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. Exodus 20:7

Many consider it a light thing to misuse God’s name in their language and speech. They curse, swear, lie and deceive by it. Some use God’s name or His Word, the Bible, to support their own false beliefs and teachings. Some use it superstitiously, as though their use of God’s name or things connected with it will bring them good luck and fortune. And all too seldom is God’s name used rightly to pray to Him, to praise and glorify Him, and to give Him thanks!

God says that He “will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” It is not a trivial offense with God to abuse His holy name, but a serious offense that will bring His wrath and judgment!

This commandment condemns us all for our misuse of God’s name and for our neglect to use it rightly in ways which bring to the LORD God honor and glory and praise. God’s Word applies to each of us when it says, “The LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”

Our only hope is in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, for He kept this commandment perfectly for us and used God’s name rightly. Jesus called upon His Father in prayer and praises. He taught God’s Word rightly. And His whole life brought honor and glory to God’s holy name – whether that be through His manner of living, His teaching, or His miracles.

And, in His death and resurrection too, Jesus brought honor and glory to God’s holy name. He willingly carried out His Father’s will and went to the cross and bore the guilt and shame and punishment for the sins of all mankind that God might show us mercy and give to us forgiveness in His Son, Christ Jesus. Jesus rose again and ascended to the right hand of His Father, and He continues His work of bringing life and salvation to lost sinners.

Jesus rightly prayed, “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:1-4).

Jesus Christ, on the tree of the cross, brought glory to His Father’s name and bore the full punishment for all our sins. He desires that we, too, bring God glory by repenting of our misuse of God’s name and of our failures to live and speak in ways that bring God’s name glory. He desires that we turn to Him for mercy. And, in His Word, He promises that forgiveness for all our sins and life everlasting, as well as the help to use God’s name rightly, are ours through faith in Jesus’ name.

And placing our faith in Jesus – trusting in Him alone for forgiveness and life – brings glory to God’s name!

O LORD God, forgive us for taking Your holy name in vain and for neglecting to use it rightly. Graciously help us to hallow Your name among us. We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ and His innocent sufferings and death on the cross to redeem us. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.]

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:4-6

We are not to make ourselves an image or likeness of anything and worship or honor it as if it were a god or could in some way help us.

While this clearly prohibits the making of idols of wood, silver and gold, it also forbids making a god after our own image. We are not to make our god to be like us by putting our values and our thoughts into our image and understanding of God (cf. Ex. 32; Isa. 55:8-9). Rather, we are to accept and honor the LORD God of the Bible, believing what He Himself tells us of Himself in His Word.

As our Maker and Redeemer, the LORD God has every right to be a jealous God. And, since He has made us, He also has every right to punish us when we turn away from Him and disobey His commandments. He created us to live for Him and to do His holy will. How it angers and disappoints the LORD when we are rebellious and sinful creatures!

Our God does not take sin lightly, as some suppose; nor can one escape His judgment. He visits and punishes the sins of the fathers upon the children even unto the third and fourth generations of those who hate Him. This means that, in addition to the eternal punishments of hell which all unbelievers will suffer, God will, during their earthly lives, punish the unbelieving children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren, for the sins of those who hate Him and turn aside from His holy commandments.

This is certainly a warning to us against giving in to the temptations of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh! If we turn aside from the LORD God and live in sin, He will punish us also! Our claims to love the LORD God mean little if we are unwilling to live for Him and keep His commandments.

Rather, let us acknowledge our sins to the LORD and turn to Him for forgiveness and the needed strength to amend our lives and live for Him. For the sake of Christ’s innocent sufferings and death in our stead, God will be gracious and merciful to us. Cf. Psalm 32.

Dear LORD God, for the sake of Christ’s bitter sufferings and death and His glorious resurrection, forgive our sins and renew our hearts that we might live for You in obedience to Your holy commandments. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.]

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3

Since the LORD God is our Maker and Redeemer, we are to have no other gods before Him – or, more literally, before His face. And, since He is present everywhere and sees all, this means we are to have no other gods but Him!

He is the only true God, He made us and gave us life (Gen. 1 and 2; Psalm 139:13-16; John 1:1-5) and we should “fear, love and trust in Him above all things” (Martin Luther’s Small Catechism).

