The Ten Commandments
REVERENCE FOR GOD
(Ex. 20:7; Matt. 5:33-37; 12:33-37; KJV)
Subject
The Reverence We Should Always Show in Uttering the Name of God.
Golden Texts
“Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain” (Ex. 20:7); “Our Father who are in heaven, Hallowed by thy name” (Matt. 6:9).
Plan of the Lesson
The Irreverent Use of God’s Name Forbidden (Ex. 20:7)
Christ’s Interpretation of the Third Commandment (Matt. 5:33-37)
The Importance of Our Words (Matt. 12:33-37)
Setting of the Lesson
Time: The Ten Commandments were given around 1498 B.C. Our Lord uttered the Sermon on the Mount in the summer of A.D. 28, and the incident recorded at Capernaum in the autumn of the same year.
Place: The Ten Commandments were given on Mount Sinai. It is not known on what mountain in Palestine our Lord delivered His great sermon. Capernaum is located at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 20:7
The Irreverent Use of God’s Name Forbidden
20:7 … “Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” This commandment is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:11. For variations of it, see Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30:8; and Deuteronomy 23:21. The First Commandment set forth the absolute uniqueness of God, declaring that no man should worship any other God but Jehovah. The Second Commandment dealt with the subject of the manner of worship, namely, that no images whatever were to be tolerated, images of any thing or any being, anywhere in the universe, for the purposes of worship. The Third Commandment continues to dwell on the sacredness of the relationship that should exist between God and man, but in this particular case deals exclusively with man’s speech, declaring that he should not take the name of the Lord his God in vain. Let us first consider what we mean by the phrase “the name” of the Lord thy God, and then we will see what meaning there is in the phrase “in vain.” “The name of the Lord thy God” means immeasurably more than the mere titles by which Deity is distinguished from all other beings; it means all that may be properly affirmed or conceived of Deity. For example,
“O Jehovah, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” (Ps. 8:1);
“The name of the God of Jacob set thee up on high” (Ps. 20:1);
“Holy and reverend is his name” (Ps. 111:9);
“The name of Jehovah is a strong tower” (Prov. 18:10);
“Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed by thy name” (Matt. 6:9); and
“Whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:17);
“He that overcometh, I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, and mine own new name” (Rev. 3:12);
“Having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads” (Rev. 14:1);
“He hath a name written, which no one knowth but he himself; and his name is called The Word of God” (Rev. 19:12, 13);
“He hath on his garment and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16).
“The Hebrew word here translated ‘in vain’ means, literally, ‘to take up for unreality,’ ‘to make use of for any idle, frivolous, or insincere purpose’. Thus, God’s name is not to be desecrated either by false swearing or by being used disrespectfully for any other frivolous or idle purpose, as in cursing or reviling, or to support false pretensions of being able to use magic or divination, or to predict the future” [Jer. 27:15] (S.R. Driver).
Two excellent illustrations of the meaning of this word will be found in Psalm 108:12 and 127:1. It is the word translated “lies” in Isaiah 59:4. One of the ways in which this commandment can be broken is by using God’s name in an attempt to support a false statement of ours, a sin that is known as perjury, which also includes taking an oath in the name of God against society, sapping confidence in its very foundation. Language is, so to speak, the sacramental bond of the nation speaking it. It is the compact of society. But, abominable as a lie is, perjury is still more abominable, because it adds sacrilege to mendacity, blasphemy to falsehood. Perjury is the abyss of moral crime. No clearer illustration of the violation of this commandment can be found than the words of Simon Peter on the night of our Lord’s betrayal, when we read that he actually “swore” when he said he did not even know the Lord Jesus, and this is the very word used elsewhere in indicating that God’s name is used in an oath (Matt. 26:74; Mark 14:71). It is the very word used by our Lord in discussing this whole question of taking an oath in Matthew 23:16-22, as also in Acts 3:30; Hebrews 3:11, 18; Revelations 10:6, etc. Peter not only lied, but he actually dared to call God as a witness that he was speaking the truth. The marvel is that God allowed Peter to live five minutes after such a terrible crime.
