“We are not to blaspheme or to abuse the Name of God by cursing, perjury, or unnecessary oaths, nor to share in such horrible sins by being silent bystanders. In short, we must use the holy Name of God only with fear and reverence, so that we may rightly confess Him, call upon Him, and praise Him in all our words and works.” (Heidelberg Catechism 99)

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. (Exod. 20:7)

God is holy. To take God’s name in vain is to fail to acknowledge God for who he is. To take God’s name in vain is to treat God, his Word, or his work in the world in a way that demeans him and robs him of his infinite glory. In its answer to the question: “What is required in the third commandment?” the Heidelberg Catechism explains:

We are not to blaspheme or to abuse the Name of God by cursing, perjury, or unnecessary oaths, nor to share in such horrible sins by being silent bystanders. In short, we must use the holy Name of God only with fear and reverence, so that we may rightly confess Him, call upon Him, and praise Him in all our words and works. (Heidelberg Catechism 99)

There is a lot here, too much to go into in this brief essay. Instead, I want to deal with the heart of the matter—how our speech and actions relate to our love, or lack of love, for God.

We take God’s name in vain when we fail to love God with anything less than our entire heart. When Jesus encountered the religious leaders of his day, he saw past their attempts to keep God happy with made-up laws about how much one should give to the temple or how many steps one could take on a holy day. The religious leaders tried hard to understand God’s law and apply it correctly, but they failed where it counted most. They failed to love God. This made their attempts to keep the law vain.

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matt. 15:7–9)

The religious leaders had bound themselves to “unnecessary oaths.” Thus they had failed to “use the holy Name of God only with fear and reverence, so that we may rightly confess Him, call upon Him, and praise Him in all our words and works.” What Jesus said to the religious leaders applies to everyone. No one always perfectly loves God. So when people seek to honor God without perfect love, their attempts to obey God’s law become vain worship. Everyone, all the time, takes the name of the Lord in vain.

We take God’s name in vain when we talk about God in any way that hinders the truth. False doctrine—lies about God—is the worst kind of inappropriate speech that takes the name of the Lord in vain.

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