“Love means doing all we can, at whatever cost to ourselves, to help people be enthralled with the glory of God. When they are, they are satisfied and God is glorified. Therefore loving people and glorifying God are one.” – John Piper

We all know people who don’t even want to talk about Jesus because they have been hurt or disappointed by Christians. I don’t want to be one of those who say they follow Jesus, but live unlovingly or angrily.

One of the best known of the Ten Commandments is “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” Many think that means we shouldn’t speak God’s name in the wrong way. Biblically, there’s a lot more to it than that.

The word for vain has the same root as the word for vanity in the book of Ecclesiastes. It means something is without meaning, value, or substance. So, taking God’s name in vain is taking up his name without giving it meaning or value by the way we live. It means living in ways that make people think less of God, not more.

The same thing applies to taking Jesus’s name lightly – saying we follow Jesus and not acting like it. Paul cautions about that when he says, “. . . we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” If we are Christians, people should see we are not carrying his name lightly. We’ll make mistakes, for sure, but over time we should be getting more and more like the person whose name we claim. Let’s make sure the way we live makes people want to know our Jesus.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” – John 8:12b