OMG?

12/16/17        Gio                      about 40

Before grocery shopping I stopped at the store’s coffee shop and found Gio, about 40, who responded to my question about eternity with a confident belief that he will be in heaven.  

Why?  Well, although he no longer attends mass (except every once in a while to make his mother happy), he believes he is a pretty good person worthy of reward in the next life.  Because of this belief, he sees no need to read the Bible or pursue a relationship with Jesus – he is convinced that his occasional prayer of thanks and confession of sin should pretty much cover any shortcomings.

So does Gio need to hear how much God loves him?  Yes, eventually, but first he needs to understand his need for forgiveness.  Those who are proud need to see themselves in the mirror of God’s law.  Galatians 3:24 says “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ”, so I used it to help him see how he would be judged by God’s law as the standard, rather than the standards of the world.  And one of those standards really seemed to wake him up more than the rest.

By the standard of the Ten Commandments, Gio admitted to lying, stealing (years ago), and murder and adultery at heart (through hateful words and lustful thoughts).  But what really caught his attention was the admonition not to use God’s name in vain.  He hadn’t thought about it much, and just assumed it meant to carelessly back up oaths and promises with sworn appeals to God.  But what about the all-too-common exclamatory “Oh my God!” or, as we see on social media, “OMG!”?  Is that really so bad?

What does it mean to use God’s name “in vain”?  “Vain” is defined as “having or showing an excessively high opinion of one's appearance, abilities, or worth.”  When we carelessly throw God’s name around for emphasis, we are treating His very holiness with casual disregard, as if we have any right to do so.  

For Gio, it was an extension of his assumption that he is a pretty good person worthy of being in God’s presence in heaven for eternity.  I reminded him that here, now, he is in God’s presence, and he agreed that God doesn’t just reside in church.  We are in the presence of the most high Creator of the Universe, and if we could see Him visually we would act much more respectfully than we do.  Once we become aware of it, we will hear disrespectful exclamations of “Oh my God!” everywhere, and it is mainly those who have an awareness of God’s presence and a respect for his holiness, or at least the ability to keep their high self-opinion in check, who refrain from using it.

The Bible says “law to the proud, and grace to the humble”.  After our discussion about what it means to live respectfully in God’s presence, the tears in his eyes let me know Gio was ready to hear about God’s grace in Jesus.  There is a place for a sincere exclamation of “Oh my God!”, but it can only come from a heart that is humble in the presence of His holiness.