Recently, I read the Ten Commandments every day for a week. The idea was to see what new insights I could find while reading them over and over, meditatively. I was drawn to the third: \u201cYou shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain\u201d (Exodus 20:7). What does this command really mean?<\/p>\n
As a child, I was told it meant not to swear or curse, especially using God\u2019s name, or any reference to God\u2019s name, in an unholy manner. I was told not to make any promises I could not keep or fulfill, or swear to or by anything. I believe this to be a correct teaching, but I think it fails to address part of what I, and maybe other Christians, had not considered.<\/p>\n
The Hebrew word translated \u201cvain\u201d is shav<\/em> or shawv<\/em>. It means to do something in a desolating manner, in an evil way; figuratively, in an idolatrous way. But also it means in a false or useless way, which many have interpreted to mean lying or deceiving. Others have concluded that vain <\/em>means simply stating God\u2019s name irreverently.<\/p>\n In looking up the definitions of the words useless<\/em> and vain<\/em>, I found new insight into the idea of taking God\u2019s name in vain. In the English dictionary, vain <\/em>means \u201cwithout value, worthless, otiose, ineffectual, foolish, or silly.\u201d The word useless<\/em> means \u201chaving or being of no use, ineffectual.\u201d This struck me as a meaning I had not considered previously. I had to ask myself, Do I as a Christian claim and identify with the name of God, or of Jesus, and do so in a worthless manner? What value do I place on, what priority do I give to, associating with His name? Is wearing the name of Jesus ineffectual in my daily life, in my interactions in public and private? <\/em><\/p>\n Taking a name means identifying with it. What do I do that would cause others to identify me with Jesus, the giver and hope of life, the author of salvation, the Lord? I do not want to identify with other things like a clothing brand, a sports brand, a state, or a special interest group or team more than I do with Jesus! I don\u2019t have to wear a T-shirt that has a Christian message to identify with my God, but wearing one certainly should not deter others from identifying me with Him.<\/p>\n Another implication in the definition of the Hebrew term translated \u201cvain\u201d is that of conceit or pride. Some people wear the name of Jesus as a badge or trophy. Doing so is like \u201cname dropping\u201d at an event to gain entrance. Maybe this badge is like using a reference on a r\u00e9sum\u00e9: Knowing someone within the company will get you that job you want. Do I wear God\u2019s name in a way that I think I may profit from it?<\/p>\n The idea that I may treat God or Jesus in any circumstance without proper regard is a way of taking God\u2019s name in vain. When I consider the questions \u201cWhat\u2019s in a name? What does it mean to take God\u2019s name in vain?\u201d the answers are a lot more than I had ever considered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, I read the Ten Commandments every day for a week. The idea was to see what new insights I could find while reading them over and over, meditatively. I was drawn to the third: \u201cYou shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain\u201d (Exodus 20:7). What does this command really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":339,"featured_media":4727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[107,1395,1392,1398,1397,1074,1393,1399,778,1396,1394],"yoast_head":"\n