Your Words

The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But

I’ve only ever once been called upon to be a witness in an actual court case, a contentious divorce proceeding (in which honestly, I was a terrible witness - I had nothing to testify to).

But whole experience was fascinating, because of course, I had to take oath to tell truth

Place your hand on Bible, raise your right hand, and promise to tell truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth.

But doing it in that setting carried whole weight to it. This very solemn setting, going through this official procedure, hand on Scriptures themselves, professing publicly that I will indeed tell truth. And it’s being put in the official records.

But it’s telling that we have to do this. That before we get up to testify, we have to promise that we will tell truth. That we won’t lie, make things up, leave important details out or add things in that will obfuscate the truth.

We have to do this because of our tendency to not tell truth. To manipulate with our words.

And our legal system has recognized this, which is why it requires that we take oath to tell truth.

It is simply recognizing what Jesus has known all along, and why he addresses this very issue in his masterful teaching on ethics, Sermon on Mount. And what we’re going to talk about this morning.

As reminder, our two basic premises as we move forward on this:

That Jesus wants to form in us Kingdom Hearts. Make us people who truly belong in Kingdom of God because we have hearts like Jesus’ himself - that is, heartfelt love for all others, for God above all and for our neighbors.

Second, that Jesus is Master Teacher, smartest man in world. Therefore, we’re going to hear his words and put them into practice. Because he can teach us what it looks like to have Kingdom Hearts.

Prayer / Matthew 5:33-37

Making Oaths

Jesus begins here with righteousness of Pharisees and teachers of law, things you have heard it was to those of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.”

Which sounds perfectly right and good. And it is. You shouldn’t swear falsely (not talking about cursing here, as though you can curse truthfully - it’s about making oaths, promises), I swear to God I will do this. Old righteousness was if you make oath like that you, you should follow through and do it.

This makes perfect sense, we should follow through on our commitments. If we make a promise, of course we should do what we promise to do.

But, as always, Jesus is pointing us to greater righteousness, towards having Kingdom Heart. So he says, “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.”

So, what the heck is Jesus talking about here? And frankly, what does it have to do with us? After all, how many of us take oaths by heaven or earth or Jerusalem - or by our own head. It sounds rather strange - I solemnly declare by my own head that I will pay you what I owe you.

Whole idea here is rooted in 3rd commandment, You shall not take name of Lord your God in vain.

This commandment is all about honoring God in way we talk about him. Speaking about him in way that rightly recognizes that He is the Lord God Almighty, He is the Holy One, the Creator of Heaven and Earth (not just big dude in the sky). We shouldn’t take God lightly, talk about him in way that diminishes who he is.

Ancient world, taking oath by definition was to call on deity, your god, to witness to oath. As God is my witness. I swear to God.

So if you take an oath calling on God and you break it - well, that’s bad. Invitation to bring God’s curse upon you. You’ve taken God’s name in vain - haven’t taken it seriously.

But what if I take an oath by heaven? That’s got some divine weight to it, but it isn’t God himself. Or I take oath by earth, it’s his creation, but it’s not him. Or I swear by Jerusalem - again, God’s city, but not God.

Or maybe I leave out God altogether and just make it by my own head.

What happened in Jewish world was to avoid difficulty of breaking oath made in name of God, they’d lower it a little bit (or a lot), by swearing by something else that was associated with God.

And so you weren’t quite as bound by that oath. Wasn’t as bad if you broke it.

They developed whole system of taking oaths that had ranking to them. Rabbis actually had to determine which oaths were completely binding (and therefore, which ones weren’t so binding).

Which kind of defeats whole purpose of taking oath.

Why Jesus simply says don’t do it. Don’t try to wiggle out of promise by what you made oath by. Well, I did only make oath by Jerusalem, so it’s ok if I don’t follow through.

Why Jesus says, don’t take oaths at all. Because God is connected to everything: heaven is where God resides, that’s his throne room), earth is his footstool), and Jerusalem is his city. You don’t get around being trustworthy by what you make an oath by.

Don’t even do it by your head, because you have such little control of your life or the world. You can’t make single hair of your head white or black.

Instead, Jesus offers these profoundly basic and beautiful statement: Let what you say simply be “yes” or “no”. Just let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no”. Don’t cover it over, don’t add to it, make it all fuzzy. Speak plain, honest truth.

This is what Kingdom Heart is all about. How we use our words is expression of our heartfelt love for all others.

How We Use Our Words

Problem with whole system of oaths (and which ones are truly binding) is same problem of why I had to take oath in that trial to tell truth, whole truth and nothing but truth. Our temptation is to manipulate with our words.

If I swear by Jerusalem, what I’m really doing is giving you appearance that I’m making promise to you while giving myself some wiggle room to get out of it if I need to.

I want you to think that I’m honest and upright and man of my word, but I still want to leave myself an out.

It’s way of manipulating with my words, I’m using them in way that’s not honest and transparent

Reason we swear (again, not cursing) is to add weight to our words, because it’s not enough to say something simply and plainly and then just leave it up to you whether you believe me or not. We add weight by swearing to try to get you to trust what we’re saying.

Dallas Willard says it this way: Jesus goes right to the heart of why people swear oaths. He knew that they do it to impress others with their sincerity and reliability and thus gain acceptance of what they are saying and what they want. It is a method of getting their way.

He continues: It is simply a device of manipulation, designed to override the judgment and will of the ones they are focusing upon, push them aside, rather than respecting them and leaving their decisions and actions strictly up to them.

Jesus’ whole point here is that we would be people who would speak plain simple truth. That we wouldn’t fall into sin, evil, of using our words in ways that would pressure or manipulate or deceive others.

