No one can say that we have nowadays any need of such things. “Behold I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” If Christ is in our hearts, why need we set Him before our eyes? “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” If we take hold of that promise by faith, what need is there of outward symbols and reminders? If the King Himself is present, why need we bow down before statues supposed to represent Him? To fill His place with an image (some one has said,) is like blotting the sun out of the heavens and substituting some other light in its place. “You cannot see Him through chinks of ceremonialism; or through the blind eyes of erring man; or by images graven with art and man’s device; or in cunningly devised fables of artificial and perverted theology. Nay, seek Him in His own Word, in the revelation of Himself which He gives to all who walk in His ways. So you will be able to keep that admonition of the last word of all the New Testament revelation: ‘Little children, keep yourselves from idols.’”

I believe many an earnest Christian would be found wanting if put in the balances against this commandment. “Tekel” is the sentence that would be written against them, because their worship of God and of Christ is not pure. May God open our eyes to the danger that is creeping more and more into public worship throughout Christendom! Let us ever bear in mind Christ’s words in the fourth chapter of John’s gospel, which show that true spiritual worship is not a matter of special times and special places because it is of all times and all places:

“Believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

“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.”

I was greatly amazed not long ago in talking to a man who thought he was a Christian, to find that once in a while, when he got angry, he would swear. I said: “My friend, I don’t see how you can tear down with one hand what you are trying to build up with the other. I don’t see how you can profess to be a child of God and let those words come out of your lips.”

He replied: “Mr. Moody, if you knew me you would understand. I have a very quick temper. I inherited it from my father and mother, and it is uncontrollable; but my swearing comes only from the lips.”

When God said, “I will not hold him guiltless that takes My name in vain,” He meant what He said, and I don’t believe any one can be a true child of God who takes the name of God in vain. What is the grace of God for, if it is not to give me control of my temper so that I shall not lose control and bring down the curse of God upon myself? When a man is born of God, God takes the “swear” out of him. Make the fountain good, and the stream will be good. Let the heart be right; then the language will be right; the whole life will be right. But no man can serve God and keep His law until he is born of God. There we see the necessity of the new birth.

To take God’s name “in vain” means either (1) lightly, without thinking, flippantly; or (2) profanely, deceitfully.