The Bible teaches us that all other gods are nothing but useless idols (1 Cor. 8:4; Psalm 96:5) and we should remember that the LORD God is the Almighty Creator and honor Him as such by obeying His commandments and avoiding all that displeases Him.

Because the LORD God is our Maker and also our Redeemer, we have every reason to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind and gladly live our lives for Him (cf. Matt. 22:37; 2 Cor. 5:15).

God has so wonderfully made us and provided for all our needs; and He has, through Christ’s sufferings, death and resurrection, redeemed us from our sins and the eternal punishment we so deserve. Does He ask too much when He commands that we honor Him, love Him and trust Him with all our heart, mind and soul and commit our entire lives to His care and keeping?

Have we done this? We must all admit our utter failure, for we so often neglect Him and push Him out of our lives as though He did not exist. Instead of giving Him the honor due His name as our Maker, Redeemer, and our Judge, we take His Word lightly and ignore and disobey His commandments, which He gave to us for our good (cf. Rom. 7:10ff.).

Every time we sin against any commandment of the LORD, we are also failing to fear, love and trust in God above all things. We think and act as though we ourselves know better than God. We place ourselves, other people, and even the things of this world before the loving God who gave us life in our mother’s womb and won for us everlasting life in Christ Jesus, our Savior. We fail to give Him the glory and honor due unto His name! Cf. Psalms 96 and 100.

And what is the punishment for disobeying God’s command? Is it a slap on the wrist? Or is it the eternal punishments of hell? The Bible says: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:20); and, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8).

How thankful we can be that God has not turned His back on us as we so often have done to Him! Though we have forgotten Him, He has not forgotten us. Though we have rebelled and disobeyed, He still kept His word and promise (cf. Gen. 3:15) and has given to us His only-begotten Son to be our Savior. Christ Jesus went to the cross in our stead and atoned for our sins and the sins of all and rose again in victory that we might receive pardon and forgiveness through faith in His name! Cf. John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; Gal. 4:4-5; 1 John 2:1-2.

And again, when we consider all He has done to honor us, how could we fail to honor Him with godly fear, love and trust in His holy name?

LORD God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be merciful to us and forgive us for our many failures to honor You as the LORD God, our Maker and Redeemer. Enable and teach us to fear, love and trust in You above all else. We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, God the Son and our Savior. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.]

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” Matthew 7:15-20

It is the responsibility and duty of every Christian to be watchful and on guard against false prophets; for outwardly false prophets may appear to be fine Christian pastors and teachers, but inwardly they are ravening wolves which destroy and scatter God’s flock.

The Apostle Paul, too, warned against such when he said to the elders of the church in Ephesus, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:28-32).

It will happen. There will be false prophets and false teachers who do not faithfully preach and teach God’s Word. And, they will cause divisions in the church and gain followings for themselves. Instead of building upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets — the Word of God — with Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone (cf. Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:1-10), they will build on the sands of false doctrine, on human understanding and opinion, and manmade traditions.

The end result, of course, is that those who do not love the truth and hold fast to Christ and His Word are deceived by the lies of the devil and robbed of the salvation Christ won for them when He suffered and died on the cross for the sins of all.

The Bible tells us: “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Cor. 11:19; cf. 2 Thess. 2:3-12).

That is also why Paul wrote to Timothy: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:12-17).

Thus, for the sake of each of our soul’s salvation, Jesus would have us judge those who preach and teach God’s Word to us. Like the believers in Berea, we should search the Scriptures daily to be sure that what we are being taught is in truth God’s unadulterated Word (cf. Acts 17:10-11). If we don’t, we might easily be misled into unbelief or sin.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:16-20: “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”

And what is the fruit of a prophet? What does he produce that we might judge? First and foremost, it is his teaching. Thus, we must always compare the teaching of pastors and teachers to the Scriptures, for the Scriptures are the inspired and unerring Word of God.

Isaiah also wrote: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20; cf. Jer. 23:16ff.; Deut. 13:1ff.). If a pastor or teacher is not speaking and teaching in full accord with God’s unerring Word, he is a false prophet and we ought to flee from him and hear him no more.

What if the error is only a small point here and there? Is it alright to continue to hear such a preacher? Consider how Satan worked in the Garden, causing doubt regarding the fruit of a single tree. Consider that any error and false teaching comes from the devil, the father of lies, and is meant to deceive us and lead us away from Christ and His truth, even if only little by little (cf. John 8:44).

