There ought to be little wonder why God's name is not hallowed in our society, for much of popular preaching and evangelism is conforming to the mentality of the bumper sticker that sports, "God is my co-pilot." God's name is simply not hallowed in our churches. Our prophets and priests have falsely handled the Word, attributing more to human beings than to God. But in Scripture, God is the potter and we are the clay. "Salvation does not depend on man's decision or effort, but on God's mercy….Therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden" (Rom. 9:16-21). But in popular religion, God is there for me. I am the potter and he is the clay. After all, he can't do anything if I don't "let him have his way." Only if I decide to let him do this or that can he fulfill his will. After all, "Jesus is a gentleman who will not violate our free will."
The biblical God is clearly something other than this finite god of American religion. Taking God's name seriously depends on taking God himself seriously and that requires a God-centered theological perspective.
We cannot, therefore, blame the courts, public schools, media, or government for our own theological unfaithfulness. We are the ones’the prophets and priests, who have contributed to this "ichabod," this departure of God's glory in our time. Only by returning to sound, effective God-centered preaching and teaching, can we restore the confidence not only of Christians themselves in God's greatness, but of an unbelieving world that is more apathetic toward our benign, helpless, happy deity than hostile.
Many today use God for their own ends. This is not always intentional; in fact, many of those who do this think they are serving God's best interests. Nevertheless, it is easy for us to corrupt the truth and refuse any possibility of being challenged by claiming divine authority for our own speculations.
When I was about 10 years old, my father was the manager of campgrounds in the Sierra mountains, so we lived there. One week, the director of the camp came up for an inspection and my parents happened to have "grounded" me for a week by denying me the use of my snowmobile. Now I saw my opportunity: I took the snowmobile for a two-hour ride and when I found my angry parents waiting for me, I simply told them that Pat, the director, told me to go pick something up for him on my snowmobile. How could I refuse the director? I never thought my parents would actually ask Pat what happened, and when they did, I suffered the ultimate embarrassment: My parents didn't confront me; Pat did, and I felt like a fool. I had claimed his authority for my own disobedience. We do this with God whenever we claim God's authority and direction for our own decisions’even when those decisions are not necessarily right or wrong.
One of the ways in which we profane God's name, then, is to use God’his name, authority, or direction, as a blank check for our own decisions and activities. In the cases such as the Crusades, the Holocaust, slavery, the slaughter of Native Americans, and apartheid in South Africa, the exploitation of God's name brings enormous discredit and scandal to the name of God and the cause of Christ. The evils in which professing Christians have participated (and even created) in the name of God’and continue to participate in’set the progress of the gospel back decades.
Many today hear in a word like "fundamentalist" a ring of ideological fanaticism that uses religion to achieve temporal power over people. We can either cry out about the media's unfairness in putting us in the same corner with the Ayatollah, or we can bend over backwards to support justice and compassion instead of using religion to support our own political agenda. In the past 20 years, God has been used to justify American nationalism, militarism, and even such debatable issues as the retention of the Panama Canal. He has been used as a mascot for the conservative, white, middle-class establishment, the guarantor of such evangelical rights as that of owning sub-machine guns. This smacks of "using God" and exploiting religion when evangelicals do it every bit as much as when mainline liberals paint God "red."
When Amos confronted Israel in terms of its ignorance, unfaithfulness, and social injustice, he encountered more hostility from the religious leaders than from the civil servants. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, saw his chief end in life to be "yes-man" to the king. Amaziah sent a message to King Jeroboam: "Amos is raising a conspiracy against you in the very heart of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words" (Amos 7:10). Any criticism of Israel's confusion of God's purposes with Jeroboam's agenda was regarded by Amaziah as a conspiracy. "Then Amaziah said to Amos, 'Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don't prophesy any more at Bethel, because this is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom'" (vv. 12-13). In other words, it is God who serves Israel, not Israel that serves God. Religion serves the purpose of social glue, providing national identity through civil religion. It is not God's sanctuary and God's temple, but "the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom" of Jeroboam. When we confuse the kingdoms and aims of this world with God's, we are bringing shame and dishonor to God's name. This is why the petition, "Hallowed be your name" is followed by "Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Hypocrisy
"It is," wrote the Puritan Stephen Charnock, "a sad thing to be Christians at a supper, heathens in our shops, and devils in our closets" (Puritan Treasures, p. 152). We bring disgrace to the name of God when we profess much and possess little. Self-righteousness is the greatest sin of all, but it is rendered even more grotesque when it combines with hypocrisy. No self-righteous person has ever attained the righteousness of which he boasted, so when he falls his fall his great. Everyone notices, and not a few take pleasure in it.
