Among the Ten Commandments, one of the most misunderstood is the third one: “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” (Exodus 20:7 NKJV).
This is also one of the most easily broken commandments because it’s so misunderstood. Of course, the obvious way people break this commandment is through profanity, when they use God’s name to punctuate their sentences.
Ironically, some people who claim to be atheists even use the name of Jesus Christ in this way. I find it curious that someone who doesn’t believe in God would use the name of Jesus Christ to emphasize a point.
More than any other profanity, this one offends me the most. I know it offends God, too. When I hear someone use the Lord’s name in that way, I react. I say something like, “Careful, he might answer you sometime” or “You know him too? He’s my best friend.”
When a person uses the name of Jesus Christ, even if they don’t believe in him, they’re indirectly acknowledging there is power in his name. As C.S. Lewis pointed out, even atheists have moments of doubt. There is something special about the name of Jesus.
There is power in his name because it’s the name above all names. The apostle Paul said this about Jesus: “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9 NKJV).
Also, there is salvation in his name, because the Bible says, “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved'” (Romans 10:13 NKJV).
Yet some people go out of their way to mock God and take his name in vain. They go out of their way to insult Christians. They think it’s all a big joke.
The Old Testament tells the story of Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, who held a feast in which he decided to use the gold cups taken from the Temple in Jerusalem. Then we read that “while they drank from them they praised their idols made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone” (Daniel 5:4 NLT).
While King Belshazzar was going out of his way to mock God, a hand suddenly appeared and wrote some words on the wall: mene, mene, tekel, upharsin (see Daniel 5:25 NKJV). Loosely paraphrased, they meant that Belshazzar’s number was up. The party was over.
That night, Belshazzar was killed, and someone else took over his kingdom.
The Bible warns us, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7 NKJV).
While some go out of their way to mock God like Belshazzar did, others may take the Lord’s name in vain and not even realize it.
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One way is when they feel they always have to “swear to God” about everything, probably because they’re not known to be truthful. If you need to always strengthen your statement or promise by “swearing to God,” then something is wrong.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37 NLT).
Let’s say that someone calls and invites you to dinner. This isn’t one of your favorite people, yet they did offer to treat you, so you say, “OK, sure.”
But then 10 minutes before it’s time to meet, you get a text from your best friend, who also wants to get together for dinner that night. So, you send off a quick text to the other person and say, “Sorry, I’m not going to make it. Something came up.”
Let your yes be yes and your no be no. When you commit to something, do it.
When you commit to a job, do it, and do it well. And when you commit to a marriage, honor the commitment you made to your husband or wife. If you aren’t willing to keep that commitment for a lifetime, then do everyone a favor and don’t get married in the first place.
Another way people take the Lord’s name in vain is by using “Oh, my God!” or “OMG!” as a default expression. Do they really mean to invoke the name of the Most High God because they just had the most amazing burger?
It’s one thing to cry out to God when you hear bad news, or a tragedy strikes. But punctuating sentences with God’s name is using it in an empty, frivolous way.
We also can take God’s name in vain when we use it for personal gain. For instance, people start businesses and want people to know they’re Christians, so they’ll use God’s name to validate it. However, do they do quality work, or are they simply using God’s name to get business? If someone is using God’s name in that way, I hope they’re backing it up with good work, honesty, and integrity.
When people claim to speak for God but actually don’t, they’re using God name in vain. The Bible warns against those who say the Lord has spoken when the Lord has not spoken.
The book of Acts records an instance where Paul spoke at a synagogue in Berea. The people there didn’t take him at his word but “received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11 NKJV).
I love that. Every Christian should do that.
When God said in the third commandment that he wouldn’t hold the person guiltless who takes his name in vain, it was no idle threat. Rather, it was simply a statement of fact. He was laying down an unchanging truth like the law of gravity.
Anyone who steps off a 30-story building would fall to their death as a result of the law of gravity. And in the same way, anyone who takes the Lord’s name in vain will not be held guiltless. So don’t use the Lord’s name in an empty, idle, insincere, or frivolous way.
