The Third Commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
in vain," is asking us to become aware of the connection -- or the gap --
between our spoken words and our innermost thoughts, between our public
face and our private truth. (And you thought it was just about swearing!)

God knows each of His children. Nothing can be hidden from Him. Yet,
people fool themselves all the time, believing they can hide from God their
true motives or desires.

Perhaps they do it with a wordy prayer, or a recitation of Bible verses, or
maybe a superficial act of charity done for show rather than from brotherly
love.

Some people also try to impress others with a public display of words or
emotions that are designed to show how God-like they are, or how well they
know the Bible, or certain religious teachings. Their motives may not be
bad, but their words do not heal the hearts and minds of others, because they
are nothing more than words.

Then, there are some folk who simply don't care about God one way or the
other, and have no problem using His sacred name to curse or swear, in order
to shock others into paying attention to them.

Others might use God's name to dress up in formality an oath or promise they
may have no intention of keeping.

The examples above are just a few of the ways in which the Third Command-
ment can be broken, even unintentionally. Basically, these people are using
God's name as a shield to cover their sins, or their lack of true understanding.
Or, they are using God's name for empty or unworthy purposes. They are
taking His name "in vain."

And, we are all guilty of disobeying this Commandment from time to time
in our life's journey. This Commandment is a sign telling us to stop and take
a look at how we might be using God and His name for the wrong purposes.
Or, perhaps God's name, spoken loud and long in public, has become for us
as a window-dressing, fronting an otherwise empty store: a heart and mind
void of real love and understanding of God and His creation.

How does this happen to those of us, whose original motive was simply to
worship God, learn more about Him, and share the good news with others?
I'm sure others will have different answers, but in thinking about this, I feel it
is a case of stopping too soon, or not digging deep enough into the lessons
and ideas revealed to us through God's Word. We become satisfied with
immature ideas and the early progress we have made, but are unwilling to
devote time and personal sacrifice necessary to plant ourselves firmly in the
spiritual understanding of God.

Think of it like this: we may have an "ocean of knowledge" -- Bible verses
to spout, church laws and traditions learned and upheld without fail, anec-
dotes and sentimental quotes for every occasion to share, and -- for those of
us who are Christian Scientists -- countless paragraphs of Science and Health
memorized and available to counter every suggestion of error that comes to us
in our daily life. However, no matter how vast our "ocean of knowledge,"
what happens when we try to stand upon the ocean? We sink!

Superficial knowledge of God and His nature, will not hold us up. What
does? The "dry land" of understanding. We need to use what we learn
about God, apply it to our daily life and the problems that come to us, until
the ideas take form in our consciousness as something definite and usable.
You might want to compare this stage of spiritual enlightenment to the third
day of creation, as described in the first chapter of Genesis. By then, the
firmament of Spirit has divided the waters, but in the third day, dry land
appears. This is when creation becomes something definite, rather than
formless and vague. It is then that the land begins to bear fruit. So, if we
want those new and higher ideas of God that have come to light for us, to
stick around and bear fruit, we must take our stand on the land!

Consider how children learn math. They are first taught the theory, and then
are given problems to solve. If they have trouble solving them, the teacher
and child work together, going back and forth between discussing theory and
solving problems, until suddenly the child "gets it." As long as they continue
to use and practice that new concept of math, they will make it their own. It
will "bear fruit." But, how far would a child get if all they were required to
do, or did, was read math books. They might be able to spout a few rules and
theorems for their parents or teachers, but accomplish little. They would be
"taking the name of Math in vain."

With all this in mind, we will now go over some possible approaches to
teaching children the Third Commandment.

Definition: something that is "vain" is worthless, empty, hollow. If we do
something "in vain," it is a waste of effort, fruitless.

The Third Commandment, which tells us not to take God's name (nature or
character) in vain, is to be obeyed literally, morally, and spiritually. The
Sunday School children can learn all three, as they progress in their ability to
understand and demonstrate.

There are so many facets to this Commandment, it would take several lessons
to cover. Whenever you return to this subject, you can review what they
already know, and then build upon it with a new idea.

To introduce the concept of the Third Commandment to young children,
perhaps describe a scenario such as this: It is Friday night. Your parents
agree that you can rent a video of a movie you're dying to see that has just
become available. You go to the store, there's a copy available. You pay for
it, go home, make some popcorn, and settle down to watch what you know is
going to be an exciting film. You hit the play button. "What? No previews?
What is this? It's . . . it's . . . an instructional video?? -- 'Introduction to Storm
Water Management for Public Works Employees!'" In black and white.

