 What does it really mean to take the Lord's name in vain? A popular phrase that you'll hear often throughout the world beaded from either Christians. Most often from non-Christians is this phrase, oh my God, or even just the shrunken acronyms, OMG. Sometimes you'll hear it in different phrases that sometimes does not draw the same amount of criticism. Oh Lord, Jesus. People just shout out his name. Is that taking the Lord's name in vain? Well, in Exodus 20 God tells us through Moses that you shall not take the Lord, your God, the Lord's name in vain. What does that mean? Does it simply mean you should not say his name when you don't mean it? You should not use his name to say, oh my God? Well, that would mean that when a person says, oh my God, and we think that's a sin that we're saying that that person doesn't really mean it. What if a Christian an authentic true Christian literally says, oh my God? He believes in God. He loves the Lord and he says or she says, oh my God? Well then is that a sin? Because if that person is a true Christian, well then they clearly could not have taken the name, the Lord's name in vain or do we think that using his name for certain purposes is not adequate and that also would be taking his name in vain? Well, truth is taking someone's name in vain or in this case taking God's name in vain is not when we say, oh my God or OMG or anything like that. No. The word vain means to be empty without use or without cause void. What that really means is for people who have identified themselves as believers, followers of God and really are not. They wear the name, they wear the badge, they put on the outer garment, so to speak, or the name, they carry the title. As a matter of fact Jesus brings this up when he says how they do all of these things, kind of these ceremonial things, the certain worship aspects that are really just ceremony. They're not really true and he says in vain do they worship me. Their lips say something but their heart is far away and so the point is it's not that they said it, it's the condition of the heart and it's where the heart is proximity to what they say and so when a person takes the Lord's name out of their mouth but their heart is away from him, they do so in vain and so to do so is to say that I am a believer and I really am not. You take the Lord's name in vain, you want people to think that and in many cases in some cases you may actually think so yourself. To truly take the Lord's name in vain is not saying OMG it is pretending to be something that you're not, pretending to be a believer, pretending to carry his name though your heart is far from it.