This commandment is also presented as a prohibition. It first of all consists of the matter forbidden, followed by a strong and urgent incentive.
The Focus of this Commandment: The Name of the Lord
First of all we shall consider the matter forbidden. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” The object here is the name of the Lord. We understand this to refer:
(1) to the words Jehovah, Elohim, Lord, and God;
(2) to God Himself. “And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death” (Lev 24:16);
(3) to God’s perfections: “And the Lord … proclaimed the name of the Lord … merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exod 34:5-6); “Save me, O God, by Thy name” (Ps 54:1); “…I will wait on Thy name” (Ps 52:9);
(4) to God’s help: “Through Thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us” (Ps 44:5); “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts” (1 Sam 17:45); “The name of the Lord is a strong tower” (Prov 18:10);
(5) to the works of God by which God manifests His glory: “How excellent is Thy name in all the earth” (Ps 8:1);
(6) to God’s praise among the people: “Let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee” (Ps 5:11); “… what wilt Thou do unto Thy great name” (Josh 7:9).
We thus understand the name of God to refer to everything by which God reveals Himself and in which He is either praised or despised. “… to bear my name before the Gentiles” (Acts 9:15).
The prohibition “Thou shalt not take … in vain” pertains to this name. It thus pertains to saying or doing something by which God is neither honored nor acknowledged to be the God who He is, but rather is dishonored. “Vain” has the following meaning: that which is without purpose, unsuitable, thoughtless, irreverent, careless, frivolous, and without a holy objective—thereby engendering an irreverent impression of God in others.
Secondly, the incentive added to this commandment is extracted from the threat of harm: “I will not hold him guiltless.” Man may consider it to be a very insignificant matter, but God deems it to be a very great matter. Even though man is not sensitive to this and does not believe that he has committed a great sin, God considers him guilty and worthy of being punished, and He will also certainly punish him. For it is an act whereby one greatly despises God as well as a clear manifestation that he does not love God—and thus a direct affront toward God. “… with the froward Thou wilt show Thyself froward” (Ps 18:26).
The Sins Prohibited
The first sin prohibited is blasphemy. This occurs:
(1) When one ascribes something absurd to God, and with either words or gestures, despises or ridicules God, causing others to despise and ridicule Him also. “And the Israelitish woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed” (Lev 24:11).
(2) When denouncing the veracity, power, or other attributes of God, and denying and rejecting His providence, preservation, and government. “He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten. … Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it” (Ps 10:11, 13); “What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him” (Job 21:15); “the men … that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil” (Zeph 1:12).
(3) If one attributes to others that which properly belongs to God alone and which He alone can perform. “But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils” (Matt 12:24).
(4) If one despises, ridicules, distorts, and slanders the grace which God has implanted in someone as well as the manifestation of that grace—that is, if one refers to the godly as hypocrites and to their godliness as hypocrisy. The Jews thus ridiculed Christ’s confidence in God. “He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him: for He said, I am the Son of God. Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias” (Matt 27:43, 47).
(5) If one denies and ridicules the truth of God as revealed in the Scriptures. “That there shall come … scoffers … saying, Where is the promise of His coming” (2 Pet 3:3-4).
(6) If one has the name of being a partaker of the covenant, but does not live accordingly, thus causing others to blaspheme the doctrine of truth and godliness. “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you” (Rom 2:24); “And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of” (2 Pet 2:2).