The third requirement of this compact is, that there shall be no insincerity on the part of God's covenant people in their claiming and bearing his name, as the name of their covenanting God. This requirement is not generally understood in this light; but all the facts in the case go to show that this is its true light. In the Oriental world, and in the primitive world everywhere, one's name stands for one's personality; and the right to bear one's name or even to call on one by his personal name, is a proof of intimate relation, if not of actual union, with him. God was now covenanting with this people to be his people, thereby authorizing them to bear his name, and to be known as his representatives. In the very nature of things, this laid upon them a peculiar obligation to bear his name reverently and in all sincerity.
It is not that God arbitrarily commanded his people to have a care in the _speaking_ of his name, as if he were jealous of its irreverent mention; but it is that he reminded them that the coming into the privileges of his name was the coming into the responsibilities of that name. It was as though Mr. Moody were taking a little street waif into his home to train the boy as his own son, and were formally giving to that boy the right to take and bear his name. Naturally he might say: "Understand, now, my boy, that, wherever you go, they'll say, 'There goes a young Moody.' Now, I value my name, and I don't want it disgraced. See to it that you take care of that name wherever you are." So God said to his people: "Thou shalt not take"--shalt not assume, bear, carry--"the name of the Lord thy God in vain"--insincerely, vainly; "for the Lord will not"--cannot--"hold him guiltless that taketh"--claimeth the privileges of--"his name in vain"--vainly, insincerely.
This covenant obligation also is on us as it was on God's people of old. As Christians we are baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.[270] Wherever we go, we are counted as members of God's family. His name is on us, and his honor is in our keeping. Wherefore, "let every one that nameth the name of the Lord"--claimeth it as his own name--"depart from unrighteousness;"[271] and let him never feel that it is a light or a vain thing to bear that name before the world.