Generations of children have grown up learning, at home or in Sunday School, that the third commandment forbids slang phrases that use the names of God or Jesus. Jesus surely didn’t endorse such careless uses of God’s name. He did make it plain, though, that he found it a far more serious sacrilege for a person to claim to follow Jesus while ignoring God’s plain directions for living a God-pleasing life.

• Have you ever been in a community, workplace, school or other setting in which people who vocally claimed to be “Christians” lied, cheated, willfully hurt others or acted immorally? How did that kind of jarring behavior affect the response of non-religious people to those who claim to be Christ-followers? Since we all struggle to live flawless lives, how can we avoid being like the people Jesus described in Luke 6:46?
• It may be a secondary issue, but popular dramas and comedians certainly model the use of phrases like “Oh, God” or “Jesus H. Christ” as throwaway, funny expressions. Think about the meaning of the commandment that says, “Do not use the Lord your God’s name as if it were of no significance.” Monitor your own speech patterns this week, and seek to use God’s name only in important, reverent ways.