In America especially, God’s name is used ad nauseam to express an extensive range of thoughts and emotions: surprise, horror, fear, excitement, frustration, joy, disgust, sadness—in fact, it is used for almost everything but actually talking to God and Jesus.

Using God’s name as nothing more than an exclamation is a common infraction of the Third Commandment: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7). Invoking the names of the most powerful Beings in the universe just to indicate shock is not only vanity, but it shows great disrespect.

But there’s more to it than that. As part of God’s family (1 John 3:1), we represent and bear His name. It follows that, like it or not, our actions will determine how others view the God we worship—and giving others a skewed impression of God because of our disregard for His commands is even worse than speaking God’s name in vain. It would mean living God’s name in vain.

By making sure to both speak and live in a godly manner, we can be sure of two things: we will be safe from breaking the Third Commandment, and we will give others a better understanding of who God is and what He is about.

Won’t it be great when everyone finally keeps the Third Commandment?