Jesus warned about those who would be surprised at the last day to learn that their use of his name was vain: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matt. 7:21-23). Notice that these people are professing Christians ("Lord, Lord," they call him) they even insist that they prophesied, drove out demons, and performed miracles in his name. They were using his name in vain.
In our lives, therefore, we must always be aware of the fact that we are representatives of our heavenly Father. If we are engaged in scandal, we necessarily include God in the charges the world makes. When we mark up a product in our store beyond that which is reasonable, simply because the demand is there, and our customers see a "fish" symbol on our calling card, it reflects on God's own character. Whenever we perform poorly at work, we are giving an opportunity for cynicism. Our motivation for excellence in education, at work, in relationships, or in the home, must be the sanctity of God's reputation. We are out there in the world as chosen representatives of his government and whatever we do reflects on our head of state.
Saul was a humble man in his youth and when Israel demanded a king, he was chosen. "When they arrived at Gibeah, a procession of prophets met him; the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he joined in their prophesying" (1 Sam. 10:10). But over the years as king, Saul's heart changed. God told the prophet Samuel, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor…" (v. 12). When Saul met up with the king, he told him, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel…" (v. 17), but Saul had become arrogant. He thought he could placate God by sacrifices, but Samuel declared, "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. 10:22-23).
The name of God is not hallowed by those who have him often on their lips, but far from their hearts (Ez. 33:31). Of those who had been corrupted both in their doctrine and life, Paul warns Titus, "They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him" (Titus 1:16). But false doctrine can itself be a form of blaspheming the name of God and Paul could just as easily have said, "They claim to know God, but by their doctrine they deny him" (see Rom. 10:2)
Heresy & Error
Just as using God as a mascot for our own causes brings dishonor to his name, so too using the Bible to support heresy is a serious and soul-imperiling exercise.
Peter warned about the heretic's use of scripture. "They will secretly introduce destructive heresies," and "Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping" (2 Pet. 2:1-3). Heretics have little respect for the Word and do not allow it to speak for itself. Where it is clear, they make the meaning confusing until at last they can substitute the plain meaning for their distortion. Even Paul's letters "contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction" (2 Pet. 3:16).
But heresy is not the only way in which God's name is corrupted. When in sermons we learn more about the history of the preacher through personal anecdotes than the history of redemption through biblical revelation, the name of God is not given its due. When the minister uses the 20 or 30 minutes he is given to offer his own opinions, speculations, or insights, he is taking liberties with the name of God. When illustrations can be recalled better than the morning's text, God's name is not hallowed in the church halls.
Nor is God's name protected when we use it in a profane, crass, irreverent manner: "God is rad; he's my dad" springs to mind. When "Praise the Lord!" or similar catch-phrases roll off of our tongues, as a Christian equivalent of "That's great!", we are using God's name in vain; that is, unnecessarily. Casual use of God's name is prohibited precisely because it wears away our sensitivity to the enormous reverence we owe it. Once we are able to think lightly of God's name even in our discussions with other Christians’even when our intentions are "pious," it is not so difficult to lower our perception of the market price of God's name in more pernicious respects.
Blasphemy
The case is recorded in Leviticus 24 of a boy who "blasphemed the Name." God commanded Moses to take the youth outside the camp and have the entire assembly stone him. "Say to the Israelites: 'If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death" (v. 15).
