S.O.T.M. How Should We Speak To One Another? [Matthew 5:33-37]

Today we look at verses 33-37 of Matthew 5 which contains the fourth of six examples and illustrations which show what our Lord meant when He defined in verses 17-20 of this chapter the relationship of His teaching and the kingdom to the law of God and exposes the false teaching of the religious leaders of His day. But he is not only concerned with illustrating His principle, but also to give specific and positive teaching as well. In other words, all of these detailed matters in which we are looking at are of great importance in the Christian life.

stand for reading of the word of God [Matthew 5:33-37]

I have a question for you, “Is it really profitable for us, confronted as we are by the vast problems in this modern world of ours, Corona virus, political tension, civil unrest, to be considering this simple matter of speech and how we should be speaking to one another? The answer to that is yes, according to the New Testament, everything that a Christian does is most important because of what he is, and because of his effect upon others. We must believe that if everybody in the world today were a Christian, then most of our major problems would simply vanish out of sight and there would be no need to fear war and such horrors. The question is, then, how are people to become Christian? Obviously you must be born again through repentance and faith but, One of the ways is that they observe Christian people. That is perhaps one of the most potent means of evangelism at the present time. We are all being watched and therefore everything we do is of tremendous importance.

Notice the New Testament Epistles, not just those of Paul but the others as well, follow the same pattern. They establish their doctrine first and then apply that doctrine to every day life. Take for example Ephesians after Paul has risen to the heights and given us in the first chapters that amazing conception of God’s ultimate purpose for the whole universe and has transported us into the heavenly places, suddenly he comes back to earth and looks at us and says to us in effect: ‘Lie not to one another; speak the truth always.’ The gospel always presents doctrine in high esteem and yet it is concerned with the smallest details of life and living. And this small section we are examining today illustrates that for us.

As we have seen, this whole section of the Sermon on the Mount is framed by our Lord to expose the sham and the falseness of the Pharisees’ and scribes’ representation of the Mosaic law, and to contrast it with His own positive exposition. That is what we have here. He says: ‘You have heard that it has been said by them of old time, Thou shall not forswear thyself [swear falsely], but shall perform unto the Lord thine oaths.’ Those exact words are not to be found anywhere in the Old Testament, which again is a proof that He was not dealing with the Mosaic law as such but with the Pharisaical perversion of it.

Nevertheless, as was generally true of the teaching of the Pharisees and scribes, it was indirectly dependent upon certain Old Testament statements. For instance, they clearly had in mind the third commandment which reads like this: ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain’; also Deuteronomy 6:13: ‘Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shall not swear by his name,’ and also Leviticus 19:12, which reads: ‘And you shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shall you profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.’ The Pharisees and scribes were familiar with those Scriptures and out of them they had extracted this teaching: ‘Thou shall not forswear thyself, but shall perform unto the Lord thine oaths.’ Our Lord is concerned here to correct that false teaching, and not only to correct it, but to replace it with the true teaching. In so doing He brings out, as He always does, the real intent and object of the law as given to Moses by God, the law that is therefore binding upon all of us who are Christian and who are concerned about the honour and glory of God.

Once again we will approach this subject like we did marriage and divorce under three main headings…what did the law of Moses teach, what did the scribes and Pharisees teach, and what did our Lord teach. First lets us look at...

What did the law of Moses say about oaths?

Its main intent was to place a bridle upon man’s proneness, as the result of sin and the fall, to lying. One of the greatest problems with which Moses had to deal was the tendency of people to lie to one another and deliberately to say things that were not true. Life was becoming chaotic because men could not rely upon one another’s words and statements, that sounds familiar. So one of the chief purposes of the law at this point was to check that, to control it, and, as it were, to make life possible. The same principle was true, as we saw, of the commandment with regard to divorce where, in addition to the specific object, there was a more general one also to control the chaos.

Another object of this Mosaic legislation was to restrict oath-taking to serious and important matters. There was the tendency on the part of the people to take an oath about any trivial kind of matter. On the slightest pretext they would take an oath in the name of God. The object of the legislation was, therefore, to put an end to this indiscriminate, glib oath-taking, and to show that to take an oath is a very solemn matter, something that must be reserved only for those causes and conditions where a matter of exceptional gravity and unusual concern for the individual or for the nation was involved. In other words this enactment was concerned to remind them of the seriousness of the whole of their life; to remind these children of Israel, especially, of their relationship to God, and to stress that everything they did was under the eye of God, that God was over all, and that every part and portion of their life must be lived as unto Him.

That is one of the great principles of the law which is illustrated in particular at this point. We must always bear in mind, as we consider all these Mosaic commandments, the statement: ‘I am the Lord your God: … ye shall be holy; for I am holy.’ These people had to remember that everything they did was important, as do we. They were God’s people and were reminded that even in their talk and conversation, and especially in the taking of oaths, everything must be done in such a way as to realize that God was looking upon them. They must therefore recognize the great seriousness of all these matters because of their relationship to Him. The same holds true for us.

