8 Are You Serious?
The purpose of words,” said a cynical diplomat, I forget who, “is to conceal thought.” As a comment on how we actually talk, this statement is too true to be good. Regularly we talk for effect, saying to each other things we do not mean and could not defend, and giving assurances that we have no firm purpose to fulfill. “Are you serious?” is a question that often needs asking, for often when we should be speaking seriously, we are not.
Reluctance to treat our word as our bond—unwillingness, that is, to count ourselves committed by what we actually said—is a symptom of sin, which is the moral mag-got destroying integrity. Why are marriage vows, contracts between employer and employee, and ordinary promises—to do this, to see to that, to be here, to go there—so frequently broken? Why is our life littered with promises that, whether from malice, bad management, self-seeking, or sheer carelessness, we have failed to keep? Why do we so often let down those who trusted what we said? Because of our sinful unwillingness to take our own words seriously.
TAKING GOD'S NAME IN VAIN
The Bible, however, takes promises very seriously; God demands full faithfulness of our vows. Why? Partly because trustworthiness is part of his image, which he wants to see in us; partly because without it society falls apart. The third commandment highlights God’s concern at this point.
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain,” it says. “In vain” means “for unreality.” What is forbid-den is any use or involvement of God’s name that is empty, frivolous, or insincere. This touches three things at least.
The first thing is irreverence, speaking or thinking of God in a way that insults him by not taking seriously his wisdom and goodness. Job offered sacrifices on behalf of his children while they were alive, for fear that they had “cursed God in their hearts” (Job 1:5); and after their deaths when his wife in her bitterness urged him, “Curse God, and die” (2:9), he would not do it. Whenever sinful self-absorption makes us hate God for what he allows to happen to us or others, we break the third commandment.
The second thing is bad language, using God’s holy name as a swearword to voice men’s unholy feelings. Everyday profanity—for example, “Oh God,” “Oh Christ,” and the rest—may not be the worst of sins, but it is a nasty breach of the third commandment, since it expresses neither faith nor worship. Rage overcomes us all sometimes, and it is better, no doubt, at such times to speak violently and blasphemously than to act violently and go berserk. But if you dwell often on the truth that God is Lord and orders everything, even the frustrations, for our sanctification (Hebrews 12:5–11; cf. Romans 8:28ff.), you will find yourself able increasingly, even in the most maddening moments, to “keep your cool”—and that is best of all.
The third thing, and the one that needs special stress because, as we saw, we are all so slack here, is promise-keeping. If we have invoked God by name in order to give our words credence, it is monstrous irreverence if we then go back on them. “You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God” (Leviticus 19:12; cf. Jeremiah 5:2; Zechariah 5:4). The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
The godly man will make promises cautiously but keep them
conscientiously once they ore mode, knowing that irresponsibility
and unreliability here are great and grievous sins.
And the point goes deeper. When Jesus attacked the Pharisees’ idea that one can break without guilt any oath sworn by any sacred object, so long as God’s name has not been explicitly mentioned, his point was that you cannot keep God out of any transaction; he is everywhere, and all promises are made in his presence and involve him, whether his name is mentioned or not (Matthew 5:33ff.). So all promises are sacred and must be kept. Children know this and feel it very strongly; it is tragic that adults should so often forget it.
The godly man, therefore, will make promises cautiously but keep them conscientiously once they are made, knowing that irresponsibility and unreliability here are great and grievous sins. How hard we find this to learn! And how much we need to learn it!
FURTHER BIBLE STUDY
Why words need watching:
• Matthew 12:22-37
QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT AND DISCUSSION
• Why does God demand that we keep our vows?
• Does taking the Lord's name in vain have to do only with promises made in his name? Why or why not?
• How would you refute the Pharisees' claim that oaths not specifically using God's name may be broken without guilt?
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD
your God. On it you shall not do any work,you,
or your son, or your daughter,
your male servant, or your female servant, or
your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your
Spates. For in six days the LORD made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that is in them,
and rested the seventh day. Therefore
the LORD blessed the Sabbath day
and made it holy.
EXODUS 20:8-11