Ten Rules for Living (Be Sincere)
Exodus 20:7
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.[1]
You shall not take the Name of the Lord your God in vain. This commandment has stood in our minds as a warning against profane swearing. At the risk of astonishing some sharing the service, this is not the primary purpose of the commandment. If you seek a teaching which debars coarse language, and they do exist, do not look here.
What is Forbidden in the Commandment? Our contemporaries do use a great deal of profanity. No strata of society is immune to the scourge of swearing and coarse language, and even the most intelligent people frequently resort to cursing and swearing, presumably to emphasise a point, as a means to spice their language, or thoughtlessly because such language is generally accepted. When people so speak, however, they have no need of their intelligence, for they are then speaking the language of thugs and morons.
A lawyer I was consulted on one occasion called down a series of oaths in my presence. Then, remembering that I was a servant of Christ the Lord, she blithely said, without a hint of shame, “Pardon my French, Reverend.”
With that opening, I responded, “Madam, that is not French and your speech demonstrates that you have scant ability to express yourself in this instance.”
I was no doubt gentle with the woman, but I struggle against a tendency to employ coarse language. Since suffering a devastating brain injury some years ago, I have found myself prone to resort to coarse and vulgar language, especially when frustrated or angry. I confess that the situation distresses me greatly; I certainly take no pride in this condition. The condition is, however, pathologic and there is no cure save to be aware of the condition and to maintain constant vigilance. I am blessed with a number of people nearby who are eager to register their grave displeasure when I so speak; and though quick to condemn, I cannot say they have always shown compassion or understanding.
While there is no doubt in my mind that it is unseemly to engage in cursing or to employ coarse or profane language, there is a place for strong language, even shocking language. The Word of God employs rather plain language on occasion. There is, however, no place for misusing the Name of the Lord God in conversation—and that is what is in view in this rule. If we will focus on pleasing God, we will be careful neither to misuse His Name nor to prostitute our relationship to Him. It is this relationship to God which is in view and which forms this third great rule for living.
There exists today a common oath which is actually a prayer for God to condemn a person or thing. While one may appeal to God for justice and even seek redress from Him, it is not within the power of any mortal to command God to damn another person. Those outside of Christ are already condemned according to the Word of God, and it is the responsibility of the believer to endeavour to see such people saved.
What but this can be the meaning of the words recorded in John 3:18 and 36. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God… Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. The outsider is now condemned, and the condemning lies within God’s purview alone.
I recall an instance in which a young seaman second class, stationed at the Mare’s Island submarine base near San Francisco, was subjected to a constant stream of perverse cursing. A chief petty officer was damning a typewriter which was not operating quite to his expectations. The seaman, a young Christian, found the language offensive. Not knowing what to do, he prayed for wisdom and at last addressed the chief. “Chief, I sure hope that when God answers your prayer that we ain’t hit by the scatter.” It was a powerfully effective reminder that the chief was engaged in nothing less than an act of praying for God to damn the typewriter, and he had no pledge from God to do that.
An even more pointed example from my early life occurred on an occasion when I found it necessary to speak to a Jewish friend. His speech was replete with oaths and curses, and one day while in his laboratory I heard him repeatedly call on the Name of Jesus Christ and ask God to damn some piece of laboratory equipment. Finally I spoke.
“Dave,” I began, “I am ashamed of myself.”
“Why should you be ashamed?” he cautiously queried.
“You have prayed more in the past five minutes than I did in the first hour of the morning,” I replied.
I suppose he was somewhat denser in religious matters than I might have expected of such an otherwise brilliant man, because he asked me for an explanation.
I offered these words, “You are calling on the highest Name you know. Not once have I heard you say, ‘Oh, Abraham…’ ‘Oh, Isaac…’ ‘Oh, Moses.’ Instead, you are calling on the Name of God the Father and on the Name of God the Son. Each time you speak you are praying. I hope I am not here when Jesus at last answers your prayer.”
