![\"3.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/imgs\/3.jpg\")
<\/span>Nightline and ABC news<\/a> are doing a series on the Ten Commandments, one of which is the Third Commandment from Exodus 20:7, which reads:\u00a0<\/p>\nYou shall not take the name of the\u00a0<\/i>Lord<\/i><\/span>\u00a0your God in vain, for the\u00a0<\/i>Lord<\/i><\/span>\u00a0will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain.<\/i><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n
<\/div>\nThe severity of the language that YHWH will not hold the person guiltless who takes the Name in vain deserves explanation. I grew up in American fundamentalism and this commandment was a biggie for us, and we were taught never to say \u201cOh my God!\u201d It was held to strictly and I knew very few folks who talked like that except my \u201cunsaved\u201d neighbors, some of whom were unsaved because they were Catholic or Lutheran or liberal Presbyterians. So, I have to admit that language restrictions like this produce in me a sense of the overwhelming restrictions and constrictions of some forms of fundamentalism.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n\u201cBut that has nothing to do with what Moses says here,\u201d so I hear my biblical conscience tell me, and I\u2019d like to offer a few reflections on what I believe is the foundation of this command and why we need, perhaps more than ever, to re-insert the Third Commandment as a character mark of followers of Jesus.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nFirst, the command is anchored in the utter, incomparable, and awe-inspiring holiness of God and God\u2019s pure, impeccable love for Israel and us, God\u2019s people. We are not to divide God into Holy things and Love things \u2014 God\u2019s holiness is a pure love and God\u2019s love is a pure holiness. God stands behind the Name and that God is holy love. Our generation is morally culpable for a pitiful dismissal of God\u2019s holiness and for a diminution of God\u2019s glorious transcendence. For this reason alone we need more attention to this command.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\nSecond, the \u201cName\u201d is \u201cYHWH,\u201d the sacred Name given to Moses in Exodus 3:14. That Name, however, is not a restriction \u2014 as if we can say \u201cGod\u201d and \u201cLord\u201d all we want. No, the Name itself spreads holiness over everything that touches God \u2014 names, attributes, behaviors, and redemptive designs \u2014 including creation and humans and the Church.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[Added comment: Many are emphasizing in the comments that taking the Name is not just using the word \u201cGod\u201d or any other name for God, and I would agree. The Israelites took this term in a more restrictive sense to swearing falsely but they also expanded it \u2026 and I touched on this in the above paragraph but it needs emphasis: Anything we claim God for, anything we \u201cblame\u201d God for, etc., falls within the overall emphasis on our need of reverence before God. The Third Commandment is an expansive idea.]<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThird, Jesus honored that Name when he taught us to pray these words daily: \u201cMay your Name [this echoes Exod 20:7, the third command] be hallowed.\u201d He\u2019s affirming the utter sacredness of the Third Commandment.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFourth, let\u2019s back up to the context: it was customary and widespread among Jews not even to use the Name (YHWH) when speaking of God but to substitute the word \u201cLord\u201d every time one saw that term. Thus, one way of protecting oneself from uttering the Name of the Lord in vain was never even to pronounce it. This was the world of Jesus and the early Christians and you don\u2019t see them using this Name and you see them speaking of the \u201cName\u201d in its place.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFifth, it is too easy to slip this into the real of awe and sacredness and holiness and forget that Jesus cut the Ten Commandments, as did other Jews, into two kinds: Love God commands and Love Others commands. The Third Commandment, then, is a particular instance of what it means to love God.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nI\u2019ll put it this way. I love my wife and my kids (and their spouses and now little Aksel) in ways unlike my love for others, like my colleagues and friends. I would never make fun of my loved ones in public in a way that besmirched their integrity and their name and their honor.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nHow much so with God? If we love God, we don\u2019t say \u201cOMG\u201d or anything that gets close.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nightline and ABC news are doing a series on the Ten Commandments, one of which is the Third Commandment from Exodus 20:7, which reads:\u00a0 You shall not take the name of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0your God in vain, for the\u00a0Lord\u00a0will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain. The severity of the language that YHWH will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
OMG and Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nightline and ABC news are doing a series on the Ten Commandments, one of which is the Third Commandment from Exodus 20:7, which reads: You shall not\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"OMG and Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nightline and ABC news are doing a series on the Ten Commandments, one of which is the Third Commandment from Exodus 20:7, which reads: You shall not\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-23T11:22:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/imgs\/3.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/\",\"name\":\"OMG and Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-10-23T11:22:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-10-23T11:22:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Nightline and ABC news are doing a series on the Ten Commandments, one of which is the Third Commandment from Exodus 20:7, which reads: You shall not\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"OMG and Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"OMG and Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain","description":"Nightline and ABC news are doing a series on the Ten Commandments, one of which is the Third Commandment from Exodus 20:7, which reads: You shall not","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"OMG and Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain","og_description":"Nightline and ABC news are doing a series on the Ten Commandments, one of which is the Third Commandment from Exodus 20:7, which reads: You shall not","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2009-10-23T11:22:04+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/imgs\/3.jpg"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/","name":"OMG and Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-10-23T11:22:04+00:00","dateModified":"2009-10-23T11:22:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Nightline and ABC news are doing a series on the Ten Commandments, one of which is the Third Commandment from Exodus 20:7, which reads: You shall not","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/23\/omg-and-taking-the-name-of-the-lord-in-vain\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"OMG and Taking the Name of the Lord in Vain"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}