Taking God’s Name in Vain

The third commandment instructs us not to take the name of the Lord in vain. I suppose for most people, that means only one thing: don’t use swear words and especially don’t use God’s name as a swear word. Of course, that is right. But it’s more than that. What God is forbidding here is using His name lightly or thoughtlessly, as though neither God nor His name were of any importance to us. What marks out the true believer is that he or she loves the Lord’s name and exults in Him (see Ps. 5:11). We can think about this in terms of the two Testaments of the Bible, Old and New. In the days of the Old Testament, the high priest was to bless the people. 

The specific blessing, sometimes called the Aaronic benediction, is recorded in Numbers 6:24–26: The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. These are beautiful words, and they describe the wonderful privilege of God shining on His people. Think about it: the face of God turning toward His people in love and smiling at them. But do you remember the words that follow? God says this about the priests: “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them” (Num. 6:27). When the people of God received this blessing, God was putting His name on them. Therefore, to take the name of the Lord in vain was to accept the Lord’s benediction and then go off and live as if one had never received it. It seems almost impossible that someone would feel the smile of God in His benediction and then live as though it really didn’t mean anything to him or to her. But before we look down our noses at Old Testament believers, let’s remember the other occasion when God’s name is said to be put on people—and this time, it’s referring to people like you and me, New Testament believers. It happened when you were baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I hope we all understand that this is a bigger blessing than the Aaronic blessing. But here’s the challenge: Am I living as though that never happened? 

Am I living as though my baptism was just an empty sign, or merely a sign of something I did in the past that doesn’t really matter today? If so, I couldn’t be further from the truth or more deluded. I’m no longer on safe ground. In fact, Exodus 20 tells me that I’m on dangerous ground. I’ve emptied the name of God that was put upon me of all its significance. He has pronounced a benediction, but I’ve forfeited the blessing by the way I live. Paul wrote about this in Romans 6 to counteract the idea that because God has been gracious to us, it doesn’t really matter how we live, or even if we dishonor God’s name. He says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3). In other words, don’t you know the meaning of your baptism? Don’t you know that the name of Christ was placed upon you? 

If the name of the Lord has been put on you in baptism, then the rest of your life should be one in which you give yourself entirely to the Lord, whose name has been placed upon you. Perhaps today you are tempted to take the Lord’s name in vain, to empty your baptism of all its significance. Don’t do that. Remember the family name that has been placed on you and live as a member of the family of God.

Adapted from Things Unseen: One Year of Reflections on the Christian Life by Sinclair Ferguson