I don’t recall Dave using the Name of Christ again in my presence for at least the next six months. My pointed rebuke was shocking to him, but the shock brought a recognition that he was indeed praying to the Son of God.
While I do believe that a case may be made against such profanity with this text, the primary purpose of this command is not to prohibit profanity, but to prohibit lying. It was common in Moses’ day for men to call God to witness for the veracity of their words. However, they, like we today, were not deterred from lying by appeal to God’s witness. Therefore, this rule was born: You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. That is, man is not to use God’s Name falsely, insincerely, by calling Him to witness a lie.
The commandment presupposes a relationship between God and the one placed under obligation to God. As will become evident shortly, an outsider may misuse the Name of God by claiming a relationship which does not exist, but especially disturbing is that instance when the child of God appeals to this divine relationship in an illicit fashion. Clearly, the commandment forbids calling God to witness for what is said or for asking of God what is not in our power to ask. The commandment is necessary because we fallen creatures are given to lying. Our lying leads to swearing an oath, and our swearing leads to more lying. We fall into the habit of calling God to witness to the truth of what we say, and when we fail to be truthful we justify our lies by playing strange little games.
When men do not call God to witness, they do not feel obligated to tell the truth. Gradually, we arrive at a point that we feel bound to tell the truth only under oath; and then little by little we justify lying even under oath, unless we have sworn a certain type of oath. This is what was happening in Jesus’ day. By that time, not only was a man’s word not his bond, but also this was equally true of most of his oaths. Naturally, this led to profuse lying.
It was to correct this situation, which prevails even in this late day, that Jesus said, you have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.” But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black [Matthew 5:33-36].
Jesus was not forbidding the taking of a legal oath. He was enjoining us to tell the simple truth. There is, you see, a kinship between profane swearing and the taking of an oath. While the one is intended to make one’s word spicier, the other is intended to make one’s word more strong and trustworthy. However, those who must be put under oath before they will tell the truth will likely lie even after they have taken an oath.
“Cross my heart and hope to die” is more than mere childish prattling. It is an oath taken to insure that the one speaking is telling the truth. “I swear to God,” “As God is my witness,” “I swear on a stack of Bibles,” “May God strike me dead if I am lying,”—all alike are evil in the eyes of God and come closer to violating this third commandment than does mere profanity. The thrust of the commandment, then, is to remind us to speak the truth, to be sincere in our speech and in our actions.
How is the Commandment Broken Today? The commandment is yet necessary because the habit of lying did not vanish with the distant day in which Moses wrote. A lie is still looked upon by far too many among us as a very present help in trouble. An old proverb says, Sin has a great many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all.
While lying to others is a despicable act, perhaps the most foolish form of lying is when we lie to ourselves. We lie to ourselves when we excuse our moral failures. Often people cease participating in the life of the Body. “The church does not meet my needs,” is a common excuse from these people when I visit them to discover the reason for their discontent. Where in the Word is it written that the church is responsible to meet my needs? Do we not read that we are responsible to invest our lives, to invest our efforts and our gifts to build the Body? My dear people, the church is not responsible to meet my needs; I am responsible to meet the needs of the church. Focused on others, I will receive all I need—and more—in return. Without doubt, the pastor is responsible to feed the sheep, but do not the sheep have responsibility to graze when good pasturage is provided and to drink deeply when clear springs have been opened? If I will have a feast from the preaching, I am responsible to prepare myself for feeding upon the rich foods uncovered
At times we inflict positive wrong upon others and try to lay responsibility for our conduct upon circumstances or upon another. When David had committed adultery in the heat of passion and committed murder in cold blood, he excused himself. Hearing that Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba had been killed, David eased his conscience by saying, the sword devours now one and now another [2 Samuel 11:25]. Thus, he lied to himself.