What did the scribes and Pharisees teach concerning oaths?

We’ve already seen that the problem with the scribes and Pharisees was their attitude was a legalistic one. They were more concerned about the letter of the law than the spirit. As long as they could persuade themselves that they were keeping the letter of the law they were perfectly happy. For example, as long as they were not guilty of physical adultery they were all right. And the same thing again applied to divorce. Now here it is once more. They had so construed the meaning and so turned and phrased it in a legal form that they allowed themselves the freedom to do many things that were utterly contradictory to the spirit of the law, yet they felt they were free because they had not actually broken the letter.

They had confined the matter of oaths to one point, committing perjury. To commit perjury was to them a very serious and solemn matter; it was a terrible sin and they denounced it. You could, however, take all kinds of oaths, and do all sorts of things, but as long as you never committed perjury you were not guilty before the law. You see the importance of all this. Legalism is still with us; all these matters are highly relevant to ourselves. It is not at all difficult to see this self-same legalistic attitude towards religion and the Christian faith in large numbers of people today.

What we do is to isolate a certain thing and say: ‘To do that is sin, and as long as you are not doing it all is well.’ This is the tragedy of the modern view of holiness. Today Holiness and worldliness are defined in a manner far removed from biblical usage. According to some people, to be worldly seems to mean going to a bar or listening to a certain type of music or even going to Starbucks because of their liberal ownership, and that is the sum total of worldliness. As long as you do not do that you are not worldly.

But they forget pride—the pride of life, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye; pride in ancestry and things like that. You isolate and confine the definition to one matter only. And as long as you are not guilty of that, all is well. That was the trouble with the Pharisees and scribes; they reduced the whole great question taking oaths and swearing to one of perjury only. So they could make and break oath’s as long as they didn’t commit perjury. They thought there was no harm in a man taking an oath at any time as long as he did not forswear himself. As long as he did not do that he could take an oath by heaven, by Jerusalem and almost by anything. Thus they opened a door for men to multiply oaths at any time or with respect to any matter whatsoever. So you could not trust anything they said they would do. They would say, “I swear by the temple I will do such and such...” but it wasn’t binding to them so they didn’t have to do it. It’s comparable to the child telling his friend he will do something with him, but behind his back he had his figures crossed. It was the same thing…it was flat out lying!

They said some oaths were binding while others were not. If you took an oath by the temple, that was not binding; but if you took an oath by the gold of the temple, that was binding. If you took an oath by the altar you need not keep it; but if you took an oath by the gift that was on the altar then it was absolutely binding. You notice how in Matthew 23 our Lord poured His scorn and ridicule, not only upon the perversion of the law therein displayed, but also upon the utter dishonesty of it all. And it is good for us to observe that our Lord did do this. There are certain things in connection with the Christian faith which must be treated in that way.

In the day in which we live many have become so uncertain and afraid to speak the truth in love and will avoid the times in which our Lord ridiculed harshly the religious leaders for their false teachings. Many, even in the church, don’t want to say something that might offend someone even if it goes against plain biblical teaching. There is this kind of mindset that whatever our culture says is acceptable we’ll just go along with it so we don’t rock the boat. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or make anyone uncomfortable so we won’t talk about sin or God’s judgment, or hell. Let alone talk about being honest in everything. Shame on us! This utter, rank dishonesty in connection with the things of God is to be exposed and denounced for the thing it is, sin. The Pharisees were guilty of this in distinguishing between oath and oath, saying that some were binding and some not, and the result of all this teaching of theirs was that solemn oaths were being used commonly and lightly in conversation and with respect to almost everything. It produced a time where your word meant nothing.

What did our Lord teach concerning oaths?

The same contrast is here again, “you have heard from them of old…but I say to you.” The Rabbis of old that had it wrong said this…but I say…what God’s law intended to say in the first place. Remember Jesus isn’t adding something else to the law, He isn’t correcting the law... He is reestablishing what the law had initially intend to say that had got misinterpreted.

Here is the Legislator Himself speaking. Here is the Law-Giver; here is one standing absolutely as a Man among men, yet He speaks with the whole authority of the Godhead. He says in effect: ‘I who gave the old Law am saying this to you. I say, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: nor by the earth; for it is His footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because you cannot not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these is from evil.’ What does this mean?

First, we must be clear about oaths and the bible. Members of the Society of Friends, commonly called the Quakers, as well as Amish and Mennonites have always had a great interest in this paragraph, and it is on the basis of this that they have always traditionally refused to take an oath even in a Court of Law. Their interpretation is that this is a complete and absolute ban upon the taking of an oath in every shape or form and under any circumstance whatsoever. They say that our Lord said: ‘Swear not at all’, and our business is to take His words as they are.

