THE THIRD COMMANDMENT by Wm. A. Westbrook

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 12, 1900

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT.

By Wm. A. Westbrook

WM. A. WESTBROOK.

(Parkersburg, W. Va.)*

“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.” The significance of this command is frequently limited to blasphemy, and the irreverent use of the names of the Deity, and the unhallowed use of the Sacred Scriptures. While all that is claimed as to blasphemy is in it, there is a far-reaching application that will, if recognized, cause every professor to ask himself, Am I a keeper of this specific command?

First, let us study what it is to “take a name,” then the rest follows easily. A child is adopted. The legal requirements are fully complied with, and the facts are duly registered. The adopted child then assumes “every right and privilege” of a “child of the body.” Its name is changed, and that of the adopting parent is assumed. The child now has a “new name.”

I was lost, a sinner, a child of wickedness; and as such was of the family of Satan. See Rom. 3:23; Eph. 2:2, 3, 11, 12; 1 John 3:10. Then comes the gospel adoption; God gives his Son for me (Gal. 2:20), and I am adopted into his family. Gal. 4:4–7; Rom. 8:14–17. And thus I take, by his love, all the rights and privileges of his only begotten Son; for my Heavenly Father loves me with the same love. John 17:23. Now I TAKE HIS NAME. Eph. 3:15; Acts 15:14.

Let us follow on. If an adopted child, regardless of the love of the foster parent, departs from the warmth of the home life; if, reckless as to consequences, he plunges into dissipation and iniquity, the whole effort to rescue the child has proved “vain,” and the taking of a “new name” by the child has proved to be all “in vain.” The heretofore honored name of the foster father is brought into reproach, and becomes a laughingstock to the world; and the father’s heart is made to mourn as he sees the child, with his own name, bringing the parent to shame.

My brother and sister, you and I have been adopted. We call ourselves “children of God,” and often raise our voices to sing, “I’m a child of the King.”

Let us stop and consider. Have we assumed his name in vain? When he took us from the family of Satan, and granted us his “new, best name,” did we realize that we were called to “MANIFEST HIS NAME” TO THE WORLD? John 17:6. Was this operation in vain? Did we “take his name” in vain?

Oh, that we might all realize how much it means to change names! Does our life show to whom we belong? “For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” The family name is at stake. Dare you bring it into disgrace? Isa. 48:10, 11. Do you realize that for the privilege of taking that name, you must forsake all, or else the taking will be in vain? Matt. 19:29; Luke 21:12; John 15:21; Rev. 2:3, 13; 3:8.

Again: as his children, we are “in” his name; and “in his name,” or as his own children, we can ask “in his name” (John 14:13), and receive. We can work “in his name.” Mark 9:41; 16:17.

Having found what it is to take his name, and what it is to take it in vain, let us study what his name is. Many deductions and attributes are designated as his name, even in Scripture. Yet he himself gives us the name, and in this centers our interest and our hope. In Ps. 83:18 he says that his name “alone is Jehovah,” and in Ex. 3:14 he says that “I AM” (which is the same word translated) is his “name forever.” “Jehovah,” the Eternal One, the “self-existent,” the “all-living,” the “author and force of all life,” in whom “we live, and move, and have our being,”—I AM is his name.

How strangely contrasted is man! “All flesh is grass,” “a flower of the field,” “a vapor,” a mere transient, to-day he is, and to-morrow he is not.

Why is this?—Made “in the image of God,” very good, with the right to the tree of life, man fell and became a prodigal. He went from the Father’s house. He even forsook his name, and became a child of disobedience, of the synagogue and family of Satan. Thus sin separated man from God; and thus, instead of having life, man has death; instead of possessing God, the I AM, he has Satan and death.

But the loving Father sees him “a long way off,” and in his love provides a way. We are adopted, and the Father’s name is given again. “Him that overcometh . . . I will write upon him my new name.” Rev. 3:12. When?—When we overcome. Thank his name, and praise his mercy! We can overcome now; and now receive a change of name. His name is in our foreheads. Then for death, write life. “He that hath the Son hath life.” Now, with Solomon, we sing, “Thy name is as ointment poured forth.” Oh, the joy to have the life of God placed in us!

Having his name, we have his life; we are his, and all things are ours. How careful then should we be not to rashly assume his name; not to take it in vain, but contrariwise, praising him that he has adopted us into his own family and given us his own name, go forward and bring glory to him by manifesting his name to those who are in darkness.