We lie to ourselves when we face bullying evils or challenging opportunities and refuse to do anything about the evil or the opportunity, telling ourselves there is nothing we can do. We don’t retire from labouring with our hands or with our minds because the good jobs are filled through nepotism or patronage. If we will do what pleases God, we seek out new opportunities and invest our minds to the glory of God. We don’t cease to vote out the rascals who abuse public office. If we will fulfil our responsibility before the Lord, we encourage honest men and women to run for public office and we hold those scoundrels to account who see public office as a sort of private fiefdom. We dare not leave a church simply because it is cold. If we will honour Christ, we labour and pray for the Spirit to descend that the hearts of our fellow worshippers may be warmed once more. There is no form of evil which cannot be weakened in a measure; there is no form of good which we cannot strengthen; to tell ourselves otherwise is to enervate ourselves with lies.
Of course, when we think of lying, we think of lying to others. I have read that an individual tells on the average more than one hundred lies in a day. I should guess that most of us are able to do better than that on most days. The lies we tell are not always of a gross or obvious sort. We don’t want to complain, so we say we are feeling well when we are really low. We are openly polite, while inwardly we seethe against another. Frequently we speak and our eyes tell a story different from our lips. We deny problems when all the while we struggle to cope with situations beyond our abilities. Nevertheless, a lie is a lie, whether told with our lips or told in some other fashion; and lying is yet abhorrent before the Lord our God. Clearly, any lie displeases our God.
We do not always lie with our lips; often we lie with our lives. Personally, I am convinced there are more hypocrites outside the church than within the church. Hypocrisy, wherever it is found, is detestable and disgusting. A friend purchased carrots at a local farm on one occasion. When he tried to eat the carrots, he discovered that the farmer had washed them with bleach because they were mouldy. My friend did not cease eating carrots because there was a fraudulent farmer. I have never heard of anyone who ceased eating because of fraudulent farmers. There are fraudulent lawyers, but it hasn’t stopped people from appealing to lawyers for help in legal difficulties. There are fraudulent auto salesmen, but we keep on buying cars.
If no other conviction arises from the message than this, let us each determine that we will be vigilant against, making every effort to cease from, all hypocrisy. We will not present ourselves as either better or worse than we are. We will determine to live honestly before our fellow worshippers and before the world that the grace of Christ may be displayed through us. What else could Paul have meant than this when he wrote those thought-provoking words in 2 Corinthians 4:7: we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us? Let us determine to cease lying and to so live that the power of God may be displayed through these jars of clay.
Why is Lying Forbidden? Surely, a little white lie doesn’t hurt? Surely, a small lie can spice matters up on occasion? Intuitively we know, despite lying to ourselves, that a lie is wrong. We deceive ourselves when we convince ourselves that lying is ever right, even that lying is the lesser of two evils. Nevertheless, we do continue to convince ourselves that in some situations our lying is justified. Always and ever, however, this commandment stands opposed to every attempt to lie.
Among the foremost reasons that lying is wrong and hurtful is that it destroys trust. All human social interaction depends upon stability, and stability depends upon confidence. A marriage is held together by trust and not by infatuation. For one partner to lie in any area is to destroy trust in every area, if not because the lie invites retaliation, then because the one lied to begins to doubt the depth of love or commitment from the one lying. Promises made in order to be elected are so frequently broken that we laugh about campaign rhetoric; but credibility is destroyed and politicians are secretly despised and distrusted and branded as liars simply because they are associated with a group noted for lying. A church is weakened through lies told by the members, and however forgiving the remainder of the Body may be, the damage has been done once a lie is released. Despite popular sentiment to the contrary, governments are damaged by lies.
Most of all, lying is forbidden because it must eventually reflect on God. Those outside of Christ lie, and we assume it is because they are speaking their native language. With a broken heart, Jesus confronted the religious leaders of that ancient day, and incidentally He confronted everyone held in thraldom by the evil one, as He challenged, Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies [John 8:43-44].
