Q.55. What does the third commandment forbid?

A. The third commandment forbids our treating as unholy or abusing anything God uses to make Himself known.

The answer to this question makes it clear that the third commandment goes beyond just forbidding our careless use of God’s name. We must also be careful about anything that God uses to make Himself known. Obviously, this includes our use of the scriptures. We must not abuse the scriptures.

Peter warns us against ignorant and unstable people who twist Scriptures to their own destruction. They will be punished for their abuse of the Scriptures.

2 Peter 3:14-17

¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. ¹⁵ And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, ¹⁶ as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. ¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.