commandment:
Commandment #3: You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (Exodus 20:7) You may be more familiar with the reading found in many Bibles: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”
What is this commandment referring to? Which of the following examples are of someone taking God’s name in vain?
A) OMG, I love your hair!
B) The televangelist said, “Mail in $100, and I will pray for you, and God will heal you.”
C )“God wants me to be happy.”
D) “God gave me this proposal to build a new sanctuary building. He will bless us with success.”
E) The sorcerer called “Yahweh, Yahweh, Yahweh, we call on you. Give our army victory” F) “My next-door neighbor is a jerk.”
G) “Your God is a monster.”
What did you think? Are any of these an example of breaking the Third Commandment?
Actually, in my opinion, they all are.
(A) Using God’s name as a form of mild profanity. I hear this all the time. Many people talk this way without even thinking about it. Saying OMG, or Christ, Lord, or Jesus as a conversation filler just sounds silly. Imagine how it would sound if instead of God’s name, people said, Oh my dog Fido! Or, Oh my friend Martin. But for some strange reason they treat God’s name as a cuss word. I suspect that those who trivialize the god-words are showing that they also don’t take God very seriously.
(B) Con artists use God’s name for personal gain: “Send me money and God will bless you.” Offering to sell God’s power is a clear case of taking God’s name in vain—and God will not hold him guiltless who does that. Sadly, we hear this frequently as well. (C) In the church where I first served as pastor there was a woman whose husband had been paralyzed in an auto accident, and so she began a sexual relationship with another man. She justified this by saying “I think God wants me to be happy.” Thus, she used God’s name to justify herself.
(D) Using God as support for a personal plan, and claiming that God will guarantee its success, is taking God’s name in vain. It is better to say, “Lord willing…” such and such will succeed (James 4:15).
(E) Bible scholars think that the actual sin that the Third Commandment prohibited was using God’s name as part of a magic ritual. In cultures that practice magic, it is believed that adding a divine name to an incantation makes it more powerful. The Third commandment prohibits doing that with God’s name.
(F) This one may surprise us. In the book of James, we are told not to insult people who are made in the image of God: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who are made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be” (James 3:9-10). We should speak about others with respect, remembering that they are made in God’s image. To insult people is to insult God!
(G) A friend of mine doesn’t believe in God (He was raised going to church but later turned against his former faith). Now he enjoys calling God a monster, and he also enjoys insulting the people who believe in God. This is the sin of blasphemy.
I suppose an implication of these sins is that those of us who do believe in God, should be careful that our behaviors reflect positively on our faith. Our lives should not be the evidence that mockers, like my friend, use as evidence against God! Christian hypocrisy can be the flip-side of blasphemy!
Why is proper use of the name of the Lord so important? In our culture we consider names to be unimportant, but in many cultures, names are extremely important. In biblical times, names were important, so much so that a person’s name might be changed if their status changed: Abram became Abraham, Sarai, became Sarah, and Simon became Peter. The name of the Lord was the most important because it represented who he was. In the examples above we learn not to misuse God’s name by trivializing it, using it to deceive, using it hypocritically, and using it blasphemously.
To avoid breaking the Third Commandment, most Jews go to the opposite extreme and never speak the name YHWH or “God” at all. They substitute words like “the Name” or “heaven.” While I admire their effort to keep the Third Commandment by never even speaking the name of God, I think it is better to just use God’s name properly.
To re-state the Third Commandment in positive form: we should only speak of God in a respectful way.
God is good, so we should always speak his name in a good way with praise and thanksgiving. “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good, and his love is eternal; his faithfulness endures through all generations (Psalm 100:4-5).
The Third Commandment tells us to speak respectfully about God and also speak respectfully about people made in the image of God. .
Greg Giles is a published author, who, along with his wife Jean, has embraced the call to serve and teach around the globe. Their life together has included missionary work in Liberia, Bangladesh, teaching in China, and raising a family in Bemidji, Minnesota. Between global travels and local commitments, including serving as superintendent of Corn Bible Academy and their current part-time roles at Corn Heritage Village, the Gileses have found “home” in many places; yet, they now happily reside in retirement in Cordell.