Lord’s Day 36
Q100. Is blaspheming God's name by swearing and cursing really such a serious sin that God is angry even with those who do not do all they can to prevent and forbid it?
Yes, indeed. No sin is greater or makes God more angry than blaspheming his name. That is why he commanded the death penalty for it.
Scripture Proofs — King James Version
Leviticus 5:1
“And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and a witness, whether he hath seen or known ; if he do not utter , then he shall bear his iniquity.”
Leviticus 24:10–17
“And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish and a man of Israel strove together in the camp; And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name , and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother's name Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:) And they put him in ward, that the mind of the LORD might be shewed them. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name , shall be put to death. And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.”
Modernized Commentary — Zacharias Ursinus (1616)
This commandment contains two elements: the commandment itself and an exhortation to obey it. The purpose of this commandment is that the true God, who in the first precept commanded that He alone be worshipped, should be worshipped in the right way, with the kind of worship that rational creatures properly owe Him, worship that is pleasing to Him rather than worship invented by human imagination and ingenuity. Alternatively, we can say that the commandment's purpose is to keep the worship of God, as He has prescribed it, pure and uncorrupted, free from any form of superstitious practice. True worship of God is therefore required here, and a rule is given alongside it: we must carefully and conscientiously stay within the boundaries God has set, neither adding anything to the worship He has instituted nor corrupting any part of it, even the smallest detail. Scripture reinforces this principle explicitly in many other places. True worship of God consists of every inward and outward act that God has commanded, performed in faith, with full confidence that both the worshiper and the act are pleasing to God for the sake of the Mediator, and with the goal of glorifying God through it. To worship God truly is to worship Him in the way He Himself has prescribed in His Word.
This commandment also forbids every form of false or self-invented worship, requiring that we neither regard creatures as God nor worship them, that we not represent the true God through any image or figure, and that we not worship Him through images or through any form of worship He has not himself prescribed. When God condemns the most obvious and egregious form of false worship, namely worshiping Him at or through images, He is plainly condemning all other forms of false worship at the same time, since they all grow from the same root. He forbids this most shocking kind of idolatry not because He would overlook or excuse other forms of worship that contradict what He has prescribed, but because image worship is the root and foundation of all the rest. Therefore, this commandment of the Decalogue forbids every kind of worship that was invented by human beings rather than instituted by God, as well as every practice that shares the same reason for being prohibited.
All the things that oppose the true worship of God are contrary to this second commandment, including the following.