Despicable as the lies of outsiders may be, we pity them because they cannot but lie. However, when Christians, those who know Christ and who are known by Him, lie, we cannot help but be dismayed. Such hypocrisy astonishes us and leaves us confused, not solely because one who should speak the truth has failed to do so, but because their actions reflect on our Father. We are grieved that such acts injure the testimony of grace and we know that the outside world, in its hatred of our Father and of our Lord, will seize upon every deviation from righteousness to ridicule the Faith and to exalt themselves against the truth.
Why else are denials of the truth by religious leaders so devastating to the Faith? When professors of religion and pastors of our churches deny that Christ is the Son of God, deny that Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice and that He raised from the dead, deny that salvation is by faith, deny that our God created all things, deny that our Saviour shall return bodily, we are confused not solely that the deed is done, but that these learned individuals maintain that they are fellow saints. Indeed, they have the appearance of godliness but [deny] its power. Without doubt, the remainder of the apostolic description may be applied to them as well [cf. 2 timothy 3:1-5]. If such individuals were courageous they would resign their positions and let the world for whom they speak feed them.
Certainly I can portray the obvious sin of such professors and preachers as dastardly and despicable, but are not the sins of denial among us every bit as destructive? When we remain silent in the face of the ridicule from a colleague, have we not lied? When we refuse to speak up, though a neighbour has slandered the truth, do we not lie? Whenever we twist the truth to suit our own desires and reinterpret the Word to make ourselves look better than we are, have we not lied? Presenting ourselves as better than, or as worse than, we actually are must be confessed as the lie it is. To excuse our failures instead of owning up to them and seeking mercy is assuredly a lie. To refuse correction when we have sinned is to embrace a lie and to deny the truth.
Every time we lie, either with our lips, through our silence, or by our actions, we weaken our testimony, destroy trust within our relationships, and reflect upon our Father. It is not enough to say that we all do this; we need to be confronted by the Word and confess the destructive force of our lies and seek deliverance.
How May We Keep the Commandment Today? It is evident that the keeping of this commandment goes deeper than a mere refusal to tell a lie. If that were all that was involved, a corpse or a mannequin could keep the commandment. The rule is, therefore, a call both to live the truth and to speak the truth. To achieve such a high end, we need a new conviction of the worth and of the might of the truth. We need to be convinced that while a lie may win a temporary advantage, it can never win an abiding victory. It is for this reason that we are certain that the evil one and everyone associated with his dark realm shall be destroyed; for the truth shall prevail. Ultimately, in our hearts, we are each convinced that the truth shall survive and reign supreme.
I confess that my resolve too often melts in the heat of conflict. I am every bit as frightened as you are in the face of determined opposition. Oh, not every opponent causes me to wilt; but there is always some opposition which is able to silence me, if not now, then eventually. I confess that I am not so strong as I wish to believe; my enemy is strong, and on occasion, I cower before his dreadful roar. However much I wish to live the truth, and I do want to live manfully and truthfully, with the Apostle I am compelled to confess, evil lies close at hand [Romans 7:21]. Our desire must be strengthened and our resolve must somehow be activated so that the truth prevails in our lives.
For the truth to prevail, we must be sincere. Sincerity is the fountain from which flow the springs of honesty, frankness and simplicity. This means that the sole guarantee for living and speaking the truth is to be set right at the centre of our being. We must share the nature of Jesus if we will also share His sincerity. The sincere man will, as a rule, tell the truth spontaneously and as a matter of habit.
I present the following steps to lead us onto the path of truthful living. First, each of us must insure that we have trusted Christ and that we are thus born from above. Without the new birth, we have no hope of living the truth and we are yet speaking the native language of the ruler of this world. This is such an intimate issue that none but each individual can speak with certainty to this issue. Though my life will reflect my spiritual parentage, only the one born from above can certify whether that birth is real.