Let’s get something straight, they are playing gymnastics with scripture, in the context this has nothing to do with taking oaths in courts of law or not making an oath at all. Their position is the same as the scribes and Pharisees, legalistic. Just look at the scriptures. The first is the Old Testament injunction in which God laid down legislation as to how and when oaths should be taken. Is it conceivable that God could ever do that if it was His will that man should never take an oath at all? But not only that, there is the Old Testament practice. When Abraham sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac, he first of all extracted an oath from him—Abraham, the friend of God. That holy man Jacob extracted an oath from Joseph, Joseph extracted an oath from his brethren and Jonathan asked an oath from David. You cannot read the Old Testament without seeing that, on certain special occasions, these holiest of men had to take an oath in a most solemn and serious manner.

However, let us also consider the custom practised by the apostles, who had been taught these matters by our Lord. You will find they frequently took oaths. The apostle Paul says in Romans 9:1: ‘I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost’; and again in 2 Corinthians 1:23: ‘I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.’ That was his practice and custom. But there is a very interesting argument based on this whole matter in Hebrews 6:16. The author at that point is trying to give his readers assurance and strong consolation, and his argument is that God has taken an oath in this matter. ‘For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.’ God therefore ‘confirmed it by an oath’.

In other words, in referring to the practice of men taking an oath he shows how an oath is a confirmation to man, and puts an end to all strife. He does not say it is wrong; he accepts it as something which is right and customary and taught of God. Then he proceeds to argue that even God Himself has taken an oath, ‘that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us’. In the light of all this the case for not taking an oath in a Court of Law as based upon this Scripture is something which indeed seems unsatisfactory. So that’s what it does not mean what does it mean then?

The first thing is our Lord forbids us to use the sacred name of God in the manner of swearing or cursing. The name of God and the name of Christ is not to be used in this manner. We hear it all over the streets today, not only not only the use of our Lord’s name as a curse word but this swearing by His name… “I swear to God...” Friends this type of thing is forbidden by Christ plain and simple. It should never be on our lips as believers. We should not be using the Lord’s name in vain or swearing by the Lord’s name.

Second, He absolutely forbids swearing by any creature or any thing, because all belong to God. We must not swear by heaven or earth or by Jerusalem; we must not swear by our heads, or by anything but by the name of God Himself. So these discriminations and distinctions drawn by the Pharisees and scribes were utterly ridiculous. What is Jerusalem? It is the city of the great King. What is the earth? It is nothing but His footstool. You cannot even determine whether your hair be white or black, this was before just for men. All these things are under God. Also the temple is the seat of God’s presence, so you cannot differentiate between the temple and God in that way. His very presence is in that Shekinah glory. Those distinctions were quite false. This is the point.

Third, we must speak the truth in ordinary conversations. We should not have to make an oath in ordinary conversation for someone to believe you…let you yes be yes and your no be no…i.e. we should always be people of the truth in or conversations, communications, and speech. We can see its relevance in this modern world and life of ours. Are not most of our troubles in life due to the fact that men and women are forgetting these things? What is one of the main troubles in the world today? Is it not just that we cannot believe what is being said—lying? One of the great scandals of life today is the appalling increase in divorce and infidelity. To what is it due? It is that men and women have forgotten the teaching of Christ with regard to vows and oaths, and common veracity and truth and honesty in speech. How like these Pharisees and scribes we are.

Men on the political platform perform eloquent speeches of trust and promises and how dedicated they will be to you the people, yet are not loyal to their own marriage vows. When leaders and figures are caught in a lie we hold our hands up aghast; but we seem to think it is somehow different when we tell what we call a little white lie in order to get out of a difficult situation. Friends that kind of thinking is the same as the scribes and Pharisees. Swear by the temple-nothing; the gold of temple-everything. No, we must realize that this is a universal law and principle which runs from top to bottom and covers the whole of life. The message is a simple one. WE MUST NOT LIE!!!

We are all given into this. To commit perjury, lying under oath, we easily see that is wrong, but friends, as Christians…we are always under oath! because we always speak as in the presence of God! We are His people, and a lie which we may tell to a private individual may come between that individual’s soul and its salvation in Christ Jesus. Everything we do is of tremendous importance. We must not exaggerate, or allow people to exaggerate for us, because exaggeration becomes a lie. It gives those who hear a false impression. All that is involved here. Once more: ‘Let every man examine himself.’ God have mercy upon us in that we are so like these Pharisees and scribes, trying to distinguish between big sins and little sins, lies and things which are not exactly lies.

There is only one way to deal with all of these things. We must realize that we are always in the presence of God. We claim we are walking through this world in fellowship with Him and with His Son and that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Very well, ‘grieve not the Holy Spirit of God’, says Paul. He sees and hears everything—every exaggeration, every suggested lie. He hears it all and it hurts and offends.

Why? Because He is the ‘Spirit of truth’, and there is no lie anywhere near Him. Let us then listen to the command of our heavenly King, who is also our Lord and Saviour, who when He suffered, threatened not, and of whom we read, that ‘there was no guile found in his mouth’. Let us follow in His steps and desire to be like Him in all things. Let us remember that everything in our lives and conversation is in His presence, and may indeed be the thing which will determine what others will think of Him. ‘Swear not at all … let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.’