More Than Just Swearing – The Ten Commandments Part 4.
Swearing is prevalent in our society. But is that what this particular commandment is referring to? Stephen March explains the third commandment.
More Than Just Swearing
We come to the third commandment in this episode, and of all of them, it sometimes seems to be the one taken most lightly. The command, as found in Exodus 20:7,
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”
At the risk of using a broad generalization here, most often when this commandment is brought up, we think of those who would use the name of God, or of Jesus as a cuss word, and that certainly would be an appropriate understanding of this law. However, the command to not use the Lord’s name in vain extends beyond this application, and I think sometimes we may not even consider how we might be doing, without even noticing.
God’s Name as a Swear Word
I’ll start with the idea of using God’s name as a swear word. There are actually a number of things that go along with this that make it important. For the unbeliever, the use of the name of God, or of Jesus Christ, acknowledges at the very least an awareness of His existence. In the day of judgment, that day when all those who never put their trust in Jesus are held to account, and sentenced accordingly, no one who has used the Lord’s name in vain will be able to say to God, “but you never revealed yourself to me.” They knew His name, they didn’t honour it. To them it was just something to be uttered in frustration, or surprise, or even worse, to curse someone or something. The latter of those, for both those who believe and those who don’t, shows a complete misunderstanding of the nature of God.
Bless Not Curse
Nowhere in Scripture are we called upon to curse anyone, in fact, multiple places in the Bible tells us to bless those who persecute us, and do not curse them. God’s nature is not to desire a curse upon anyone, yes, His righteousness demands that sin is punished, but His desire is that all men would repent of their sin, that is turn away from it, and toward God, accepting the sacrifice Jesus made for our sin at the cross, and enjoy forgiveness and eternal life. If God desired the curse to fall the instant a person sinned, no one would live long enough to be forgiven.
The interesting thing about using God’s name in this fashion, whether it be as a curse, or in frustration, is that it is uniquely the God of the Bible, or His Son Jesus that is used. To me this suggests that people recognize God’s power and authority, even if they don’t acknowledge Him as Lord. Often they aren’t even aware of this, it is like they subconsciously declare God as almighty. And that’s the problem with this, especially for believers who know better, or should know better, is that to do this essentially takes God out of His own name. The word used, vain, simply means empty, or useless, and our God is far from that.
The Integrity of God’s Name
As we move on from this idea and improper usage of the name of God as a cuss word, we get to, perhaps a more subtle truth from this commandment. God cares about the integrity of His name. Countless times throughout the scriptures we read that the name of God is to be feared, that is to be held in a sense of reverential awe. In Psalm 111:9 it says that
“He sent redemption unto His people, He has commanded His covenant forever, holy and reverend is His name,”
or “holy and awesome” is His name.
In Nehemiah 9:5 it says
“ Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.”
Even Jesus himself, when teaching His disciples how to pray began
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name.”
The name of God is to be revered.
Brian Cullen’s Name
As I was discussing this program series with a colleague, she related a story from her own experience of a time when her parents purchased a used vehicle from a local dealership. The dealership was named after the owner, Brian Cullen Motors. So her parents bought this used vehicle, and as is usually the case they had put their decals on the back of the car and added a Brian Cullen license plate holder. Well after about four or five years of driving this car, it broke down, cars do that sometimes.
Now, this was before the days when everyone carried a cell phone with them, and as they stood beside the car wondering what to do next, a well-dressed man in a nice car stopped, went over to the family and proceeded to help them in arranging for a tow truck to take the car to a nearby service station. As it turns out, he had it towed to his own service station, at Brian Cullen motors, the man was Brian Cullen himself. When the family thanked him and asked him why he was so willing to help, he simply answered, “because that’s my name on the back of the vehicle.”
This man cared so much about his reputation, and the reputation of his dealership, that he would go out of his way to protect its integrity. Yes, absolutely he wanted to help a former customer, but he also wanted to make sure that the people driving by on that busy street weren’t seeing a broken down car with Brian Cullen Motors on the back of it.
Wearing Christ’s Name
If you are a professing believer in Christ, a Christian, you are walking around with His name on you. And His name is not just an identifier, something that he, and subsequently we are to be called by. His name, whether it be Jesus, Christ, or even God, carries with it His reputation. It brings about thoughts of His nature, and character. And he cares very much about that.
Now, I certainly don’t want to make being a Christian harder than it already is, but how much consideration do we give that thought? That we carry the Lord’s name with us? I’m not talking about being perfect, we know we can’t be, and God knows we can’t be, but are we putting an emphasis on living a godly life, every day?
Peter writes in his first letter,
“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,”
that is don’t keep living the way you used to, before you made the decision to follow Christ,
“but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.”
He would write later to
“put away all malice, and all deceit, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all slander.”
James would warn in his letter about the danger of the tongue, how damaging our speech can be to others, ourselves and to our testimony and witness of the Lord Jesus.
The Perception of God’s Character
As believers, do we take all this to mind? If we profess to be Christians publicly, and we should, we should seek to spread His glory and His gospel, do we take stock to both how the people around us view our character, but more so how they perceive God’s character through us? If we say I’m a Christian, and so I live according to the nature and character of Jesus, is it reflected in our words and actions? Or, are we seen as unloving, arrogant, greedy, prideful, selfish, hurtful, reckless, lacking self-control? These are just some of the character traits from 2 Timothy 3.
If God doesn’t want His church to be associated with these traits, He certainly doesn’t want these attitudes associated with Himself. I’ve often heard it said that many people in this world will never read the Bible, but they will read the Christian, and there is truth in that. I believe God gives us these warnings in His word to remind us that as Christians, we can take His name in vain by the way we live our lives. Now again, we know we will mess up, we will make mistakes, so it is important to self-examine often so that when we do we can own it, confess to God, and to those we have offended and ask forgiveness.
Consider the One Who Died For Us
At the same time, and this is for all us, please don’t think I’m excluded from any of this, let’s start paying more attention to our Lord, studying His word, considering the importance and integrity of the Name we carry with us on a daily basis. If we do that, then maybe when someone offends us, or cuts us off on the highway, or disagrees with us on Facebook, or whatever our trigger is, we will be able to first consider the One who died for us, and respond in His love and grace, rather than our own anger and wrath. The maybe more people will see His glory, rather than what appears to be an empty faith, from an empty God. We know our God and the Lord Jesus Christ are not empty, we know there is nothing vain about them, so let’s live that way.
Do you think the 10 Commandments are still important today? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Stephen March
Stephen March is the President of FBH International and HopeStreamRadio. He graduated from the Broadcasting Program at Niagara College in 2001, and has previously worked in television production and post-production. Stephen lives in St. Catharines, Ontario, with his wife Corinne and their four children.
Read and hear more from Stephen March on his contributor’s page. Stephen currently has 5 Programs on HopeStreamRadio:
- Please Forgive Me
- Isolation Chronicles
- Faith By Hearing – The Twelve
- Bibles and Baseball
- Bible Tech Talk
More Podcasts Below:
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Why Did Jesus Say “I Am the Bread of Life
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