{"id":10071,"date":"2025-06-13T02:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T02:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10071"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:31:19","slug":"worthy-of-the-top-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=10071","title":{"rendered":"WORTHY OF THE TOP TEN?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.\u201d Exodus 20:7<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many folks &#8211; believers and non-believers alike &#8211; are taught the 3rd commandment is a prohibition against cussing, especially any angry outburst using the words \u201cGod\u201d or \u201cJesus Christ\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This might leave you wondering: Why did this command make God\u2019s Top Ten list, right alongside murder and adultery?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It turns out there is a major problem with this assumed interpretation:<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Hebrew word translated as \u201ctake\u201d has nothing to do with speech.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It means to bear or to carry.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So it seems the commandment\u2019s concept of \u201ctaking God\u2019s name\u201d is more like what we mean when we say a woman has \u201ctaken\u201d her new husband\u2019s name: She has chosen to identify herself with him in a very public and long-term way.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some reflection, then, as to what God means when He warns of taking His name in vain, might make it clear why it\u2019s worthy of the Top Ten!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cYou shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.\u201d Exodus 20:7 Many folks &#8211; believers and non-believers alike &#8211; are taught the 3rd commandment is a prohibition against cussing, especially any angry outburst using the words \u201cGod\u201d or \u201cJesus Christ\u201d. This might leave you wondering: Why did this command make God\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186,185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-10-commandments","category-bearing-gods-name"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10072,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10071\/revisions\/10072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}