INTEGRITY OF SPEECH

INTEGRITY OF SPEECH Matthew 5:33-37 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah; Michael Green, Matthew; John MacArthur, Matthew; Charles Swindoll, Simple Faith; Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew June 20, 2004 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory Of all the games and rituals of culture that took place on the school grounds of St. Teresa's School in Belleville when I was a student there one stands out in my mind. It was the way we boys in the class that grew up together used to lather our stories with layer upon layer of embellishment. For example, if one of the boys had an exciting experience over the weekend, like a trip to the state capitol, he would work his story over with just the right kid slang and all the appropriate exaggerations, making it worthy of bragging rights on Monday at recess when all the great tales of wonder were shared. Of course, if the story was really great, he'd "leak" it early with whispers and little preview snippets during class while the teacher's back was turned. The mere telling of a family outing to Springfield to see the capitol building and the Lincoln home would not be good enough for the round table of interested listeners on the blacktop. The storyteller would be ignored right out of the conversation. But, once he put the "finishing touches" on it, and it morphed from a family trip to the status of never-to-be-forgotten adventure, his wide-eyed audience would be spellbound by its telling. The decorated story would have to be fantastic and barely unbelievable to qualify for a "Wow, that's neat!" or a "You're kidding-that's cool!" But it couldn't go too far into the realm of the incredible. There is this line somewhere between slightly mythical fable and an outright lie. The trick was to tell your story within a few feet of that line, eliciting your listeners' wonder, but avoiding going too far and hearing them protest your veracity. Once I crossed that sacred line. I was busy one September day rehearsing the thrill of an experience I had had at Camp Ondessonk over the summer. I had the gang spellbound as I told the story of being held up at the health clinic and arriving late at the stable for horseback riding. There was only one horse left-his name was Killer, a rangy Appaloosa. That was the true part. But the rest of the tale I spun was so fantastic I had every one of the other boys in the palm of my hand, breathlessly awaiting the next detail. I told how the horse had bolted from the back of the trail line and run through the woods to get to the mare at the front. Through low branches and thick bramble he carried me (here's where the truth began to fade and the embellishment began-the moment of crisis when the rest would either continue listening or walk away and start playing ball). I told of camp counselors trying to grab Killer's reins and stop him, their worried faces showing concern for me, the helpless rider, as Killer ran on through the forest. Girls were crying, boys stood with their mouths open watching as I summoned my courage and pulled back on the reins, saying "Whoa, boy!" with such authority that the 1,200-pound equine locomotive stopped dead in his tracks in a small clearing. My audience wasn't even blinking. I had them. Even Jackie Behrman stood motionless eyes like saucers staring at me, and he was there at camp with me and knew better! But I couldn't quit. I went on into the realm of utter disbelief when I anti-climaxed the adventure with the remark of how the campers all applauded and I pulled old killer up into a two legged stand like Roy Rogers and Trigger and I waved my hat. That did it! I could tell I lost them as their faces fell. A couple shook their heads and made moves toward their ball gloves. I knew I was sunk when one of them brought the ultimate challenge. "Swear?" he said, knowing that a good Catholic boy could tell far-fetched tales as long as he wanted to, but he was not allowed to swear to it unless it was true. I was speechless. He insisted, "Swear on a stack of Bibles!" The ultimate challenge--The coup de grace of all confrontations. Could I swear and add a venial sin to my otherwise relatively innocent truth-stretching? Or would I admit my misrepresentation of the facts? I admitted my excess and started to protest that some of it was true, but it was no use. No one was interested. I'd blown my center stage opportunity as the day's storyteller. In my lust for more amazement I'd stretched the truth to the breaking point, and now it was just me and Killer. Oh, well, my mother hadn't believed the Roy Rogers part either. I was sure that later she talked with Jackie's mom and got the real story-how Killer simply trotted to the lead mare, his rider bouncing and hanging onto the saddle horn for dear life, and how the counselors finally helped the frightened, sobbing boy down off the wayward Appaloosa. Spinning yarns, exaggerating, stretching the truth, putting a spin on the story-are these all the same as lying? Jesus addresses the issue in our scripture teaching on swearing today. Swearing, you know, isn't speaking unsavory words to help pepper a story, although that kind of speech comes close to the biblical notion of swearing. To swear is to call upon God (or some lesser authority) as witness to your words. The name of something or someone greater than the person making the oath is invoked to give greater credibility to what is said. Some people with more nerve than common sense swear boldly. They will say, for example, "I'm going to finish the job, by God!" That is swearing. Others make it sound a little less arrogant, they think, by saying, "As God is my witness, I'll finish the job!" Calling on the Lord to damn something or someone is also swearing. It is, in fact, an insistence that the God of the universe would agree with you in your assessment that that person or thing is not worth being around anymore. By the way, dressing it up in a euphemism doesn't really help. God isn't interested in darning or dangling what you tell Him to, either. In the days of Jesus' earthly ministry it was popular to try to spice up your testimony about nearly