We must hold God’s Name in the highest honor.
Leviticus 19.12
“You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.”
Leviticus 24.15, 16
“And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.”
Here, undoubtedly, is what most people think of when they hear the third commandment – swearing falsely or idly, using God’s Name as an oath or exclamation, or in a vulgar manner.
Such proscriptions are implied in these statutes; however, there is more. We must not “profane” the Lord’s Name by treating it in any way other than with utmost respect for its great holiness. You probably know that, in the Hebrew Bible, the Name of the Lord is considered too holy even to pronounce. The Hebrew spelling of the Name is given vowel points designed to lead the reader to say, “Adonai” rather than “Yahveh” whenever the divine Name is encountered.
Christians, of course, are not bound by such formalities. God is our Father, and we relate to Him as such. He has no qualms about our using His proper Name, nor should we.
We must not make God’s Name a common thing, or curse the Lord, or use His Name to curse others. His is a holy Name, and we have taken it in order to promote the cause of holiness. Anything contrary to that is a violation of the third commandment.
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