What does the Bible say about blasphemy?

The Bible passages below can be used in sermons and prayers dealing with blasphemy. 

• Leviticus 24:16, if you blaspheme the name of the Lord, you will be put to death
• 1 Samuel 3:13, God punishes Eli's house because his sons were blaspheming God
• Psalm 74:10, the psalmist asks how long the ememy will scoff and revile God's name
• Matthew 9:2-3, some of the scribes say that the paralyzed man is blaspheming
• Matthew 12:31-32, blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven (see also Mark 3:28-29 and Luke 12:10)
• Mark 14:61-64, Jesus is accused of blasphemy for saying he is the Messiah
• John 10:33, the Jews want to stone Jesus for blasphemy because he said he is one with the Father
• Acts 13:44-46, the Jews blasphemed, contradicting what Paul was saying
• Romans 2:23-24, Paul says Jewish believers dishonor God's name among the Gentiles by breaking God's law and thus committing blasphemy

Sermon ideas about blasphemy

Direct slander or defamation

Sermons about blasphemy can point out that in its rawest form, blasphemy is direct slander or defamation or dishonoring of God's holiness — that is God's moral purity and uniqueness as the Ultimate Being. For example, someone might say that God is the most malicious and corrupt figure in ancient fiction. The accusation attributes to God both evil and unreality. One often detects in blasphemy something much more personal than indifference toward God. To some, God is more an enemy than a mere fiction. And it's easy to see the root of the enmity: If God is real, then God is our boss. To autonomous, self-ruling human beings this idea is an insult — hence the bite in their attitude toward God. They bitterly reject the notion that the universe is such that they are not their own rulers and lawgivers.

The death penalty for blasphemy in Leviticus 24 sounds harsh to modern ears, and sermons about blasphemy can acknowledge this. It is harsh. But consider that God was Israel's champion and king. God was their savior and provider. To insult God was to injure Israel's only source of life and hope. Understandably, Israel considered blasphemy to be a grave national threat, almost a form of suicide. What if the blasphemed God were to withdraw or turn hostile?

Challenging God's uniqueness

Sermons about blasphemy can examine other forms of blasphemy. For example, one can blaspheme by asserting that God is corrupt. This is an assault on God's moral purity. But one can also blaspheme by challenging God's divine uniqueness. This is why in Matthew 9, Mark 14, and John 10, Jesus' religious enemies condemn Jesus to death. Jesus claims for himself special, even divine status, thereby (to his critics) rejecting God's unassailable uniqueness. To them, Jesus' blasphemy may have been indirect, but it was also unpardonable. Who but God can forgive third-party sins? Who but God can name the Messiah? Who is equal to God but God? Because Jesus could plausibly be understood to identify himself as forgiver, Messiah, and equal to God, his enemies invoked the old Levitical law to condemn him.

The unforgivable sin

In Matthew 12:31, Mark 3:28-29, and Luke 12:10, Jesus identifies blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as the unforgiveable sin. Centuries of Christians have tussled with this idea, and writing a sermon about blaspheming the Holy Spirit can be challenging Why is the Holy Spirit seemingly more sacred and therefore worse to blaspheme than the Father or the Son? And what, exactly, does blasphemy against the Holy Spirit consist of? Various speculations have been offered. But a rough consensus centers on the context in Matthew 12, where Jesus' religious enemies accuse him of exorcism by the power of the devil: "`It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow casts out the demons'" (Matthew 12:24). Jesus' enemies (they call him "this fellow") attribute Jesus' life-giving work to the power of evil within him, but Jesus says he exorcises by the power of "the Spirit of God."

This is a crux: Is it good or evil within Jesus that powers his work? Jesus considers this question to be central because his enemies' perversion, if persistent, renders them impervious to the recognition of the kingdom of God drawing near in Jesus' work, and therefore impervious to forgiveness. As the theologian Geoffrey W. Bromiley wrote in his book on sin, this kind of defiance is the ultimate lie, which leads to the ultimate judgment.

Any form of lawbreaking

Finally, it's sobering to recognize that by the time Paul writes to the Romans, blasphemy is conceived as any form of lawbreaking. The law is, after all, God's law, God's command, God's will for human life. To break it is to disrespect God. This puts all of us at risk of blasphemy. For example, the Heidelberg Catechism interprets the ninth commandment, as forbidding not just bearing false witness in court, but also twisting someone's words, gossiping, slandering, and condeming anyone without a hearing (Q&A 112).

Imagine Christians in contemporary political debate. No gossiping? No slander? No twisting of anyone's words? No joining a political condemnation without a hearing or just cause? We may have been merrily blaspheming away almost every day, and without any pause or any twinge of conscience. Sermons about blasphemy would do well to consider this notion.

Excerpts about blasphemy

Following are sample excerpts from Zeteosearch.org sermon resources about blasphemy: 

"To say what is not true of God is to blaspheme, to do the opposite of what Jesus taught his disciples to do in prayer. Instead of keeping God's name holy, saying only what is true about God, when we do the opposite, when we say what is not true about God, we blaspheme." Article about Scripture by Michael Gills from Ancient Faith 

Worship ideas about blasphemy 

Following are sample excerpts from Zeteosearch.org worship resources about blasphemy: 

"This powerful watercolour illustrates lines from Leviticus in the Old Testament. It shows the son of an Israelite woman being stoned for blasphemy." Artwork by William Blake from BMW Tate

"Alarmed, we looked inside seeing that Jesus' body was gone. Someone had been there before us. How could this be? Grave robbers? Some final act of blasphemy against our Saviour?" Poetry by Carol Penner from Together in Worship