“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
Exodus 20:7
In our study of the Ten Commandments we have been informed that the True God of Creation is solitary. He is of unity and is tolerant of no rivals. It stands to reason because of God’s nature and His differing from His created, that we must be told of His nature and character. It is for these reasons that He must reveal to us who He is. Some grasp that as a result of this nature (of God), He has chosen to reveal to us who He is by Scripture. It is this scripture that gives us a biography of His Son which shows us exactly what God is like. His Son also serves not only as a revelation of God but as a Savior of mankind.
It is within these scriptures that God declares His solitary nature and His refusal to accept anyone else as an equal or subordinate. This is the first of the 10 Commands. The second is a prohibition of any attempt to symbolically represent Him in the form of an idol or graven image.
With these in place God declares that we are not to take “His name in vain.” The NIV translates this as “misuse.” At the heart of this stipulation is the knowledge that God and the discussion of God are sacred.
The vain or profane use of God’s name violates the concept of the sacredness of God and results in the dishonoring of God. To profane God is to lessen the honor due God and destroys the place of worthiness that His person not only deserves but demands as well. This warning against the use of the name of God renders profanity to be prohibitive. As a result the incorporation of the name of God in cursing or in outbursts of anger is a violation of this commandment. We all recognize it when we hear it and unfortunately profanity is common place in the modern day world.
Speech patterns are habitual. We generally talk like our parents, family, classmates, and associates. How you talk before a child in private will often be shouted from the housetops by this same child when it will be the most embarrassing.
Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
Leviticus 19:12
God views vow relationships to be sacred. That which we declare in a court of law or before a congregation at the baptismal fount or before the altar is to be kept in integrity. We are not to back up the giving of our word with the name of God unless the commitment is from your soul. Jesus speaks to this issue in Matthew 5:33-37.
Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ 34But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Matthew 5:33-37
God takes the issue of vows quite seriously whether or not His name is spoken as the vow is pledged. The declaration here is 2 fold. We must honor our declarations with faithfulness when dealing with God and the same trustworthiness extends to our relationships with our fellowman. A latter listed commandment deals more directly with our dealings with our neighbors.
Monthly within our worship we celebrate communion at the altar rail. The minister and the communion steward serve one another, and then all others within the congregation who declare themselves to believe on Jesus as the Christ, come forward as well. This symbolic meal is celebrated as commanded by Jesus and constitutes one of our two sacraments. We recognize that the elements are symbols of the body and life of Christ that were given for our salvation. This is a time of spiritual renewal when we once again step out to profess Jesus as Lord and recall our vow of allegiance to His person and His Kingdom. It is a sobering time in that we recall His suffering for our sins and His warning to count the cost before we declare Him Lord. But it is also a time of joy for we again grasp God’s love to gift His own Son for our salvation.
We are now five centuries or so beyond the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. We are indebted to many men and women who suffered persecution and even death at the hands of the Church and State. Their crime was to question the status quo. From this seismic upheaval of the religious and political world was the emergence of a Bible in the language of everyday people. Few knew Latin or Greek, including the priests who uttered words they had memorized but didn’t understand. The translation of ancient texts into German and ultimately English suddenly provided a text that the literate could understand. The worthiness of the Bible could no longer be hidden from searching eyes eager to learn of God and the truth of salvation. We fail to appreciate the sacrifice necessary to bring us this book that we all possess but sometimes neglect.
God gives in His directions to those who teach and preach His Word, specific instructions concerning the declaration of His Word. They are to neither add to nor take away from this work. Simply, the Bible is God’s Word and the main ideas are not subject to tampering. To do so takes God’s Word “in vain.”
The striking feature that we all must glean from the 3rd of the 10 Commandments is that God places the aspect of words in a place of prominence. Words emerge from who we are within our heart. Jesus has warned us that only the pure in heart will see God.
