The Third and Fourth Commandments
Exodus 20: 7 - 11
Some people, especially non-Christians, may think that the Ten Commandments are mere religious restrictions, but we as Christians should not think this way. It already begins with the proclamation of liberation or salvation, which precedes the commandments. The Gospel precedes the Law. Only those who are saved can obey the Law. If you and I are not redeemed from the slavery of sin, it is impossible for us to have any desire to obey God’s Word. It is strange, however, that some christians may only see God’s commandments as a burden. One may even ask if they are really saved, as the Bible describes God’s people as delighting in meditating and obeying God’s law.
There is a heresy called antinomianism, which says that if we have been saved, then we are freed from sin, so the Law is no longer needed. That is not the Bible’s teaching. To clarify, of course we are saved not because of our obedience to the Law, but because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross. However, Christ frees us from sin so that we have the desire to obey the Law. Our obedience is not a way to earn salvation, but a form of thanksgiving to God. In fact, we now live in the New Testament period, but we still have teachings about the Ten Commandments. Indeed, people who have been saved are those who are enabled to obey God’s commandments.
If you read the first and the second commandments, those commandments also liberate us in a way that when we worship the LORD as our one and only God, our lives are free. However, if we put our lives under the power of idols, then we are under their enslavement. God gives the first commandment “You shall have no other gods before me” not because He is envious or insecure, but because God wants us to have a free and blessed life by worshipping Him. A person who loves God and his neighbour has a blessed life, while he who is unable to love God and his neighbour has a pitiful life. God is not desperate in receiving our love; He owns everything you and I have, including our lives, so He does not need anything from us. If we could love and worship Him above everything, and love our neighbours, we have then obtained the true freedom in our lives. In this way, as Psalm 1 says, obeying the Law becomes a delight, not a duty, to a christian. If we have been loved by God and love God, but our lives are filled only with duty upon duty, then we are not growing. A growing person, when obeying God’s commandments, worshipping, praying, fasting, is doing his delights, not his duties. Of course there are things in which we must deny ourselves, but if all our lives are always filled with only burdensome self-denial, then we should ask ourselves if we have the liberating love of God. Likewise for the second commandment, we should not worship idols because they ruin our lives. The commandment is given for our good.
The third commandment says, “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”. Sometimes its interpretation is reduced to hastily mentioning the name of God or false swearing. This is not wrong but the meaning of the commandment goes deeper. Fretheim, an Exodus commentator, says it is about divine reputation. Gossipping or slander could ruin one’s reputation and some people call it “character assassination”. Politicians may have black campaigns which smear their opponents’ reputation. Likewise, in workplaces, perhaps it is not sufficient to say the good things about one’s own products, but the bad things about competitors’ products must be said. All these practices may feel normal to us. We bad mouth others perhaps not solely for degrading them, but simply for making us look better. When our names are smeared, we become unhappy and demand reparation. Then how about the name of God? In the same way, the name of God can be smeared, so the commandment demands us not to ruin God’s reputation.
Why is this important? The simplest answer is that God’s name is so much greater and holier than our names. This alone is sufficient, but the Bible also teaches that God’s name should be declared over all the earth. Exodus 9:16 says, “But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”. Now imagine that God’s name is proclaimed in all the earth, but it has a bad reputation. People will then despise God’s name.
How is God’s name smeared? Through the lives of christians who profess belief in God but are actually smearing God’s name. That makes others unable to believe God and rather become paranoid upon hearing the name of God. In Germany, a few months ago, there was an investigation into the Protestant church archives which uncovered numerous scandals. This was a shock because people thought scandals like sexual abuse and paedophilia were rampant in the Roman Catholic church, but now similar scandals are discovered at a comparable scale. It concerns the State church, but still, it even further diminishes the church’s and God’s credibility. This is what the third commandment means. It is not only about words, but also about our lives, which are of course imperfect, but are still expected not to ruin the glory of God’s name. The sin is great: people who smear God’s name actually hinder others from believing God. You yourself would not want to relate with people that have a bad reputation. Imagine that now God is the one defamed. An atheist may despise God and think he is morally superior to believers. Thus, do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Christianity is not only about words or rhetorics, but also about the totality of life.
Furthermore, Calvin invites us to meditate on the positive form of each commandment. If we are not supposed to take the name of the Lord in vain, then what should we do? We should take the name of the Lord in honour and praise. Just abstaining from taking the name of the Lord in vain does not mean obeying the third commandment. Instead, For instance, take the commandment “You shall not murder”. You may not have murdered anyone and think that you have obeyed the commandment. However, it is not only about not committing any murder, but also about whether you have promoted the flourishing of others’ lives. Some people may be dying of illness and we are not interested in alleviating their suffering, yet we think ourselves righteous because we do not murder them. Christianity demands us not only to not murder, but also to make others flourish.
Likewise for the third commandment, we are called to glorify God’s name. We are often more interested in the glory of our own names. One may classify societies into guilt based societies and honour-shame societies, which characterise many Asian societies. For instance, when we educate our children, we tell them not to make ourselves ashamed, instead of telling them to do the right thing. Keeping one’s face is important to Asians. I am not saying that honour-shame societies are inferior; each culture has its own place. However, when we, Asians, like to uphold honour, whose honour and shame do we have in our minds? Whose face should we keep: ourselves, our family, our company, our church? The bible is clear: seek God’s face. Yet we are more sensitive about the face of ourselves or our group identities. The commandment says “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain”, not the name of your family in vain.