Do you recognise the saving work of the Spirit of God in your life and His transforming power? You have heard that Jesus died and was buried and that He raised again, but are you convinced that He died because of you and that He raised from the dead for you? Have you confessed that it was your sin which caused Him to die and that you accept responsibility for His death knowing that He gave Himself for you as evidence of His own love for you? This is the message of Romans 10:9-13: if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Are you saved? Have you been born from above?
If you have been born again, saved through your faith in Christ as Lord and Saviour, have you obeyed Him by identifying with Him in baptism since you believed? Are you obedient to the identifying act He set forth through portrayal of burial with Him? Having been baptised on your confession of faith in Christ the Lord, have you openly united with a sound, Bible believing church? Do you hold membership in that church as an act of testimony and witness to the truth? You can never hope to begin to live a life of truth if you are untruthful in these first issues. If you have yet to be baptised, do it now and begin to live as one speaking the truth. If you have yet to place your life in the membership of the church, do it now and take your place on the side of the truth.
If you are a Christian and if you are obedient in these first issues, you must become convinced of the value of the truth. There is no way I can imagine that this will occur without being convinced of the veracity of Christ’s Word. This means that each of us must discipline ourselves to read His Word and to invest time with Him to discover the application of His Word. The call is to nothing less than devotion to Christ and to intimacy with Him through prayer and through reading His Word.
The reason I counsel association with Christ is that through association with Him we cease to merely act out of habit and soon begin to act out of conviction. Let me illustrate with the following observation. During the Viet Nam conflict, a number of American POWs were concentrated in Hanoi as the war dragged on. Among these nearly five hundred prisoners were eight who called themselves the Peace Committee. In the book Survivors: American POWs in Vietnam[2] Zalin Grant describes a disturbing trend.
The majority of the captives remembered they were Americans and that they were held in captivity by their enemies. Of the nearly five hundred prisoners, eight of the Americans actively co-operated with the enemy and were accordingly rewarded with extra food and limited freedoms. While it is disturbing for me to think that even eight men co-operated with the enemy, it is an observation concerning the remainder of the prisoners which attracted my interest.
Those prisoners who were housed closest in distance to the collaborators tended to approve of the actions and to support their actions even though they themselves refused to actively co-operate with the enemy. The further away from the collaborators a prisoner was housed the greater the disapproval of their actions and the less likely an individual was to succumb to the enticements of the enemy. The point I would have you seize is that once a man had sacrificed his character, whether for relief from the stifling conditions or for relief from the torture or to receive extra rations, his presence influenced others to also compromise. The mere presence of a collaborator served to generate sympathy.
Reading that account, I saw it as a parable of our Christian walk. Perhaps a Christian would not personally live a lie on an issue, but because an individual is likeable, we are willing to permit them to live a lie without censure of their evil. The closer our association to evil, the greater our tendency to compromise essential truth and the greater the likelihood that we will tacitly approve error. This is perhaps why God iterates and reiterates the stern warning in Deuteronomy: You shall purge the evil from your midst [Deuteronomy 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:19; 24:7]. God sought to keep His people from approving evil. God endeavoured to keep His people from being contaminated through acceptance of and approval of wickedness.
It is like saying that purity does not overcome impurity. A glass of pure water does not overcome the impurity of a little bit of strychnine; the strychnine contaminates the entire glass of water.
Haggai addressed this issue centuries ago when he wrote these powerful words. Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Ask the priests about the law: ‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.” Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean” [Haggai 2:11-13].
It is easier to defile than it is to consecrate. One may catch a cold, but not health. Just so, association with evil tends to lead to approval of evil. The reverse of this truth is the application in this instance; if we will be consecrated, we must remain in the presence of Him who consecrates. If we will live the truth, we must walk with Him who is truth.
