"Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold
him guiltless that taketh His name in vain" (Exodus 20:7).
As the
second commandment concerns the manner in which God is to be worshipped
(namely, according to His revealed will), so this one bids
us worship Him with that frame of spirit which is agreeable to the dignity and
solemnity of such an exercise and the majesty of Him with whom we have to do:
that is, with the utmost sincerity, humility, and reverence.
"Fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD" (Deuteronomy 28:58).
O what
high thoughts we ought to entertain of such a Being! In what holy awe should we
stand of Him!
"The
end of this Precept is that the Lord will have the majesty of His name to be
held inviolably sacred by us. Whatever we think and whatever we say of Him
should savor of His excellency, correspond to the sacred sublimity of His name,
and tend to the exaltation of His magnificence" (Calvin).
Anything
pertaining to God should be spoken of with the greatest sobriety. Let us first
endeavor to point out the scope and comprehensiveness of this commandment. By the Name of the Lord
our God is signified God Himself as He is made known to us, including everything through which He has been pleased to reveal
Himself: His Word, His titles, His attributes, His ordinances, His works. The
Name of God stands for His very nature and being, as in Psalm 20:1; 135:3; John
1:12, etc. Sometimes the name of God is when it is used without propounding to
ourselves a proper end. And there are but two ends which can warrant our use of any of His names, titles, or attributes: for His glory
and for the edification of ourselves and others. Whatever is besides these is
frivolous and evil, affording no sufficient ground for us to make mention of
such a great and holy Name, which is so full of glory and majesty. Unless our
speech is designedly directed to the advancement of the Divine glory or the
promotion of the benefit of those to whom we speak, we are
not justified in having God’s ineffable Name upon our lips. He accounts Himself
highly insulted when we mention His name to idle purpose.
God’s
Name is taken in vain by us when we use it without due consideration and
reverence. Whenever we make mention of Him before whom the
seraphim veil their faces, we ought seriously and solemnly to ponder His
infinite majesty and glory, and bow our hearts in deepest prostration before
that Name. How can they, who think and speak of the great God promiscuously and
at random, use His Name with reverence when all the rest of their discourse is
filled with froth and vanity? That Name is not to be
sported with and tossed to and fro upon every light tongue. O my reader, form
the habit of solemnly considering whose Name it is you are about to utter. It is the Name of Him who is
present with you, who is hearing you pronounce it. He is jealous of His honor,
and He will dreadfully avenge Himself upon those who have slighted Him.
God’s
Name is used in vain when it is employed hypocritically, when we profess to be His people
and are not. Israel of old was guilty of this sin:
"Hear
ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come
forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name
of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel,
but not in truth, nor in righteousness" (Isaiah 48:1).
They
used the Name of God, but did not obey the revelation contained therein, and so
violated this Third Commandment (compare Matthew 7:22, 23).
When using the Name of God, we must do so in a way which is true to its meaning
and to its implications. Therefore He says to us,
"Why
call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46).
In
like manner, we are guilty of this awful sin when we perform holy duties
lightly and mechanically, our affections not being in them. Prayer without
practice is blasphemy, and to speak to God with our lips while our hearts are far
from Him is but a mocking of Him and an increasing of our condemnation.
God’s
Name is taken in vain when we swear lightly and irreverently, using the Name of
God with as little respect as we would show to that of a man, or when we swear
falsely and are guilty of perjury. When we are placed on oath and we attest
that to be true which we do not know to be true, or which we know to be false,
we are guilty of one of the gravest sins which man can
possibly commit, for he has solemnly called upon the great God to witness that
which the father of lies has prompted him to speak.
"He
that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of Truth" (Isaiah 65:16),
and
therefore it behooves him to consider well whether what he testifies is true or
not. Alas, oaths have become so excessively multiplied among us—being
interwoven, as it were, into the body politic—and so generally disregarded,
that the enormity of this offense is scarcely considered.
"Let
none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oaths, for all these are things that I
hate,
saith the
Lord" (Zechariah 8:17)
And
what shall be said of that vast throng of profane swearers who pollute our
language and wound our ears, by a vile mixture of
execrations and blasphemies in their common conversation!
"Their
throat is an open sepulcher... the poison of asps is under their lips: whose
mouth is full of cursing and bitterness" (Romans 3:13, 14).
Utterly
vain is their thoughtless plea that they mean no harm, vain their excuse that
all their companions do the same, vain their plea that it is merely to relieve
their feelings! What a madness it is when men anger you, to strike against God
and provoke Him far more than others can provoke you! But though their fellows
do not censure, nor the police arrest, nor the magistrate
punish them, yet
"The Lord will not hold him guiltless
that taketh his Name in vain." "As he loved cursing, so let it come
unto him... as he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let
it come into his bowels like water" (Psalm 109:17, 18).
God is
dreadfully incensed by this sin, and in the common commission of this
Heaven-insulting crime our country has incurred terrible guilt.
It has
become almost impossible to walk the streets or to enter mixed company without
hearing the sacred Name of God treated with blasphemous
contempt. The novels of the day, the stage, and even radio (and more lately
television, the cinema, and the press) are terrible offenders, and without
doubt this is one of the fearful sins against Himself for which God is now
pouring out His judgments upon us. Of old He said unto Israel,
"Because of swearing (cursing) the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the
wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil" (Jeremiah 23:10).
And He
is still the same: "The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His
Name in vain." Sore punishment shall be his portion,
if not in this life, then most assuredly so, eternally so, in the life to come.