MATTHEW 5.33-37

 

Mt 5:33 ¶ Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself (make false oaths; break your oath), but shalt perform (fulfill) unto the Lord thine oaths (Lev 19.12; Num 30.2; Deut 23.21): 34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all (make no oath at all); neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: 35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. 36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these (whatever is beyond a simple yes or no) cometh of evil (comes from the evil one or comes from evil; Gr. Poneros; grievous, lewd, malicious, harmful, wicked).

 

Let me being by asking a question; Is Jesus teaching that we are to join ranks with the Quakers and any other “religious groups” who refuse to take an oath in a court of law? Does He mean that we should not sign on the dotted line and pledge to pay a certain amount of money for services rendered? Does He mean that our current western traditions of swearing in a president to pledge to uphold the US Constitution or a man and woman exchanging marriage vows are unnecessary and against God’s will? Absolutely not!

At the end of His earthly ministry, Jesus Himself spoke under oath:

• Matt 26.63 And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. 64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

 

In fact, the very passages that Jesus quotes from say the exact opposite.

• Lev 19:11 Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. 12 And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
• Ex 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
• The Lord gave instructions on fulfilling oaths through Moses in Numbers 30:2. Nu 30:2 If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond (obligate himself with a pledge); he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.   

·      Eccl 5:4 ¶ When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not (do not delay) to pay (keep) it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay (keep) that which thou hast vowed. 5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. 6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error (do not defend yourself by saying that it was a mistake): wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

• One of the old Reformers once said, He who, after employing the name of God, cheats and deceives his neighbors, does an injury to God as well as to man.
• We see from these verses that I just read to you from the OT, that an appropriate oath is not forbidden. On the contrary, the keeping the oath is demanded by God and not to be taken lightly.

 

Remember the context of our Scriptures this morning beloved. The Lord Jesus in Matthew 5.31 and 32 has just given us the divine view on marriage, divorce and remarriage. Do you see the word again, there in verse 33? By using the word again, Jesus is connecting the previous teaching on the breaking the marriage vow as being a form of lying, because for one reason or another, when you failed to do what you said you would do, for better or worse, through sickness or health, til death do us part, you lied to God, your spouse and yourself.  

 

What Jesus forbids in our texts is not the legitimate use of oaths in formal settings such as marriage vows or legal documents or court cases. What Jesus is referring to is the need for honesty and truthfulness in all of our conversations with one another, and I will explain that to you in a moment.

 

In our previous expositions on the subject of murder, adultery, and divorce, Jesus addressed the fact that many sought to avoid the guilt of those sins while still committing them in their heart or thought life. That is because a legalist will always seek to make it possible for fallen man to keep the commandments of God in order to earn or deserve their salvation. Legalism and religion make man partners with God in their salvation. The gospel of Jesus Christ is all of grace, not of works lest any man should boast. Salvation is the gift of God that is given to man by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

When the gospel of the grace of God was being threatened by legalists in the early church, the Spirit filled reply that was made regarding how people are saved was…..

• Ac 15:11 But we (Jews) believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they (Gentiles).
• Ro 4:2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. 3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed (trusted in, relied fully upon) God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt (when a person works, their wages are not credited to them as a gift, but as an obligation). 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

 

Lets get back to our texts on oaths. At face value, the words of Jesus in our study this morning pretty clear cut.

