The Inconvenient Gospel by Clarence Jordan

Author:Clarence Jordan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Plough Publishing House

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT SAYS, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exod. 20:7). Now, I know Mennonites certainly wouldn’t take the name of the Lord in vain, so perhaps I could skip this one and move on to something else. We don’t cuss, do we? But, my friends, that isn’t what this means. Not at all. It has nothing to do with cussing. What does it mean, to take the name of the Lord in vain? Well, these Hebrew people were wandering around out there in the wilderness. They could not be called Egyptians; they had left Egypt. They could not be called Canaanites; they had not arrived in Canaan. They had no name. Today we mostly call people by their geographical or ethnic origin. I’m a Georgian. And we might even go further and call them by the name of the city they are from. I would be called an Americus-ian, I guess, or something of that nature. But back in those days, people were called not by the nation or city from which they came; they were called by the name of the deity which they bore.

We even do the same today. People who follow the teachings of Confucius are called Confucianists. People who follow the teachings of Buddha are called Buddhists. They take the name of Buddha. People who follow Muhammad, they are called Muhammadans. People who follow Christ, they are called Christians. So to take the name means to take the name of the deity, to say, “Yes, I am in that fellowship. I belong to it.” Now, you cannot take the name of the deity in vain, or for nothing, unless first you take it. I can’t take the name of Buddha in vain. I can get out on the street corner in front of the drugstore and say “Buddha damn” all night and not take Buddha’s name in vain. I am not a Buddhist. I’ve never taken his name. So, since I have not taken his name, I can’t take it in vain. A person who has never come within the Christian fold can’t take the name of Christ in vain. He’s never taken it. A Buddhist can’t take the name of Christ in vain, no matter what one says. Only those who come within the church, who take on the name of Christ, can take his name in vain.

Now, you do not do it with your lips; you do it with your life. It is not the people on the outside of the church who take his name in vain saying naughty words. It’s the people on the inside who say, “Yes, we are Christians,” and then live as though Christ had never lived. What do we call that? We call it hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is taking the name of the Lord in vain, giving it out that you are walking under his name, but it means nothing to you.

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