What Does It Mean to Take the Lord’s Name in Vain?
A bride takes her husband’s name. If an earthly bride marries and fails to act like her husband’s wife by continuing to see other men and living in her own house while doing her own thing she has taken his name in vain. She is not building a relationship with the man who is supposed to be her husband. She is not honoring her vows. If we are the Bride of Christ, we should act like we are married to Him. Selah!
I saw a post on a friend’s feed once with a blog written by someone claiming OMG is taking the Lord’s name in vain. Sorry…but this is religious garbage. While it is true that we should avoid expletives that fall under the admonition to avoid course or filthy language. Ephesians 4:29, Ephesians 5:4, James 1:26, James 3:10
First, God is not His name. It is a designation. There are many gods. He is the one true God above all other gods. His names include Yahweh (Jewish spelling YVHV) and Jehovah. Jehovah Ahavah, Jehovah Elohim, Jehovah Qanna, Jehovah Tsidkenu, etc. Our God has many names. The late John Paul Jackson wrote a book with 365 names of God. However, the name above all names is Yeshua (Jesus)
Second, Yahweh showed me many years ago that to take the Lord’s name in vain means to claim to be a Christian and fail to be one. You cannot claim to be a follower of Yeshua and live your life as you please. That is taking His name in vain. Yeshua has this to say about that:
Matthew 7:22-24 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
In this hour of rampant deception, we need the truth. Truth is that many are doing what is right in their own eyes or in their own interpretation of scripture and claiming it is God. It may be a god, but not Yahweh God. The Bible says that we are to pray in the name of Yeshua (Jesus) not God. And that name is above all other names. OMG is not taking the name of the Lord in vain. Claiming to be a Christian and failing to walk in the fullness of what that means is. Dear ones, let’s be Christians in word and deed.
Shalom dear ones