anything by swearing an oath to the Lord. But using the name of God was a was considered risky behavior because, after all, His name Yahweh wasn't even to be spoken aloud, and there were all His clear warnings about keeping your vows to the Lord. So what did the good Hebrew do? Find something a little less intimidating by which to swear-like heaven, or earth or Jerusalem or the temple. What evolved then was a whole system of oaths of varying degrees of seriousness. If you absolutely, positively wanted the other person to believe you were telling the truth, you would swear an oath to the Lord. "May God strike me dead if what I am telling you is not the truth." What is involved here is a promise that will really cost you if you lie. But the troubling part is that God is dragged as a witness into the mess of the person's deception. That is impertinence of the highest order. Say you're selling a donkey to someone who asks you how old the donkey is. You say, "Oh, I don't know, seems like he was just born yesterday…can't be but three, maybe four years old…five at the tops." "Really?" "I swear it. I swear by my own head." Your customer notices how you avoid swearing by Jehovah, nor do you swear by His creation or His holy city. Well, you conclude, that means he's at least 8 or 9! Soon our words have no meaning at all-certainly no integrity. Jesus says this is all an indication of how evil our speech and behavior have become. So bargaining and bartering become a game of cutthroat between people who try to outwit the other by lying just a little. Soon the whole community fails to trust one another. And here's the bad news-this world is evil and is apt to grow more evil, and we can never truly expect truth in the marketplace. But Jesus says that among His people there ought to be truth and integrity Dealing with the text Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, "Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord." (Matthew 5:33) Here is a reference to an Old Testament law that is not specifically one of the ten commandments, although the idea of speaking lies is dealt with in the seventh commandment. Jesus basically is affirming the godliness of keeping the oaths and covenants you make with others, especially with the Lord. "But I tell you, Do not swear 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." (Matthew 5:34-36) Systematically, the Lord goes down the popular list of witnesses to oath swearing and says they're all beneath the behavior of a God-related person. First of all, God is holy and righteous and altogether worthy of our worship and honor. We are told to fear the Lord in scripture. God is not someone to be trifled with. He deserves our total respect and obedience. He does not deserve to be discourteously "used" as a witness to my veracity. Particularly if I am not telling the truth! Furthermore, He says, it is equally wrong to use anything that matters to God in that way (which, by the way, is everything-including your head!). In fact, He concludes, isn't it really dumb to swear at all? What is the point? Assigning relative value to different kinds of oaths only serves to discredit everyone's word and sows seeds of doubt and suspicion among the community anyway. So, let's just do away with this unedifying behavior. "Simply let your "Yes" be "Yes" and your "No," "No;" anything beyond this comes from the evil one." (Matthew 5:37) At once we are struck by the simplicity of this wisdom. Of course! Just don't swear at all! We've seen it in the movies and heard it in small towns-"I'm a man of my word!" "My word is my bond!" That's it exactly! You see if we don't have that kind of mutual trust we just don't have much, do we? We are reminded this week by the death of former president Ronald Reagan how he masterminded negotiations with his kind demeanor, but positing an unshakable certainty about what he said. A lesser man could never have convinced Russia with the threats he used. But the world knew integrity when they heard it. This Illinois-born-and-raised cowboy said what he meant and he meant what he said. Jesus said we all ought to be like that. It just makes sense, doesn't it? Especially among the people of God gathered into the redeemed community we like to call the church. Of all the places in this sinful world, the church ought to be the one community where people can trust each other. What Jesus is talking about is nothing other than INTEGRITY OF SPEECH. Imagine a world where when it actually meant when someone said "That odometer reading is absolutely true" or "We will not give your information to any other mailing lists or websites" or "You really are on our no-call list" or "This product is fully guaranteed-no fine print". A shopper asked the clerk in men's clothing, "What does this tag mean when it says shrink-resistant?" The honest clerk responded, "It means it will probably shrink, but it doesn't really want to." One furniture store drew snickers when they boldly advertised, Don't be fooled by our competitors-we've been going out of business longer than any of them! Bottom line, an oath is only as reliable as the one who makes it, no matter how strong the word used or how high up the ladder the authority by which one swears. I've had totally unreliable people say to me, "I swear to God" and not do the thing promised. Did the oath do any good? None! A promise or vow is only as good as the character of the one making it. And a half-truth is a whole lie. Precisely here we arrive at the meaning of Jesus' teaching. He is saying "You are to be people of integrity-and you won't need to swear." In the scripture, even when the Lord swears by an oath it is not because His follow-through on vows is suspect, but it is a concession to the sinfulness of humanity who have heard too many empty promises, noisy sales pitches and exaggerations to trust anyone. Numbers 23:19 reminds us "God is not man that He should lie…"; Titus 1:2 tells us that God is one "who does not lie"; Hebrews 6:18 - "it is impossible for God to lie." God is perfectly faithful, and always keeps His promises. "He is faithful in all He does" (Psalm 33:4) and Psalm 145:13 - "The Lord is faithful to