In God’s Name Alone

We saw in yesterday’s study that the only proper object by which we should swear is God’s name. He alone is the living and true God; He alone has power to know what we swear and to reward or punish us for the way in which we fulfill our oaths. But this call to swear only in God’s name also implies a number of fundamental truths about the practice of oath-taking.

The Westminster Confession of Faith is one of the most comprehensive doctrinal statements ever composed. Still, it is a bit amazing to 21st-century Christians to find one of its 33 chapters devoted to the subject “Of Lawful Oaths and Vows.” The presence of this chapter serves to illustrate the importance the Westminster divines attached to the practice of making oaths and vows. In chapter 22, the confession states, “The name of God only is that by which men ought to swear.” It then goes on to say: “It is to be used with all holy fear and reverence. Therefore, to swear vainly, or rashly, by that glorious and dreadful name; or, to swear at all by any other thing, is sinful, and to be abhorred.” In our oaths and vows, as in all things, the name of God is to be treated with the highest reverence. When we make vows in God’s name, we are not to do so “vainly, or rashly,” that is, casually and with indifference. To do so, the confession says, is sinful and abhorrent—we ought to hate such a cavalier use of God’s name. This, of course, is God’s own attitude toward improper uses of His name, as revealed in the third commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Ex. 20:7). The confession enjoins this respect for God’s name because it is “glorious and dreadful.” In the seventeenth century, when the confession was drafted, the word dreadful connoted something that caused fearful quaking. This is precisely the reaction we see in Scripture when people come into God’s presence. The name of God is glorious and dreadful because God Himself is glorious and dreadful.

Therefore, we should take vows only in God’s name, and only with the deepest solemnity. He gives us His permission to use His name in this way, but we must not use it vainly. Indeed, such should be our respect for His name that we loathe to use it improperly.