Episode Transcript  

One

Honor Due to a Friend

In this series, we are thinking deeply about how morality is not just about rules. It is about a relationship; it’s about a deep personal relationship with Jesus. God is not an idea. He is a Person. And He gives Himself to us. The First Commandment taught us: Love Him first. Don’t choose something instead of Him. Now the Second Commandment shows us what that love looks like in practice. Because every friendship is revealed in how you treat the person. And especially in how you treat their name.

If you love someone, you don’t use their name carelessly. You don’t attach it to what is false. You don’t use it to serve yourself. And you don’t mock their name. Why? Because their name represents them. It brings them to mind and into the moment. And God has given us His Name so that we can know Him, call on Him, and be close to Him.

So this commandment is not mainly about words. It is about how you treat Him. Because here too, the same thing is happening: God offers Himself in friendship, even in His Name. And we respond. We either receive Him with love, truth, and reverence…Or we take His Name and use it for what is empty, false, or self-serving. And that is not just a mistake in speech. It is disloyalty in friendship. It is taking the One who loves you and treating Him as if He were small, or useful, or unimportant. It is, once again, “I choose something instead of You.”

So the Second Commandment is not a restriction. It is an invitation: To love Him so much…to know Him so personally…that you would never want to misuse His Name, because you would never want to misuse Him. Because when you love someone, you are careful with their name. And when you love Jesus, you are loyal to Him, even in the way you speak. Which is why it’s a sin to take holy things lightly. It’s a sin, and a violation of the second commandment, to take God’s name in vain.

Two

The Evil of Acting as Though Nothing is Unimportant

Immature people, and really irresponsible comedians, act as though nothing is important, nothing is sacred. Like every sin, this is an attack on human goodness, on human nature. Because when you act like nothing really matters, that means you’re robbing life of all its ultimate meaning. All human life, all the pain, all the heroism, all the beauty, and the love, becomes a big joke. 

We need our lives to have significance if we’re going to be happy. We need certain things to matter. Certain things have to be serious. Certain things have to be important. And the only way to preserve a sense of the importance of human life is to preserve a sense of the importance, the grandeur, the infinite dignity and majesty of God. Because if God isn’t important, then nothing is important. If God doesn’t matter, then we certainly don’t. And if we don’t matter, if nothing we care about, or experience, or love matters, then there’s nothing worthwhile about our existence. And that is the essence of despair.

Three

Our Need to Recognize God’s Greatness

Each of the Ten Commandments is about protecting and promoting our friendship with God, our happiness, and our flourishing. And that goes for the Second Commandment too, “You shall not take the name of the Lord Your God in Vain.”

God’s existence isn’t diminished if we don’t respect Him, but ours is. God doesn’t lose His sense of self-worth if we speak of Him irreverently, but we will. Our dignity and our sense of human importance are predicated on God’s dignity and importance. We only exist because He has shared His existence; we only have dignity because Our Heavenly Father has shared His dignity with us, His adopted children. And our lives only have meaning and significance and purpose insofar as we are related to Him. So, to undermine our sense of His greatness is to undermine any hope of living a life that matters.

Four

Irreverence: Speaking like God doesn’t matter

Blasphemy is, of course, the worst sin against the Second Commandment. Imagine hearing someone use your son or daughter’s name as a curse. You’d feel it instantly, because that name isn’t just a word, it’s the person you love. If I heard that, I would stop them immediately, no matter what it cost me. Blasphemy does that to the Name of Jesus.

But the commandment doesn’t just forbid saying evil, hateful, horrible things about God. Can you imagine what Jesus thinks when we mock the name of His Father? That is why the Second Commandment condemns speaking about God in vain, as though God were insignificant. And this is a fault that nearly everyone, atheists and Christians, manifests throughout the English-speaking world.

We use the word “God” or even the name “Jesus” as a form of punctuation, or as a way of expressing mild surprise or aggravation. This must not be. You can’t really act as though God is the most important thing there is when you’re constantly talking as though God is completely unimportant. Our words, thoughts, and actions all go together. The name of God is holy. And what is holy is touched and spoken of with reverence, or it is not to be touched or spoken of at all. 

For without the holy, without the sacred, without the supremely important and the foundation of significance for every human life, without that, we will descend into meaninglessness. 

Five

Speaking of God as though He’s watching you.. which He is

The Catechism says, “The Lord’s name is holy. For this reason, man must not abuse it. He must keep it in mind in silent, loving adoration. He will not introduce it into his own speech except to bless, praise, and glorify it.”

St. John Henry Newman points out that we all talk about people differently depending on whether they’re present or not. When people aren’t present, we speak about them less respectfully, we’re more likely to be dismissive, and sometimes even insulting. So, Newman says, remember that God is present whenever you speak of Him. He hears how you use His name, and how you talk about Him

Before you say His name, remember that He’s there. Remember, one day you’ll see Him as He is, King and Ruler of the Universe, Infinite Creator, and Final Judge. He is all those things now. And He hears what you’re saying. So don’t say anything irreverent. Don’t take His name in vain.

Even more importantly, when we remember that God is present, Jesus is present, the Holy Spirit is present, and then we talk with them as one friend to another, we actually grow in a deeper more personal friendship with Jesus, we become more aware of all the ways He is taking care of us, all He is doing for us, and we become more grateful and more honoring to this Great Friend!

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