all His promises." God is like that and He calls those who would be Christ-followers to be that way, too. Sonny reminded us last week of what Matthew 5:48 says to us - Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Exhortation What should we take from this teaching? It seems to me that there are three kinds of speech we should learn to avoid if we would speak in Christ-like fashion. Flippancy - The way we communicate with one another should be taken seriously. So should our decision to swear in God's name. Calling on God to be witness to our speech does not honor Him as our holy God; it treats Him as if He were a minimum wage errand boy. For a host of reasons, we should avoid oath taking in God's name, except in the most solemn cases. Marriage vows, for example. There may be other serious situations arise in which convincing others that you are being truthful is important for their sakes-as a witness in the courtroom (so help me, God), as a testimony in the defense of others, when defending the truth before unbelievers. Far better, Jesus says, is to develop absolute integrity of speech, so that you are credible to others without swearing. Another case of flippancy that comes to mind is when the name and authority of the Lord is used in sinful ways, like calling on God to damn something or someone. Brethren it is not our place to damn. That is God's sole prerogative. To call on God to do that according to our whim is disrespectful to Him, and it is sin in at least two other ways-we are to judge not (Matthew 7:1) and we are to bless and pray for our neighbors and our enemies, not condemn them. One more thing-euphemisms don't really help. We like to think like the Pharisees thought: Maybe I could just use a nicer-sounding expression, like "Gosh darn it" or "Gol dang it" or "Well I'll be…a monkey's uncle, darned, dipped" Listen, darn is damn by all intention; Hades is hell; to refer to something as a friggin' so-and-so doesn't purify the profane; and when you say O, shoot! it still means you know what. You know, profanity is simply the futile attempt of a dull mind to express itself in forceful language. Deceptive Speech - The Bible is clear--outright lying is 9 kinds of wrong. But so are the so-called white lies. Not telling the whole truth, leaving out critical information, guarding our responses to people based on loopholes and careful wording may satisfy the world, but Christ-followers must rise above all that. We are a people who are called for "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15) and to "put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his [our] neighbors" (Ephesians 4:25). Truth becomes us as disciples of Christ; deception disfigures us. Exaggerating is a behavior we've all been involved in. In fact, some people are renowned as embellishers, and we learn to take what they say with a grain of salt. Why do we want to elaborate or overcolor our stories? Typically it is not because we deliberately want to lie. It's simpler than that. We like being listened to and the more interesting our stories are, the more attention we get. But too often such extreme speech crosses over from storytelling to deceit. We are also prone to exaggeration when we are trying to make ourselves look good. And it is very often at someone else's expense. We did not so learn Christ! Making you look good is not the goal of the gospel or the kingdom of God. Often we try to protect ourselves by lying (I did not have sex with that woman!). The plain truth is always best. Those who traffic in deceptive speech lose the trust of others; but those who tell the unadorned, un-spun truth become trustworthy. Not only that-they also please God. This is the kind of speech Jesus calls us to. Unethical Salesmanship - This is tough for the natural salesman whose predilection it is to promise them anything in order to get the sale. I recently bought an old truck from a brother in the church family here. He invited me over and showed me the truck and took a solid half-hour showing me everything wrong with it. One by one he showed me what didn't work right, what needed immediate attention and essentially talked me out of the deal. I appreciated that. But he assured me the truck had good tires and does run, so I wrote him a check. Now I periodically drive that truck at my own risk, knowing what will probably break down next. Let me mention an area that might be a bit surprising in this context-evangelism. Don't promise people who are considering faith in Christ things that are not promised in the Bible. Share your faith, tell folks all you know about the Lord and His Word, but don't pack the salvation offer with goodies that aren't there. A problem-free life, instant deliverance from addictions, healing from rheumatism, a three-day workweek and perfect kids. Lying never converts a genuine disciple. Jesus promises us that we will be at our kingdom best when we avoid swearing and making oaths about things that don't warrant such measures. That sort of behavior waters down our character, our trustworthiness and our witness. The life of pure honesty and integrity of speech is uncomplicated and straightforward. It is what Jesus modeled and what He calls us to-Integrity of Speech Conclusion I would remind you that what He calls us to He empowers us to be. This morning, call on the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in your life, Christian, to make you a person who does and speaks the truth, always. Repent of those areas of shortcoming-that whisper of conviction you heard this morning is the Spirit trying to help you toward sanctification. Make your commitment to change now. Is your word your bond? Are you known as an honest person? Or is your life a tangled web of deceit? Are you a compulsive liar and you don't even know anymore when you lie? If you are not a Christian, there is one thing I can tell you for sure-you will never find the ability to live the life of truth on your own. The Bible says you must be forgiven of your sin and be inhabited by the Spirit of God for that kind of maturity. And you can only get there through Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) [Back to Top]