This says: ‘busybody’ - I like that even better. “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, thief, evildoer, or a busybody”. Isn't that awesome? I mean murderer - that's bad! Thief = bad. Evildoer = bad; but in the same list, he puts ‘busybody’!
Let me help you for a second. You want to walk in a way that manifests the name of God, let me give you the most common-sense advice I could ever give you. Mind your own business! Don't be meddling in the personal affairs of other people!
Let me help you with something. If they want you to know their personal life - they will tell you. And if they're not telling you, there's likely a really good reason why they're not telling you - and it's none of your business!
I feel better already. This is like a big counselling session. If you're one of these people, who waste time at home looking on the internet, to find all the trash on all the preachers in the world - stop! That is using the name of God in vain. We are called to something bigger and better. Don't be known to be a murderer, a thief, an evildoer or a busybody. Be known as someone who: walks in the name of God, and manifests it everywhere they go.
The conclusion there is this: the untouchable name of God is actually placed on you; so God entrusts His reputation to people. Why? I have no idea! He entrusts His reputation to people - namely Christians, who are carrying it. If you say you're ‘a Christian’, then you're carrying the name of Christ; so wherever you go, and whatever you do, God is present in your actions.
One writer says it this way: Whatever you do - do it in the name of Jesus.
How do you run your business? Are people seeing what God looks like, in the way you run your business? Do you have integrity, compassion, humility, love?
What kind of neighbour are you? How do you spend your money? If I looked at your cheque book, what would I see is important to you? Is it the things that are important to God, or is it just to you? How do you give? Are you generous?
How do you handle stress and problems? Are you an angry, worried mess; or are you showing people the profound trust in God Almighty?
Are you a forgiving person; or do you excuse and rationalise a reason to hold a grudge? How do you talk to, and treat, your husband? How do you talk to, and treat, your wife? What kind of representation of God are you?
If you, and your ideas, were the only concept of God that people had - what would they think of Him? Would they think: He's kind? Would they think: He's compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love - because that's what He is; or would they think: He's mean, judgemental, caustic, critical, cynical, a gossiper, someone who's insecure? What picture of God are you putting off on a day to day basis?
Is there any area in my life right now, which is swearing, and using the name of God in vain, to the world around me?
John 17:6. This is Jesus' last big sort of prayer – “Father, I have manifested Your name, to everyone You gave Me out of this world”.
“I have manifested Your name”. In that same prayer later, this is what He said: “Father, as You are in Me, and I am in You, let them be in Us, so that the world might believe”.
Your relationship with God is never about you and God; it's about: you, and God, and everyone in your sphere of reference.
“Father, as You are in Me, and I am in You, let them be in Us, so that the world might believe”.
This is about a group of people committed to showing the whole world what God looks like - and we will either carry the name of God in a way that manifests the hope that rests upon it; or we will carry the name of God in a way that disappoints it. That is using it in vain.