Now, ask the kids what their response would be? (Remind them that using
God's name in vain at this point would defeat the purpose of the lesson!)

What would they say or do? How deep would be their disappointment?

Then, ask them why do they feel so disappointed or misled. Isn't it because
the label on the cover of the video box promoted the movie they thought they
were renting? And, they trusted that the box was correct, because in the past
they usually got the same movie that was advertised on the cover? Didn't
they trust the store to keep the movies in their proper boxes? Even when they
return to get their money back from the store, they may not quite forget the
feeling they had of being betrayed. Their efforts to see a good movie were
"in vain."

Explain to the students that sometimes in life people are like that. They say
and do things that get you to believe they are special in some way, or that they
can do something great, and yet it is a lie. It may mean nothing to us, until a
time comes when we may have to depend upon that knowledge. That person
may fail us in some way. We become disappointed, when we learn that they
were either pretending to be something they were not, or that they were simply
unaware of their true limitations. Either way, our trust was broken.

For instance, maybe a young friend at school brags all the time that his family
is rich. Maybe he even promises you that you can come swim in his pool, or
ride his horses some day. But later, you learn it was all made up. Maybe
your friend was ashamed about being poor, and said those things to make
himself feel loved or respected by his other classmates. But, he lied. And
you feel a bit let down when you learn it was all a big show. You really,
really wanted to ride one of his horses!

Now, turn the children's attention to the Third Commandment: "Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." God gave this Commandment in
order to stop people from using His name, or words about Him, in such a way
as to make a person appear to be closer to God than he or she really was.

Some people have even tried to use God's name as if it had magic power to
make things happen. They thought it would impress God and anyone else
watching. Maybe they even fooled themselves into believing that words
alone had power.

Tell the children that this insincere use of God's name does not make God
happy, and He forbids it. And, Jesus warned the people of his time not to
pretend to be so good and righteous, when they were not. He called them
"hypocrites."

You might want to have them read some of the situations in the Bible, where
Jesus confronted the Pharisees and called them hypocrites. These people
certainly paraded around flaunting their superiority. Maybe their original
motives were to follow God's laws as closely as possible, but they needed to
learn to balance that righteousness with a bit of unselfed mercy and meekness.

People who pretend to be good Christians, but in the privacy of their hearts
still hate others, or are greedy, or tell lies, etc., are like the videotape with a
false label on the outside box! They are not what they seem to be. Note: this
video analogy is just an update on the old "You can't judge a book by looking
at its cover" - and it is worthwhile to teach the kids this saying, as well.

Tell the students directly that we want to learn how to obey the Third
Commandment, too, so that we will not be like "hypocrites." And, we
certainly don't want to use God's name in a way that would make Him
unhappy with us.

What is our overall goal then? You might put it like this (which is based on a
statement found in my book on The Ten Commandments): Our goal is to make
our words, and speech, our thoughts, motives, and acts, all flow from the same
truth! We want what we say to match what we truly feel and believe. We
want to conform our actions to the motives that are our ideals. We want to
pause before acting and speaking if we know that we are not ready to tell it
like it really is. And we don't want to use God's name carelessly, or in
moments of anger, as if His name added force to your feelings.

This is not an easy task! But it is a worthy goal, and we need to begin right
away with trying to put it to work in our lives. It begins with the Third
Commandment, and continues with the Beatitude, "Blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth." Earth -- there's that "dry land" again! And, in
Christian Science, it is demonstrated by the qualities of Soul, one of the names
for God.

Older children might be interested in the historical perspective regarding this
Commandment. I am quoting below a few paragraphs of commentary from the
Interpreter's Bible relating to the background of the Third Commandment,
which you might want to share with older students:

"The Third Commandment deals with the use of Yahweh's name in vain, i.e.
for that which lacks reality or truth. The name of God expresses his character
and power. To call upon unreality, i.e., that which is not an expression of the
divine character, by means of the divine name is to use the name in vain. Not
only perjury, but also the practice of magic, which constitutes the invocation
of ultimate powers with whom God stands in conflict, and the invocation of
the dead, were in all probability among the specific prohibitions implied by
this commandment at its inception.

Click here to continue with The Third Commandment