Q 72: What sanction does the Lord threaten for disobeying the third commandment?

A 72: The Lord threatens that He will continue to hold guilty, and thus subject to discipline, all those who take His Name in vain. (Ex. 20.7; Deut. 5.11; Ps. 66.18; Heb. 12.3-11)

Of course this follows because of the hypocrisy involved in professing to belong to the Lord yet failing to live for His glory. But the Lord does not withdraw His love from us when we thus walk faithlessly before Him; rather, He applies His discipline to us, in one or more of several ways, in order to bring us to our senses so that we confess and repent of our sin and seek Him and His Spirit again unto righteousness. We may persist in taking the Lord’s Name in vain, but if we are truly His, He will never desist from seeking to lead us to walk in a manner worthy of that Name, whatever that may require. We may be faithless, but He remains ever faithful (2 Tim. 2.13).

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