The Scrolls is a weekly Bible study written by pastors and other leaders at Central Bible Church, based on that week’s sermon topic. Use The Scrolls as a personal Bible study tool, for family devotions, and for small group discussions. You can read part of it below. The downloadable PDF also includes discussion questions, more in-depth commentary, end notes, and a kids’ page designed for families to study the topic together. This lesson on the third commandment goes with the sermon " Handle with Care."
We’re all familiar with expletives, namely, words that contribute nothing to the meaning of a sentence, often suggesting the strength of the speaker’s feelings and very often involving the use of profanity. For example, a carpenter strikes his thumb with a hammer, and lets out a string of rude, crude obscenities. Not all expletives are obscenities, however. “Like” is a perfect example of an overused, useless, throwaway word that isn’t obscene, just annoying. On the other hand, all swear words are, and all swearing uses obscene language exclusively. Commonly defined, swear words are words or phrases generally considered blasphemous, obscene, vulgar, or otherwise offensive. Familiar synonyms include bad words, obscenities, expletives, dirty words, profanities, four-letter words, etc. Although profanities in today's society are about as ubiquitous as air, here is a dated media example from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home:
Spock: Your use of language has altered since our arrival. It is currently laced with, shall we say, more colorful metaphors, (Spock gives a mild example of swearing).
Captain Kirk: Oh, you mean the profanity?
Spock: Yes.
Captain Kirk: Well, that's simply the way they talk here. Nobody pays any attention to you unless you swear every other word. You'll find it in all the literature of the period.”
Swearing is like the horn on your car, which can be used to express a number of emotions (e.g., anger, frustration, joy, surprise) or simply to get people’s attention.
Blowing one’s horn was verboten in my house growing up. I vividly remember one night when the family was watching television—a B/W Magnavox console. I was the one who had to get up to change the channel—there were only three; dad was the one who had to get up to adjust the horizontal and vertical controls to stop the picture from rolling and twisting. I don’t remember what we were watching that night, but one of the characters said the word, “damn.” Dad jumped up from his La-Z-Boy, took a couple of giant steps toward the TV, and turned it off. “If people are going to talk that way on television, we’ll not watch it!” he barked. Mom and I were both a little startled. “Dad has used that word on occasion,” I thought to myself, and Mom said, “I don’t think ‘damn’ is such a bad word,” which, by the way, surprised me a lot. A few minutes later dad told me to turn the TV on again but to change the channel. How things have changed!
Swearing is clearly out of place for a Christian—anyone for that matter—but not because it’s a violation of the third commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God” (Ex 20:7; cf. Dt 5:11). Swearing in general and misusing the name of the Lord in particular are two different things. All misuse of the Lord’s name is swearing, but not all swearing entails misusing the Lord’s name. Swearing is out of place for a Christian because it flies in the face of what the New Testament says about the believer’s speech. Paul tells the Ephesians, “Dirty stories, foul talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, remind each other of God’s goodness, and be thankful” (5:4 TLB), and tells the Colossians, “But now is the time to cast off and throw away all these rotten garments of anger, hatred, cursing, and dirty language” (3:8 TLB). It’s out of place for people in general because it’s crass and betrays a lack of self-control.
Misusing the name of the Lord involves using “the name of the Lord for any valueless purpose, not just for a false oath, as it is usually interpreted (this is only a particular instance, whereas this is not the place for particulars), but in general for any worthless practice” (U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, 243). To use the Lord’s name lightly in this careless, crude way, namely, swearing, is to disrespect the Holy God behind the name. While Yahweh, translated “the Lord,” is technically God’s name, no one uses his proper name as an expletive. Nevertheless, using Elohim, translated “God,” as an expletive is equally unacceptable. Any empty reference to deity used in swearing is a violation of the third commandment. The same goes for the use of the Lord’s (lower case) name in swearing.
Central Message of the Text
Don’t violate the third commandment by using the Lord’s name deceitfully or as an expletive in swearing.
Family Talk
A name is usually the first thing you learn about someone. It’s a group of letters representing sounds that ends up representing us our entire life. For this reason, parents lovingly put so much thought and effort into naming their children. Does your family have any fun or interesting stories involving names? Are there any names you immediately knew you could never use? While we all end up with various nicknames and titles throughout our lives, our name continues to stay with us and is part of our identity; it even becomes associated with our character. A. W. Tozer proposed that, “What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” What comes to mind when you think of God? What names and titles do you use to address him? Our words matter and they are reflections of these thoughts. Do the names and titles you use for God accurately reflect his character? Does the way you use his name honor him? Tozer goes on to write, “Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.” When we think of God’s character, his name, and the ways we address him we are reminded of who he is and who we are in relation to him. Ultimately, this leads to our worship of him. Our Core Competency states that, “I worship God for who he is and what he has done for me.” Our words are an avenue of worship. Let’s use our words to praise his good and holy name! Let us use his name wisely and worshipfully in our homes!