What's In A Name?

 Shakespeare’s Juliet posed the question:  “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”. Maybe so.  But we have to wonder how Marilyn Monroe would have fared as Norma Jeane Baker, Bob Dylan as Bob Zimmerman, Elton John as Reginald Dwight, Lady Gaga as Stephani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, or Adolph Hitler as Adolph Schnicklgruber.  Names can make a difference.

 Names are important to us.  When we someone calls our name we turn, look and listen. They have our attention. Nothing compels like the sound of our name. When we give someone our name, we open the door.  We invite them into relationship.

 When God commissioned Moses to deliver his people from Egypt, Moses asked, “Whom shall I say has sent me?”  God responded, “Tell them, I AM THAT I AM has sent you.”  The Israelites captured this name with the Hebrew letters YHWH.  The name was too holy to be spoken.  When they came to God’s name in Scripture, they inserted the word, “Adonai” meaning “Lord.”

 The third of the Ten Commandments recognizes that God has entrusted to us something special, something precious. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” (Exodus 20:7) He has invited us into relationship with Him.  He has given us His name.  We must not take this for granted. For this reason, Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name." David sang, “Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, O Lord, and I will sing praises to your name.”  (Psalm 18:49).

 Isaiah looked forward to a new name God would give us.  He wrote, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will ^[rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6).

 Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled when the angel announced the Messiah’s birth to Mary and Joseph and instructed them, “You shall call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.”    God has chosen to redeem and transform us through that “name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11).

 This is an awesome thing.  The God of the universe, who created the expanse of the galaxies, who designed the sub-atomic particles, who gave breath and life to every creature, God, who made us in His own image, has given us His name that we might know Him, honor Him and adore Him.

 How then could we possibly use His name as an expression of amazement, consternation or anger? These verbal expressions reflect a deeper underlying flaw,  at best an ignorance of God’s presence or arrogance in our self-confidence. At worst, a contempt for the Creator and Saviour who gave us life and loves us.  How can we possibly live without thought of the greatness, goodness and grace contained in His Name?

Surviving the Image Culture

 Images bombard us constantly on smart phones, tablets, TVs and laptops.  Images influence our thinking and our actions.  According to Time Magazine, an app to generate AI imaging for social media was the most downloaded app in Apple’s App store during its first week. An article by Andrew Chow in Time Magazine stated, “What was supposed to be a revolutionary medium for maintaining friendships and relationships has now become a fake content generation machine—where it’s impossible to tell what’s real and what’s not.”[i]  We have become addicted to images in the image culture.

 God wants to free us from the image-makers who seek to control our minds and distort our values. The second of the Ten Commandments states, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them,” (Exodus 20:4-5).

 Images for idol worship have always been about manipulation, attempts to manipulate gods to control our circumstances and to control others around us.  Our current image culture is no different.  We create images to control our destinies and to control others.  But God will not be manipulated.  He will not be used for our personal advancement or the control of other people. 

 The image culture invades our churches when we assume that worship requires the assistance of sound systems, amplifiers, video screens, special lighting and special effects, when we create our own Christian pop-culture complete with celebrities. We ought to be reminded that in Jesus’ day authentic worship took place on hillsides, seashores, and in houses where two or three were gathered together in His Name.

 The author of creation made us in His own image. When we know Him we are truly free to know ourselves and others as we truly are, created in His image with unlimited potential for love and good works. For this reason, God sent His Son, so that we might know the only image that can set us free. “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15). 

 This is the definition of sin: attempting to live life on our own terms in our own image and becoming addicted to our man-made idols.  N.T, Wright put it this way, “Since sin, the consequence of idolatry, is what keeps humans in thrall to the non-gods of the world, dealing with sin has a more profound effect than simply releasing humans to go to heaven. It releases humans from the grip of the idols, so they can worship the living God and be renewed according to his image.”

 When we believe in Jesus and place our trust in Him, we are empowered to become like Him.  We are set free from the image makers that lead down paths of addiction and depression.  “Those whom He foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” (Romans 8:29).  

Putting God First

 The first of the Ten Commandments is God’s invitation for us to know Him.  “You shall have no other gods before me,” (Exodus 20:3). This is amazing. The creator of the universe wants to have a personal relationship with us in which He alone takes first place.  If He is not first in our life, He is not God. Everything starts here.  Life comes into focus when God becomes the priority of our life.

