20.1.26a - Matthew 5:33-37 - The Simple Truth

We live in a world that likes to fabricate reality. People in Hollywood create fake realities and make millions of dollars as crowds flood to the movie theatre to experience this fantasy for a while. The good guys always win, and the bad guys are always defeated. The people are always happy and beautiful. We want this in our own lives, and we are always the good guys in the story. To be a good guy, we have to do a little fabrication ourselves. We bend the truth, cheat, exaggerate, fail to keep our promises, flatter for gain, betray confidence, make excuses, tell half-truths, and white lies. Is that okay?

This morning we will be discussing lying and oaths. We have been looking at the Sermon On the Mount. Throughout this sermon, Jesus calls for his followers to be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees. He has been critiquing their interpretation of the Law. They emphasize external obedience, but they overlook the internal obedience of the heart entirely. This is something that preachers can easily fall into. It’s easy to talk about drunkenness, murder, adultery, and sexual immorality, but it’s not so easy to talk about anger, lust, divorce, or lying because these are problems we all struggle with. Notice what Jesus says in verse 33.

Don’t Swear Falsely

Matthew 5:33 (ESV) --- 33 “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.’”

The scribes and Pharisees have solid teaching, “Don’t swear falsely.” We would all agree with that, but the words connected are vital for us to understand the fullness of their teaching. He says, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.” Notice the emphasis on performing to the Lord what we have sworn. Where does this teaching come from? Like their teaching on divorce, this is a misreading of the Old Testament. These men were taking texts like Leviticus 19 and Numbers 30 and coming up with a system of swearing. Let’s look at those texts and see what their teaching consists of.

Leviticus 19:12 (ESV) --- 12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

Numbers 30:2 (ESV) --- 2 If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

These texts place emphasis on fulfilling our vows to the Lord or speaking a vow in the name of the Lord. The Old Testament condemns breaking any oath we have sworn to the Lord or in the Lord’s name. So these teachers recognized that and made sure to teach this truth.

Stop Taking Oaths!

Matthew 5:34--36 (ESV) --- 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

Jesus comes onto the scene and brings up all kinds of oaths. He says not to swear by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, or even by our own head. Their teaching was to perform to the Lord what they have sworn. Jesus teaches us not to take an oath by all of these different things. Why does he say all of that?

These teachers were giving oaths by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, and their head. Later in Matthew, we see what they were doing.

Matthew 23:16--22 (ESV) --- 16 “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.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 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.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

Do we see what they were doing? They were creating a system where they could swear by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, the temple, and the altar, and it means nothing to anyone because they did not swear by the name of the Lord. Jesus says in Matthew 5 that if you swear by heaven, you are swearing by God because it is the throne of God. If you swear by earth, you are swearing by the footstool of God. Jerusalem is the city of God. Your body is not your own, either. So they thought they were getting away with breaking their oaths, but they weren’t.

Swearing By The Lord’s Name

Jesus commands his people not to take an oath at all. Is that really what he wants? Some people believe that, but if that is the case, how could anyone get married? What about when we enter a courtroom and take an oath with our hand on the Bible? Jesus is not saying that taking an oath is a sin. God made oaths (Heb 6), Jesus responded when he was called to an oath (Matt 26:63), and Paul swears by the name of the Lord in his letters (Romans 1:9, 2 Cor 1:23, Phil 1:8, 1 Thess 2:5). There is a place for taking oaths, but they are to be used sparingly. In scripture, we see them being used to 1. Convince those who do not know us well enough that what we say is true, or 2. Make a very serious commitment to a covenant. Listen to what Jesus is trying to get them to stop swearing because they are doing it all the time. Notice two other texts in the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 6:13 (ESV) --- 13 It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.

Deuteronomy 10:20 (ESV) --- 20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.

These texts are odd to me. God is telling his people to swear by his name. What is this about? In the context, he wants them to swear by his name instead of swearing by the name of Baal or other gods. It was customary at that time to swear by the name of their god, and God only wants his people to swear by his name because those other gods do not exist. Swearing by other gods would allow us to go back on our oath because they can’t hold us accountable. This is what the Jews were doing. They were swearing about everything, and they were breaking their vows, thinking God would not care. God shows in the Old Testament that he does not want his people to make oaths that they do not intend to keep. When they take an oath, they were to swear by the Lord. They were calling for God to curse them if they break that oath. Now, how often are we going to make oaths if we know that God will curse us for breaking it?

Rash Vows

How many times in the Old Testament do we see people making rash oaths? Do you remember in Joshua 9 when Joshua and the leaders make a covenant with the Gibeonites? They were supposed to drive out all the inhabitants, but they made an oath to the Lord that they would not drive them out. They overburdened themselves with that commitment, and it distracted them from what is most important. In Judges 11, we see Jephthah make a rash vow that cost him his only child. In 1 Samuel 14, we see Saul make a rash vow that none of his soldiers could eat until the battle was over. That almost cost him his son Jonathan. David even makes a rash vow against Nabal’s house. The Jews of the New Testament were constantly swearing for everything and only fulfilling the oaths that were sworn to the Lord (Except marriage vows).

