The Ten Commandments - 4
The Third Commandment
We are going to discover something more about the Ten Commandments given by God to his servant Moses, and which have a lot to teach us today. This time we are going to look at the third commandment and this is found in the Old Testament of the Bible in the book of Exodus chapter 20 and verse 7. Here is what it says:
"You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name."
This commandment deals with a sin that is committed with the tongue. The Bible has much to say about our tongues and the way we can use them for good or for evil. Jeremiah the prophet says of the human heart, "The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked". It is from the thoughts and intents of our hearts that we give voice to our feelings and intentions and what is inside us. The Lord Jesus said: "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks... I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken." In the New Testament, James describes the tongue as "a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." That's James chapter 3 verse 6.
The same tongue can praise God and curse men, and this third commandment concerns the misuse of the human tongue in relation to the name of the Lord God of heaven and earth. There are three things that we discover as we read this solemn command of the Lord: there is an ATTITUDE, a PROHIBITION and a WARNING.
Let's look first of all at the Attitude.
Every true Christian should be concerned to see the name of God exalted and honoured. The Psalmist, David, said "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name. Worship the Lord in the splendour of His holiness." He also said, "Glorify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together." But what is meant by "God's name"? If you refer to someone by their name, you are not referring to some arrangement of the letters of the alphabet, or parts of that person such as an arm or a leg, you're referring to the whole person. When we use God's name we are referring to His whole person. In other words, the name stands for the person. So, the name of God speaks of the whole person of God, the totality of His being and attributes. When you use His name you are speaking of all that God is. The name of God includes His character. He is the one who is infinite and eternal. He is unchanging in His wisdom and power and holiness, and in His justice and love and goodness and truth. When you use the name God, or Lord or Jehovah, or the name of God's Son, Jesus Christ, it should be with reverence and worship and honour.
How do we honour the name of God? We honour it when we are not ashamed to be called by His name. Christians are God's children through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As God's children we will not want His name to be dishonoured. We will want to remain true to His name by the way we live because what we do and what we say will bring either honour or dishonour on the name of our God and Saviour. What, then, is your attitude towards God's name? Does it fill you with awe and reverence and thanksgiving because of who He is?
There are many wonderful names given in the Bible to describe Jehovah, the eternal God, the one who keeps and protects and provides for His people. God's Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is described in the prophecy of Isaiah as, "Wonderful, counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the prince of peace." The very name "Jesus" reminds us that He is the Saviour from sins. So the name of our God is to be respected and honoured by all - this should be our ATTITUDE.
Secondly this commandment speaks of a PROHIBITION: "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God." There is a right way and a wrong way to use the Lord's name. What is meant by misusing God's name, or "taking it in vain" as the King James Version has it? We misuse the name of God when we use it lightly or irreverently or thoughtlessly. Would we go into the presence of a president or other important person and use their name in a flippant or casual way - of course not! We would not use the name of a friend in such a way as to dishonour them. So why treat the name of the Living God any differently?
We misuse God's name when in one breath we claim to belong to Him and with another we say evil things. This is what James was saying when he said, "We use our tongues to both praise God and to curse men." How careful we need to be when we are speaking of the Lord that we do so in a thoughtful and reverent way. It is a COMMANDMENT that we do not use the name of God in any way that would detract from who He is. The Psalmist says, "Holy and awesome is His name", and we must never forget this.
Sadly, too, the name of God is misused when it is used as a curse or in swearing. The Puritan, Thomas Watson, said, "Blasphemy and foul language is the dialect of hell." In many parts of the world it has become commonplace to hear the name of our Lord Jesus used in swearing. The name of God springs to peoples lips in exclamation when they are surprised or frightened or angry. They have no thought for God at all, but the use of His name seems to lend force to their emotion. This is wrong and is an evil and is the misuse of God's name forbidden in this commandment. Listening friend, guard your tongue against such evil, and graciously rebuke those who so dishonour the name of our great God and our Saviour.
So, we have discovered in this third commandment an "Attitude" and a "Prohibition". We come now to the "WARNING." It is a very solemn warning, found in verse 7 of Exodus chapter 20:
"The Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name."
Those who blaspheme God's name will be pronounced guilty before him on the day of judgement. This is God's verdict on all those who dishonour His name and use it carelessly. The sin of blasphemy is sometimes regarded as less significant than other sins in these days, yet no sin is small in God's sight and this commandment is as important as all those which follow it. The tongue which habitually misuses God's name indicates a heart that is far from Him. At the beginning of this talk I mentioned that the Lord Jesus said, "Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." If our hearts do not regard the holiness and majesty of God, then our lips will not praise Him and we will find ourselves using God's name in wrong ways.
What is your attitude towards God? will you heed the prohibition and take seriously the warning? Do you love the Lord? Do you want to honour His name? Have you called on the name of the Lord for His salvation? If you do it will transform your life and never again will you want to use His name in vain and so dishonour the one who loves you and gave His Son to die for your sins on the cross.