Breaking the Second Commandment

"You shall not make wrongful use of the Name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses His Name." - Exodus 20:7

The only violation of the second commandment on most peoples' radar is the obvious flippancy of phrases like "Oh my God!" or "For Christ's sake!" Such phrases, while sinful, aren't my concern here. Rather, there's a more subtle and insidious violation of the second commandment that ought to be of much greater concern among Christians. 

Specifically, there's a temptation and tendency to pin the Lord's Name onto a (false) image of who we'd like Him to be. It's a matter of dressing up our own agenda in a Jesus guise, using His Name to lend support to a self-chosen cause or plan.

An infamous example of this is Peter rebuking Jesus in Matthew 16:22. Peter had just identified Jesus as "the Messiah, the Son of the living God." (16:16) But when Jesus began to show what that meant, and specifically that He must suffer and die, Peter "took Him aside and began to rebuke Him." (16:22)

Peter's image of the Savior didn't jive with the real Savior right in front of him. In fact, Peter seems to have been so taken aback that he didn't even hear Jesus' promise that He would "on the third day be raised." (16:21)

This particular misuse of the Lord's Name seems to be rooted in the error (and sin) of first defining salvation and only then turning to a definition of who the Savior is. In theological terms, it's the error (and sin) of putting soteriology over and against Christology.

When this happens, Jesus gets fitted to our likings and ideologies. Instead of us being remade in His image (2 Cor. 3:18), we remake Him in our image. The result? Jesus the Environmentalist. Jesus the Fiscal Conservative. Jesus the Nice Guy. Jesus the Man's Man. Jesus the Capitalist. Jesus the Socialist. Jesus the One-Who-Secures-My-Place-In-This-World. And ultimately: Jesus the Not-Quite-Jesus.

My hope is twofold: (1) an end to this misuse of the Lord's name and, in close connection, (2) a destruction of the false images of Jesus. And while this hope of mine tends to get directed at other people, I should be hoping most of all that this peculiar temptation and tendency would be put to an end in my own life. That's right, self, no more Jesus the One-Who-Endorses-My-Plans.

Perhaps those who cling to Jesus as He is, rather than as they would have Him be, will hear the promise that Peter missed: "Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised."

In the End, salvation from sin, death, and the devil (rather than some vain, worldly salvation) is what the true, biblical Jesus has won. That's good news indeed, and it's the inheritance of all who cling to the Lord's Name in spirit and in truth.