In very few evangelical circles would a dirty joke be considered appropriate, and yet such expressions as, "Good Lord!", "Lord of Mercy!", as well as "God!" and "Oh my God!" do occur in our circles with disturbing frequency. This is a form of blasphemy that required execution in the Old Testament. So sensitive were the Jews about God's name that they never even pronounced it or spelled it. And yet, today I see t-shirts being sold at evangelical conventions bearing such slogans as, "This Blood's For You!", "Jesus: He's the Real Thing," or even such blasphemous products as "Pop's Almighty" Christian popcorn. Whenever we cheapen God's name by vain repetition, irreverent sloganeering, or by actual cursing, we degrade the name of God.
Why Is This So Important?
To worship even the true God in our own way is to open the door to speculation, superstition, and apostasy. After all, "The Lord is a spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." But why does God take his name so seriously?
It used to be that one's word was his bond. But in biblical times, one's name was much more than a signature at the bottom of a contract. Names were chosen in an effort to confer a blessing on a child and they were designed to reveal some aspect of the person's character as he or she grew older. In Hebrew faith, knowledge of God's name, or names, was a means of worshiping, serving, and deepening in the communal relationship with a personal God.
Elohim, one of the divine names, refers to God's omnipotence. Yahweh, translated "LORD" in capital letters, to distinguish it from Adonai, meaning "Lord," is God's personal name. From the verb "to be," it expresses the essence of God's character: That he is a self-existent, self-sufficient Sovereign who depends on no one and nothing, but is rather the one on whom all depends. "I am he: before me there was no Elohim formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am Yahweh; and beside me there is no savior" (Is. 43:10-11). The meaning of Yahweh is directly related to the idea God communicated to Moses when the prophet asked whom he shall say sent him to the children of Israel: "When I come to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'The Elohim of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they reply, 'What is his name?', what shall I say? And the Lord said to Moses, 'I am that I am'" (Ex. 3:14-15). El Shaddai is translated "God Almighty," or "the Sovereign Lord" (NIV). Yahweh-Yireh is first used in Genesis 22, when Abraham is called upon to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. It means "the Lord will provide," and referred to God's ultimate provision for Abraham and his spiritual heirs by the sacrifice of his Son. Yahweh-Rophe is "the Lord who heals"; Yahweh-Nissi is "the Lord my banner" (Ex. 17:15), referring to God's role in providing security for his people in the presence of their enemies; "the Lord of Holiness" is Yahweh-M'Kaddesh; Yahweh-Shalom, of course, is "the Lord of Peace"; Yahweh-Tsidkenu is translated "the Lord our Righteousness," referring to God's gift of justification through his own imputed righteousness.
Other names and titles could be listed, but it is enough for our purposes here to recognize the fact that each of the divine names was packed with information’not with magical power or spiritual energy, but with doctrinal content. Each name teaches us something crucial about the way God relates to us as his people.
Therefore, whenever we undermine belief in God's sovereignty, we call into question his character as El Shaddai. Whenever we question his provision by setting out to acquire happiness, wealth, or even salvation by our own strength and for our own good, we deny God as our Yahweh-Yireh. If we set out, as Paul's Jewish brothers did, to establish our own righteousness (Rom. 10:2-3), we deny God as Yahweh-Tsidkenu.
Thus, protection of God's name is essential primarily for theological reasons. Each name is an affirmation of faith and, taken together, they all form a confession of faith. To hold God's sovereignty, righteousness, peace, providence, and holiness in high esteem is to reverence God himself. Likewise, to discredit any of these names is to pour contempt on the very person of the one we worship. This is why I find it incongruous when brothers and sisters say, "I don't want to get caught up in all that theology. I just want to know the Lord." To know the Lord is to get caught up in theology, for, as these names suggest, it is impossible to know the true God apart from his self-disclosure.
Finally, we are not to misuse the name of God primarily because it is by this name that we are saved. Let me explain what I mean.
