“Again
you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely,
but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say
to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of
God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by
Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not
take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let
what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”
Matthew 5:33-37
In one
of my illustration books there is the story of a widow that had become a
Christian but was in a hard financial position because a friend had borrowed
some money from her and then left without ever repaying it. She wanted
everything in her life to be right for Christ and she owed money to a Jewish
lawyer. She went to him and told him of the circumstances and promised to pay
the fellow each week as she earned the money. She also told him that she had
just accepted Jesus as her Savior and that she wanted her life to shine for
Jesus Christ. When the last installment of that money was paid, the Jewish man
responded, “I have had much dealing with people who said they were followers
of Christ. Until now, I have never been much impressed.”
Too often those claiming to be Christians are no different, and sometimes even worse - they do not keep their word. They lack integrity and cannot be trusted to keep their promises.
In the Old Testament, God had set a high standard; He had set down His divine law. But in the moral disintegration and digression of Israel's history, they had descended far away from God's law. They did not desire to go to God to receive grace for salvation; they wanted to attain it themselves, in their own pride, but they could not attain to the law of God as God defined it. So they invented a sub-standard ethic, a man-made system of their own designing.
That is why, beginning in Matthew 5:21, six times Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said by them of old, but I say unto you." In other words, "Your system has told you this, but I'm telling you this." In each of the six illustrations, Jesus lifts the standard back to where it belonged.
Now He comes to a fourth illustration of their sinfulness in verse 33. Here He says, "You think you're telling the truth, but I'm telling you you're nothing but a group of liars."
Oaths were not uncommon. The supreme oath in the Old Testament was, "As the Lord lives," to confirm words. "As I live," says the Lord in Genesis 22:16, "I swear by My own name." Always two things in the Old Testament: swearing only in God's name, and only for very special occasions. That's what the Old Testament taught.
You'll remember, for example, Joshua in Joshua 9, Jephthah in Judges 11, Saul in I Samuel 14, Herod in Matthew 14, taking rash and ridiculous and stupid oaths, and having to bear the consequences. On the other hand, you'll find oaths of loveliness given by Ruth, Samuel, David, and others at the right time for the right reasons, and God honored them.
That's what Moses taught; what did these Jews teach in Jesus' day? Verse 33 sounds good, "You shall not perjure yourself, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord." That sounds great, but like everything else they did, it is an illusion. There are two things that I want to call to your attention here. One is a missing ingredient, and the other is a misplaced emphasis.
You can see that in the statement in verse 33, there is no qualification. It just says, "Be sure when you perform an oath to the Lord that you keep it." It doesn't say anything about when you should do that, so they were just swearing by everything.
The second thing is not only a missing ingredient, but a misplaced emphasis. Notice the phrase, "Unto the Lord." That was their little catch. As long as you swore unto the Lord, you had to do it. But if you swore to anything else, you didn't have to.
For example, Leviticus 19:12 says, "You shall not swear by My name falsely." The emphasis is that you shouldn't swear falsely. But their emphasis is, "You shouldn't swear by His name falsely." See the difference? In Numbers 30:2, "When a man makes a vow to Jehovah, or swears an oath, he shall not break his word." They read it this way, "When a man makes a vow to Jehovah, he shall not break his word." Otherwise, you could break it.
What is Jesus teaching here? "Let your normal speech be that 'yes' means 'yes,' and 'no' means 'no.' That way, you don't have to swear by anything, because your word is your bond." So Jesus is merely reiterating what I said at the beginning, the two Old Testament standards.
If you're a Christian and a child of the King, you should live like one. He is the Father of truth, so when we open our mouths, the truth ought to come out. On those solemn occasions when we vow a vow to God, we ought to keep that vow. On those other occasions, in the daily matters of life, our 'yes' should be 'yes,' and our 'no' should be 'no.' Anything more than that reveals an evil, untrustworthy heart.
This Lenten Season in our daily conversation, let's speak the truth, the real truth, and live it. Let's be an oasis in the midst of the evil of this world of lying.
Too often those claiming to be Christians are no different, and sometimes even worse - they do not keep their word. They lack integrity and cannot be trusted to keep their promises.
In the Old Testament, God had set a high standard; He had set down His divine law. But in the moral disintegration and digression of Israel's history, they had descended far away from God's law. They did not desire to go to God to receive grace for salvation; they wanted to attain it themselves, in their own pride, but they could not attain to the law of God as God defined it. So they invented a sub-standard ethic, a man-made system of their own designing.
That is why, beginning in Matthew 5:21, six times Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said by them of old, but I say unto you." In other words, "Your system has told you this, but I'm telling you this." In each of the six illustrations, Jesus lifts the standard back to where it belonged.
Now He comes to a fourth illustration of their sinfulness in verse 33. Here He says, "You think you're telling the truth, but I'm telling you you're nothing but a group of liars."
Oaths were not uncommon. The supreme oath in the Old Testament was, "As the Lord lives," to confirm words. "As I live," says the Lord in Genesis 22:16, "I swear by My own name." Always two things in the Old Testament: swearing only in God's name, and only for very special occasions. That's what the Old Testament taught.
You'll remember, for example, Joshua in Joshua 9, Jephthah in Judges 11, Saul in I Samuel 14, Herod in Matthew 14, taking rash and ridiculous and stupid oaths, and having to bear the consequences. On the other hand, you'll find oaths of loveliness given by Ruth, Samuel, David, and others at the right time for the right reasons, and God honored them.
That's what Moses taught; what did these Jews teach in Jesus' day? Verse 33 sounds good, "You shall not perjure yourself, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord." That sounds great, but like everything else they did, it is an illusion. There are two things that I want to call to your attention here. One is a missing ingredient, and the other is a misplaced emphasis.
You can see that in the statement in verse 33, there is no qualification. It just says, "Be sure when you perform an oath to the Lord that you keep it." It doesn't say anything about when you should do that, so they were just swearing by everything.
The second thing is not only a missing ingredient, but a misplaced emphasis. Notice the phrase, "Unto the Lord." That was their little catch. As long as you swore unto the Lord, you had to do it. But if you swore to anything else, you didn't have to.
For example, Leviticus 19:12 says, "You shall not swear by My name falsely." The emphasis is that you shouldn't swear falsely. But their emphasis is, "You shouldn't swear by His name falsely." See the difference? In Numbers 30:2, "When a man makes a vow to Jehovah, or swears an oath, he shall not break his word." They read it this way, "When a man makes a vow to Jehovah, he shall not break his word." Otherwise, you could break it.
What is Jesus teaching here? "Let your normal speech be that 'yes' means 'yes,' and 'no' means 'no.' That way, you don't have to swear by anything, because your word is your bond." So Jesus is merely reiterating what I said at the beginning, the two Old Testament standards.
If you're a Christian and a child of the King, you should live like one. He is the Father of truth, so when we open our mouths, the truth ought to come out. On those solemn occasions when we vow a vow to God, we ought to keep that vow. On those other occasions, in the daily matters of life, our 'yes' should be 'yes,' and our 'no' should be 'no.' Anything more than that reveals an evil, untrustworthy heart.
This Lenten Season in our daily conversation, let's speak the truth, the real truth, and live it. Let's be an oasis in the midst of the evil of this world of lying.
May God
help us. God Bless you.
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