So in the positive form of the commandment, we are invited to praise God’s name. While not smearing other people’s names, we can mention good things about them, especially when they are not around (otherwise it is more like flattery). Likewise, perhaps we only praise God when He holds His special presence during worship, but when we have minimal awareness of His presence, do we still praise God’s name? For instance, when you do business, or travel, do you talk and witness about God’s good name? We often talk about our problems, complaints, family matters, but when do we talk about God’s goodness? All believers from any church and denomination are invited to talk about God’s goodness. Is there a place for this in our lives? Maybe we also talk about our own successes, but God is only a small footnote in our stories. The third commandment requires us to glorify God’s name not only in church but also in our everyday lives from our deepest hearts.
On the fourth commandment “Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy”, there are rather pointless theological debates such as whether we can take public transportation or aeroplanes on the Sabbath day. What is actually the meaning of Sabbath? There is a danger in becoming legalist when talking about God’s commandments i.e. instead of talking about the substance, we only talk about the superficial aspects, and care only about external behaviours rather than internal attitudes. We keep doing external ministries but experience no joy in them. I recognize that there are people who sincerely refrain from some activities from their hearts, but there are also people who only do it externally and yet become proud of such observance of Sabbath.
What does God actually give Sabbath for? There is a theologian who says it is a sanctuary of time. In the Bible, if a person with some guilt enters the temple of God, he claims a sanctuary and cannot be killed there. In our context, suppose someone is in danger and he enters a church, he claims sanctuary and should obtain safety there. As for the sanctuary of time, it is about people getting respite in terms of time. Our lives in cities are restless, and we need not a mere slowdown, but rest in God. Some of us are used to a fast pace of life such that when things slow down, we become restless. Even during holidays such a person may find nonsensical activities to keep himself busy and “productive”.
What actually makes us restless is that we think we own our time. It is hard for us to admit that God owns our time. In reality, God works through our actions, but the deadline, the agenda and everything are from God. However, in our everyday lives, we are not used to this mindset. We usually think the deadline comes from our superior or ourselves. We use our time as we deem right ourselves. When we come to church on Sundays, we are trained to recognize that we do not own our lives. It is God’s time and not our time. In the post-Covid time, some people still prefer to attend online services because they retain ownership of their time and do not need to dedicate it to God. One may pause the online service and do as he pleases, whereas on-site services cannot be paused. Thus the sanctuary of time actually frees us from ourselves. We like to enslave ourselves with our own deadlines, and Sabbath tells us to stop because time belongs to God and not us.
This should not be taken as dualism. If we could consecrate time and place to God during Sunday worship, then the practice or liturgy permeates into our daily lives. You could then worship God amidst doing business. However, if we fail to consecrate our time on Sundays and want to remain sovereign over our time, then we will become restless in our everyday lives. At most we would become a dualist: on Sundays we appear restful and praise God, but on weekdays we become restless again. We seek God’s face on Sundays but on weekdays we seek our boss’ face. Isn’t this kind of schizophrenic person actually taking the name of the Lord in vain? How can one glorify God with such a schizophrenic life?
At first we may need to deny ourselves by admitting that the time is not ours and stopping our normal activities during Sunday worship. We may feel uneasy listening to sermons and would rather be the one speaking, but this is actually cleansing of our lives. In your everyday lives perhaps you are people whom others listen to, but in worship you become the ones who listen. If the liturgy then succeeds in shaping you, you might become people who listen to others in everyday lives. Hopefully you become people who also listen to God who speaks in your everyday lives. You become sensitive to the will of God.
When the Bible says “Remember the Sabbath”, it is not mere remembering as in not forgetting. As in the Holy Communion, we do not merely remember the fact that Jesus was crucified; even unbelievers could remember that. Instead, remembering here means an active observance. You learn to actively receive gifts from God, as Sabbath is not a torture but a gift from God. Can we actually enjoy the presence of God? Or do we become restless? As we may, and not must, stop and rest on Sundays, do we see this as a gift or a burden from God?
It is interesting that the verse talks about the theology of creation. Six days you shall labour and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. Thus, observing the Sabbath is for the good of creation. This mandate is not only for Israelites, but for the whole earth, including humans and even animals. The rest is cosmic. Both believers and unbelievers are invited to rest. In creation, God transforms chaos into order. When we do not observe Sabbath, we destroy this creation and promote chaos. How come we could fight chaos by refraining from activities? The answer is simple. The world keeps doing many things meaninglessly and without any purpose. A person may work hard all his life to earn a lot of money, but in the end he might fall ill and use all his money for medical treatment. He cannot even enjoy the fruit of his work. This is what Ecclesiastes calls meaningless. In Luke there is a parable of the rich fool who says to his soul “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” but that night God takes away his life. We are not sovereign over our time, even the time for us to enjoy the fruit of our work. God is the One who gives us time and determines our kairos. Thus, if you understand the christian concept of time and Sabbath, then all our time is God’s time, be it the time to serve, get discipled, study the Word, pray, visit others and share. Because we observe Sabbath.
We know that Sabbath is given by Christ. In fact all the commandments are given and must be related to Christ. With regards to the third commandment, we see our failure in glorifying the Father, and our life is a contrast to that of Christ, who never fails to glorify His Father. He witnesses with His words and life. Likewise, regarding Sabbath, Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” This saying of Jesus does not seem apt for the modern time. Perhaps the modern man thinks that a more suitable saying would be “Come and I will give you productivity.” while in fact what we all really need is rest. It is not laziness or idleness, but the heart attitude which allows us to rest in the grace of God amidst our busiest moment. May God bless us all. S.W.