Another way men violate this commandment is by carelessly, jokingly, irreverently using the name of God, or His Son, Jesus Christ, in stories and jokes. “Stories are told in which the name of God is made use of in such a way as to affect men with a false humor. Such tales should be shunned as men would shun the fire of hell. In every instance where men permit themselves to look at sacred things in a frivolous light there is evil reaction upon the heart and consciousness; they are robbing themselves of that sacred sense of veneration and reverence for God without which there is no real worship and no acceptable service. That man is unclean through and through who has lost his veneration for God and His holy, sacred name. The man who does not tremble in the presence of God, though he trusts while he trembles, never worships and never works as he ought to do” (G. Campbell Morgan).
Another way men use the name of the Lord irreverently is by insincerity of life, by hypocrisy, by pretending one thing with the words they utter, when in reality they are determined to live a life entirely contrary to what their words would indicate. See Isaiah 48:1, and especially the words of our Lord: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:22, 23). “If a man comes into the sanctuary, and preaches and prays and praises with eloquent lips and beautiful sentences and devotional attitude, even with tears, and goes home to break the least of these commandments, that man blasphemes when he prays; but if he deceives the world, he never deceives God! If a man take the name of God for vanity, if truth is not behind his worship, he had better not worship at all. The form in which this third commandment is broken most completely, most awfully, most terribly, is by perpetually making use of the name of the Lord, while the life does not square with the profession that is made” (G. Campbell Morgan).
By declaring that God will not hold a man who commits such a sin guiltless, we fail to observe the literal meaning of this passage – the Lord will not declare a man to be clean from guilt if he transgresses the law. “Being in its very nature the most godless of sins, God, from His very nature, cannot allow it to go unpunished. True, He may not, and indeed does not, often punish this sin in this world: for this is a physical world, whereas this sin is a spiritual sin, a sin against the very nature of God, for God is spirit” (George D. Boardman).Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:33-37
Christ’s Interpretation of the Third Commandment
5:33-37 … “Again, ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thin oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all: neither by the heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay; and whatsoever is more than these is of the evil one.” Here in the midst of the Sermon of the Mount we would like to say that while believing that the Sermon on the Mount enunciates principles and laws for life in the kingdom of God, when that kingdom is perfectly set up under the sovereign reign of the King of kings, the Lord Jesus (and certainly the Lord Jesus Christ is not reigning on earth today in a literal kingdom), yet we believe that these wonderful sentences from the lips of our Savior, Teacher, and Lord, are to be carried out in the daily life which we are now living, as citizens of heaven, though residing in an alien world (See Lev. 19:12). Regarding our Lord’s Day, the Jewish people were taught that “Only oaths need be kept, and not all of them, only certain forms of swearing were binding. Christ says that such distinctions are iniquitous. All oaths are binding, but no oaths ought to be used, because a man’s word ought to be enough. Oaths and other strong statements have come into use because men are so often liars; but it is a grievous error to suppose that a lie is not sinful unless it is sworn to. The Jew went beyond even this, and held that perjury was not sinful unless the oath was taken in a particular form (Matt. 23:16-22). In this world, while falsehood remains so common, especially solemn statements may sometimes be necessary, and therefore are permissible. God Himself had at times recognized this necessity (Luke 1:73; Acts 2:30; Heb. 3:11, 18; 4:3; 6:13-18; 7:20, 21); and so did Jesus when on trial (Matt. 26:63). It is not proceeding, for in the law it is expressly command (Deut. 6:13; 10:20; Jer. 4:2; 12:16; Ps. 63:11)” (Alfred Plummer).
Determining whether our Lord is teaching in this passage that every oath is a sin is not easy to determine. Commentators and Biblical scholars of all ages have been divided on this question. It would seem that Christ was referring to ordinary conversation, and that in the light of the Old Testament teaching and New Testament practice, our Lord did not mean to prohibit taking an oath in civil and ecclesiastical courts, though such oaths would not be necessary if we were absolutely honest. Even if we do not use God’s actual name in an oath, it is still a sin to swear by heaven, because by that we recognize God lives there. We are not to swear by the earth, because the earth belongs to God, and therefore He would be involved in the oath. We are not to swear by the city of Jerusalem, because in naming the city a Jew would be using a word that he would feel had particular solemnity – there God’s king, David, had ruled. We are not to swear by our head, because the fact that we cannot of our own power make black hair white, or white hair black, testifies to the truth that our lives are not in our own hands, but in God’s, and while it is easy for him to perform miracles, it is impossible for us. When our Lord said that to swear by an oath was something that came “of evil,” He either meant that the oath was necessary because in the hearts of men there is a tendency to lie, and therefore in itself witnessed to man’s mistrust of men, or, as often is the case, our Lord indicated that many oaths are uttered to support or confirm what the one who is speaking knows to be a lie, thus multiplying the sin of the falsehood – the heart of the one speaking the falsehood becomes blacker, and in that heart evil is multiplied.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 12:33-37
The Importance of Our Words
Previous to speaking the words assigned to this lesson, Our Lord had cast a demon from one who was brought to Him suffering blindness and dumbness, as well as this evil possession. The Pharisees immediately declared, acknowledging the miracle, that it was by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that Jesus was exercising this power. The Lord immediately replied with an undeniable assertion that it was inconceivable that Satan should be divided against himself, and of course against his own kingdom. Jesus followed up this assertion by revealing to the disciples a deep, fundamental principle concerning one’s speech.
