The Ten Commandments: #3 - Bear the Name of God

We summarize the true substance of each of the commandments which we have been discussing one commandment at a time at our Deep Dive studies.

The THIRD COMMANDMENT: Exodus 20:7 "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"

The following are the flavors of what this commandment really means based on our cross-reference examples of how it is obeyed and how it is disobeyed.

This is one of those Scriptural passages that is lost in translation once we find out what it really means. The word "take" may have been fine with the King James language but not with our modern English. In fact, the Hebrew "nasah" is translated from Hebrew to English as "take" 49 times but it is translated as "carry" or "bear" at least 215 times in Scripture. Hence, it has to be reworded or translated as 

"You shall not BEAR or CARRY the name of the Lord your God in vain..."

Wow! So, this commandment has very little to do with cussing. Instead it means, do NOT call yourself a Christian if you cannot consistently behave like one; do NOT call yourself a Kingdom child if you cannot naturally demonstrate it with your life and character. We will find out by cross-referencing with Ezekiel chapters 20, 36, 39, 43 and Amos 2:7 that violating this commandment is PROFANING the name of God!

So, we violate the commandment not just because we use the name of God as a cuss word or frivolously but PRIMARILY because our lives are not consistent with our faith. We call ourselves children of God but we have no different from the children of the world! That profanes and SHAMES the name of God. In Romans 2:24, "For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."

What also violates this third commandment is when we mix other religious practices or superstitious beliefs with our Christian faith. Some even mix voodoo practices with their Christian beiiefs. God detests this practice which is why he will hold the offender guiltless., i.e, condemned who holds his name in vain based on our cross-references in Ezekiel.

So why can't we profane the name of God? Because anything we ask in the name of Jesus will be granted us.  Because we can heal the sick and cast out demons in the name of Jesus, because there is power in that name that we will utterly loose if we violate, because at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father!

All of these power, we give up, when we bear the name of the Lord in vain!!! Not only that, when we violate this commandment, "the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain". How can we be forgiven if we are still held guilty? We are in danger of losing what we have, of even losing our salvation!!!

Violators, BEWARE!