During the Civil War one company of soldiers adopted a
rule that every man who swore would be required to read
aloud a chapter from the Bible. While that rule was in force
one private read all of Genesis and Exodus and was starting
on Leviticus. The one recording the experience said he had
a fine prospect of finishing the Old Testament before his
three months enlistment was up. If ever there was a good
thing done for a bad reason, this was it. I suspect that the
Bible societies could scarcely meet the demand if this rule
was in force today. Swearing and using the name of God
and Christ in vain are so common today that it is hardly
even shocking anymore.
Swearomaniacs are allowed to run loose everywhere in
our society filling the air with pollution as dangerous to the
soul as carbon monoxide to the body. Profanity is one of our
greatest air pollution problems. It is highly contagious, and
young people grow up becoming infected with it almost
unconsciously. When I was a chaplain at a county jail I
asked the men to think about why they swear so much.
Every one of them agreed, they picked it up as children from
their parents.
Modern novels and films spew the poisonous germs of
profanity into the stream of our consciousness at a
frightening rate. If somebody is not swearing somewhere in
a movie it is supposedly unrealistic. As a matter of fact, it is
unrealistic to portray the lives of typical people without
profanity. Anyone who works among the public is aware of
the impure vocabulary of modern man, and regrettably,
modern women also. It use to be in poor taste to swear in
the presence of a lady, but now days she is liable to beat you
to it.
Young people are exposed to profanity from every angle.
And English teacher assigned a composition to be written
containing 250 words. The next day one boy stood up to
read his, and said, "My uncle was driving his new car one
day and he had a puncture. The other 236 words are not fit
for publication." It is not likely that the teacher would let
him get by with this, but it is also true that God will not let
the uncle get by with his profanity.
The Third Commandment has a concluding statement that says, "For
the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in
vain." We are not dealing here with a trivial matter, but one
that is extremely important from God's point of view. The
Third Commandment has to be taken seriously in our day,
for it is as far from being obsolete as sunshine and oxygen in
this dark and polluted world.
The implications and applications are two numerous to
cover in one message, and so we will be limiting ourselves to
a practical explanation of what is involved. Like the
previous commandments, this one is in a negative form, but
we will see Jesus give it a positive side. Let's consider first
the negative emphasis which-
I. PROHIBITS PROFANITY OF SPEECH.
You will notice that out of ten commandments two of
them deal with sins of the tongue--this one, and the ninth,
concerning false witness. Here it is our tongue in
relationship to God, and in the ninth, it is our tongue in
relationship to man.
The first thing we need to see concerning taking the
name of God in vain is that it is a serious sin. The tendency
is to think that after all, this is a minor matter in a world
plagued by war and crime and immorality. This attitude
reveals the degree of our deception and the superficial
nature of our understanding concerning the cause of mans
depravities. People often swear and say they mean nothing by it.
They think that eliminates them from danger, but that is the
very thing that is forbidden. To use Gods name in vain
means to use it in an empty and meaningless way. If you
mean nothing by it, you confess you have used it in vain.
We ought never to use the holy name of God except when we
mean something by it, and something worthy to be identified
with His great name. What is more empty and worthless
than men constantly asking God to damn someone or
something? Does anyone really think that God will follow
through? All they do by this empty use of God's name is
heap to themselves damnation. The person who uses God's
name in vain is saying that God is an empty meaningless
word.
All other sins are by-products of the loss of respect and
reverence for God. Once a man loses the sense of the holy
and the sacred he has broken down the only restraint that
can keep him from following his fallen nature to its logical
conclusion. If a man uses Gods name in vain, and curses
with the holy name of Christ, you can count on it that he will
also lie, steal, cheat, and do any evil he feels necessary to
accomplish his end. Nothing is sacred to a man who does
not even hold the name of God to be sacred.
God forbids in the Second Commandment that any image
be used to represent Him. God makes himself known
through His names, which reveal His power, holiness, and
purpose. To use His name in vain is a sign of contempt for
Him and His plan of salvation. Let us no longer think of
profanity as a mere minor matter, a mere social blunder, an
embarrassment. Profanity is a serious sin that leads to every
other sin by causing the swearer to lose respect for what is
right and holy. The Jews said, "Be careful, remember that
the whole world trembled when God gave the Third
Commandment." The seriousness becomes clearer if we
consider a parallel on the earthly level.