And there’s no shortage of ways that we do this

I assume most of you have heard of the term “spin doctor” - whole role of spin doctor is to try to spin an event, give favorable interpretation of event on behalf of politician or political party (try someone look good even when they’re doing something that’s not good)…it is certainly not plain, honest speech.

of course, we often tend to be spin doctors on behalf of ourselves.

Tell someone about argument that you had third friend, and you manage to tell in painstaking detail everything other person did wrong, but somehow manage to gloss over or minimize what you said or how you said it. Because you want them to take your side. You want them to think you’re good guy in all this and your friend was to blame.

Why wise parents learn to get both kids’ side of story when trying to sort out what happened

Guy trying to persuade girl to sleep with him, using flattery and promises of faithful love.

Begging of child, please, please, please, pretty please.

In later part of Sermon on Mount, when teaching about prayer, Jesus tells his disciples not to pray like Gentiles, “for they think that they will be heard for their many words.”

If I badger God, if I just keep saying please, please, please…I’ll get him to answer.

Jesus then teaches them Lord’s Prayer, pray like this - simply, honestly…Father, here are my needs.

Or we immerse our words in tears or anger to manipulate or pressure others to think or do what we want. We know those who respond easily to guilt so we use that to get our way.

Here’s crux of the issue, why how we use our words, simple yes and no, is central to having a Kingdom Heart, heartfelt love for others.

To love others is to love them like God loves us - one of central ways we do that is by honoring their human dignity, free will that they have. To speak to them in way that allows them to freely make up their own minds, to make their own choices.

God honors this in us. He loves freely. He does not manipulate with his words or presence.

God could overwhelm us if he chose - he could appear in intense, raging storm cloud, his voice thundering this commands to us. Perform miraculous sign after miraculous sign. Badger us constantly with all we’ve done wrong in life.

But he came to us plainly, simply. As one of us. 1st century Jewish peasant. Here’s Good news of the Kingdom of God. Repent and believe. Come, follow me.

We love others in this same way when we let our yes be yes and our no, no. Otherwise, the effect is that we are trying to trigger their will and possess them for our purposes - to get them to do or think way that we want them to. And that’s wrong, unlike God.

Vital need for us as human beings, to be able to think and act freely (created in God’s image, each with our own rule).

It dawned on when while thinking about this, it’s why when I go to store, I don’t like having sales people hover around me when I’m considering purchase. I want to gather all information I need and think it through. There are a lot of cereals out there, it’s tough decision.

One of phrases of our modern age is “Fake News” - surveys show that we have low trust in our media today - largely because we think they have agenda (especially agenda that they are not being honest about)

In editorial section, you know someone is trying to persuade you to particular point of view, which is ok

What we want is for journalists to report news as objectively and fairly as possible and let us make up our minds about what we think about it

And it’s easy to pick on media, but how often do our agendas color the way we speak to others? Agenda of trying to impress them, try to convince them that I’m really good person (and not like those others). Or I nag or threaten or guilt to get what I want or to get you to think or believe what I want you to?

Every week as part of the newsletters we send out through Faithlife (four each week, if you’re not getting them, check your spam or let me know!). Each one is focused on one of our four seeds. For sowing seeds of the Gospel, each week, I post a video from “I Am Second” (comes from idea that He is first, I am second). This past week was a video of Jason Castro, singer / songwriter (American Idol)

Actually his second I Am Second video, first one he talks about coming to faith in Christ, whole experience of being on American Idol, but in this one, he talks about his struggle with being addicted to pornography

This was issue that his wife thought he had dealt with, and he got caught up with again.

He finally told her he had been into it again. That caused series of fights and as you can imagine, terribly difficulty in their marriage. They were really hurting, divorce was looming.

Up until this point, Jason had told her just enough to let her know that he had made mistake of looking at porn, but he’d left a lot out. One night he decided to share it all - anything in the past that she might have been offended about. Huge risk - she might decide to leave him right then and there.

But I love reason why he decided to do it. He said her told her all that “so she could love me. Because otherwise how could she? I wanted her to know who I was so she could love me, to be able to love me with who I was, with all of my past, my present.”

What an amazing thought. What an amazing risk.

Because isn’t that reason we often fail to tell truth, whole truth and nothing but? That if I let someone see me as I really am, they will not love me. For him to love her enough to reveal himself fully so that she could freely love him as he is.

Strikes at issue of what Jesus is getting at here. No hiding behind words. No telling lies. Or leaving part of story out. Just plain, simple truth. What Dallas Willard describes as “transparent words.”

All of this is so interconnected. You can see wisdom in Jesus’ teaching. Last week we talked about lust, how it comes out of our desire to be connected, intimacy (porn is false way we try to get it).

Now Jesus is teaching us that we can only grow in genuine relationships, in love, through transparent words. Through honest, plain speech - that reveals who we are, and honors freedom of other - so they can love us freely and genuinely. Not false image of who we are, not because we’ve manipulated them. But mutual love, freely given, freely received.

Jason says that was turning point in their marriage, in large part because he began to feel freedom of speaking plain truth of who he was. One of his final comments was, it feels good to be known.

Let me just encourage you this week to be attentive in how you use your words.

Are you telling truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth? No shading truth, hiding part of it, embellishing? Are you speaking to others in ways that honors their God given dignity, free to believe and act and chose? No manipulation, undue persuasion?

Just plain, honest speech - letting what you say be simply “yes” or “no” Speech that reflects our Kingdom Hearts, our heartfelt love for all others.