You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. For the Lord will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain.
–Exodus 20:7 & Deuteronomy 5:11–
[A]nd holy is his name.
–Luke 1:49–
Whenever family counselor Gary Smalley speaks, he is always engaging, and his audiences cannot help but be attentive. Sometimes Gary hands his listeners an antique Stradivarius violin and asks them to pass it around the room. You can be sure that those who touch the instrument do so with great care and with a sense of profound awe. Smalley’s point is that we human beings are very precious, and we need to treat one another accordingly.
Now suppose, just for the sake of argument, that you were a member of Gary Smalley’s audience, and that, after you and your fellow listeners had passed around the Stradivarius, you were then asked to handle, in succession, a vial of AIDS-tainted blood and a live hand grenade. I’d venture to say that you’d be extremely careful in how you dealt with all three items! The Stradivarius, if damaged in any way, would cost you a fortune. The AIDS-tainted blood, if handled carelessly, might cost you your health. The grenade, if thrown or dropped, might cost you your life.
The name of God is far more precious than a Stradivarius violin, more dangerous than a vial of AIDS-tainted blood, and more powerful than a thousand hand grenades. Yet we Christians are often extremely casual in the use of the divine name. What is worse, we even throw it around when we are angry. If we did that to the violin, to the vial of blood, or to the hand grenade, we would live to regret it, if we lived at all!
Taking God’s name in vain, however, is symptomatic of something more than mere carelessness. It betrays a profound lack of awareness that, when you stop to think of it, is altogether heartbreaking.
Back in 1991, I found myself talking with a friend about a recently released movie that bore the title Drop Dead Fred. I must have been speaking rather loudly, for all of a sudden, I heard a voice from the next room: “What was that, Bernie?” The voice was that of my pastor, whose name happened to be Fred. He mistakenly thought that I had been talking to him. Had I known that he was only a few yards away, I would have exercised more care in how I used the name Fred. The moral is clear. If someone is within earshot, be careful how you use that person’s name.
Those of us who have an Amazon Echo are careful how we use the name “Alexa.” Alexa is always listening.
The conclusion is obvious. When we habitually take God’s name in vain, it means we have failed to realize how very close God is to us, that He is within earshot, that He hears our every word, that He is attentive to our every thought and desire, and that He loves us deeply. How sad to be so oblivious!