Not Taking the LORD’s Name in Vain

A New-Life Resolution

To take the name of the LORD in vain has very little to do with uttering imprecations, swearing, or saying things such as “Jesus Christ,” “Jesus,” “Christ,” or “God-dammit” (or “damn-it” if you prefer a different spelling) when you are angry.

Language carries meaning, and if we are to understand this commandment, we need to see what the language says. The Hebrew word for “take” is nasa. It means to lift up, bear, carry, or support. Furthermore, the tense of this word implies a continuous action, not a once-and-done activity. This third commandment is about continually carrying the name of the LORD. But this begs the question, who carries the name of the LORD?

It has been, for most of human history, customary for a woman to give up her name and take the name of her husband when they are married. We may talk about a woman’s maiden name, the name she had before she was married, but on the day she married, she removed her old name and put on her new name.

The same is true of people who profess that the LORD is their God. By taking his name, they say they will have no one else other than God and they will worship no one else. This is what the first two of the Ten Commandments are about:

1) You shall have no other gods before me
2) You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth…You shall not bow down to them or serve them,

These first two commandments — confessing that the LORD is the only God and forgoing worship of other gods — are precursors to the third of the Ten Commandments:

3) You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.

Just as in a marriage, before a bride takes the name of the LORD as their own, the bride declares that the LORD is the only God and they choose to worship only him. Then, when the bride does take the LORD’s name, the LORD’s Father, God, warns that they must not take this name in vain for it is his also. But this begs another question: what does the word vain mean?

The Hebrew word for vain, sav, means emptiness, vanity, falsehood, or lying. Thus, taking a name in vain means to lie about living under the new name.

In marriage, this means that when the bride takes her husband’s name, she will not continue living as their own person; they will not hold onto their former identity. They will not dishonor their new spouse, dishonor their in-laws (their new mother and father who also have their name), or live in a way that would dishonor their new name.

Following the third commandment about not taking the LORD’s name in vain, are a series of commands that define the actions of one who does not hold the LORD’s name lightly. He is someone who;

4) Honors the LORD’s holy day, the Sabbath,
5) Honors their father and mother, and honors others by…
6) Not Killing,
7) Not Committing adultery,
8) Not Stealing,
9) Not Lying, and
10) Not Coveting.

I think it is fair to say that the heart of the Ten Commandments is the third Commandment; the vow to take the LORD’s name with due honor and respect.

While God initially commanded this of Israel, his chosen people, it also applies to any who takes the LORD’s name as their own.

When a person takes the name of the LORD as their own, they are giving up loyalty to all else (other gods and idols), they are promising to honor the LORD in the way he chooses, and they are promising to treat all of God’s other children in an honorable way. To live otherwise is to take, carry, hold, or proclaim as our own the LORD’s name in vain.

This doesn’t mean we are free to say “Jesus Christ,” “Jesus,” “Christ,” or “God-dammit” (or “damn-it” if you prefer a different spelling) the next time we stub our toe. Neither does it mean we shouldn’t be offended when others say such things. But it does mean that such an interpretation of the Third Commandment is shallow and childish.

The real meaning of the Third Commandment is to tell those who have given up their birth name (the name of a naturally-born sinner) and taken the name of the LORD as a sinner saved by his grace and mercy that they should not carry the LORD’s name in vain. Those who have taken the LORD’s name should not let his new name be just empty words. To carry the name of the LORD means that we worship only the LORD, we value what he values, and we engage with others in the way he does.

When Philip asked Jesus to show him the Father, Jesus replied by saying, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). If we want to know what it means to take the name of the LORD, we need to look no further than Jesus and his life. For, by seeing Jesus, we see the Father. We know what the Father wants of us and how he wants us to live.

When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was. He said,

The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:29-31)

Jesus didn’t erase the commandments; he gave us a new understanding of them. And in doing so, he also gave us a new understanding of what it means to not take the LORD’s name in vain and, ultimately, a new understanding of the Ten Commandments: they are wedding vows.

• Commandments one and two declare the bride’s exclusive love.
• Commandment three declares that the bride has taken a new name.
• Commandments four through ten declare that the bride will live in such a way to honor the new name she has taken.

With such an understanding of the commandments and, in particular, the third commandment, it seems appropriate to suggest that those who have taken the LORD’s name as their own might want to start the year out by renewing their sacred wedding vows to the LORD.

“Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matt 13:52)