The Third Commandment – The Lord’s Name

Good morning. It’s so good to see everybody today, and we’re thankful to Gavin for leading our singing this morning. We’re going to be starting off in Exodus chapter 20 today as we think about the third commandment of the Ten Commandments. Maybe you remember that in Exodus chapter 20, God spoke those Ten Commandments directly from heaven to His people. They are referred to as the Ten Commandments specifically in Exodus 34:28, Deuteronomy 4:13, and Deuteronomy 10:4. As we think about the Ten Commandments, we recognize that they were the basis for the Law of Moses, and they formed the nucleus of God’s desires for men to live a moral and godly life. So the Ten Commandments are not to be taken lightly, and they occur in two different parts.

Maybe you remember, as we’re talking about the Ten Commandments and their significance in our society today, that not too long ago the state of Texas passed a law that permitted the Ten Commandments to be displayed in the school systems in our state. That law has been challenged in court, but it hasn’t been struck down yet, from what I understand, so it’s being upheld. That’s because this is a voluntary thing; no one is required to do anything in reference to them. It’s just about displaying the Ten Commandments in the classroom, and they have to be displayed in a very specific way. That law passed last year, and then it was challenged. But we were able to develop some posters that followed the state guidelines, and we’ve got those posters in our middle school here. I don’t know about the elementary and high school; they may have some too. They do? Okay. So we’ve been putting them in the middle school, and we’ve got the Ten Commandments there in all the classrooms of the middle school.

When we think about their significance, though, that’s a little different aspect, and we’re going to talk about that this morning. Really, the first four commandments relate to man’s relationship to God, and the last six commandments relate to man’s relationship to man. As we consider each one of these commandments, we see that they are to show love for God and love for others. Of course, Jesus told us in Matthew chapter 22, verses 36 through 40, that the whole law hangs on these two principles: love for God and love for man. And so that’s what we have here.

Now, when we look at the third commandment, which is what we’re going to be looking at this morning, it says, “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.” What does that mean, and how does it apply to us today? There are basically two parts to this commandment. There is the command itself, and then there’s a consequence tied to this particular commandment. So we’re going to look at those two points this morning as we think about this third commandment, taking the Lord’s name in vain.

So let’s get started. First of all, let’s look at the content of the command. There’s really a lot to it. Some of these commandments are longer than others, and some of them are very short. But usually there’s more to say about the short ones than there is to say about the long ones. In this one we see, first of all, that it is a prohibition: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” A prohibition is an action that is forbidden by authority. This commandment is in the section about loving God. The first four are about loving God, and the last six are about loving mankind. If you think about loving anyone, we wouldn’t want to use someone else’s name in a flippant or casual way to insult them. Just generally speaking, we wouldn’t do that to other people unless we were trying to be offensive, and none of us really want to do that. So when it comes to God, we need to respect His name also.

As we think about this commandment, Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” It just seems consistent and natural to say, if we love God, we’re not going to use His name in vain. We’re going to try to talk about God in a serious way, in a holy way, in a way that’s going to honor Him and not show Him any disrespect.

Well, what about this name of God? Let’s think about it for just a moment. This word in the Old Testament, which many scholars believe is pronounced Yahweh, is the name of God that was given to Moses when he saw the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3. In that context, Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.'”

So God’s name here is presented as I AM, or I AM WHO I AM. That’s the Hebrew word we saw earlier, Yahweh, and it’s that word God uses here in Exodus 3:13–15 to tell Moses what His name is. Well, you can’t see this up against that, but I was going to show you the name. Anyway, it’s “I AM WHO I AM,” and then where it says “I AM,” and then skip down a couple of lines where it says “the LORD,” with a capital L and then O-R-D in small capitals. That’s the way the name of God is presented in most Bibles today. So when you see in your Bible a capital L followed by smaller capitals, O-R-D, that’s the name of God in the original Hebrew text. A lot of times it’s just translated as LORD in the Old Testament.

As we think about this name, it means “I AM,” or “I AM WHO I AM.” It’s the idea of God being the eternal one, the one who exists. It’s really more than just a name; it’s a description of who God is: one who exists from all eternity, uncreated, self-sustaining, the foundation of all existence. That’s the name God has for Himself that He gave to Moses. When we think about that name, we need to be respectful of it, and we need to be respectful of who God is, and even of the concept of God in that regard, because this is a concept God is presenting to Moses. It’s more than just letters on a page; it represents God’s essential being. So when we talk about God and think about Him, we need to talk about Him with respect and honor in regard to who He is.

