we must have first established a relationship with him by faith.

Second of all if we expect for things to happen when we use the name of God we must have specific faith for that moment.

James 1:5-7 

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. ⁶ But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, ⁸being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James says that when we ask of God any specific request we must do so in faith with NOTHING doubting. The one who is doubts is double minded and will not receive anything from the Lord.

It is here that the seven men, regardless of their intentions for good, failed.

Without a proper relationship of faith with the Lord in the first place there is no way to have faith for specific things.

In this way their use of the name of the Lord was vain. They sought to use it like a magic formula.

They like many today think that it is a "principle" that will work no matter how far from the Lord they are. These men were not believers. They thought they could take what they wanted from the Christian faith while keeping their allegiance to Judaism. They were unconverted.

They used the name of Jesus but without personal faith. it is here that we have a little lesson in faith. Far too often people think that faith is believing that God can do something. If this were the case we certainly would have faith here. These men thought something would happen. They thought that the name was all that was needed but they had faith that it could do the work.

Faith is when we have committed our way to God.

It is not an intellectual consent to believe that He can do something.

It is faith in Him.

This requires a commitment of life. These Jewish believers had no faith in this way. Therefore when they took the name of Jesus they did so vainly. Vain here means to no effect.

Another vain use of the name of God is described by Jesus as being "Meaningless Repetition"

Matthew 6:6-8 

"But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. ⁷ "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. ⁸ "So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

This is perhaps as contemporary as we can get. With the advent of transcendental meditation the chanting of the names of various gods is now avant-garde.

This concept is not unfamiliar to many religions. It is the idea that by chanting the name of a deity it will respond by blessing you.

What a revelation it was when all of the people who had been told that T.M. was a non‑religious form of meditation when they found out that they were chanting the names of hindu gods.

Jesus said this kind of repetition in prayer was a sign of paganism. He told us that our prayers were not to be in the form of repetition. They are to be as we would talk to a kind father. We don't need to call him an hundred times to get his attention.

THE INTEGRITY OF GOD'S NAME

The Concept of the Name:

In the West the concept of the name has been all but lost. It is an ancient idea with very little of today's pragmatic emphasis. The name was considered to be of upmost importance. What you named a child reflected things about his birth situation (i.e. Benjamin who was named Benommi ‑ son of my sorrows by his mother: Moses ‑ from the water ‑ because he was taken from the river), his character (i.e. Jacob which means, one who takes away what is rightfully another’s, which he did most of his life, Joshua ‑ savior ‑ who was a savior and leader to his people), or even his destiny (i.e. Abraham ‑ father of a multitude ‑ which was to be his destiny).     

A name represented the integrity of a man. Though it is greatly weakened we carry some of that concept into our culture. A man or a woman has a good name or a bad name depending on his family and his own character.

Proverbs 22:1 

A GOOD name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.

For the Hebrew a "good" name (i.e. an honorable name) was worth more than money. If a son was evil and his father righteous it would mar his "good" name. The son would even be stripped of his inheritance and disowned if they marred the name of a good man by acting in an evil way.

This is our third consideration in dealing with the concept of taking the Lord's name in vain. We take the Lord's name in vain when our association with it brings dishonor to it.

We retain some sense of this use of the Name when we sign our names on a contract to make it binding. When we use a name this way we reflect the ancient thought that anything our name is put on bears our reputation.

The name represents us.

It is in this light that we understand the deeper meaning of not taking the Lord's name in vain.

His name is his integrity.

Things done in His name are a reflection on it. That which he puts his name on should bear that same integrity.

As God’s people He has placed upon us His name.

2 Chronicles 7:14 

if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

That we bear God’s name with honor and bring honor to it is our responsibility.

Colossians 3:17

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

It is in this light that Colossians tells us that whatever we do we are to do it in the "Name" of Jesus.

It is here that perhaps many Christian people take the name of the Lord in vain.

They may not curse or swear with it and yet they may live lifestyles that are inconsistent with Jesus’ lifestyle. This goes even beyond the externals. If we are to not bear it in vain then we are to judge every action, every thought and every motivation by placing His name on it and see whether it fits.

What a revelation this was for me as a young person. I had been seeking to find how we were to be guided in some ethical areas that for most were gray. I was searching for a principle of discernment by which I could determine my behavior.

I found it in this passage which said to me every act and thought of my life was to be worthy to place the name of Jesus on.

I suddenly found convictions about things that I had always taken for granted were not wrong ‑ They might in fact not be wrong in the sense that most take that term. They were gray or perhaps amoral to many, yet suddenly I found that they were not worthy of the name of Jesus. They may not have been sin but they were not God's highest.

I believe that we often fail in the Lord's work because of not taking seriously this commandment to do all in the name of Jesus. If we take it seriously, it is no longer, “what is the minimum requirement of righteousness,” but rather all of my life falls under the test of "can I place the name of Jesus on this and still feel that I am honoring Him?"

I found immediately that many things I did could not pass that test.

If I am to not take the name of the Lord in vain it is not just a static keeping of the words out of our mouth.

It must be that when God puts his name on us as our Father and us as his adopted children we honor it by our lives.

Hopefully this awesome thought will not bring us to condemnation but rather inspire us.

The desire to honor the good name of earthly fathers and mothers has inspired some men and women to want to keep their good name into the next generation. So should our hearts be filed with the desire to bring glory to our perfect Heavenly Father - to honor His name in our generation as well as the next.