Why does the law of the land prohibit disrespect for the
flag of the United States? Is it not due to the fact that once
you permit the highest symbol of the land and its heritage to
be treated with disrespect, you open the door to every form
of disloyalty? If a man despises and treats lightly the highest
symbol of our country, then there is no end to the extent he
will go in defiance. God's name is the highest symbol of His
Person, and to use it profanely is to be guilty of an evil worse
than wiping your feet on the Stars and Stripes. Yet, we hear
it done daily without shock, offense, or rebuke. A man who
uses the name of God in vain does as much to undermine the
foundation of our freedom as a nation under God as the man
who burns the flag.
Arnold Toynbee, possibly the greatest historian of our
age, wrote, "Of the 22 civilizations that appeared in history,
nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral
state the United States is now in." One of the most patriotic
things American Christians can do is to make it known to
those who blindly desecrate the name of God the seriousness
of this thoughtless habit to there own souls and the future of
our land. If ever there was a Biblical truth with serious political
implications, it is this Third Commandment. People
who would never dream of spitting on the flag show the
same contempt toward the name of God. Calling their
attention to the folly of this could save them from being their
own worse enemy.
Profanity is not only a serious sin, it is a senseless sin.
Some sins against the laws of God bring a temporary gain or
satisfaction, but swearing is useless. It is all the more
offensive and damnable just because it is a sin without
temptation. All other sins appeal to some desire and lust
within us, but using God's name in vain is to be a rebel
without a cause. It is pure foolishness.
On record in the U.S. War Department is the following
general order issued by George Washington in New York,
July 1776.
“The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish
and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice
heretofore little known in an American army, is growing
into fashion. He hopes the officers will by example as well
as influence, endeavor to check it, and that both they and
the men reflect, that we can have little hope of the blessing
of Heaven on our arms, if we insult it by our impiety and
folly. Added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without
any temptation, that every man of sense and character
detests and despises it.”
General George Washington In this order Washington states the
two points we are considering. He says it is both serious and senseless.
Robert Kahn, a Jewish Rabbi, points out the senselessness of
profanity by describing some poor benighted souls he knows
who are so bankrupt in vocabulary that they must describe
everything by the same word. He writes, "If they wish to tell
you how fast a car was going, they say it went as fast as hell,
or if they are trying to describe how slow the car in front of
them is going, they say it was going as slow as hell.
Something as wide as hell, narrow as hell, tall as hell, short
as hell, hot as hell, cold as hell, rich as hell, poor as hell, old
as hell, young as hell. Now tell me, he concluded, isn't that
dumb as anything?" Such thoughtless profanity is
intellectual insanity.
Saying "hell" is not directly taking God's name in vain,
but it does so indirectly as does all such foolish speaking, for
it brings disrepute upon the name of God when spoken by
one professing faith in God. The New Testament says we
will have to give an account for all foolish language, and it
says that by our words we shall be justified and by our
words we shall be condemned.
The negative prohibition is for the sake of the positive
goal of a sanctified life in all areas. The most crucial area is
the area of speech, for if a man can conquer his tongue and
use it for the glory of God, the rest of his nature will also
submit. In James 3:2 we read, "If any man offend not in
word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the
whole body." Speech, therefore, is the key test of a man's
character. If it is profane, foolish, and offensive to both God
and man, you know his life and relationship to God is also a
mess. This means that the sanctified life is one where the
tongue is a servant of righteousness and a blessing to God
and man. Thus, we see the positive aspect of this command
which-
II. PROMOTES PURITY OF SPEECH:
When we go to the New Testament for the positive, it
does not mean that the Old Testament does not contain the
positive, for it does. It is an obvious conclusion to come to
that if you are not to take God's name in vain; you are to
take it reverently. In Lev. 22:32, we find the negative and
positive clearly stated together. "And you shall not profane
my holy name, but I will be hallowed among the people of
Israel." It is there in the Old Testament, but in a remote
place. Jesus, however, puts it in a conspicuous place for all
to see by making the first petition of the Lord's
Prayer--"Hallowed by Thy name."
The Christian does not fulfill the Third Commandment
by a mere negative refraining from swearing. We must
fulfill the positive goal of hallowing the name of God by
using it in a reverent, holy and fruitful manner. Silence is
not the goal, but purity of speech, which is backed up with
purity of life. The Third Commandment amounts then to a
commandment of sanctification.