A lot of times this commandment is about making a vow or a promise in the name of God. Numbers 30:2 says, “If a man makes a vow to the LORD” (that is, to Yahweh) “or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.” So this is the idea behind the third commandment. To use God’s name in vain is to use it in an empty or meaningless way. The word “vain” here is another Hebrew word, shav, and it means emptiness, nothingness, vanity, uselessness. If you think about the meaning of the word “vain,” and then the meaning of God’s name, Yahweh, “I AM WHO I AM,” the existent one, the one who undergirds all of reality, the very foundation of existence, those two things are opposites. To say the name of God and understand its meaning is the opposite of something empty or useless or worthless or vain. So to use the name of the Lord your God in vain is to act as if God isn’t the foundation of all reality, as if He doesn’t exist. Those two concepts, the concept of vanity and the concept of God’s name, are polar opposites. To think about God in that way would not only be disrespectful to Him; it denies Him altogether. It denies Him His proper place in reality.

Not only does this have to do with using the name of God in vain in regard to promises, but also in regard to cursing or blaspheming. For example, in Leviticus 24, verses 15 and 16, there is a judgment placed upon those who would curse or blaspheme the name of the LORD, and that judgment was for them to be put to death. So God takes His name seriously, and He takes cursing or blaspheming His name seriously. Those who would use the name of the Lord in vain would include those who curse or blaspheme God’s name, or who use God’s name in an unholy way. I think this is a lot of times what people do today when they say things like “Oh my God,” or when they refer to God casually, in a flippant or common way.

That’s another prohibition here. Leviticus 22:32 says, “You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel.” What does it mean to profane God’s name? It means to use it in a non-holy way, in a common way, in a way that doesn’t respect and give honor to the one who has that name. So that’s part of this prohibition also. It prohibits making vows, promises you don’t intend to keep. It prohibits blasphemy or cursing God. It prohibits using God’s name in a profane or common way.

In Ezekiel 36:20, Ezekiel points out that the people of God, the nation of Israel, had profaned God’s name by their behavior, by virtue of the fact that they didn’t listen to God and didn’t obey God. “When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name, when they said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of His land.'” God’s people, who left His land because of their sins, created a situation where God’s name was profaned. It was cast alongside all the other false gods and treated as if it wasn’t any better than any others. So they were guilty of breaking the third commandment by their behavior.

Referring to God’s name in a flippant way, or in a way that doesn’t demonstrate honor or respect, is another way we dishonor God’s name. We want to be able to distinguish between the holy and the unholy, and God’s name is holy. When we talk about God, we need to be talking about Him in a holy way, in a way that’s going to honor Him and respect Him. That’s one of the things God told the priests in Leviticus 10:10: you need to distinguish between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean. Then in Ezekiel 44:23, that principle is reiterated for the people coming out of captivity. When they returned, the priests had a job to do: “They shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy.” God’s name is holy, and we don’t want to treat it as if it is unholy. So we need to be constantly honoring God and respecting God and His name.

False swearing by God’s name is another thing we need to be concerned about. Sometimes people swear by God that they’re going to do one thing or another, and then they don’t do it. That’s another way to dishonor God’s name, to take God’s name in vain. Leviticus 19:12 says, “And you shall not swear by My name falsely, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.” And as we’ll see, there is application of this in the New Testament as well. In Deuteronomy 23:21–23, if you made a vow to the LORD, you were expected to keep it. You didn’t have to make a vow. You could abstain from it, and it wouldn’t be wrong. But if you made a vow to the LORD and used His name in making that vow, you had to keep your vow.

As we turn to the pages of the New Testament, Jesus taught, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”

What is Jesus talking about here in this context? They had this third commandment, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain,” and they had invented all kinds of other ways to swear or make an oath so that they didn’t have to keep that oath. Instead of swearing by God’s name, they would swear by heaven. They would swear by His throne. They would swear by the temple. They would swear by Jerusalem. They did all of these things so as to avoid using God’s name, so they wouldn’t be guilty of breaking the third commandment. What Jesus was basically saying is this: “Look, you don’t understand the third commandment, because if you promise something, you’re supposed to do it.” That’s really the heart of that commandment. Whether you’re swearing by God’s name or not, you need to keep your promises. That’s why Jesus said, if you say yes, say yes and mean it. If you say no, say no and mean it. That’s fine too. But don’t go around making up false oaths that you don’t intend to keep. Maybe you’re not using God’s name explicitly, but as far as God is concerned, you’re still breaking that third commandment because you’re not keeping your promises. That’s really the heart of what it’s talking about.

