Taking God’s Name in Vain

The third commandment is about so much more than using God’s name as a curse word. Today, Sinclair Ferguson addresses our lifelong responsibility to honor the God who has placed His name and blessing on us in baptism.

The third commandment tells 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. And of course, that’s right. But it’s more than that, isn’t it?

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, as the fifth Psalm puts it, that he or she loves the Lord’s name and exalts in Him.

Think about this in terms of the two Testaments of the Bible, Old and New. You remember that 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 a wonderful privilege: God shining on His people. Think about it, the face of God turning towards His people in love and smiling at them. But do you remember the words that follow?

God says 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. So, to take the name of the Lord your God in vain was to be someone who accepted the Lord’s benediction and then went away and lived as if he or she had never received it. It seems almost impossible, doesn’t it, 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, I think we should remember the other occasion when God’s name is said to be put on people—and this time, people like you and me, if we’re Christians. Do you remember it?

Yes, it happened when you were baptized. You were baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I hope we all understand that’s a bigger blessing than the Aaronic blessing. But here’s the challenge: Am I living as though that had never happened, or living as though my baptism was just an empty sign or merely a sign of something I did in the past, so it doesn’t really matter so much today? If so, I couldn’t be further from the truth. I couldn’t be more deluded, really. I’m no longer on safe ground. Exodus 20 tells me I’m on dangerous ground. I’ve emptied the name of God that was put upon me of all of its significance. He’s pronounced a benediction, but I’ve forfeited the blessing by the way I live.

Remember how Paul found himself writing about this in Romans 6 to counteract the idea that because God has been gracious to us, it doesn’t really matter so much how we live, or even if we dishonor God’s name? You remember how he says, “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 a life in which you give yourself entirely to the Lord whose name has been placed upon you.

Somebody listening today is going to be tempted to take the Lord’s name in vain, to empty their baptism of all its significance. Don’t do that. Remember the family name that’s been placed on you and live as a member of the family of God.