"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.”
Exodus 20:7
Remembering that the third commandment is in the first table of the Law, it is about our relationship with God, and about worship. Why is this in the Ten Commandments? Because God is so absolutely holy, even His name is to be considered holy. To use any name of God “in vain” counts the name of God as common (rather than holy), thus degrading not only God’s name, but God Himself. This is why breaking the third commandment is often referred to as a form of “blasphemy.”
The word “god” is not God’s name any more than the word “human” is my name. The Old Testament (OT) name of God is YHWH. It is found 6,158 times in the OT. Having no vowels, it is unpronounceable, so some translate this name “Yahweh” or “Jehovah,” and most translate it as “LORD” (all capital letters).
That said, it is wise for us to apply the third commandment to any reference to God that is less than reverent.
I remember as a child, I thought this commandment was about not using the words, “God,” “Jesus,” and/or “Christ” in anger or when swearing. That is, of course, true. Using the Lord’s names in anger or when swearing is an obvious and serious breaking of this commandment. But there is more.
One of the most common ways people (including many Christian) break this commandment is by using any name of God flippantly or carelessly. I do not want to establish a list of forbidden words, but I will give an example of a flippant use of God’s name. The one I hear the most is the exclamation, “Oh my God!” How often is this uttered as a reverent reference to God? This kind of use of God’s name reduces the sacred name of God to little more than “wow!”
One last thought on this most obvious aspect of the third commandment: What about substitute words for God used in anger, flippantly, or as exclamations? My dear mother was strict about this commandment. A common exclamation in the 1960s (not any more) was “guy!” My mother fined me 15 cents every time she heard me say “guy!” because she said it was a substitute for saying “God!” About $2.25 later, I stopped using the exclamation “guy!”
I tell that story not too outlaw the word “guy!” but to challenge us all to think about the use of “gosh” or “jeeze,” or the many other ways we might thoughtlessly be breaking, or nearly breaking, the third commandment. Remember, our goal is not to see how far we can go, but how pure can we be.