The Rev. Charlie Camlin: “The Third Commandment”

Continuing with his series on the Ten Commandments, the Rev. Charlie Camlin of Holy Trinity REC in Virginia gives us his sermon The Third Commandment. This sermon looks at Exodus 20:7, which reads “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” In all probability this is one of the most commonly transgressed of the Commandments, to say the least. Rev. Camlin, as usual, does a remarkable job of explaining the background of this Commandment, and then he talks about four ways we fall into danger of taking the Lord’s name in vain:

Let us first consider the negative—in what ways are we in danger of taking the LORD’s name in vain? I would like to mention briefly four ways moving from the most obvious to the least obvious. First of all, there is the use of the LORD’s name in cursing. The use of the LORD’s name in this way is rampant in our culture. Movies and even some television shows have lowered the standard of this. It is equally bad when you are watching some sport and you see one of the coaches or athletes mouthing it; or it is picked up by a microphone. And as if that were not bad enough, the television exacerbates the problem by repeating it on replay. This drives me crazy. Besides attaching the LORD’s name to a curse word, this Commandment is also broken when we use the LORD’s name or the name of our Savior in place of a curse word; or when we use the name as a form of exclamation. All of these are empty or vain uses.

Secondly, the LORD’s name is taken in vain when we take an oath in His name which is false. This happens when the truth of some statement that you have made is brought into question and you feel the need to respond with “I swear to ______.” Or when you are called into a court of law and commit perjury. At one point in our nation’s history, most people were in fear of swearing “to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help me God,” because when you say that you are calling God as a witness to the truthfulness of your testimony.

Third, and I happen to think that this really gets to the heart of this Commandment, and may be the worst way you could violate this, is through hypocrisy. This comes in at least two forms. One is when you invoke God’s name for your own purposes. You claim to belong to God because of what it will get you. Maybe you own a business and you want to appeal to the Christian community so you add God’s name to your advertising as a hook. Or you are a politician and want to appeal to Christians to vote for you so you make untrue claims about being a Christian for votes. Or maybe you just want glory for yourself. This is what happened in the Book of Acts when Ananias and Sapphira sold their land and claimed to have given all of the proceeds to the Church when they had actually pocketed some of the money. They wanted the accolades from everyone in the Church but they also wanted to keep some of their money. This is hypocrisy.

As I said at the beginning, to be in covenant with the LORD means that you are called by His name—which means that if you are going to claim that name, He is going to hold you accountable to His commandments. Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey what I command. People who claim the name without obeying the commands are going to be shocked when they hear those famous words of Christ from the end of the Sermon on the Mount, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

The other way hypocrisy breaks this Commandment is when we come to worship with our lips but not our hearts. When Jesus was chastising the scribes and Pharisees, He quoted Isaiah as prophesying about them when he said, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” Most of us are quite concerned about appearances but God is most concerned that the appearance is in line with a proper attitude of the heart.

Fourth, we take the LORD’s name in vain when we teach false doctrine. Preachers and teachers are obviously in the most danger here. Some television evangelists are certainly guilty of this as they misuse portions of God’s word to request money for their ministry. There is also a danger in knowingly misinterpreting Scripture or using a passage out of context to support our own ideas. Or when a preacher tells people that are living in open rebellion against God that everything is okay. Jeremiah the prophet was supposed to announce to the people of Israel the impending doom that was about to come upon them but he found himself competing with prophets who were telling the people that all was well between them and God. They were preaching peace, peace, when there was no peace between them and God. The LORD told him, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.” When modern preachers and teachers say that something is not a sin when God calls it a sin, they are taking the LORD’s name in vain.

Rev. Camlin goes on to talk about the positive implications of the Third Commandment, and I commend this to you–for it is actually most heartening to think about the positive side of this Commandment.