Deuteronomy 5:11 - “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold guiltless who takes his name in vain.”
Today’s verse is commandment number three of the Ten Commandments originally given to Moses on the mountain in Exodus 20 and which he is reviewing here. An easy way to think about these ten words for living is that the first four are about relationship with God and the last six are about relationship with others.
Think about this, not taking the Lord’s name in vain is so important that God made it one of ten rules for his people. And to their credit, for 3,500 years, the Jewish people have taken this commandment seriously. So much so, that they refuse the say the proper name of God (Yahweh, YHWH, or Jehovah) for fear of taking it in vain. They typically will substitute the name “Adonai” which also means Lord but is not God’s proper name.
So what does it mean not to take his name in vain. The word vain means to “empty” or “devalue” or to “make nothing”. So to take the Lord’s name in vain would be to use it in a way that devalues the greatness of God. This certainly doesn’t mean we should say his name or the name of his human expression, Jesus. It just means that we should reserve it for three purposes. Use his name to praise him. Use his name to thank him. And use his name when testifying to others of his greatness.
Today instead of devaluing the name of our Lord Jesus, let’s give it the rightful place of honor, praise and glory that goes with this name in our conversations.
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