(Exodus 20:7), ” 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.
We are continuing our study through the 10 commandments. Every time God says, “Thou Shall Not”, He’s simply saying, “Don’t hurt yourself.” And every time God says, “Thou shalt”, He’s saying, “Help yourself to some happiness.” In the first commandment God says, “thou shalt have no other gods before me.” In this commandment we learned that God wants us to worship the right God. The second commandment is, “thou shalt not make any graven images.” In this commandment we learned that God wants us to worship the right God in the right way. In this lesson we come to the third commandment, “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
• IMPORTANCE OF GOD’S NAME
The third commandment forbids man to speak anything that so much as reflects irreverence toward God’s name. Perhaps there is little or no meaning in some of our names, but God has a sense of the dignity and sacredness for His own name and He demands that we be concerned with the honor of the name of God. This is the reason that he issues the warning against his name being misused. The ancient Jews hallowed and regarded the name of God above all else. We are told that that when the scribes copied the sacred manuscripts, the name of God was approached in holy awe and reverence. The penman would stop, bathe himself all over, and return to his desk with a new unused pen. Then he would proceed to write the name of God in whatever form it appeared. There are over 300 names for God in the Bible, and His names reveal something about Him. When God says, “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” God is saying don’t use my name in any irreverent way.
• IMPROPER USE OF GOD’S NAME IN VAIN
The word “vain” means useless, worthless, and having no value.” So, the person that uses God’s name in vain is saying that God is useless, worthless, and has no value in their life. How is God’s name used in vain? Firstly, through profanity which seems to be the norm of the world? Politicians, Hollywood, men, women, and children have learned how to use profanity in their conversation. Today we are living in a cesspool of immoral, godless, and indecent language. We are living in a filthy, vulgar, dirty, rotten-talking generation in which it seems a lot of people went to school in hell and the devil was their teacher. Secondly, God’s name is used in vain through pretense in which a person claims to be saved and then lives an ungodly, sinful, wicked life, breaking this commandment. There is a great need among those who are saved to use God’s name properly.
• THE INDICTMENT AGAINST USING GOD’S NAME IN VAIN
The Lord will not let us get by with using His name in vain. We won’t get by with it in this walk of life, because it will hurt our character, and we won’t get by with it at the judgment of God. (Matthew 12:36-37), says, “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment.” For by thy words thou shalt be justified , and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” For the saved that use the Lord’s name in vain, they will stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ and give an account. For the unsaved that use God’s name in vain, they will stand at the Great White Throne Judgment and give an account. For all saved and unsaved, the Lord says that He will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain. One of God’s most beautiful gifts to mankind is speech. Among many things this is one that distinguishes people from animals. Isn’t it a tragedy that mankind would take that beautiful gift of speech and misuse it by cursing men and abusing and misusing the name of God Himself.
Pastor Allen Jackson