“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7; Deuteronomy 5:11).

Good relationships are built on respect, and God deserves and requires our absolute respect and ardent reverence.

Many people mistakenly think this commandment is merely about spoken and written names, titles and words within a language. In this commandment, God’s “name” primarily represents His identity, office, reputation, authority, personality and character.

“In vain” refers to any worthless or disrespectful way, or way that misrepresents God.

Some Bibles translate this verse as do not “misuse” God’s name. There are many ways that we can and should use God’s name. There are also many ways people misuse His name.

Many people think what they say is not important, only what they do is important. On the contrary, our words are an important part of our actions. This is verified by the third chapter of James as it speaks about the great power of the tongue for both good and evil.

Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. . . I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:34, 36-37). Our words must be truthful, meaningful, edifying and pleasing to God.

Why the Stern Warning?

This Commandment includes a unique and stern warning: “the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” We naturally wonder why, since the violation of any one of the Ten Commandments is a serious sin. Part of the answer is that this commandment applies especially to religious people who claim to be following and representing the God of the Bible.

The word for “take” can be more clearly translated as “carry, hold or bear” the name. So who carries the name of God? Both true Christians and false Christians carry God’s name by claiming to be representatives of God, so God is warning them that they must not represent Him in any wrong way.

God’s judgment of people is based on their level of understanding. The more knowledge of the Bible a person has, the more accountable and culpable he or she is before God (see Luke 12:47-48; John 9:41; Romans 3:20; 7:7; 14:23; James 4:17). So when a person knowingly misrepresents God, the sinful guilt is great.

Thus God seems to be saying, “You people who claim to represent Me had better not represent Me in any wrong way. If you are going to carry My name, you had better carry it correctly. If you misrepresent Me when you know better, you will surely suffer the consequences.”

“Sacred Names” Fad Perverts This Commandment

The “sacred names” fans insist that the names of God and Jesus Christ should only be expressed in the Hebrew language. This “rule” is an addition to the Bible, a thing God forbids! (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Revelation 22:18-19). The proponents are belittling God as a Being obsessed with languages, spelling and sounds! God does not prefer one language over others. God wants each person to love and worship Him with understanding and sincerity—with all his mind and heart—and that is best accomplished with one’s own language (Mark 12:30). It’s a wonderful blessing that the Bible is being translated into more and more of the world’s many languages!

Religious Hypocrisy: The Number One Violation

The Bible reveals that God has many names and titles because He has many special attributes, and fulfills many sacred roles. They represent the total reality of His identity, nature, character, characteristics and authority. Disrespect of any of God’s names is disrespect of God.

However, it is significant that the Third Commandment says “name” (singular) rather than “names” (plural). In this Commandment, God’s name stands for God Himself. This shows that God is much more concerned about His overall identity and people’s reverence for Him than which specific names and titles we use to address Him.

“Name” is often synonymous with reputation (see Proverbs 22:1; Ecclesiastes 7:1). We must do all we can to glorify God’s name and reputation and not tarnish them.

If I claim to represent God and my conduct does not reflect the holy character of God, I am hurting God’s reputation and giving Him “a bad name.” We should be leading people to God, but this kind of terrible hypocrisy drives them away.

Evil-doers have often justified their actions by claiming they had God’s authority or permission and were acting on God’s behalf. Those actions have included horrible things: persecution, wars, murders, tortures, slavery, etc. We can only imagine how angry God is with wickedness done in His name! And when religious people are known to commit lesser sins, they also cast a bad reflection on God.

In some ways, false Christianity does more harm than other false religions because it gives people false impressions of the Bible. Consider Jesus’ warning: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I [Jesus] am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:4-5, emphasis added). Jesus was specifically warning about the deception of counterfeit Christianity that interferes with people learning about and embracing true Christianity (see also 2 Corinthians 11:1-4, 13-15).

When Bible-professing people are hypocritical, they become “stumbling blocks”—spiritual obstacles instead of helpers (see Matthew 7:15-16, 21-23; Luke 6:46; and Romans 2). Jesus’ most scathing criticisms were against the hypocritical religious leaders (Matthew 15:1-9; 23:1-39; Mark 7:1-23).