There is in the Proverbs a fascinating admonition. Listen to Proverbs 13:20:
Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
Our associations determine what we will become in greater measure than we could ever imagine. If we choose to associate with those who despise God and who reject righteousness, we will ourselves soon approve of their attitudes and their actions, and at last we will likely discover that we have become like them. Having been set right on the inside we must be strengthened by walking with those who are right. Our associations must reflect the truth and our nourishment must be that which is truthful. We must read the truth and speak with the truth and encourage one another in the truth.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known to the world as Mark Twain, married a beautiful lady of Christian convictions named Libby. While courting Libby, Samuel Clemens attended church with her and gave every evidence of enjoying worship of God. However, Samuel Clemens was profane in his attitude toward God; and once married he refused to attend worship, refused to participate in reading the family Bible and refused to participate in family prayers. In short, he ridiculed the faith of his wife.
She at first resisted his ridicule and attempted to persuade him to join her in worship; but at last she surrendered to the inevitable and concluded that harmony in the home was more important than her association with the Living God. Gradually, she surrendered the vestiges of her faith and became like her husband, profane and unconcerned at the thought of responsibility toward God and toward the Faith.
One day, Libby grew ill, and in time, she was pronounced by the doctor as nearing death. Samuel Clemens, despite his distaste for God and despite his repudiation of all that was holy, was in that solemn hour convicted of his need for the faith of the wife of his youth. Approaching the bedside of his wife, he tried to encourage her, and himself. “Libby,” he said, “if it will help you at this time, why don’t you pray. Call on your faith, if it will help you now.”
“Sam,” she is reported to have responded to his urging, “I cannot call on God; I have no faith.” So Libby Clemens died alone and without the comfort of the God she had claimed in early life.
Dear people, live sincerely now, so that you may live sincerely when that eventful and inevitable day arrives in which you will be called to make the transition from the transient to the permanent and when you shall be called to go the way of all flesh. Live in purity and determine that you will associate with those who are pure that you need never fear the contamination of the world.
This is the final issue concerning living the truth and fulfilling this commandment. We must be born into the family of the truthful God. We must obey Him in all matters, beginning with that which He has commanded as first steps. We must identify with Him and walk with Him through reading His Word and through time in His presence. Finally, we need the encouragement of each believer.
We desperately need to encourage one another to live by the truth. For far too long we have taken a position that the associations we form in the church are merely voluntary and therefore if a sister or brother begins to stray we can remain silent—it is their problem. We are family! We cannot remain silent when our loved one jeopardises life and limb. We are obligated to speak, to plead and to intervene if necessary. Love compels us to make every effort to turn our loved ones to the truth.
This is nothing less than a plea for each to love one another earnestly from a pure heart [1 Peter 1:22]. It is nothing less than a plea to care enough to speak the truth in love [Ephesians 4:15]. Before us is nothing less than a plea to live as members one of another [Ephesians 4:25]. Confessing that we love one another, let us demonstrate our love through daring to speak to encourage one another to live by the truth. Let us confess our weaknesses, asking that our fellow believers will lend their strength to enable us to live by the truth.
There is nothing which would assist us more to encourage one another and to build one another in the Faith than fellowshipping together. We must invest time in united prayer. Confessing our sin to one another and seeking strength from one another, we can again begin to live by the truth. I am convinced that one of the greatest weaknesses of this terminal generation is our failure, even our refusal, to pray together, to unite in prayer meetings. We are left weak and dispirited and unable to accomplish the great deeds witnessed among our forebears. We are the weaker for our failure and the church awaits our obedience.
Now, I issue a call to live by the truth. To confess Christ as Lord—come today that others may be encouraged by your obedience and that you may begin to walk openly with Him. To identify with Him, obedient to His command to follow Him in baptism—come today and openly stand with Him. To honour Him and to encourage His people—come today to openly and boldly unite your life with the church where He is honoured and worshipped. I invite all who will to confess Christ, to identify with Him, to unite with His people, and to begin today to walk with Him. Whatever the decision that the Spirit of God may have placed on your heart today, come now, while we stand and while we sing. Amen.
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[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Ó 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Zalin Grant, Survivors: American POWs in Vietnam, Berkeley Books, New York, Ó1975