The Third Commandment

Exodus 20.7; Deuteronomy 5.11
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain…”

Read Numbers 30.1, 2 Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the LORD has commanded. If a man vows to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”

Note those words, “to bind himself.” When we take vows or make oaths or pledges before the Lord – invoking His Name or help or attestation – He sees us as binding ourselves to perform whatever we have sworn. It’s as though the thing we have vowed has become a part of our lives, a part of who we are and what we must perform each day. To fail in our vows is not only to renege on our word to the Lord, but to deny something essential about ourselves. Every church member, for example, who fails to fulfill the vow by which he declared himself determined to “work for the purity and peace of the church” is, in effect, denying that he is bound by any such thing. He’s saying, That obligation has no claim on me; it’s not part of who I am. Church members who merely attend worship, barely give to the work of the church, seldom volunteer to serve when needs are evident, and spend more time criticizing and complaining than working to strengthen the Body of Christ demonstrate that they have, in effect, denied their membership vow. If we thus deny what we have previously owned, do we still expect the Lord to regard us as members of His Bride?

Get a copy of the membership vows you took upon joining your church. Review each one. With each vow, write a brief sentence explaining how you are presently seeking to fulfill what you solemnly swore before the Lord. How’s it going?

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