In the bible, the name of God is not just a tag, but it represents him. As such, not only are we to not use it lightly, but we are to afford it due glory and praise.

Just as Jesus gave glory to his Father, so we are to glorify God in all we do. In order to praise God, we need to know him personally. We need to know God as he really is, not some figment of our imagination, but as he reveals himself in the bible and in creation. This is the God who is eternal and infinite, almighty and omnipresent, who sees all and knows all, who is holy and just, merciful and loving. It is because of these things, he is worthy of all glory and praise.

In the opening lines of the Lord’s prayer, we seek to hallow God’s name, to set him apart from everyday life, and yet have him involved in our everyday lives. Just as we should avoid doing anything which would bring the name of Christ into disrepute, so we should seek to do that which glorifies the name of Christ.

On our own, we cannot do these things, for our nature is sinful. We need to have our sin dealt with by the one who is to be glorified. By the sacrifice of Christ, we can have our sin taken away from us, and his righteousness become our own.

When most people think of the third commandment, they have a very narrow view concerning its application. It’s often only thought to concern bad language such as swearing and blasphemous vulgarity.

However, as Christians, it’s not just what we say which can be blasphemous. If we claim to be Christ’s and fail to do his command, we are effectively sullying his name through our conduct. Those around us will see our actions and speech and associate it with the name of our Lord and Saviour.

In addition, our attitude to God’s name encroaches on our reliance of oaths. How can we bring the God of the universe into our petty squabbles? Our reputation alone should be enough to back the trivial. Even when considering serious matters such as determining someone’s criminality, we should understand the gravity of swearing in the name of God.

Much like all of the other commandments, it is primarily a question of attitude. Our conduct ultimately results from our attitudes. If our hearts are polluted, then so will our speech and actions. There is no point in policing our actions if our hearts are unchanged.

Effectively then, when we break any of the other commandments, we break the third.

There are times when you think you understand a passage, and then a preacher reveals something you’d never noticed before. This was one of those mornings. Just as a building has a foundation, so do our lives. As Paul writes to the church in Corinth he points out something which every Christian has, Jesus Christ as our foundation.

If we are Christians, what we are building should reflect our foundation. We should be building with that which is precious, costly and permanent, rather than that which is easy to come buy, quick to build, cheap and fleeting. Do we ensure our lives are built with good solid biblical teaching rather than the clever arguments of men, do we work to build the kingdom of God rather than that of men? Are we members of a local church, committed to serving God in our locality, or are we unwilling to commit to one church and merely feeding instead of working?

Our motivation should not be to seek the praise of men, but the reward of God. This reward will not be in this life, being a Christian will not make us materially rich, nor necessarily healthy. The reward will be on the day when we will all stand before God. Will we be able to say that we used the foundation we were given to its fullest potential, or will we have underdeveloped it?

In an age which is very similar to ours today, Jesus makes a bold statement. Much like today, the Roman Empire of the 1st century was a very multi-cultural, pluralistic society, with a very accepting attitude to all manner of religions and philosophies. There were gods and philosophies of all kinds throughout the empire, it was very much a consumer market.

Jesus’ statement went straight against the popular thinking of the day.

I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. Jn 14:6

Here was an absolute statement in a sea of relativism. To those who said that all faiths were equally valid, this was anathema. How could anyone claim to have a monopoly on the truth?

When you look at other aspects of life though, we don’t have such a pluralistic view. When we’re ill, we’d be ill-advised to take the medical advice of anyone who voiced their opinion. We seek out doctors who know what they’re talking about and have the means to help us.

In our daily lives, we rest upon absolutes when we do our shopping. We don’t make up our own arithmetic when calculating our bill, but we still to the absolutes of mathematics. Our thinking isn’t guided by how we feel, but by what we know.

If our lives at a basic level rests on absolutes, why should our Spirituality be any different? In other parts of our lives, we assess the options. In a culture which states all religions are equally valid, Jesus’ claim is either invalid, or invalidates the statement. He cannot be the way, the truth and the life, if all religions are equally valid. All religions cannot all be equal is Jesus claim is true.
A look at his claim can only boil down to three options, famously stated by C. S. Lewis.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis

Looking at the life of Jesus in the New Testament, Jesus doesn’t come across as either a fool, nor a fiend. Those who listened were amazed at his teaching, those who came to him were healed of their afflictions. His seeming defeat at the hands of men were to lead to his ultimate show of who he is. His crucifixion and resurrection would demonstrate his mission and his power.

For he was God in the flesh. All other attempts to reach God would be a contravention of the first two commandments. If we were to try to worship God apart from Jesus, we would be worshipping a false god. Not only that, but we would be trying to fashion God in our image, trying to approach him on our terms instead of his terms.

As we remember those who have fallen in war, we are reminded of the great cost at which peace is purchased. A peace which is temporal and fragile.

Yet there is an even greater peace which can be obtained. For, in our sinful state, we are at war with God, our creator and sustainer. We have rebelled against his very being, refusing to give him the glory he is due. While we may have temporal peace (and even this isn’t always the case), our souls long for a deeper peace, a peace with God. Of ourselves, we cannot obtain this peace, and a just God cannot overlook our rebellion. However, God is also merciful, and in his grace has sent his Son to take on the wrath our sin deserved that we might be saved from this punishment, and that we might take on his righteousness through faith in him.

For when we consider the cost of our salvation, the mind boggles. This is the sacrifice of God for man, that we might be right with God, that we might know God, that we might be at peace with God.