Now in James chapter 5, verse 12, James echoes Jesus when he says, “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No,’ lest you fall into judgment.”

I want to point this out also. In the New Testament, in Matthew chapter 6, verse 9, when Jesus is teaching His disciples to pray, He says, “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Holy be Your name. Jesus explicitly wanted us to honor God’s name because He considered it holy. We need to recognize the holiness of God’s name, and we need to recognize the holiness of God. When we use God’s name in vain, or when people take the word “God” and use it in a flippant and common way, we are not recognizing God’s holiness. We’re not using the Lord’s name properly when we do that or when we refer to Him in that way. And again, like Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, you don’t even have to use God’s name to take God’s name in vain. It could be something as simple as not keeping your promise, or something as simple as referring to God in a flippant way. All of that is caught up in honoring God’s name and keeping it holy within our lives.

This extends to our regular speech. One of the points Ezekiel made was that it was the behavior of God’s people that ended up profaning the Lord’s name. So our behavior needs to be exemplary. Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification.” Our words need to be clean. They need to be pure. They need to be holy. When we do that, we are honoring God and respecting that third commandment in the way God intended it to be respected.

Well, let’s look at the consequences of the command real quick. At the end of this commandment we see that “the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” We already looked at Leviticus 24:10–16 and noted that the death penalty was attached to cursing or blaspheming God. That’s something that happened as a result of one who would not take God seriously. And those who were guilty of making a false oath had to offer a guilt offering in sacrifice, in Leviticus chapter 5, verses 4 through 6.

Now today, Jesus says this in Matthew 12:36–37: “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” You might just read “vain word” there. The idea is that our words are important and serious, and we want to use our words in a way that’s going to honor God and respect Him, not in a way that’s going to cause people to think God isn’t holy, that He’s not to be honored or respected. When we use God’s name properly, we’re going to have the right relationship with God.

But what about those who don’t use God’s name properly? Is there any forgiveness for that? Well, of course there is. God will forgive. We note very specifically in Acts 2:38 that Peter said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” So if someone has used God’s name in vain and wants to be forgiven of that, and they’re not a Christian, they can be baptized. They can become a Christian, and they can be forgiven. In Acts 22:16, Paul, who was Saul, certainly had been guilty of blaspheming God, speaking against the church, and doing all kinds of horrible things. He had taken the name of God in vain. And he was called upon to arise and be baptized and wash away his sins, to be forgiven of that.

And today, for the Christian who is walking in the light, maybe sometimes a Christian will use God’s name in vain. The Christian should not do that, but if he or she does, there is forgiveness. We simply need to pray to God to forgive us, and then make a resolution in our life. We need to repent of our sin and resolve that we’re not going to use God’s name in vain. That’s 1 John chapter 1, verses 7 through 9.

As we think about this command against taking God’s name in vain, here is a summary statement from a commentary I have in my office. It’s a good commentary, and it says this: “The command prohibits all employment of the name of God for vain and unworthy objects, and includes not only false swearing, which is condemned in Leviticus 19:12 as a profanation of the name of Jehovah, but trivial swearing in the ordinary intercourse of life, and every use of the name of God in the service of untruth and lying, for imprecation, witchcraft, or conjuring; whereas the true employment of the name of God is confined to invocation, prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, which proceed from a pure, believing heart.”

We want to use God’s name in a holy and good way. With that in mind, we’re not going to take God’s name in vain. We’re not going to blaspheme God. We’re not going to refer to God disrespectfully. We’re going to keep our promises. And when we talk about God, we’re going to talk about Him in a way that is holy and honorable and respectful. Anything other than that is going to be a violation of the third commandment, which even Jesus expected His disciples to respect and obey.

So this morning we ask: How has your use of God’s name been in your life? Has it been respectful? Has it been holy? Have you given honor to God when using His name? We want to do that. But maybe if you haven’t, and you’d like prayers, we’d be happy to pray with you. Or maybe you’re not a Christian and you want to become a Christian. You want to start using God’s name in an honorable and respectful way. I know of no better way to do that than to obey Jesus’ plan for your salvation, which is to hear His voice and believe it, repent of sins, confess Him as Lord, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. This morning you can honor God’s name by doing those very things, and you will demonstrate that God is holy and righteous and good by following that great plan. So if you have a need to respond this morning, we urge you to do so while together we stand and sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!