The third commandment: God's name

This week's questions

Which is the third commandment? The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Question 53

What is required in the third commandment? The third commandment requireth the holy and reverend use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Word, and works.

Question 54

What is forbidden in the third commandment? The third commandment forbiddeth all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God maketh himself known.

Question 55

What is the reason annexed to the third commandment? The reason annexed to the third commandment is, that however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.

Question 56

The first two commandments taught whom we worship and how (last week); the third guards his name. This commandment returns in the Lord's Prayer as its first petition (Thy name and thy kingdom).

A name wider than a word

Question 54 lists not only names but titles, attributes, ordinances, Word and works. In Scripture God's name stands for more than the word we call him by; it is all that has been shown of who he is. So the commandment reaches past our speech to worship, Scripture, the sacraments, and the way we talk of what God has done. Its first proof text is the first petition Jesus taught, "hallowed be Your name" (Matthew 6:9); another is the song of Moses and the Lamb:

“Great and wonderful are Your works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Revelation 15:3-4

To sing of his works, his ways and his holiness is to glorify his name. The psalmist thanks God, who has "exalted Your name and Your word above all else" (Psalm 138:2).

Emptily, lightly, falsely

‘In vain’ renders the Hebrew shav (שָׁוְא), emptiness and falsehood together; and ‘take’ is the verb for lifting up or carrying. We can carry his name emptily. In Question 55's proof texts God speaks to the "priests who despise My name" (Malachi 1:6): they offered defiled food on his altar and called his table contemptible (1:7, 1:12); the people said, "It is futile to serve God" (3:14); and God warned that if they would not honour his name, he would curse their blessings (2:2). Heartless worship is the first way of taking his name in vain. The Larger Catechism's long list includes blasphemy, perjury, sinful cursing, using the Word for "profane jests", and "making profession of religion in hypocrisy" Larger Catechism, Q. 113; the Heidelberg Catechism warns against sharing in others' profanity "by our silence and connivance" Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 99. To draw God's name into a sale or an argument we want to win belongs here too, and so does a life that bears his name and shames it:

As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

Romans 2:24

Lutherans count this commandment as the second. Luther's Small Catechism forbids cursing, swearing, witchcraft, lying and deceit by God's name, and bids us "call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks" Small Catechism, Second Commandment. Those who fear the name do not avoid it; they call on it rightly. Jewish tradition, in reverence for the name, does not pronounce the four letters יהוה but reads ‘Adonai’, Lord; behind ‘the LORD’ in English Bibles stands that name (see The divine name, in the Hebrew course).

Others may let it go

Question 56's proof texts tell of the sons of Eli. "The sons of Eli were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD" (1 Samuel 2:12), and they treated the LORD's offering with contempt (1 Samuel 2:17). Their father knew, and did not restrain them (1 Samuel 3:13). People let them go; God did not. This is not meant to frighten us but to show how dear his name is to him, for it is the name by which we are saved: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13).

On oaths

Oaths touch the name as well. The Westminster Confession calls a lawful oath "a part of religious worship", in which one calls God to witness WCF 22.1. Moses said, "take your oaths in His name" (Deuteronomy 6:13); Paul wrote, "I call God as my witness" (2 Corinthians 1:23); and an oath, says Hebrews, serves "to end all argument" (Hebrews 6:16). The Heidelberg Catechism allows a reverent oath when the magistrate requires it or truth and faithfulness need it Q. 101, and the Confession even calls it sin to refuse a lawful oath about what is good and just WCF 22.3. The Anabaptists' Schleitheim Confession refuses all oaths Art. 7, and their heirs the Mennonites, with the Friends, or Quakers, born in mid-seventeenth-century England, take none, following "I tell you not to swear at all" (Matthew 5:34) and James's word (James 5:12). Their aim is speech so truthful that yes always means yes. Both ways meet in refusing to tell a lie before God's name (see The Anabaptists and the Radical Reformation).

To ponder this week

How do I use God's name this week, in prayer, in song, in jest or in anger, and does my life make it honoured? Jesus said, "let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). Each time you call on God this week, pause first and remember whom you are calling.

Practice