The Jews finally came to see the implication of this
commandment for all of life. The Jewish Talmud says, "If
any act, though permitted by law, may provoke the
defamation of Israel and of God, then, in spite of its abstract
legality, it becomes a great sin and crime." Unfortunately
they did not always practice what they knew, and Paul tells
us the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles
because of the Jews. They honored God with their lips, but
profaned His name by their lives. Purity of speech is itself
profanity if one's life makes mockery of the words. All the
pious talk in the world is a taking of God's name in vain if
the tongue does not truly express our hearts and our walk.
Leighton, in expounding on the phrase hallowed be Thy
name says, "This is the most effectual sanctifying of His
name by way of declaring it holy, when His people walk in
holiness. Though you tell the world that He is holy, they
know Him not; they can neither see Him nor His holiness,
but when they see that there are men, taken out of the same
lump of polluted nature with themselves, and yet, so renewed
and changed that they hate the defilement of the world, and
do indeed live holy lives in the midst of a perverse
generation; this may convince them that there is a brighter
spring of holiness, where it is in fullness, from which these
drops are that they perceive in men; for seeing that it is not
in nature there must be another principle of it, and that can
be no other than the holy God. Thus is His name hallowed,
and He known to be holy by the holiness of His people."
This means that the Third Commandment, when fully
obeyed, leads to the sanctification of all of life. Our speech is
to be a true expression of a life being lived for the glory of
God's name. It means that we must speak the truth and
avoid all lies, slander, and false witness. Our honestly must
be obvious, and men ought to trust our word without oaths.
As Jesus said, "Let your yea be yea and your nay, nay." Yes
or no ought to be sufficient for one who honors the name of
God.
Oaths are involved here. If you use the name of God to
confirm some statement, or swear it is the truth in Gods
name, and your doing it to deceive, you drag His name down
to the level of evil. Anyway in which we identify the name of
God with what is less than righteous is taking His name in
vain. In the Old Testament if a man let another keep his ox
when he went on a journey, and the ox was stolen or ran
away, when the owner returned the man who kept the ox
could only swear by the name of God than he did not steal it
himself. There are no witnesses and no evidence if he if
lying, and so no judge can find him guilty. But the point is,
God will not hold him guiltless for taking His name in vain,
and using His name to cover evil. You can fool man and
outwit justice, but be sure your sin will find you out. God
will not be outwitted and you will pay for your misdeeds.
The Second Commandment forbids the linking of God to
any fixed image. This Third Commandment forbids that we
link His name with any idea that is unworthy of His nature.
Many who would never dream of reducing God to an idol
will reduce Him to a curse word, which is equally vile. We
double any sin that we do if we link the name of God with it.
If we are prejudiced, that is a sin. If we say we are
prejudiced because God wills it or it is God's plan, thus
seeking to justify our sin by linking with the name of God,
we sin doubly, and double will be our condemnation.
If you take a man's name and put it on a plaque in
Westminister Abbey, or some hall of fame, you bring honor
to that person by what you do with his name. If you write it
on the gutter or in some disgraceful place, you show
contempt for the person who bears the name. If a business
can get the name of their product honored among the
purchasing public they can get rich. If their products name
gets a bad reputation they can go broke. So much depends
upon a name. That is why one Commandment out of ten is
so concerned about the name of God. If Satan can get a
person to show disrespect for the name of God he has
accomplished a major step in his strategy for leading that
person to damnation. On the other hand, if we can bring
men to respect the name of God and honor the name of
Jesus, we are well on the way to leading them into a saving
relationship to Christ.
The Catholic Church once had an organization called The
Holy Name Society. The had five rules that governed them.
They were, 1. To labor as individuals for the glory of God's
name, and to make it known to those who are ignorant of it.
2. Never to pronounce disrespectfully the name of Jesus. 3.
To avoid blasphemy, perjury, profane and indecent
language. 4. To induce neighbors to refrain from all insults
against God, and from profane and unbecoming language.
5. To remonstrate with those who use profane language or
blaspheme in their presence.
Every Christian should be a member of such a society,
whether formally organized or not, for it's goal is a
fulfillment of the Third Commandment. The implications of
this commandment covers the whole of the believers life.
The Jews were led to make this unforgivable sin in Judaism.
A life of disobedience to the Third Commandment was
equivalent to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. The point is,
profanity is no trivial matter. For the glory of God, for the
salvation of souls, and for the good of our nation, we need to
respond to this call to sanctification and purity of speech and
in all ways honor the name of God.
