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The Second Commandment

The second commandment reads in the Luther Bible: “You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will not leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain.”

The Original Christians see it as an abuse of the name of God when people who know the commandments of God and the teachings of Christ and say yes to them, but do not keep them, perhaps even pointing them out to others and yet acting quite differently themselves.

Taking His name in vain is not only done by cursing, swearing or the like, but also when we say the name of the eternal holy One without thinking about it, for example, when we say, “Oh, God!”; or when we use words of greeting like “Greetings in God” or “God bless you”, without paying attention to what we are saying, without being aware of what we are saying.

We use the word “God” in many conversations, but what are we thinking while doing this? Often, we don’t think anything about it; they are just empty words, meaningless phrases. Yet, everything is energy. And this means that we are responsible for every word that comes out of our mouth. This is what the prophetic Spirit, Christ, teaches and this is the meaning of what is written in the Bible. So we should fulfil the second commandment by watching what we think when we let the word “God” cross our lips.

We often say, “Thank God, this or that didn’t happen to me.” We can say “Thank God”, but are we really thankful? Mostly it’s just an expression that many use, but only in the rarest cases do they use this situation as a reason to think about themselves – about their way of thinking and living, about what they have sown, and the harvest that may be awaiting them and about God and His commandments.

If we pause briefly in the situation, and ask ourselves how it happened that we said “Thank God” in relief, then this certainly can tell us something. If we recognize ourselves in the stirrings of our feelings, we learn to thank God from our hearts. At the same time, we make every effort to no longer commit this fault, this sin, that we have recognized and cleared up with Christ. This is the active thanks to God, our Father, and to Christ, our Redeemer.

As Original Christians, we often greet each other with “peace” and we have become accustomed to thinking about what this means. When we say the word “peace”, when we send this to our neighbour as a greeting, then we should daily strive to keep peace with our neighbour. However, if we belittle him, if we envy him this or that, if we hate him and then wish him peace, we are mocking God. And this is taking the holy name in vain.

God’s name is severely abused more often than is generally thought, because many fool others and themselves about the real motives of everything they do and let happen. We take the divine name in vain, for instance, when we join a religious group with the intention of attaining something for ourselves personally, when we want, for example, to secure a high standard of living, prestige and a worry-free life though an office in a community. The same is true when we work on a church council in order to be respected by our fellow men in the community or to “be somebody”. When the name “Christian” is added to a political party – as is often done in Germany – just to make people think that here the Ten Commandments are lived or that these people follow Christ, then this is taking His name in vain, if the name of the Lord is used like an advertisement, even though the life and goals of the people don’t correspond to what is required by the commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. And so, people are blinded by this and led astray.

The one who wants to check whether the word “Christian” is used just as a cover-up or farce or whether Christian goals are really striven for should look at the fruits – as Jesus of Nazareth recommended in His Sermon on the Mount as a way to tell the difference: “You shall know them by their fruits.” As a criteria, the Ten Commandments, too, help us.

For instance, does a group, community or political party represent the commandment “You shall not kill”, or do they say that other people can be killed, for example, in war.

We should become aware that the people who support such a community or political party, by voting for them or giving contributions, are equally responsible and are part of the abuse of the name of God. Each one is responsible before God for what he represents or belongs to. The one who knows about an injustice and keeps quiet about it makes himself guilty as well.

In the second commandment, it says: “... for the Lord will not leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain.” Christ, the prophetic Spirit, teaches us that it is not God who punishes us for what we do, but that we punish ourselves through the law that says: “What you sow, you will reap.” It is not God who sows, but we; and what  we  sow is what  we  will reap. And so, we will come to feel the results of everything we do and let happen, because each one is responsible for himself. God will not raise the sinner into heaven, but will show him his offence, so that he can clear it up and no longer do it.

However, these connections cannot be seen in the words of the Bible which the Catholic and Protestant Churches had translated, for there it says, “Do not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain, for the Lord will punish each one who does this.”

So we see that it would be good to first fulfil the commandments, instead of judging, and making God out to be a punishing God. He allows us our sin, because He gave us free will. Since He allows it – because of free will – He will never punish us for this. We punish ourselves.

We have to understand the  meaning  of the words, including the meaning of the commandments. We can understand the true meaning of the Bible only when we fulfil the commandments step by step; otherwise, we take the words literally and insinuate that God punishes.

Jesus brought us the Father of love. This was necessary, because in the Old Testament the “punishing God” was mentioned again and again. The vocabulary of that time developed from the belief in many gods. And so the Old Testament, to which the Ten Commandments belong, is filled with expressions that stem from the belief in many gods that punish. And much from polytheism was taken into the belief in the one God.

We should consciously ask ourselves: Do we believe in the punishing God – that is, in the Old Testament – or in the God of love whom Jesus, the Christ, brought close to us? In the New Testament, we can also find: “What the person sows, he will reap.” If we believe in a punishing God, then we deny this spiritual principle of sowing and reaping, through which, in the end, we are indirectly guided – by way of self-recognition and clearing up our sins.

We are Christians and we should decide: Either we believe in the punishing God or in the God of love and mercy: in the God who reconciles and forgives, in the God who, out of love, sent us His Son, Jesus, the Christ.

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