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[[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/jn_de_2018_02_08|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]]
[[topics_collection_ix|| Topics Collection ix ]]
====== 2nd Commandment ... ======
Thursday, Feb 8, 2018. Humans have a generic sense of justice. We know, for whatever reason, what we believe
to be a just decision. Or we have a sense of just relationships. Not all of our ideas about justice are
without inherent contradictions. But it is very interesting to see that we all live with ethics and ideas
of what we should do or how things should be! That includes behaviour, but also attitude. It includes
communication, saying the truth. There is much in what we naturally attach to justice!
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** Holy Name ...**
Our natural understanding of ethis is the basis for understanding holiness. When someone would be
fully just, we would call him holy. Holy originally means something like "out of our world" or "special".
It reflects the fact that no one is really holy in this world. It is just impossible to be just in all
what we do. There might be many reasons for that ... let us talk about this another day.
Here, we need to look at the biblical message about God, about the creator and ultimate personal
spirit. He is fully just, he is full of love, full of truth, he is all what we would call just. He is,
indeed, holy - that is at the core of the biblical message. It is the background for the second
commandment:
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
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** Taking God Serious ...**
There is a simple path to not misusing the name of the Lord. It is to fully take him serious. It is
to get to know him, and then to live up to this knowledge.
But how do you get to know God to do this? Are we not bound to misuse his name, if we use it at all?
The New Testament paves a path to God, it is Jesus who is the door! When we come to him, when we get
to know him, when we believe in him, we move along this path, we go through the door. Jesus, the son of
God, he is God himself, who became human. He is the lamb of God, the holy one, the messiah, the
annointed one. The holy spirit is living with him and in him. Jesus can be the one to relate to.
He is the one we should believe in.
When I talk about believing in Jesus, I think of it as a personal relationship. It is you alone, you
with your thoughts, your emotions, your will, your heart, your decisions, who believes. It is a very
intimate and personal thing. Of course, it is also a public matter, since you cannot believe and stay
quiet about it. But the core of faith is in your heart! And with this type of serious faith, you
will start to honor God, his presence and his holiness. You will honor his name and obey the second
commandment.
(Roland Potthast)
[[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/topics_collection_ix|... further texts]]