“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”

You’ve all heard about one of the Ten Commandments that states: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”

Most people have inherited the traditional assumption that this commandment means to not speak God’s name in specific ways such as “Oh, God!” and “[gosh darn it]”.

The problem with this particular, traditional interpretation is that it doesn’t line up with what the Scripture actually says. If the verse meant that we should not speak God’s name “inappropriate” ways it would say “speak” (דָּבַר) and not “take” (נָשָׂא). The Hebrew word for “take” here is nasa' and in the Qal Imperfect means “to carry”, “to bear”, and “to lift up”.

In actuality, the meaning of this commandment is that no one who is a believer, a follower of God, should take the name of God, should say they are a follower of God, and then behave in a manner which suggests they are not. For us it means, “Don’t say you are a Christian and then behave in an un-Christian-like manner.” Don’t lift up the name of God if you are going to live your life like someone who doesn’t know who God is. Don’t bear the name of God in public if you’re going to act like a pagan in public. As my Old Testament seminary professor said about this the meaning of this verse, “Don’t make God look bad.” To do so is to be a believer in vain (שָׁוְא, shav'), which means in “emptiness” or “futility”. To say you are a believer and to act as an unbeliever is to be a believer in absolute futility. You might as well then be an unbeliever.