The third and final part of the second commandment basically breaks down humanity into one of two camps. Those who hate God and those who love God.

In our natural state, we hate God. We want nothing to do with him, this is sin at its most basic. Those who hate God are sinners by nature. This is not to say we are completely evil. We will do good to others, we will seek the good of others, but we will not do this to glorify God. Our whole ethos is on self-preservation, and the denial of God. This culminated in the ultimate sin when God became a man, and allowed himself to be crucified by his creation. The actions of a holy, just, God towards those who rebel against him is his wrath.

This was the not the way it was meant to be though. For we are created in the image of God with the purpose of knowing God, loving God and doing his will. It is by this that we can truly enjoy life. It was through the sin of Adam, that all mankind fell, and are born into a state of sin.

Amazingly, it is through the crucifixion that we can be restored to what we were meant to be. Jesus Christ lived a righteous life, that by his blood, he would take on our sin and the punish it deserves, and his righteousness becomes ours, that we might be in a right relationship before God.

Why did God do this?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16

God doesn’t love us because we loved him. He loves us first, and when we are restored to our original intended state, we will love him and will want to do what he commands.

I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God Ex 20:5

When we think of jealousy, we usually think of small-minded individuals. Thoughts along the lines of “I like what you’ve got, and I want it” spring to mind. So how is it that God can be jealous? Is it possible that human jealousy and godly jealousy are similar, or very different?

Looking at the commandment, it seems quite clear that God does not want us to have a knock-off copy of himself. The whole reason for forbidding the construction of idols is that we’d get to know the real God, and not some small, finite fantasy idea of him.

As such, God’s jealousy is a strong desire that we know the truth. He is zealous for us to know him and not some figment of our imagination. For God alone is worthy of all glory, and so his jealousy is righteous. If we were to seek to worship anything else, we would be neglecting not only God, but ourselves, for our chief end is his glory, and in so doing having joy. Any synthetic idea of God will ultimately lead to our destruction.

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. Ex 20:4-6

Whilst the first commandment deals with having other gods besides the one true God, the second commandment deals with attempts to represent the one true God.

The problem with man-made attempts to represent God, they are unworthy. After all, how can the handiwork of a finite being, using finite materials, even give a glimpse of the infinite God? The calf which Aaron fashioned in the desert might have given a tiny glimpse of God’s power, but completely left out God’s other attributes, such as holiness and love.

As such, graven images of God are unhelpful at best, and completely misleading at worst! Such images, whether fashioned from wood, metal or any other material, are the product of and will produce a limited mental understanding of God. Since they are the product of a limited being, they project a limited view of God which leads to a limited understanding of God, which ultimately shows itself in the actions of a believer. How many misunderstandings of God are because he has been misrepresented?

Ultimately, such graven images are unnecessary. For God is not remote and distant, leaving us to guess his attributes, but he has revealed himself in his word, and ultimately in his Son. While Aaron was busy fashioning a golden calf, God was revealing himself to Moses on Mount Sinai. Similarly, God revealed himself in his Son, and God speaks to us now in his word.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Jn 15:5

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.” Ex 20:2,3

When it comes to knowing God, of our own power, we cannot. We have enough problems knowing what other finite men and women think, let alone knowing what the infinite Creator of the Universe thinks. A couple who have been married might, if they’re fortunate, know what the other is thinking on occasion. Not only are we separated because of our finiteness, but our rebellion against God, our sin, puts us at enmity with our Creator.

Knowing God, (for this is eternal life), is what Jesus promises us when place our trust in him. Jesus removes the barriers to knowing God by removing our sin from us, taking it upon himself, and placing his righteousness over us. Not only that, but his Spirit makes his dwelling in us, changing us from within and renewing us to the image of God. Even more, the Spirit of God knows the mind of God, for he has been in eternal fellowship with the Father, and he is God. The Spirit, with the word of God, reveals the mind of God to us, not in its entirety, but essentially. As our knowledge grows, so does our love. As our love grows, so does our obedience.

However, we must kid ourselves in thinking it is because anything of ourselves, but because God first loved us. Without God making the first move, we would never understand the ways of God, for the ways of the world cannot discern the ways of God. May we love and obey the one who has saved us.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jn 11:25,26

As Paul writes to the church in Corinth, he contrasts the futility of following the wisdom of this world, with the benefits of following the wisdom of God. It is so easy to believe the wisdom of this world, that the things on offer can bring us fulfilment. Whether it is material wealth, relationships, work, education, etc. While there is nothing wrong with these things themselves, they cannot bring us fulfilment. For we can only find fulfilment in God, to know him and to love him.

The world is apt to tell us that we can live without God, that we can stand in our own strength. Yet, once we have the Spirit living in us, our eyes and minds are opened to the truth that we need God. For we are weak and helpless, not only that, but in our sinful state, enslaved by sin.
It is interesting to note, that verse 6 says ‘coming to nothing’, rather than ‘will come to nothing’. This is not just a message talking about fulfilment after death, but about fulfilment now. The wisdom of this world fails to fulfil us in our day-to-day lives. Only knowing God, here and now, can bring us fulfilment.

As Christians, we must also remember this wisdom is from God. We do not have this wisdom because we are smarter than non-Christians, but purely by the grace of God. God’s Spirit, by his grace, opened our minds and our hearts to accept this message, this wisdom from God. It is also God’s Spirit who works in us, that we might do good, for we ourselves are weak and feeble. Let us never forget this is all of God’s grace.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me

Jn 10:11,14