Consider that Jesus, earlier in His Sermon on the Mount, warned against changing the smallest letter or portion of a letter of God’s Word (cf. Matt. 5:17-20). If a preacher will not humbly yield to the clear and plain truth of God’s Word, he is a false prophet — beware of him, Jesus said, for in the end his errors will tear, divide and scatter the flock like a ravenous wolf. Cf. Rom. 16:17-18; 1 Tim. 6:3-5; 2 John 8-11; Titus 3:9-11; Eph. 5:11; Jer. 15:19.

If one added a single drop of a deadly poison to a clear and clean glass of water, would you drink it? I dare say that none of us would; for even if that drop of poison were not enough to kill us, it could still do damage and might over time, if we continued to ingest it, cause our death. So why then would anyone wish to continually expose himself to the deadly poison of error and false teaching? Even if it did not immediately destroy faith, it very well might over time. And, even more importantly, why would any believer and disciple of Christ wish to be unfaithful to His Word in any point? Cf. Matt. 28:19-20; 1 Cor. 5:6; Gal. 5:9.

A preacher and teacher of God’s Word must also be judged on the basis of his conduct and manner of life — not that any will be perfect and without sin, but there should be the sincere and earnest purpose to live in accord with God’s Word, repent of all sin and error and be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus.

Where one lives in continual disregard of God’s commandments and in open sin, one would not expect to find the good fruits of faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word and an exemplary life to lead and guide God’s flock in the way everlasting.

Thus, our Lord Jesus, who shed His holy and precious blood for the sheep, desires that none of us be misled and deceived by false prophets and be separated from Him. He desires that we all continue in the true and saving faith revealed to us in God’s unadulterated Word — that we trust in Him [Christ] alone and His atoning sacrifice on the cross for pardon, forgiveness and life eternal. He warns us against false prophets that we might always hear Him and His Word and continue to trust in Him unto life everlasting.

After all, He alone is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6; cf. Acts 4:12). Only in Him is eternal salvation!

Dear Lord Jesus, Shepherd and Redeemer of our souls, grant that we be not deceived and misled by the many false prophets who have gone out into the world, but hold fast to You and to Your Word unto life everlasting. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]

“And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, broke, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.” Matthew 14:19 (Read Matt. 14:13-21)

What do you do when the situation seems hopeless? Certainly, the situation must have seemed hopeless for Jesus’ disciples; He had told them to feed the multitudes of people, and they only had five small loaves of bread and two fish with which to feed this crowd of over five thousand.

What did Jesus do? We read in Matthew 14:19 that “He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed, broke, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.”

In St. John’s account of this same event, we read that “Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were sitting down, and likewise of the fish, as much as they wished” (John 6:11).

Our Lord Jesus did not fret and worry over the tremendous shortage of food to feed this multitude. He simply trusted in His heavenly Father, gave thanks to Him for the food He had provided (John 6:11), blessed it, and distributed it to the people by means of His disciples.

And we know the results: “And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. And those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children” (Matt. 14:20-21).

“What a miracle!” we say. But here we see not only a great miracle of Jesus, our Savior; we see an example for us when the situation seems hopeless – when there is not enough food, money, clothes, etc. to meet our needs.

We could look at the insignificance of what we have compared to our apparent need and say as did the disciples of Jesus when they had only five barley loaves and two small fish: “But what are they among so many?” (John 6:9). Or, we could do as Jesus did, and give thanks and look to heaven and trust in our heavenly Father to supply us with all our needs (cf. Phil. 4:19; Jer. 32:17)!

In Philippians 4:6, we read: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” St. Paul also writes to the Thessalonians: “Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thess. 5:17-18).

The Bible also tells us: “He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).

God has already supplied our greatest need by sending His own dear Son to suffer and die for us sinners so that we might have forgiveness for all our sins and everlasting life with Him in heaven through faith in His name. Shall He not also, since He gave us His own Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from sin and eternal punishment, provide for all of our other needs of body and soul? We can trust in Him who so loved us that He spared not His own Son!

O dearest Jesus, grant to us a faith like Yours to trust in the loving hand of Your dear Father to provide us with all our needs of both body and soul. We call upon You for the sake of Your holy life and innocent sufferings and death in our stead. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from the Revised Common Version of the Bible.]