The entire Old Testament is cast in the form of an ancient Near Eastern treaty between an emperor (Great King or Suzerain) and a lesser king (a vassal). Whenever the lesser king saw his realm in military danger, he would call upon the name of the Suzerain, his protector. By invoking his name, he was officially invoking the clause in the treaty that promised protection in the case of danger. From that time, the invading army would know that its enemy was not the lesser king, whose territory they were plundering, but now the Great King with whom they would have to do battle. In the same way, Israel could rely on God to defend them whenever they were invaded’except in the cases where God himself sent Israel into captivity because of their disloyalty to the treaty.
Christ has fulfilled all of the terms of this treaty’not only his end, but ours! When we are invited to "call upon the name of the Lord," we are not merely asking God for something which he may or may not grant. It is a clause in a treaty which we sign by faith: "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:3). We are called, therefore, to bind God to us in a covenantal obligation. This is not, of course, an obligation of merit. God is not obligated to us because we have done anything which put him under obligation (cf. Rom. 11:30). Rather, he is obligated because he himself has promised to bind himself to all who call upon his name. No longer do we have to worry that our failure to meet the conditions will somehow shorten God's arm, or at least his willingness, to save. He has committed himself to rescuing all who have been invaded and held captive by oppression. We are merely to call upon his name. After all, Jesus Christ is himself the LORD God, second person of the Holy Trinity. The Father "has given him the name that is above every name" (Phil. 2:9). We are to "believe in the name of the Son of God" (1 John 5:13). To call upon Christ's name is to call upon the name of Yahweh-Tsidkenu, "The Lord our Righteousness."
Not only must we hallow God's name because we are saved through calling upon it; this is also a name that we bear as children of God and brothers and sisters of Christ. In the Old Testament, God's people are referred to as "my people, who are called by my name" (2 Chron. 7:14), in contrast to those who sought to "make a name for themselves" at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:4). For, unlike any name we could make for ourselves, "the name of the LORD is a strong tower" (Prov. 18:10), defending us from the invading forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
It is through the person and work of Christ that God gains for himself the greatest glory due his name. When the Israelites returned to Jerusalem from Persian captivity to find the City of Peace buried in weeds, there was a renewal of the covenant, with weeping and repentance. But it did not take long for the children to long for the ways of Persia. Worship, service, and duty to God and neighbor fell by the wayside as secularism invaded the congregation. Malachi recorded God's displeasure: "It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name" (Mal. 1:6). But God nevertheless promises that, "'My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,' says the LORD Almighty" (Mal. 1:11).
In Christ, this resolution is fulfilled. His name is great, not only in Israel, but "among the nations" where the name of Christ is known and honored. Around the world incense, representing the prayers of the saints (Ps. 141:2; Rev. 5:8), is rising to God's throne and God is making for himself living sacrifices out of those who were "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1; Rom. 12:1). As the Book of Hebrews makes clear, the advent of Christ fulfills the shadows of the Mosaic economy. What the temple service, theocracy, and Torah could not accomplish, Jesus Christ himself accomplished as our temple, God's kingdom presence, and the Word made flesh. "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs" (Heb. 1:3-4).
May his name be hallowed by us at work, at play, in school, and in the home. May politicians in our day speak for the weak and educators execute their calling with excellence, leaving politics and public relations to the world of big business. May business people carry out their honorable vocation with uncommon dignity, integrity, and respect for their clients, consumers, employees, and employers. Let Christians become widely known again as the best workers an employer could hire, and let homemakers and homebuilders set their compass toward creating dynasties of faith, their children taking their own places in society as salt and light. Just as moral scandal followed upon the heels of doctrinal ignorance in Hosea's day, so we today "are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge." Let us long for the day that God's name is no longer blasphemed among the Gentiles because of us, a day when "the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD" (Is. 11:9), a day when God's name will truly be hallowed.
This article was adapted from "Guarding God's Reputation" which appeared in The Law of Perfect Freedom, published by Moody Press.
