A woman who lives in\nTexas is also a friend on my Facebook. When she posts on Facebook, she writes\nthings like, \u201cMy handsome husband and my handsome son and my beauty queen\ndaughter and I visited my handsome daddy at his rest home on Father\u2019s Day in\nthe name of Jesus. Afterwards, we went to a steakhouse and had a delicious\ndinner in the name of Jesus. We had a wonderful time in the name of Jesus.\u201d\nAlmost every sentence ends with the phrase, \u201cin the name of Jesus.\u201d Why she\ndoes this, I don\u2019t know. Many Christians would find this galling and maybe\nridiculous. But at least she is being more consistent than they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many Christians insist that we should end our prayers with\nthe phrase, \u201cin the name of Jesus,\u201d because Jesus said, \u201cIf you ask anything in\nMy name, I will do it\u201d (John 14:14). They understand the command, \u201cask anything\nin My name,\u201d to mean, \u201ctack on the phrase, \u2018in the name of Jesus,\u2019 to the end\nof your prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet these same Christians overlook Paul\u2019s command in Col. 3:17 \u2013 \u201cAnd whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.\u201d If asking anything in the name of Jesus means that we must tack on the phrase, \u201cin the name of Jesus,\u201d to the end of our prayers, does not doing all<\/em> in the name of Jesus mean that we must tack on the phrase, \u201cin the name of Jesus,\u201d to the end of everything<\/em> that we do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can you imagine what that would be like? What if we said, “In the name of Jesus,” every time we took a step? Every time we took a breath? Every time we said something?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can you imagine a conversation like\nthis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clayton: “Hi, Billy, in the name\nof Jesus. How are you today in the name of Jesus?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Billy: “Hey, Clayton, in the name\nof Jesus. I am good, in the name of Jesus. How are you in the name of Jesus?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clayton: “I am good, also, in the\nname of Jesus. Will I see you in church this Sunday in the name of Jesus?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can you imagine the pastor trying to\ngive his sermon on Sunday? “Good morning, people, in the name of Jesus.\nLet’s open our Bibles today to Col. 3:17, in the name of Jesus. Today’s topic\nis, \u2018Doing all in the name of Jesus,\u2019 in the name of Jesus.” No one would\nbe able to hear him because every time the congregation took a breath, they all\nwould be muttering, “In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, in the\nname of Jesus, in the name of Jesus….”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I still have not figured out how we\nwould say “in the name of Jesus” while we are sleeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone recognizes that muttering “in the name of Jesus” every time we did something would be ridiculous and maybe even blasphemous because it would quickly become vain repetition. Yet many people insist that we should end our prayers with this phrase. How inconsistent. This is why I say that the woman in Texas is more consistent than they are. If praying in the name of Jesus means that we must tack on the phrase, \u201cin the name of Jesus,\u201d to the end of our prayers, then we must tack on the phrase to the end of everything<\/em> we do. It\u2019s all or nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously Paul did not mean that we should tack the phrase, “in the name of Jesus,” to the end of everything we did. He certainly did not tack this phrase to the end of everything that he did. Nor is there a single prayer recorded in the Bible that ends with, \u201cWe pray this in the name of Jesus,\u201d or something similar. Nor is there a single recorded prayer from the early Church that ends with that phrase. As far as anyone has been able to determine, the first recorded prayer that ends with that phrase is a Latin prayer from the 5th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what did Jesus mean when he said, \u201cAsk\nanything in my name\u201d? And what did Paul mean when he said, \u201cDo all in the name\nof the Lord Jesus\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only time the disciples used the\nphrase, \u201cin the name of Jesus,\u201d was when they were performing miracles or\ncasting out demons. Peter said to the man who had been lame from birth, \u201cIn the\nname of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk\u201d (Acts 4:6). A demon\npossessed girl followed Paul in Philippi for several days before Paul said to\nthe demon, \u201cI command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her\u201d (Acts\n16:18). The disciples knew that in and of themselves they did not have the\nauthority to perform the miracles or cast out the demons. That authority had\nbeen delegated to them by Jesus (Matt. 10:1). The phrase, \u201cin the name of\nJesus,\u201d means, \u201cby the authority of Jesus,\u201d or more correctly, \u201cby the\nauthority delegated to me by Jesus.\u201d The disciples used this phrase at these\ntimes because the people around them needed to know that they were performing\nthese acts not on their own authority but on the authority of Jesus Christ,\nthereby passing all of the credit and glory to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Old Testament, we find Mordecai\nwriting a decree in the name of King Ahasuerus (Esther 8:10). Mordecai in and\nof himself did not have the authority to write the decree, but the king had\ndelegated his authority to Mordecai so that he could write the decree. This\ndecree was then sent out by couriers. Whenever Caesar issued a decree, he could\nnot just get on the television or radio and announce the new decree. Copies were\nmade and then sent out by slaves, who ran from town to town. When a slave\narrived in a town square, a trumpet was blown to gather the townspeople, and\nthen the slave would announce, \u201cI come to you in the name of Caesar,\u201d meaning, \u201cI\ncome to you by the authority of Caesar.\u201d The townspeople then had to treat that\nslave as if he were Caesar himself. So the phrase, \u201cin the name of,\u201d also\nmeans, \u201cin the character of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, to do all in the name of the\nLord Jesus means to do all in the authority and character of the Lord Jesus. It\nmeans to do all as if you were Jesus himself. That includes praying. To pray in\nthe name of Jesus means to pray in the authority and character of Jesus. It\nmeans to pray for whatever Jesus would pray for. It means to pray as if you\nwere Jesus himself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus said that he came in his Father\u2019s\nname (John 5:43) and he did his works in his Father\u2019s name (John 10:25), yet he\ndid not go around muttering, \u201cin the name of the Father.\u201d Even so, Jesus could\ntell Philip that when he saw Jesus, he also saw the Father (John 14:9). So,\ntoo, what Jesus and Paul are telling us is that to do all, including praying,\nin the name of Jesus is not to mutter \u201cin the name of Jesus\u201d but to live in\nsuch a way that when people see us they see Jesus. Granted, muttering a phrase\nis much easier to do, but it is not Biblical, and certainly not what we have\nbeen called to do. Let\u2019s go live as if we were Jesus himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A woman who lives in Texas is also a friend on my Facebook. When she posts on Facebook, she writes things like, \u201cMy handsome husband and my handsome son and my beauty queen daughter and I visited my handsome daddy … Continue reading