Some hypocrisy is especially despicable. One example is religious leaders who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, taking advantage of their offices and power to molest children or seduce women. It seems they must have seared their consciences (1 Timothy 4:2). Another example is that those who “think religion is a way to make money” (1 Timothy 6:5, Beck translation). They talk like a prophet so they can reap a profit.

Hallowed Be Your Name

When Jesus taught His disciples the most important subjects to include in our daily prayers, He said to pray for God’s name to be hallowed—for it to be regarded as holy and to be guarded as holy (Matthew 6:9).

God said, “You shall not profane My holy name” (Leviticus 22:32). To profane means to desecrate, to treat what is sacred and sublime as something secular and mundane. Tragically, today this society surrounds us with profanity of all kinds including the profaning, besmirching and blaspheming of God’s names. With God’s help, we must ever guard our hearts from such sacrilegious influences.

Whenever we mention a name of God, it should always be with respect and reverence. It should never be uttered as cursing, slang, expletive, exclamation, jargon or thoughtless filler words. The next few paragraphs list some of the sinful ways God’s names are uttered. The list includes euphemisms of God’s names. “Euphemism” is derived from Greek words that mean “good speaking.” Most people don’t realize there is anything wrong with these milder and innocent-sounding expressions, but once we understand their connections with God’s names, we should scrupulously avoid using them. Following are the examples:

Connecting “God” with the word “damn” (or using a euphemism of that such as “dad-gummit”). This and saying “go to hell” literally mean one is asking God to condemn someone to hell, with most people thinking “hell” is a place of eternal torture—a horrible thing to wish on anyone! Just saying “damn” can imply the same thing. And “darn” and “dang” are euphemisms of damn.

Using the names of God and Jesus Christ as exclamations, expletives and interjections. It’s disgusting how commonplace it is to hear people say “oh, my God!” or to say or write “OMG.” Unless said as part of a prayer, it’s wrong to say “oh, my Lord!” or “oh, Jesus!” or “for God’s sake!” or “for Christ’s sake!”

We should also avoid euphemisms for God and Jesus Christ such as gosh, golly, gad, jeez and gee.

It’s good to avoid words that are closely connected with God—such as heaven, holy and goodness—when they are uttered as flippant expressions. They include “for heaven’s sake!” and “Holy cow!” and “goodness gracious!” and “for goodness sakes!”

God certainly expects His people to abstain from vulgar cuss words, “coarse jesting” (dirty jokes) and “filthy language” (Ephesians 4:29; 5:3-4; Colossians 3:8).

We are prohibited from using religious titles that only belong to God, including “Father” (Matthew 23:8-10). Only God deserves to be called Revered or “Reverend” (Psalm 111:9, King James Version). Even uttering “vain repetitions”—babbling God’s name over and over in prayers and preaching—is displeasing to God (Matthew 6:7).

Of course, there are other ways of disrespecting God. When we act disrespectful toward people, we are disrespecting their Creator. When we blame God for the problems we’ve caused, we are wrongly accusing God. We obviously are insulting God if we generally ignore Him except when we ask for favors.

Regarding swearing (uttering an oath), the New Testament makes it clear that we are to never swear (Matthew 5:33-37; James 5:12). In a court of law, we can say, “I affirm to tell the truth.”

God’s Name Has Authority and Power That Should Be Rightly Used!

Whatever has great power (nuclear energy, for example) can be used for great good or great harm. The names of God have awesome power, but not in a magical or pagan way. Blasphemy, hypocrisy and other misuses of God’s names do great harm, while godly uses of those names can do great good.

For example, we human beings by ourselves do not have the authority or permission to approach or speak to God. But Jesus Christ of course has the authority to approach His Father and He has offered to share that authority with us! We can pray directly to God by coming to Him “in the name of Jesus Christ!” (see John 15:16, 16:23-27)

No matter what we are doing, we should always think of ourselves as representing Jesus Christ and God the Father. Paul wrote: “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17). That’s an awesome responsibility!

If God has called you to be His son or daughter, you are called to “glorify” Him by being the “light of the world” (Matthew 5:14-16). You are called to carry His name and reflect His character with every thought, word and action. Never misuse or misrepresent His name. Instead, carry His name in the many wonderful ways that honor, exalt, magnify and glorify God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.