Commandment 3 - Watch Your Language

COMMANDMENT 3 - WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE

I see that the former disgraced Conservative minister, Jonathan Aitkin, has written a book whilst in prison called "Pride & Perjury".

That seems a very appropriate title since pride usually precedes a fall from grace.

And fall he did; when he took the Bible in his hand, a few years ago, and proceeded to tell lies about the payment of a Parisian hotel bill, rather than "tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth".

To do otherwise, is to commit perjury and thereby break the third commandment, namely "You shall not dishonour the name of the Lord your God".

After all, the whole structure of our legal system is based upon the premise that people under oath will tell the truth. That is why perjury is considered such a serious offence.

But what do we mean by "dishonouring God's name" or taking God's name in vain"? What is there in a name?

To the Hebrew mind, a name conveyed much more than just a title, such as Terry. It conveyed something about a person's character - it told you something about the person.

For instance, we may use the word 'name' to convey something about a person’s reputation. We say that this builder has a "good name". By that we mean he is a person who can be trusted to do a good quality job and finish it on time. He is a person who can be relied upon.

Again, we use the word 'name' to convey authority. For instance, if you look inside your passport, you will see that it contains the words: "Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires, in the Name of Her Majesty, all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford the bearer such sustenance and protection as may be necessary".

In other words, it is through the acknowledgement of the authority of Her Majesty, as conveyed through the Foreign Secretary, that you are permitted to enter another country outside the European Community.

The word 'name' represents much more than a title. It says something about that person's character and authority. Therefore, for the Jews, to know God's name was to give them intimate access to the mysterious God. No Jew would therefore ever use the name of God - 'Jahweh' for fear of showing disrespect, save for the High Priest, who once a year in the Holy of Holies in the Temple, was permitted to use it.

So the third commandment about "not dishonouring the name of the Lord your God", is much more than just about committing perjury or even using bad language such as 'gosh' or 'gee' which are euphemisms for God or Jesus.

We dishonour God when our actions do not match our words. For instance, the first time we put our arm around a girl and say "you are the most beautiful girl in the world" - those words are full of meaning. By the time we say them to the 101st girl, they have become empty of meaning. In the same way we can empty the name of God, if our actions do not reinforce our words.

We dishonour the name of God when we use his name lightly or carelessly. I well recall a bishop, anxious to have his own way, addressing his clergymen with the words "I am sure this is of God" after every paragraph. The one thing it convinced us was that it was of the bishop and not of God! And let's not forget, some awful things have been done in history in the name of God, such as the Crusades and the Inquisition.

We also dishonour God through our familiarity and flippancy. It is said that familiarity breeds contempt and our familiarity with God can lead to disrespect. It has been suggested that the new language of worship has replaced "Almighty God" with 'all matey God'. I recall the rather eccentric former Bishop of Exeter, Robert Mortimer, in his final charge to his clergy before retirement in 1973, referring to the new experimental service with the words "I fear we are in danger of replacing the language of the cocktail bar, with that of the public saloon". I leave you to judge.

Finally, we dishonour the name of God by avoiding it, in case it causes embarrassment. I think of expressions such as, "the First Cause", "the Life Force", "the Cosmic Soul, "the Ground of our Being", "the Great Architect" and "the Ultimate Concern".

If God is to be first in our lives, and if there are to be no rivals, we should, in the words of the Old Testament, "Not dishonour the name of the Lord your God" and in the words of the New Testament, "worship him with reverence and awe”.