for, as it is written, “the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you.” [romans 2:24]

 

the jewish people of paul’s time certainly knew the law, but practicing it was a different story. as we’ve seen in the last few days, they were good at teaching others to be a guide to the blind, light to those in darkness, instruct the foolish, and teach the children. we then saw that instead of doing these things themselves, they stole, committed adultery, and committed idolatry among other things.

sound anything like the american church today?
today, we see the result of people claiming relationship with God while living in opposition: the name of God is blasphemed.
if it’s been a while since you read merriam-webster’s definition of blasphemy, it means “the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God.”
the bible is clear that we are all sinners, and paul’s point in this passage is not that we should sin less (though that would be good), but that we can’t trick God by what we say to avoid judgement. he sees our sin, even our secret sin, regardless of what we say about it. the only way out of judgement is through Jesus.
rather than being hypocrites who in church say we love Jesus but live the opposite the rest of the week, we have the opportunity to proclaim our brokenness and need of a savior!
three ways we can be good ambassadors of Christ today are:
1. we boldly proclaim our love of God and teach his word
2. we attempt to live lives honoring to him through the power of the Holy Spirit
3. we turn to him in repentance and declare our need of a savior because we don’t have it all together
we will sin, but the key will be what we do with it. will we be ok with it? or will we take it to God in repentance?
we are all going to be ambassadors of some sort. i pray that today we are ambassadors that honor and glorify the name of God rather than blaspheme it.
amen.
~ john sandman