Have we ever felt the urge to promise someone that we will do something? Why do we want to promise them that we will do something or that we won’t do something again? Isn’t it because we want to convince them that we really mean it this time. We can’t just say we won’t do it because the trust has been broken.

Some of us are overly agreeable. We want to do everything, but we do not recognize our limitations. We say, “I will call you this week,” with every intention on doing it. But things happen, and we fail to follow through with the phone call. We often have good intentions and plans to do something, but then we fail to prioritize those things, and they fall through the cracks. Jesus wants us to do what we say we will do or stop saying that we will do it. Our tongue can get us into so much trouble.

James 3:2 (ESV) --- 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

If we are making promises that we won’t keep, we need to stop and focus on self-control. Saying we will do something does not make it easier to do. We end up causing more harm than good. We have to learn to hold our tongue. Probably the most heartbreaking is Peter’s oath in Matthew 26:72, 74. After telling Jesus that he would never forsake him, Peter swears that he does not know Jesus in the name of the Lord, and then he calls a curse on his head. We can make rash vows all the time if we aren’t careful, and we can get in the practice of breaking those vows. We need to be cautious about what we say and consider whether we will genuinely be able to fulfill what we say we will do.

Commitment to Honesty

We certainly don’t want to swear to God without careful consideration, but listen to what else Jesus says here.

Matthew 5:37 (ESV) --- 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Jesus wants his people to fulfill everything they say. He wants his people to have integrity and to have no dishonesty so that people around us know that whatever we say we will do. He doesn’t want us to say “No” when we mean “Maybe” or “Yes” when we mean “Maybe.” He wants us to be honest and follow through on our commitments. Our hearts need to be invested in this relationship with God so much that we don’t speak without considering what is right.

Think for a moment of how vital truthfulness is to our society. We don’t want someone to be dishonest with us. We don’t want to love someone who might abuse our love and break our hearts. We want someone who will love us forever and always be faithful. We don’t want a corrupt government that operates in a way that takes everything from us. We want a government that has our best interests in mind. The more corrupt a government gets, the less we want to trust it or want to give to it. We need honesty in our government, in our doctor’s offices, in our courtrooms, in our schools, and in our pulpits. We need, and we want men and women who are completely honest with good intentions, but are we willing to speak truth all the time? Jesus wants us to be committed to honesty.

How Can We Commit To Honesty?

The trouble with this idea of being totally honest is that it’s just not practical. How could we ever commit to being totally honest all the time? We are tempted to bend the truth a million different ways. People make all of these rules that we have to work around. If I want free Netflix, I have to come up with 12 new email accounts a year. There are always opportunities to falsify our information to get what we want. Satan is speaking in our ears all the time, tempting us to cut a corner and get an extra ten dollars or an extra thousand.

We want to commit to being shockingly, annoyingly honest. I speak a lot, so this is going to be a huge challenge. Think for a moment about the number of commitments we have in our lives. Every decision has to be made in light of those commitments. I want to be true to my word and always speak the truth in love. This means that I need to fulfill all of my commitments to the extent that it is possible. I am committed to raise my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, at least until they are out of my house. That means to be true to my word. I need to stop being selfish with my time and spend the time required to raise them. I am also committed to paying my mortgage. So I can’t spend all of my money on stuff from amazon.com. Those two aren’t on the same level as each other, but they are both important commitments. I also am committed to helping this church family grow in love, knowledge, and number. That means I can’t watch YouTube all day when I should be studying unless it’s a sermon on YouTube. I recognize that sometimes these commitments will conflict or be acted on by forces outside of my control. But I need to give myself to them with honesty and integrity because of the oaths I have taken in my life.

We need to see oaths as something different than a mere commitment. They impact all other commitments we choose to make in life. I have made two oaths in my life. I vowed to be faithful to Jenna, and I vowed to love and serve my God. These oaths have directed everything I do. They govern every other commitment. That’s because our oaths are something we hold onto to find meaning and identity. As life changes, these two oaths are anchors for me to hold onto. My oath to God is over all. If I were to go against this oath, I would lose my identity. Life around me can change. I could change houses, jobs, hobbies, regions of the country, and my own personality may even change. But I know why I am here, and my purpose in life stays the same. That feeling of purpose and meaning is what we are all looking for, and I have found it by vowing my life to Christ. If I am committed to following Christ, dishonesty must be something I loathe. Instead of resisting the truth, I need to rewire my mind to resist all dishonest things. If I speak a half-truth or a lie, I must confess it and come to terms with it instead of seeking to justify it. The question is, “Do I want to gain the benefits of lying or the benefits of having a relationship with a holy God?” I can’t love lying or the benefits of lying and say that I love God.

Conclusion

Jesus does not want us to be dishonest. He wants us to think through our opportunities before we commit, and then he wants us to follow through on our commitments. The most important commitment we have is to submit to the will of God for our lives with our hearts. If the Bible is worth committing our lives, we must become totally committed. We can’t be one way at church and another way at home or work. We need to be all in all the time. We need to hate every lie or half-truth that comes out of our mouth. If your life is missing that commitment to God that you know you should have, make the change and do what you know you should. Give your life to him and become what God calls us to be.