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\u201cYou shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.\u201d (Deuteronomy 5:11)

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The third Word of the Covenant is grounded once again, in a relationship with God.\xa0 As such, it\u2019s helpful to think of it in relational terms.\xa0 The question being: how do you talk about someone that you know and love?

Take a marriage, for instance.\xa0 When a marriage relationship is healthy and strong, it is highly unlikely that you will hear one of the partners in that marriage use the other\u2019s name as a swear word, or as the butt of a cruel joke.\xa0 Now, behind closed doors, they may indeed exchange some heated words with one another, but in public: they are not likely to dishonour the other\u2019s name.\xa0 In fact, if and when we do hear a partner to a marriage start to speak more critically of their spouse in more public spaces\u2014we recognize it as a red flag\u2014presuming that they might be struggling and in need of our support and care.\xa0

This is the idea here as well.\xa0 We use God\u2019s name with honour and respect, because we know God and love God, even as we are known and loved by him.\xa0 We care for God\u2019s good name because there is a mutual caring between us.\xa0 The New Testament\u2019s imagery of Bride and Bridgegroom invites this comparison of mutuality, even though we certainly also understand a difference and deference between God and ourselves.\xa0

Further: God\u2019s name is not misused when we angrily shout or cry out at, to, and with him in the context of prayer and lament.\xa0 The Psalms do this all the time, sometimes in rather harsh and bluntly honest language that makes us blush.\xa0 But the critical point in the psalms is that these fights remain within the context of the relationship.\xa0 The name of God continues to be used in the context of personal address to God, which honours God and our relationship with him.

Another concerns of this command is oaths.\xa0 The Catechism suggests we may use God\u2019s name when required to for an oath, though it cautions us against it if it isn\u2019t needed (as does Jesus: \u201clet your yes be yes, and your no, no\u201d).\xa0 The idea here again is relational: God knows us and can vouch for our truthfulness.\xa0 The reverse is also true: should we be found to be lying, it is with God that we will have to do for he \u201cwill not hold anyone guiltless who missuses his name.\u201d\xa0 Of course, lying under such an oath also reflects a heavily distorted image of God to the world.\xa0 This too has an analogue in other relationships: we tend to mention loved ones offhandedly as people who can vouch for our character and story, but at the same time, they do not take well to being dragged into our lies.

When God\u2019s name is misused\u2014as in the example of bad oaths above\u2014what\u2019s at stake is a sin against the relationship that God has established with us.\xa0 God reveals his name to Moses and to Israel so that they might know him more intimately and understand his character more deeply.\xa0 His name is meant for personal address, as in the conversation of prayer or worship\u2014always within the context of the relationship. \xa0But whenever we speak about someone rather than to or with them, we are always in danger of depersonalizing or objectifying them and so betraying our relationship in small, but significant ways.\xa0 This danger is all the more profound when it comes to the God whom we have not seen.\xa0

Hopefully this all gives a sense of the force of this Third Word of the Covenant.\xa0 So today: how will you honour your relationship with God in the ways that you speak to him, and of him to others?