What Does It Mean: God Damn?

11 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

The request, not to mis-use God’s name, shouldn’t take too much discussion.  

In my simple mind is it just a huge DAAAAAA!!  

Just plain common courtesy!

Luther puts it this way:  “We don’t use God’s name to curse, swear, practice magic, lie or deceive.  But instead, use that very name in times of need to call on, to pray, to praise and give thanks.”

Somewhere, in my past, I read a good analogy that you might relate to.  To use God’s name in a derogatory way is like using your dearest love’s name as a word of disrespect.  

You just don’t do that!

And yet, using God’s name in derogatory ways has become so common!

I am remembering a class, on this Commandment, while on internship.  I went to one of my internship  supervisors; and said I just didn’t know how to handle this for confirmation class tonight.   He offered to do it for me.  

It was indeed insightful!  He began by asking the kids to name all the cuss words they hear in school. They were hesitant at first.  But in time the words came faster and faster. Some where not just words but phrases.  As they named them he wrote them on the chalk board.  Some of them were extremely raw.  Word’s I would not want to even think about, let alone come out of my mouth.

There were about thirty, or more, written on the chalk board. When he stopped and asked them:  “Which is the worst?”  They all sat there in disbelief that their pastor: one, would have allowed such language in church, and two, that he wanted them to name the worst of the worst.  They sat silent!  And he pointed to the word God-damn.  They said nothing!

Then we broke up into discussion groups. There was a very tough kid in my group.  Usually he was pretty obnoxious.  That night he was particularly quiet!  Sober, to be exact!  He never said what was on his mind; but I think he was profoundly influenced by the class discussion.

The truth is, people just don’t think about what they are doing when they use God/Jesus’ name like that.  

It would be good if we did think about what was coming out of our mouths. Even when we are not using God’s name in a disrespectful way.  

It is always good to think before speaking!