• Don't make false vows and fulfill the vows that you make to the Lord. Simple.
• But by the accepted interpretation, (or I should say misinterpretation of the law), the people of Jesus day from the priests in the temple to the street vender in the city of Jerusalem were able to navigate around the truth without any guilt or condemnation at all.
• Let me explain. According to the religious teaching of the day, if a person avoided using the Name of God by swearing by heaven (God’s throne), the earth (God’s footstool) or by Jerusalem (city of the Great King), the vow or the transaction or the deal was not binding.
• Thus, the Jews divided oaths into two classes, those which were absolutely binding and those which were not. Any oath which contained the name of God was absolutely binding; any oath which succeeded in evading the name of God was held not to be binding.
• How did this play out? Lets just say that you were in a conversation with another person and the two of you were about to make a deal or “promise” to perform some duty or do some work. If we were living back in Jesus day, in order to get around being responsible for doing what you said you would do, at some point of the conversation you would say to the other person something like 'I swear to heaven that this is true.' Or you might say, 'I swear by Jerusalem, I'm going to do this thing.' Or ‘ I swear by the earth that covers my mother or fathers grave’…..or ‘I swear by the hair on my head’…..
• If you had successfully avoided invoking God's holy Name in the process of making an oath or promise, you were “off the hook” and could rip off the other person and walk away without any guilt whatsoever.
• For those who are my age, do you remember when you “promised” to do buy something from your friend and you promised to pay them back later because you didn’t have any money on you at the time? If you crossed your fingers behind your back, or said something like I swear on a stack of Bibles….or,'cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye,’ that meant that you were not held responsible for what you said because the crossing of your fingers or the crossing of your heart meant that you really had no intention of doing what you said you would.
• So here is what Jesus was saying. At the time that Jesus spoke these words, the vast majority of people under fear of severe punishment would avoid perjuring themselves in a law court. However, many of those very same people would have had no problem whatsoever ripping off other people by simply avoiding using the Name of God in pledging to do whatever they said they would do.

 

We are living in an age of deceit and dishonesty where truthfulness appears to have been tossed out the window. With a blatant disregard for integrity in life and lips, many people today are finding a way around honesty and accountability without feeling guilty.

• In the financial world, recent Wall Street disclosures of "book cooking" among several major corporations have rocked the nation's economy.
• Lying about statistics on both sides of the aisle is a political strategy that seems to be the norm these days.
• Sports stars lying about taking drugs to enhance sports performances are the norm.
• By refusing to discuss the fine print in the contract to the customer after the purchase of a product is made is a form of lying that is the norm today.  

 

We are living in a lying and deceitful culture beloved, and that should not surprise us because the devil is the god of this world system (2 Cor 4.4)  and he was called by Jesus a liar and the father of all lies (John 8.44).

• In the visible church, false teachers are lying to multitudes of people about the truth of God.
• 2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily (secretly) shall bring in damnable (destructive) heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious (shameful) ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
• False religions that are proclaiming a false Jesus are lying to people and by doing so, leading them into a Christ less eternity.
• 2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
• Children are lying to parents about their friends….they lie to them about who they chat with or text with.
• Spouses are lying or dishonest with them about money, “lunch meetings” with people of the opposite sex….where they are at certain times.
• Students are passing courses or graduating from school and college by cheating or lying on their tests.
• I believe that the most dangerous form of dishonesty is hiding an ungodly or unholy lifestyle behind the cloak of Christianity. 

 

 

A wide array of lying displays the darkness of men's hearts in every corner of life. But those that have known the saving grace of God are called to live separate from the common practice of lying by living lives of truthfulness and honesty by the power of The Spirit of God and for the glory of Jesus Christ. To faithfully tell the truth and live the truth marks one as a follower of Jesus Christ because He that created us demands that our word be a reflection of His own truthfulness and faithfulness. To lie or to deceive or to misrepresent - regardless of how cleverly we maneuver our words – is a poor witness for The Lord Jesus Christ and affronts the character of God.

 

Jesus is basically saying is that you should be a person of your word. You should not have to take or make an oath. You should not have to swear to tell the truth, of what you are saying. "I swear on the Bible that I’m telling you the truth." You normally wouldn’t have to do this, except of course if you are known as an untruthful person, and nobody trusts you. You should be a person of your word; when you say yes, you mean yes, and when you say no, you mean no. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no. Don’t let yourself get into these long deceitful kinds of conversations, "Well, I would be very happy to do it, but let me just pray about it first, brother". But what your really meaning is, "I don’t want anything to do with this situation, and I have no intentions of getting envolved". And so instead of coming right out and saying what I really mean, I hem and haw because the person may be offended. Jesus says to avoid all of that nonsense and let if you say yes, mean yes, if you say no, mean no. Anything more than this is deceitful, covering up the truth. Beloved, we do not help matters much when after someone tells us yes or no we ask them why!!!

