The third commandment—thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain (Exodus 20:3) — essentially teaches reverence for  God. Implied in the commandment is a relationship between the Lawgiver and the recipients. In the words “the name of the LORD thy God”, God identifies himself as the God of the Jews. And the Jews, God, their God. If we identify God …

This article is the third in a series on the Ten Commandments. In the previous articles, I introduced the series with the title The Ten Commandments: A Brief Exposition. Then last week, I wrote on The First Commandment: The Object of Our Worship.  Today, we will examine the second commandment: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is …

Thou shalt have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:6) Created in the image of God, we are innately religious. There’s in us a natural inclination towards worship. We are imago Dei—image-bearers of God— and seek communion with the God whose image we bear, albeit often in the wrong path. There is a void between us and God (Romans 3:23) and we will …