The Ethics of Holiness and Hypocrisy

James 5:12 ESV

12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

This morning we finish our series of messages from the epistle of James, chapter 5, verses 7-12, and as we have been working through this series we have been discussing a few of the various doctrines that are found within our faith and the ethics that proceed from these specific doctrines.

And as we finish our series today, we are going to be looking at what James tells us is the doctrine that is “above all” and how we are to live out our everyday lives in light of this “above all” doctrine.

And quite simply, this “above all” doctrine that James speaks of is recognizing that God is indeed God, and therefore reverencing God as God.

It all leads back to that command found in the book of Leviticus when the Lord said, “Be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” And if we don’t live lives that reverence God as holy, if we reckon God, His name, His attributes, His entire Being in a way that is not holy, in a way that is irreverent, then the life that we lead is not one of holiness as God commands, but instead, it is a life of hypocrisy.

The one who lives a life of hypocrisy can simply be called a hypocrite. This word comes from the Greek word, “ὑποκριτής” (hoop-ok-ree-tace') which is defined as: “an actor under an assumed character.” In other words, a hypocrite is one who pretends to be something that he is not. You might even describe a paid actor or actress as a professional hypocrite, as they are paid to portray themselves as someone they are not.

Now while it might not be a bad thing for an actor or actress to be hypocritical, as they are paid to do so and make their living at it, it is a bad thing if one claims to be a Christian and thus claims to reverence and truly worship the God of heaven and earth and yet hypocritically lives a life that dishonors God and shows that their attitude towards the Lord is more of irreverence than it is of reverence.

And the reason why this is such a bad thing is because not only does it shows irreverence towards God, but also because persistently and unrepentantly living in such a way reveals a deep, ugly reality, and that reality is that that person who claims to be a Christian simply wears a mask and is most likely not saved.

And it is for this reason that James says that this doctrine is the “above all” doctrine.

We see this in the first half of our reading for today, where we read James saying:

James 5:12a ESV

12a But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath,

We see right away James using those two words that I keep referring to; he says, “But above all”, and in thus saying, James lets us know right away that what he is about to say is of the utmost importance.

Right after James says, “above all”, he then addresses his readers as “my brothers”. And typically in the New Testament epistles when the writer addresses their readers as “brothers” it means that the writer considers the ones whom he is writing to, to be fellow Christians.

Now, this is no different, James considers the recipients of his epistle to be fellow Christians, but there is a little bit of a twist when James addresses these recipients as brothers.

In the very first verse of the first chapter of the epistle of James, James says that he is writing to “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion”. Saying that James is writing to the twelve tribes means that he is writing to those who are Jews and thus have their ancestry rooted in those who were of the twelve tribes of Israel.

And James, the author of this epistle was the half-brother of Jesus, thus James too was a Jew whose ancestry was rooted in Israel, particularly in the tribe of Judah. Therefore, when James addresses his recipients as brothers, he means not only are they his brothers in Christ, but they are also his own kinsmen by blood.

And he also says that these particular Jewish Christians whom he is writing to are those in “the Dispersion”. Now, what “the Dispersion” refers to is the dispersion of Jews across the world.

Two times were the Jews dispersed from Israel. The first time was when the northern ten tribes of Israel were exiled and dispersed by the Assyrians, and the second time was when the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin were exiled and dispersed by Babylon.

And while Cyrus of Persia would later give the Jews the freedom to return home to Israel, only a relatively small percentage actually made the move. The majority decided to just stay put. Thus, the majority of Jews were dispersed around the world.

Therefore, when James says that he writes to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, it means that he writes to Jewish Christians who were not living in Israel at that time.

And in writing these Jewish Christians, James says that above all, “do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath.”

Now, these words might sound kind of strange to us, and may seem even stranger that this would be the “above all” doctrine of James, but when we read the Bible, we always have to remember to consider the context that surrounds the text that we read.

And one thing that Jews at this time, including Jewish Christians were prone to do was swear by something in order to emphasize the seriousness of what they were saying to their hearers.

But Jews were careful to never outright swear by God, for swearing by God is equal to violating the third commandment, taking God’s name in vain. And God proclaims that He will not hold the one who takes His name in vain guiltless.

So, instead of invoking God’s name when they swore by something, they would instead say, “I swear by heaven” or, “I swear by earth”, thinking that that would keep them safe from breaking the commandment but still get the seriousness of their point across.

But in trying to get the seriousness of their point across in this way, they were still essentially attempting to invoke the name of God, but the way in which they were doing it was even worse than outright swearing by God, because in doing this they were profaning the name of God further by likening Him and His authority by these inferior creations of His.

So, while they claimed to be going out of their way to not use God’s name in vain, they showed more than ever that they viewed God in a less than holy light.

Now, it shouldn’t surprise us when those who are heathen, the unsaved mass of humanity does things that dishonor God and show that they do not reverence Him. That should not surprise us at all; after all, it’s in their very nature to do things that dishonor God.

But for the Christian, for the one who has been saved by God and set apart for His own holy purposes, when it comes to us, we are not to act like the rest of the world in dishonoring God. Rather, we are to stand out and apart from the world.

We are not to do the things that those of the world do; we are set apart by a holy God for holy purposes. As was said earlier, God commands us to be holy as He is holy, therefore, the things that we are to do are holy things.

And in considering those holy things that we are to do, we need only to look to what James commands these Jewish Christians to do in the second half of this verse, when he says:

James 5:12b ESV

12b but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

You see, for those who are not saved by God and thus at enmity with Him, the way that they view God can be very diverse.

For many who are unsaved, when they consider God, they feel recognizable hatred. We are all born in this world in sin, naturally hating God, and for some, that hatred is not hidden, but it is made manifest as they don’t make it a secret that they despise the notion that there is a sovereign God Whom they are answerable to.

Then there are others who are unsaved, who are afraid when they consider God, they are scared of Him. This is the category that I fell under when I was unsaved, in fact, I think that this is the category that most unsaved people fall under.

Most unsaved people are well aware of the fact that there is a God Whom they are answerable to, they don’t try to deny it, but it scares them half to death. These people almost try to escape reality and hope that if they if do their best to somehow avoid God, that everything will turn out ok for them.

But then there are those who are perhaps the worst of all, and these are the unsaved ones who use God almost as a pawn to try to get what they want.

We’ve all heard people say, “As God as my Witness!” “I swear to God!” or, “May God strike me dead if I’m lying!” These are all ways that those who don’t reverence God try to get their point across. But they don’t stop there, no, they will use what God says in His Word, and they will twist and alter and pervert what it says in order to gain an advantage over someone else.

These do not reverence the Lord, and they show that they don’t reverence the Lord by speaking of Him in vain and by trying to use Him for their own selfish purposes.

But for the Christian, James says that we are to simply let our “yes” be yes, or to let our “no” be no. In other words, we are to live holy lives, trusting in the Lord, believing His promises to us, not trying to manipulate God in any way, but holding fast to Him, being obedient to Him, standing apart from the rest of the world and seeming strange to those who only seek God for selfish purposes.

The third commandment tells us that the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain, and thus James exhorts us here to not treat God as vain, for if we are found among those who do so, if we are found among the unsaved, we will indeed fall under condemnation.

Friends, let us not be among those who treat God as vain! If He has called us out of this world to be holy, then let us be holy by reverencing Him as holy!

Amen?