PF - Matthew 5:33-37

READ PASSAGE

You can tell from the little heading above our passage today that we’re going to talk about oaths.

What is an oath? Give me an example. So why is keeping an oath important?

Now, look at verse 33. Jesus is reaching into the OT and reminding people of what it said.

“Do not break your oath, but fulfil to the Lord the vows that you have made.”

But if you keep reading Matthew’s gospel, later on in the book, Jesus is going to accuse the people in His time of making oaths without ever planning to keep them.

They were making oaths and then coming up with the worst excuses not to keep their promises.

“Oh, I promised by the altar of the Temple to pay you back by today. But that doesn’t really count. If I had promised by the money that is in the altar, now we’re cooking….”

But that’s silly, right? Why would a promise made by the money on the altar of the Temple count more than a promise made on the altar?

But the truth is that we do this too. We make promises and vows that we never intend to keep.

“I’ll pay you back next week.” And then next week comes. And another week. And another week…

“I’ll definitely come to your party!” And then people don’t show up.

This happened to me when I was in Year 5. I went to a really rough school and was the victim of bullying.

In the same school, there was a guy who I knew who promised to me “If you get into a fight, I’ll protect you.”

So, I felt safe, despite all the bullying.

Until one day the bully was starting to take things even farther. And so I called my friend, the one who promised to protect me.

And he came and gave the bully a nice, big hug. Because they were friends. And he knew what he was doing to me. And yet, he broke his promise to protect me.

So guys, if we’re not good at keeping promises, what is the problem?

Jesus gives us a really radical, but simple solution.

Look at verse 34 and 37. What is Jesus’ solution?

Now, is Jesus saying that we can NEVER make promises? I don’t think that’s it. There’s nothing wrong with making promises.

When I married Raquel, I promised to be faithful to her and to love her until one of us dies. Is Jesus mad that I made those promises? Of course not!

I mean, God makes lots of promises and He never does anything wrong! So, making promises is not the problem in itself.

Remember - what was the problem in Jesus’ time?

Exactly. And so, to start correcting that, Jesus says “Don’t make big, epic promises in the name of God or your life or your family’s name. Instead, just keep your word.”

No need for “Cross my heart, hope to die.”

If you say you’re going to do something, do it. No need for big promises. In the words of a famous internet person, “Just do it!”

And if you say you’re not going to do something, then don’t do it.

In other words, you and me, we need to be trustworthy. We need to keep our word. Because we follow the Lord Jesus and He ALWAYS keeps His word.

Guys, what we promise matters. Because we can easily hurt others if we don’t keep our promises.

You know, it takes years for someone to trust you. But it only takes a moment for you to destroy their trust.

So, let’s keep our promises. Let’s be trustworthy.

And when we’re not - when we break our promises - then we need to say sorry. Not just to the person affected but to God too. Because when we don’t keep our word, we’re offending God who keeps His word.

And the good news is He will forgive us, even if the person doesn’t. He promises to forgive us and He always keeps His promises.

But let me end with this: just because God promises to forgive us, that’s not an excuse for us to not take sin seriously.

If we ever start thinking “Breaking promises is bad but it’s okay, God will forgive me anyway.”, we’re in big trouble…

Don’t presume on God’s forgiveness. Don’t let God’s promises make you drop the ball with sin.

Let’s pray.