From the "Gracevine" newsletter article for Grace Lutheran Church in Thornville, Ohio, April 2024
The Ten Commandments: The Second Commandment
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain…”
Exodus 20:7 ESV
We continue this month of April with the series on the Ten Commandments. The full form of the Second Commandment is lengthy:
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold guiltless those who take his name in vain.
The second part of this commandment indicates the seriousness with which we are meant to take this word from God. Martin Luther’s explanation of this commandment in his Small Catechism explains it this way:
We should fear and love God so that we do not use his name superstitiously or to curse, swear, lie, or deceive, but call upon him in every time of need, and worship him with prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.
Controlling the tongue, what we say, can be a difficult thing. Think how easily gossip and rumors spread. That is a topic for later, when we get to the Eighth Commandment. But here with the Second Commandment, we are also commanded to mind our words. As God has declared us to be his people in the introduction to the Ten Commandments, it then follows that we honor and respect the name of God who has freed us from our sins and given us a new and forgiven life. The first three commandments have to do specifically with our relationship with God (the so-called “first table”), whereas commandments four through ten have to do with our relationship with other people (the so-called “second table”).
How tempting it is to use God’s name in a flippant manner! Everywhere we go, whenever we watch movies and television, we hear references to God made in the context of jokes or cursing. To express exasperation, people often say “Lord!” or “God!” In situations of anger, it’s common to hear people say “Jesus Christ!” I heard a story once about a man who came from a non-religious background and who had joined the U.S. Army. He had never heard of Jesus before, and he came out of basic training with the impression that the name “Jesus Christ” was actually a swear word. In time, he came to realize how wrong he was.
Think of how backwards it is to take the name of God and reduce it to something trivial. We believe that God is the source of all existence, whose love for the world through His Son Jesus Christ saves us. The name of God deserves our respect and awe. And so one trick that the devil has managed to pull off quite well is getting people to treat the name of God as though it’s “no big deal.”
We could learn a lesson in our day and age from a group of ancient Jews called the Masorites. This group of Jewish people put together the Hebrew text of the Old Testament that we have today. When they looked at this Second Commandment, they were so afraid of misusing the name of God that they simply decided not to use the name of God at all. If they never spoke the name of God, they couldn’t possibly misuse it, so they thought. They took this commandment very literally. Wherever the actual name of God appeared in the Old Testament (the Hebrew letters YHWH), they indicated in the vowel points in the word that they were supposed to say the word “Lord” instead. This is why when you read the Old Testament, you will very often see the word “Lord” in small capital letters. It is to indicate that the actual name of God (YHWH) is being used.
But misusing the name of God isn’t just limited to using God’s name superstitiously or to curse. The even more significant thing is using God’s name in order to “swear, lie, or deceive.” In other words, using God’s name to lie in order to protect ourselves or to promote falsehood. Martin Luther summed it up in his Large Catechism:
Therefore what this commandment forbids is appealing to God’s name falsely or taking his name upon our lips when our heart knows or should know that the facts are otherwise…God’s name cannot be more grievously abused than for purposes of falsehood and deceit. Let this stand as the plain and simple meaning of this commandment.
Like all commandments, this one is meant to convict us of our sin and lead us to repent. For God not only desires that we not misuse His name, but that we use it in the proper way, the way He intended. God wants us to use His name to call upon Him in our time of need, to recognize Him as the source of our life, and praise Him for His gifts to us. God is pleased when we recognize our sin and our need for His forgiveness. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer as Jesus taught us, asking God that His name be “hallowed,” or used in the proper way. As Paul writes in Philippians chapter two: “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.” That will come to pass in the life to come, but it begins with us now as we have been saved and redeemed by God, brought up out of our slavery to sin.
Pr. Tom Jacobson
The Ten Commandments: The Second Commandment
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain…”
Exodus 20:7 ESV
We continue this month of April with the series on the Ten Commandments. The full form of the Second Commandment is lengthy:
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold guiltless those who take his name in vain.
The second part of this commandment indicates the seriousness with which we are meant to take this word from God. Martin Luther’s explanation of this commandment in his Small Catechism explains it this way:
We should fear and love God so that we do not use his name superstitiously or to curse, swear, lie, or deceive, but call upon him in every time of need, and worship him with prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.
Controlling the tongue, what we say, can be a difficult thing. Think how easily gossip and rumors spread. That is a topic for later, when we get to the Eighth Commandment. But here with the Second Commandment, we are also commanded to mind our words. As God has declared us to be his people in the introduction to the Ten Commandments, it then follows that we honor and respect the name of God who has freed us from our sins and given us a new and forgiven life. The first three commandments have to do specifically with our relationship with God (the so-called “first table”), whereas commandments four through ten have to do with our relationship with other people (the so-called “second table”).
How tempting it is to use God’s name in a flippant manner! Everywhere we go, whenever we watch movies and television, we hear references to God made in the context of jokes or cursing. To express exasperation, people often say “Lord!” or “God!” In situations of anger, it’s common to hear people say “Jesus Christ!” I heard a story once about a man who came from a non-religious background and who had joined the U.S. Army. He had never heard of Jesus before, and he came out of basic training with the impression that the name “Jesus Christ” was actually a swear word. In time, he came to realize how wrong he was.
Think of how backwards it is to take the name of God and reduce it to something trivial. We believe that God is the source of all existence, whose love for the world through His Son Jesus Christ saves us. The name of God deserves our respect and awe. And so one trick that the devil has managed to pull off quite well is getting people to treat the name of God as though it’s “no big deal.”
We could learn a lesson in our day and age from a group of ancient Jews called the Masorites. This group of Jewish people put together the Hebrew text of the Old Testament that we have today. When they looked at this Second Commandment, they were so afraid of misusing the name of God that they simply decided not to use the name of God at all. If they never spoke the name of God, they couldn’t possibly misuse it, so they thought. They took this commandment very literally. Wherever the actual name of God appeared in the Old Testament (the Hebrew letters YHWH), they indicated in the vowel points in the word that they were supposed to say the word “Lord” instead. This is why when you read the Old Testament, you will very often see the word “Lord” in small capital letters. It is to indicate that the actual name of God (YHWH) is being used.
But misusing the name of God isn’t just limited to using God’s name superstitiously or to curse. The even more significant thing is using God’s name in order to “swear, lie, or deceive.” In other words, using God’s name to lie in order to protect ourselves or to promote falsehood. Martin Luther summed it up in his Large Catechism:
Therefore what this commandment forbids is appealing to God’s name falsely or taking his name upon our lips when our heart knows or should know that the facts are otherwise…God’s name cannot be more grievously abused than for purposes of falsehood and deceit. Let this stand as the plain and simple meaning of this commandment.
Like all commandments, this one is meant to convict us of our sin and lead us to repent. For God not only desires that we not misuse His name, but that we use it in the proper way, the way He intended. God wants us to use His name to call upon Him in our time of need, to recognize Him as the source of our life, and praise Him for His gifts to us. God is pleased when we recognize our sin and our need for His forgiveness. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer as Jesus taught us, asking God that His name be “hallowed,” or used in the proper way. As Paul writes in Philippians chapter two: “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.” That will come to pass in the life to come, but it begins with us now as we have been saved and redeemed by God, brought up out of our slavery to sin.
Pr. Tom Jacobson