Most of us, at least those of us in the United States, know the Ten Commandments. We may not know them in order, or be able to quote them verbatim, but we could do a pretty good job of listing them. We could also explain what most of them mean. I mean, how hard is it to understand, "Thou shalt not kill?"
The one commandment that most of us think we understand, but probably don't, is number three, which says,
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."Exodus 20:7
I propose that there is more to it than meets the eye.
I was riding in the truck of a Christian friend years ago. I was not serving God at the time, and I used the expression, "Oh my God."
She became upset with me and said that she didn't allow anyone to take the Lord's name in vain in her truck and I would have to get out if I couldn't restrain myself.
Well, being the smart aleck that I am, I proceeded to remind her that I hadn't taken the name of her God in vain. As a matter of fact, I hadn't used any god's name. What if my god's name was Odin?
I didn't worship Odin, of course, but I said this to show her that I didn't think saying 'o god' is taking the Lord's name in vain.
I still kind of hold this opinion even though I do serve God now. However, using the actual name of God as slang or a curse word, is a different story. It really does make me cringe to hear people use the name of the Lord Jesus when they are cussing. Even worse than that, they tend to divide the Jesus and the Christ with some horrible or mocking expletive. They will indeed be held accountable for this and it certainly violates this commandment. But it doesn't necessarily violate the commandment in the way you think.
As I said, I think there is more to this commandment than just throwing around the name of God. There are many verses that will give us insight into the importance God places on His name. There are three verses in one chapter of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 20:9,14, 22) where God says He acts for the sake of His name. There is another verse in Ezekiel where God lets the people know that He isn't doing anything for them but for the sake of His Holy Name (Ezekiel 36:22).
These are only a few. The prophets are full of verses like these and since I think everything after Deuteronomy is just insight and commentary on the Torah, let's go to Leviticus for some foundation on the subject.
Leviticus 18:21 says:
"And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord." KJV
This is what the New International Version says:
"Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord."
We aren't going to go into the atrocity of child sacrifice in this study, but we are looking at how God views this detestable act. It profanes His name. There is an aspect of the Third Commandment that is tied to our behavior. We shame the name of God when we are ungodly.
We are going to do a little word study and then we are going to bring this home and show what I think it means for the Christian.
According to the Strong's Concordance, the word 'vain' in the Third Commandment means: emptiness, vanity, falsehood, lying, worthlessness of conduct. Wow, most of us never get past that 'empty' definition to the 'action' aspect of the word.
I think that it is interesting that Strong's concordance includes lying and falsehood in the definition. Remember where Jesus said that we aren't supposed to swear by anything, but let our 'yea be yea and our nay be nay?' (Matthew 5:37). It would almost seem that lying or breaking a vow is part of that whole 'vain' thing in the Third Commandment.
The point is, vain doesn't just mean 'without cause'. It indicates an action. Remember 'worthlessness of conduct' was part of the definition.
Now comes the clincher for me. The Commandment says,
"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
How does Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible define the word 'take' in the above commandment? It means:
" to bear, to lift, to carry, to take (as in take with you)."
That, my Friends, is the heart of the matter. To speak or utter is not included in the definition. Go ahead, search it online. the Strong's number is 5375. When the commandment says to take the name, it means to carry.
Now...What do we call ourselves? Do we not call ourselves Christians? Are we not the Bride of Christ? The very name 'Christian' ties us to the name of Jesus. We, as His bride, have taken his name as wives do.
I repeat, we are Christians. We have taken the name of our husband. We bear and carry with us, His name. Let us not shame the Lord by behaving in a way that is unbecoming for one that bears His name.
I realize I was a little...OK a lot...redundant there at the end, but I just wanted to drive home the point. We carry the name of Christ. Let us not carry the name of the Lord our God with worthlessness of conduct. It is the sin of breaking the Third Commandment.
Thanks for stopping by. God bless you and yours.
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