Jesus Christ! Don’t Let the Blessing Become a Curse.
Why do people use the Name of Jesus (the one Name under Heaven by which we can be saved”) as a curse? “Jesus Christ!” is the most often heard name used as an epithet in stressful situations. It is used liberally by Christians as much as those who don’t believe. How can we use the “Name above all names” as a curse?
The 3rd Commandment says:
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. – Exo 20:7
And Paul tells us:
…that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.- Philippians 2:11
God wants us to know and revere His Name as our Lord Jesus, Yeshua Ha’mashiach, the Light of the World. He wants us to call upon that Name frequently with love and gratitude for what Jesus did that only He could do and “in faith, believing”, as James tells us, to access the Power of God which is ours in Christ Jesus, to heal, and to bring forth miracles in this place.
“by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the Name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” – Act 4:30
Using the Name of Jesus as a curse is like being given a precious chalice, a gift for a banquet table meant to bless us and bless those that come to have fellowship and dine with us, and then to take that chalice and use it as a bludgeon to beat away those who come to your door.
Obviously, as we all do, I hear this all the time. Somebody gets some bad news in the mail or a phone call, and the name of Jesus is the first thing out of their mouth. I like to gently admonish my friends by saying “say it with love”. Ironically, that Name is the perfect thing to come out of our mouths when bad news hits, but said in love, and with prayerful supplication and gratitude for what God has done and what you desire and believe He WILL do to alleviate the problem OR to use it for your good. We have the opportunity, that is, to bless or to curse with the Name of Jesus.
Now I will out myself here. I have been known, and not in the distant past, to use some of the courser words that many people, especially proper Christians, use the Name of Jesus instead of, when I stub my toe or hammer my thumb. Okay I’m human, and the Holy Spirit and I are working that out. But I hold strongly that the Name of Jesus is to be used reverently, and when the Holy Spirit compels me to speak it, always in love.
Then God said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” – Exo 33:19
Now, on to a slightly different topic, but on the same track of how terrible it is when people turn blessings that God intended for us into curses…
The Blood of Jesus is the Power of God through which all mankind, as many as would believe, may be saved. Ever since coming to faith, as a Jewish man, I have marveled at the Gospel’s story of the trial of Jesus. How in the world could the Jewish crowd, the same ones who proclaimed and worshiped Jesus as Messiah, upon His entry into Jerusalem just days before, have turned thumbs down on our Lord to proclaim His death over that of a thief and criminal, and then seal it by saying:
And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” – Mat 27:25
The Blood of Jesus was shed to be a blessing to the entire world, but these people brought that very Blood upon themselves as a curse. Could it be, that 1900+ years later, the worst horror the world has ever known, the holocaust, came to happen, because these very people, chosen by God to bless the world, had brought down upon themselves and all their generations, this horrible curse?
We must be very, very careful in our lives that we truly walk in the way that Jesus Himself walked, in love for our enemies and with love for the brethren, and above all the love of God. Let us ourselves always use the Name of the Lord in love, to His Glory, and be grateful always, for the Blood of Christ by which we are saved.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. – 1John 1:7
In Joy inexpressible, from the Source of all Love,
John Henry Raskin, Roadhouse Rabbi