Editorial August 22, 1994 Issue

God's holy name and the Third Commandment

Barbara M. Vining

On my way home from work the day I started writing this editorial, the driver of a pickup truck raced up behind my car and honked insistently at me to move ahead while I was waiting to make a safe entrance onto the busy turnpike. You may have had similar experiences. When you've looked back on them, have you been pleased with how you responded? I haven't always been. But in this instance, the work I had been doing on this editorial proved invaluable in helping me respond rightly because it had caused me to think deeply about God's nature and my own real nature.

The Bible tells us that we should show reverence for God and His creation—that His name, or nature, is holy and that it should be regarded as such. This rule doesn't make any exception to accommodate circumstances. After all, God always expresses His holy nature as divine Love, so how could anything less than holiness be required of His children?

What does it mean to be holy? It means to have no element of evil—to be pure and perfect—to be entirely good. Infinite Spirit—the one all-inclusive good, which is God—fits that description perfectly. All that is within our heavenly Father and Mother, God, is holy; every conception in the divine Mind expresses God's goodness, His holiness. His name is holy because He is holy.

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