 

The Lord’s half brother James, wrote these words:

• James 5:12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.
• Life cannot be divided into compartments in some of which God is involved and in others of which he is not involved; there cannot be one kind of language in the Church and another kind of language in the shipyard or the factory or the office; there cannot be one kind of standard of conduct in the Church and another kind of standard in the business world. The fact is that God does not need to be invited into certain departments of life, and kept out of others. He is everywhere, all through life and every activity of life. He hears not only the words which are spoken in his name; he hears all words; and there cannot be any such thing as a form of words which evades bringing God into a transaction. We will regard all promises as sacred, if we remember that all promises are made in the presence of God. Wm. Barclay

 

What can we do to walk in the light of what Jesus is saying today?

• First of all, I would say that we need to ask The Lord to reveal to us any habits of deceitful or dishonest communications that we are guilty of?
• Do we tend to exaggerate some claim so that truth is embellished and our vanity elevated?
• Have we cheated on a test or homework or our tax forms or our time sheet at work or our expense account?
• Have we deceived someone to make a sale or to gain popularity or to avoid a conflict?
• Do we keep our appointments with people? Do we pay our bills on time? Do we give our employers’ an honest days work?
• In our conversations with one another, are we genuine and honest? Do we make excuses for not doing something instead of telling the truth?
• Are we Pharisees that live one way here at church and with the people of God but another way at home or in the presence of unsaved or un-churched people?
• Take those matters to The Lord in sincere prayer. Receive His forgiveness and pardon on the merits of Jesus Christ. If need be, make express that sorrow to others and with all that is within you, make a deliberate effort to talk and walk in honesty and truth in all areas of life.

 

Truth and honesty are ingredients of walking in the light with Jesus and with one another.

• Eph 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
• Col 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
• Jas 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
• Remember darkness and deceit hide. Light and truth live openly and honestly.

 

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Lying is universal proof that mankind is fallen and depraved by birth and nature. Has anybody in this room never lied to any one or cheated in some way? Has anybody in this room been lied to or cheated in some way? It is not that we had to learn to lie, we are born liars.  Deceit - like that of "the father of lies" (John 8:44) - is bound up in our hearts so much so that Paul, in agreement with the Psalmist, can say of all men,

• Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness (Rom 3:12-13).
• The Lord Jesus said Mt 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies

 

While a religious legalist can be satisfied with an outward conformity to their interpretation of divine law, even while living a lie, The Lord Jesus Christ is calling KF to live our lives according to a higher or divine law of honesty and integrity….one that comes from a regenerated heart.

• This is why the Sermon on the Mount either thrills you or frustrates you. It is only when your heart has been transformed by the grace of God and the power of the gospel that you can see the demands of Jesus Christ with delight and desire for obedience.
• Although no Christian or Christian congregation will ever be able to perfectly and flawlessly maintain the high standards that Jesus teaches, it should be our deepest desire and prayer that we will seek to do so by God’s grace and power of the Holy Spirit.
• Anything less than this desire is in reality masquerading as a Christian, and this will meet with frustration or even anger in the divine mirror of the Sermon on the Mount.
• It is only as we respond out of love for The Lord, being grateful for His grace that we will aspire to live by these divine truths. Only a new citizenship - the one that comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone - can lead you away from the natural dishonesty bound up in our hearts to desire integrity in speech and conduct.

 

A kingdom citizen's radical view of walking in the truth and honesty rather than living in deceit and dishonesty is testimony of the glorious power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change lives.

Have you trusted in Christ as Lord of your life? Have you repented of your sin and trusted in His work of atonement on your behalf?

Have you received Christ as Lord and confessed Him with your mouth before men? Make that profession of faith in the waters of baptism….give your name and contact information to the church office.