This commandment springs from God’s perfect love. “For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God,” He says (Exodus 20:5). Jealousy is a word used by lovers—and God is a perfect Lover. He created us to be in relationship with Him, and He knows that any other way will destroy our lives, the lives of those around us, and the lives of our children and our grandchildren.

I’m grateful that He is a jealous God.

The Third Commandment: The “Frivolous” Rule

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

People often read this commandment as a rule against profanity. That’s part of the intention, but the third commandment goes far deeper than vulgar language. It tells us that His name must be spoken with heartfelt sincerity and reverence. We are never to use the Lord’s name in a frivolous way.

When we use God’s name frivolously, we cheapen a word and an association that should drive our hearts to reverence. The name of God is the only handle by which we can know and worship our Lord and Creator. Names carry meanings to us, and signal us to think in certain ways. God carried the name “I AM” to the people of Israel. It invoked the knowledge that He was eternal and transcendent. When people begin to think of the word God or the phrase Oh my God as a casual expression, what happens to the meaning of that name in their hearts?

Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Hallowed be Your name” (Matthew 6:9). Prayer, He was saying, must begin with the “making holy” of His precious name—because as the mouth goes, so goes the mind.

Our current generation has reduced the name of God to a word with little meaning, and that’s no coincidence. Words and thoughts are inextricably linked.

Perhaps the closest parallel to the intent of the third commandment is found in a modern courtroom. A witness places his hand on the Bible and swears to tell the truth “so help me God.” Then, if the witness commits perjury, he has used God’s name in vain. In other words, the oath he took was empty, meaningless, or frivolous.

So God’s warning in the third commandment is, “Don’t use Me as your backup, as your collateral in an oath if you have no intention of keeping your word. Don’t involve Me in a lying scheme that will defame who I am.”

The third commandment also forbids us to use God’s name as an oath in an attempt to manipulate Him in our favor. We aren’t to ask God merely to fight on our side; we’re to seek how we can fight on His.