TO ANOTHER LEVEL (PART 6)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

Matthew 5:33-37

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

“I swear to God!”

How many times have you heard people say this?

I don’t know about you but I have heard it more times than I care to remember.

So what is the point of the expression anyways? What are people really saying when they exclaim these words?

Isn’t it to validate what they have just said, as if invoking the name of God Himself by swearing in His name somehow seals the legitimacy of what someone has said?

Now hold that thought for a moment as we look at our scripture passage for today from the Gospel of Matthew and the continued teaching of Jesus during His Sermon on the Mount:

“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”  Matthew 5:33-37

Here we find Jesus tackling the matter of an oath and before we go much further, look at what the dictionary defines an oath as:

“a solemn promise, often invoking a divine witness”

With this, ask yourself if saying, “I swear to God” associated with something stated prior isn’t exclaiming an oath. It is by definition and shows us that the words of Jesus apply to today just as they did to the period He spoke them, a period more than 2,000 years ago.

In that period, in the early stages of New Testament times, the Jews were still living in accordance with customs their ancestors followed and one of those customs was the matter of oath making, often in the name of the Lord. Perhaps this morphed into the “I swear to God!” statement mentioned prior but this would only happen if one ignored the words of Jesus for look at what He had to say about oaths:

“I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.”

Jesus took an Old Testament custom, oath making, and did away with it. Period. No oaths were to be sworn by heaven or earth or by Israel’s holiest of holy cities. A person wasn’t even supposed to swear an oath personally, swearing on their own behalf.

No, oaths were to be a thing of the past and Jesus said this was to be done as a replacement:

“All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”

People were to be of integrity and the Jews, already people of God, need not swear any oath in the name of God. If they were truly God followers, then all they had to say was “Yes” or “No” and people should not question them for as God followers, they were speaking truth, truth inspired by the Lord Himself. If what was said would be exposed as a lie, then people would know that the person had not spoken by way of the Lord but rather Satan, the “evil one”.

Friends, this is how we should be today as well. These words of Jesus, meant to take things to another level culturally in New Testament times, should serve to do likewise for us today in the 21st century. Christian believers need not swear by God in regard to anything they are saying because the Lord, through His Spirit, should be leading His people to always speak truth. After all, didn’t Jesus say this about Himself:

“I am the way and the truth and the life.” John 14:6

If Jesus is the truth, then any of His followers should be speaking the truth to, led by His will, word, and way to do so. If any Christian is later shown to have deceived, then we would know that it wasn’t Jesus guiding them but rather Satan, the evil one.

In the end translation, integrity isn’t really difficult. All we need to do is allow Jesus’ truth to be our own and we can always be assured to speak with perfect validity, whether we say “yes”, “no”, or anything else for that matter.

Jesus will always make sure our honesty and honor are at another level, well above the ways of the world.

Amen

In Christ,

Mark

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