Deuteronomy 5:11 - The Decalogue The Basis Of The Covenant, The Essence Of The Whole Law, And The Condition Of Life And

The third commandment. Reverent regard for the Divine Name.

The "Name" of God is the form of speech for God himself. "To take" the Name of God means "to take it up"—to use it in any way, which may be done either by speaking to him, of him, for him, or against him. "To take up this Name in vain" means to take it up falsely or vainly. And inasmuch as it has been so grievously common to use the Name of God profanely in oaths, this third commandment has come to be regarded chiefly as a prohibition against swearing. It is that , but it is a great deal more. This commandment is "exceeding broad." It may be wronged, not only by an undue limitation of it, but also by a too slavish adherence to the letter of it; e . g . according to the teaching of the rabbis, certain oaths were harmless if the Name of God was not specifically mentioned in them (cf. Matthew 23:16-22 ). Further, the expression "in vain" was interpreted as meaning "if you take an oath you must fulfill it;" take as many oaths as you please, so long as you do not break them, and thus turn them into falsehood. The effect of this cold and superficial teaching of the rabbis was twofold. It created artificial distinctions which our Savior did not recognize, and it obliterated such as were of great importance in his eye. It is needful for us, then, to be guided by the spirit of our Lord's teaching, if we would rightly develop this third law. Since our Savior in his Sermon on the Mount removed the glosses with which the rabbis had overlain the Law and restored it to its pristine clearness and purity.

I. WHAT IS FORBIDDEN BY THIS THIRD COMMANDMENT ? We are all aware that some have regarded our Savior's words, " Swear not at all," as prohibitive of solemn oath-taking in a court of justice. We cherish all respect for those who so regard them, but we cannot view them in this light, for the following reasons:

1. All scoffing at sacred things ; not merely at the word "God," or at the doctrine of the Divine existence, but ridiculing the Bible as the Book of God, the Sabbath as the day of God, Christians as the people of God, and religion as obedience to God. The mild and supercilious scorn of modern skepticism is equally a violation of this precept—it tramples under foot the Son of God.

2. Perjury is another form of violation of this command . The idea of swearing is that of calling God to witness; and to invoke that great and awful Name to witness a lie is one of the most grievous breaches of this law.

3. Profanity also is here forbidden , i . e . taking the Name of God on the lips on every trifling occasion. This is now thought, as indeed it is, ungentlemanly, to a far greater extent than was the case fifty years ago. So far well. Only let us take care that for a custom to be out of fashion , does not act with us more powerfully than its offensiveness to God, in inducing us to give it up! Some are more concerned at a hole in their manners than at a breach of morals. These things ought not so to be.

4. Frivolity in reference to Divine things is a transgression of this command . This is by no means to be confounded either with scoffing or with profanity. It may be found where there is great reverence for God, great kindness of heart, combined with an excessive fondness for raising a laugh. And where this is the case, even sacred things are but too seldom exempt from frivolous treatment. We recall some acquaintance whose chief, yea, whose only apparent fault, was the extreme tendency to turn everything into a joke, even things most sacred. Many were ready to excuse the frivolity for the sake of the talent it revealed. But they are "nowhere" now. Their levity was their ruin. Wit and humor have indeed a place of no mean value in social life. Social evils are often exposed more effectively in scorn and satire than in graver speeches. But there is no tendency of any man which needs to be more wisely cultured, more carefully and prayerfully guarded, and more conscientiously directed, than that to which we are now referring. Apart from this, there is exceedingly great danger of its leading to the "taking the Name of God in vain."

5. There may be a breach of this commandment without frivolity (as usually understood), even where there is no sense of humor and no talent for witticisms, in the indulgence of a vicious habit, much more easily formed than broken off, of interlarding the conversation with certain well-known epithets . We know what these were in Christ's time (see Matthew 23:16-22 ; Matthew 5:33-36 ). This is conceited talk, and it is sinful talk.

6. False teaching for God breaks this law (see Jeremiah 23:21-24 , Jeremiah 23:31 ). There are several ways by which, in teaching others, the Name of God may be taken falsely. Either

The first was common in the days of Jeremiah; the second and third are at once more ancient and more modern. Whenever any ambassador for God gives his own thoughts as if they were God ' s message , he is taking the Name of God in vain. Or if a man, while professing to speak for God, is speaking with the desire to exalt himself, he is guilty of the same sin.

7. Hollowness and formality in the professed worship of God are breaches of the third commandment . We take God's Name in vain if we sing "the songs of Zion" with a vacant heart, or outwardly join in the prayers of the sanctuary without devotion in the soul ( Ezekiel 33:30 , Ezekiel 33:31 ; Isaiah 29:13 ). Oh, the number of times we have been on our knees and have used the Name of God in" indolent vacuity of thought!" "Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?"

8. We may break this commandment by vowing unto God , and then not fulfilling the vow . When at the Lord's table, we take the sacramental oath of obedience to our Great Commander, and if we are not true to that, we add sin to sin by "taking the Name of God in vain."

II. HOW IS THIS PRECEPT GUARDED ? "The Lord will not hold him guiltless," etc. God may or may not mark this sin by visitations of temporal judgment; there are many cases in which levity has been the ruin of a man, even temporally. But the probability is that the more occult and deceptive forms of this sin will leave no appreciable mark on a man's earthly career. The marking of the guilt will be between God and a man's own soul. Hollow prayers bring no blessing; empty worship no growth in grace. Violated vows will bring down the displeasure of God. If God were to visit upon us all the sins of unreality and formalism, of mechanical routine, and of heartless work in his service, we should be lost men! "God often sees more in our prayers to disgust him than to please him," says Charnock. The Lord pardon the iniquity of our holy things!

III. HOW SHOULD THIS PRECEPT BE USED ?

1. As a probe . Possibly, when a preacher takes this text, some may say, "We don't need that. We never break God's law so I" Possibly not, in the conventional sense in which the text is often used now. But what about that conversation laden with frivolity? What about that lesson which had more of self than of God in it? What about the songs of the sanctuary, enjoyed for the sake of the music, without a thought of the words? What about the forgotten vows? Surely we can all recall so many breaches of this third commandment that, if we had not a pardoning God, we should be shut up in despair!

2. To quicken to penitence . By so much as our conviction is deep that we have broken this commandment a thousand times, by so much should our penitence be deep and definite before God.

3. To lead us to earnest entreaties for forgiveness . If we were not permitted to ask this, it would be all over with us, even if the third commandment were the whole of the Law.

4. To lead to fervent prayer for daily heart-renewal . " Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." If the heart is right the tongue will be right. "If a man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man." Well may we pray that every word we speak may be conformed to truth ( for in each of the eight ways named above there is a violation of truth ). When our heart, thoughts, words, and deeds are in harmony with God's nature and will, then shall we be true to the duty implied, and free from the sin forbidden, in the third commandment.