The Third Commandment

"Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain"

For mankind’s benefit, God gave us a Spiritual, Holy and good Law called the 10 Commandments (Romans 7:14, 12, 7). “For we know that the law is spiritual…and the commandment holy, and just, and good…I did not know what sin was except by the definition of the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, you shall not covet.”

Of the 10 Commandments, the 3rd Commandment says, “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). But what does this mean?

In this study on the 3rd Commandment there are two questions addressed:

What is the intent of the 3rd Commandment; and
Does using “Jesus” as the name of our LORD violate the 3 rd Commandment?

Again, the first question is “what is the intent of the 3rd Commandment?” The answer is: the intent of the 3rd Commandment is to encourage Christians to represent the Family of God in a manner that brings to it glory and honor. The converse is obviously true: don’t live in a manner that brings reproach to the Family of God.

By defining key words in the 3rd Commandment we’ll see this fact emerge. The 3rd Commandment says, “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain”. The three key words are: take, name and vain.

Download the full article "The third commandment: Don't take the Lord's name in vain" in PDf format.