 Sometimes we are drawn away from God by personal pleasures. Sometimes we are drawn away by things that simply make us too busy for God.  We think we know what is best and we pursue our goals and dreams without taking time to submit those goals and dreams to God.  

 Peter discovered that putting God first meant surrendering his personal prejudices.  Following a vision on a rooftop in Joppa in which God instructed him not to consider anything unclean that God had declared clean, Peter was invited to visit a Roman Centurion in Caesarea. When he arrived, the Centurion had assembled his family and friends to welcome Peter.  Peter said, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean,” (Acts 10:28).  After Peter explained to them what God had done in Jesus Christ, they immediately trusted Christ, received the Holy Spirit and were baptized.  When Peter shared this experience at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, the early church immediately opened its doors to receive believers from all nations.

 We are living in a day when racial, religious and cultural prejudice have become widespread. If we put God first, like Peter, we must surrender our prejudices and accept others who differ in language, culture and ethniciy.

 The best-known Christian hymn of all time is Amazing Grace. It is the one hymn that is almost universally known and sung. We all know the lyrics, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but know I see.” The song was written by John Newton, who captained several slave ships, and invested in slavery until he came to faith in Christ.  When God became first in his life, he renounced his former life, became an evangelical pastor and a staunch abolitionist.  We cannot obey the first commandment without surrendering our prejudices.  

 John wrote, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen,” (1 John 4:20).

 Jesus set the example.  He purposely entered Samaria and welcomed the adulterous Samaritan woman.  He accepted lepers, tax collectors, and said of a Roman centurion, “I have not seen such faith in all of Israel.”  In The Revelation, John described Heaven, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,” (Revelation 7:9).

Our Moral Foundations

 For centuries Western Civilization has embraced the Ten Commandments as the bedrock for law and conduct. But, in the twenty-first century, such an assumption no longer holds true. Bit by bit the Ten Commandments are being chiseled from their central position in our culture.

 In 2001, after a two-year legal battle, a 5,280 lb. granite Ten Commandments monument was removed from the rotunda of the Alabama State Capital.

 In 2004 the Sixth District Court of Appeals in Kentucky ruled that the Ten Commandments could no longer be displayed in public schools and courthouses. To do so, the court ruled, would be an endorsement of religion.

 In 2014, followers of the pagan faith, Wicca, sued the city of Bloomfield, N.M. over a 3,000 pound Ten Commandments monument that stood in front of the City Hall. The court ruled the monument had to be removed as a violation of First Amendment rights.

 In June 2015 the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the presence of the Ten Commandments on the capitol grounds was unconstitutional. On October 5, under cover of darkness, the 4,800 lb. slab of stone was moved from the Oklahoma State Capitol grounds to a private location.

 

In 2025 at least 3 states passed laws requiring the Commandments be displayed in school classrooms. District courts ruled the laws unconstitutional. The issue appears headed to the Supreme Court.

 

These reflect sensitive legal issues in our nation that values freedom of religion and separation of church and state. But what is more disturbing than the removal of monuments is the removal of the Ten Commandments from our consciousness.  Few can name them. Stop for a minute and see if you can recall all ten of the commandments?  Can our children or grandchildren quote them?   If we don’t know the Ten Commandments, how can they guide us in our values and action?

 Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mathew 5:17-19). He went on to apply the Commandments at a deeper level than anyone imagined.

 The first four of the Ten Commandments tell us how to have a healthy relationship with God.  The next six tell us how to have healthy relationships with each other. 

 Zhao Xiao, a leading economist in China, researched America’s secret to prosperity. He concluded, “... the key to America’s commercial success is not its natural resources, its financial system or its technology but its churches.  ... The market economy is efficient because it discourages idleness, but it can also encourage people to lie and injure others.  It thus needs a moral underpinning.”  Xiao’s conclusions are remarkably similar to Alexis de Tocqueville’s in 1840. Democracy survives and thrives where moral values prevail.

Tinsley's book, The Jesus Encounter is FREE Jan 6-8 as an eBook on Amazon.  Stories of people in the Bible who met Jesus: Mary Magdalene, Zacchaeus, Nicodemus, etc.