REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

(Apologies for the delay in getting this out - I had a technical glitch.)

The next stop in our journey through holy living is the issue of truth and faithfulness. We’ll start with the Third Commandment:

“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” (Exodus 20:7)

Your name represents who you are. We might talk about dragging someone’s name through the mud – that means talking about them in a way that damages their reputation. God’s name in the Bible represents his identity and his character.

One of the issues this commandment was originally tackling was swearing oaths by God’s name – like when someone today might say, “I’ll pay you back, I swear to God.” The problem is: What if you make an oath by God’s name and then you break your word? You have tied God’s name to your word – and then … well, dragged it in the mud. Your unfaithfulness, your lie, has brought God dishonour.

How does this point forward to the holy life Jesus has freed us for and called us into? Jesus raises it to another level:

34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:34-37)

Jesus doesn’t just say, “Don’t break the promises you make in God’s name.” He tells us not to swear oaths at all. The reason is because all our words should be equally and totally truthful.

See, when someone adds “I swear” to a commitment, it usually shows that their word is actually unreliable. When we lived in Chile, we once booked a tradesman to fix something for us. Every day for a week, he simply didn’t show up; and every day when we rang him, he said, “¡Mañana, sin falta!”, which means, “Tomorrow, without fail!” Why did he add “without fail”? Because he had broken his word so many times that he had to try extra-hard to convince us that this time he was telling the truth!

God is truthful in all his words and faithful to all his promises (Numbers 23:19; Joshua 21:45). Jesus is “the truth” (John 14:6). The Spirit is transforming us to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). And our witness to the unbelievers around us will be hugely impacted by whether we love the truth and are faithful in all our words.

See, if you are a Christian, God’s reputation is always tied to your words, even if you don’t say, “I swear to God” (I hope you don’t say that!). We have been baptised into the name of the true God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20). We bear his name. Any time we are unfaithful to our words, that affects God’s reputation with the unbelievers around us.

But … the opposite is true as well. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had a reputation for being people of truth? Think about the other people at your work or school; your clients; the people you pay to do your garden or look after your children; the people you shop from; your cousins and neighbours and friends. Imagine if all of them knew that you are absolutely, 100% reliable and faithful in what you say. And here’s the real dream: imagine if they knew that you love the truth because you’re a follower of Jesus and you know his grace and love?

The most important prayer we can pray, according to Jesus, is:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9)

What will bring other people to honour God’s name? One thing will be us allowing the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love for God’s truth, and fill our mouths with faithful words.

If you’re aware today that you don’t take your own truthfulness seriously, don’t despair! The thing that motivates us in holy living is not guilt, but grace. So instead of being stuck in guilt or hopelessness, here are three steps to take with any area of holy living:

1. Be real with God. Name your sin honestly before him – in this case, lying.

2. Rest in the gospel of Jesus. God has saved you by his amazing grace, and the power to love and obey him comes from his Spirit, not your inner goodness.

3. Resolve to live in devotion to God, by his grace and power.

Practise those steps now, and decide how your words will be different from here on.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our senior minister.