Sermon on the Mount- Oaths

Recap- Sermon on the Mount

We are currently going through the sermon on the mount which is the largest collection of Jesus’ teachings in the new testament

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus teaches about the Kingdom of God as well as what it looks like to live as a participant in His Kingdom

We firstly looked at the intoduction of the sermon on the Mount where Jesus tells His followers what kind of people are invited to His Kingdom and what living in His Kingdom looks like.

God’s kingdom is kind of like an upside down kingdom when compared to how the world understands kingdom

Instead of defeating enemies and conquering with violence and fame, God’s kingdom conquers by loving others, being kind and where the lowly are exalted.

Recap - Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets

Weve now entered the section of the sermon on the mount where Jesus calls His followers to live in a greater righteousness

This means living in right relationships with God and others

Living in right relationships is central to being part of God’s Kingdom

Jesus says that He has come to fulfill the law and the prophets. Remember that the law and prophets are basically the Old testament

What Jesus is saying is that he came to bring the old testament to completion by fulflling the purpose of it

It also means that He will live out the proper practice of God’s law, which results in righteousness.

Wisdom behind the commands in the Torah

- We are currently in a section where Jesus describes what it means to fulfill the law and the prophets

Jesus presents six case studies of laws in the old testament and common interpretations of these laws.

Jesus describes what the law is, what people had interpreted the law as and what was God’s greater wisdom in it.

We are called to live by God’s wisdom and Jesus helps us live this out by showing us the wisdom behind these commands.

The format of these six case studies is in the form of “you have heard that it was said” with Jesus then saying “But I say to you”.

Remember that Jesus was not trying to change these laws, but He was rather showing what these laws were all about by revealing God’s wisdom behind them.

The first three of this case studies shows the value of each human being as image bearers of God. We went through the case studies of murder, adultery and divorce

The next three case studies show us how we ought to love our neighbors and treat them

The case studies speak about oath making, retaliation as well as how we should treat our enemies and those who hate us.

Text

Matthew 5:33–37 ESV

“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.

What is an oath

A vow is something that is a promise that is made to God by a person.

The Torah says that when people make a vow to God, they must keep it otherwise they will be cut off from the community of Israel

The Torah also goes on to say that people rather not make vows to God but that they should rather honor their word to someone.

Oaths are promises made between people. An oath can also be referred to as a covenant

Usually people make Oaths to affirm that they will do something and they usually swear by a high authority. At many times people swear oaths in the name of God.

The interesting thing is that in Jesus’ day, no one said the name of God.

Rather they would swear on other things that were related to God like the temple or the altar of sacrifice in the temple

Swearing an oath becoming a loophole

But it wasnt long before, this became twisted.

People would swear on lesser things. And then when they wouldnt honour their oath they would make the excuse that they swore on the lesser thing.

Jesus rebuked the pharisees and scribes for this in Matthew 23:16-22

Matthew 23:16–22 ESV

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

So, the point of this is that people swear an oath to show that they can be trusted

But often, they start swearing oaths on other things besides God becomes a loophole.

By Jesus saying that we shouldn’t swear at all by anything, heaven, earth, etc. He is implying that we shouldnt swear by these things also because they’ve been created by God.

We shouldn’t even swear by our heads because we were not the ones who created our hairs. God created them.

When we swear on other things, we are still swearing on God’s name even though we don’t realize it.

Using God’s name to avoid challenges

So, how do people swear on God’s name now.

An example could be when people say “God told me”

By saying this, they’re essentially saying God told them to do something so nobody should try and question them.

Using God’s name to get what you want

People also swear on God’s name to get what they want.

Taking an oath using the name of God can start becoming a way to manipulate others into getting what you want.

Our proper response

Jesus explains that our proper response should not be to swear on the name of God but rather to let our yes be yes and our no be no.

We should think twice before involving God in our dealings.

Because if we dont honor our word after swearing by God that we would do something, its actually worse than if you didnt swear by the name of God.

We should also be mindful to not swear on the name of God as a way to get what we want

The evil one.

Jesus closes this case study by saying that anything moe than your yes being yes or your no being no comes from the evil one.

The reason he says this is because the devil used God’s word in many places and twisted it to get what he wanted.

We then see examples in the bible where people follow this example of the evil one like Jepthah and Saul

These oaths start to destroy instead of building up.

Conclusion

A part of loving God is by not bearing His name in vein by swearing oaths in His name that we dont honor

A part of loving our neighbor is not using God’s name to manipulate them