12:33-35 … “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit. Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things; and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (See also Matt. 7:16-20; Luke 6:45). A tree produces fruit according to its nature. A miserable seedling apple-tree can never in itself produce without grafting, beautiful Northern Spy apples. The fruit that is borne is determined by the nature of the tree. Isaiah uses the phrase “fruit of the lips” (57:19). Words are products. If a man’s life is evil at the center, one can expect nothing else but evil words as the fruit of that life. If a man is soundly good, his words will be soundly wholesome and true. The heart determines what the mouth utters. We must not miss this beautiful phrase, the “good treasure” of the heart. The word “treasure” is a translation of the Greek word “thesaurus”, from which, of course, comes our word “thesaurus.” It is the word used in Matthew 2:11, referring to the treasure-chests from which the Wise Men brought forth the gifts they presented to the babe Jesus. Our hearts are to be treasure-chests in which we are continually depositing noble, truthful, beautiful, godly, edifying thoughts, ideas, hopes, purposes, and desires. A person whose heart is filled with good things simply cannot yield to speaking evil things. Because the words the Pharisees had just expressed concerning Him were wicked, our Lord meant to tell them that their hearts must be wicked – the heart gives birth to wicked words. On the other hand, our Savior indicated that if the Pharisees were good, as they publicly claimed to be, they would have appreciated the goodness of the One whom they were accusing and the nobleness of the deed He had just performed.
There is nothing we need more in our age than the cultivation of noble thinking, and the storing in our hearts of vast treasures of the finest things in life and literature, a purpose that will lead us to observe the beautiful and to hate the ugly, to keep away from the vile and always loving the good, to live on the highest planes and never sink to vulgarity, to read the best literature and to avoid as poison much of the trash published today. One can never be a blessing to others with wicked words. Wicked books, wicked stories, foul conversation, and words of bitter criticism and accusation have never been a blessing to anyone. Travelers refresh themselves at cool streams of water, but never at dirty, stagnant pools that are almost always dangerous because of the germs of disease lurking there. We will bless others if our hearts are good and our words are always high and noble. We normally utter about thirty thousand words daily, so obviously we can be an influence for good or evil by what we say.
12:36, 37 … “And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” For some reason, preachers in this age seldom speak on this truth. An “idle” word is simply an ineffectual word or an insipid word – “an index of thoughtfulness, if not of malice” (A.B. Bruce). Idle or wicked words are simply the expression of a one’s character, and as such will form a basis for judgment in the last day, when the things done in the body will be judged (2 Cor. 5:10). Words are certainly a part of the things done in the body. Of course, our actions will also be judged in the last days, but they do not come up for consideration in this particular lesson. Let us not close this lesson, either for ourselves as teachers or for our pupils, without definitely determining in our hearts, and asking God to give us strength to carry out this determination, that from this time on all our conversation will be nobler, loftier, more helpful, more filled with praise and love for God, more encouraging to others, opening doors of new thought and hope to those with whom we speak, than ever before in our lives.
How can we cultivate a habit of using the name of God reverently whenever we utter it? What makes the irreverent and careless use of God’s name so great a sin? Why is profanity, when it involves the name of any of the three persons of the Godhead so wicked an act? Granted that there are some Christians who do swear; what effect does this habit have on their own personal life and on their testimony? What is our first reaction when we hear someone to whom we have just been introduced, use an oath? In what different ways can a person cultivate the habit of noble speech? Why is it that sometimes a college education does not make a young person speak more nobly, honorably, or truthfully? Has bad language, bad stories, and oaths ever been a blessing to anybody?
