Matthew 5:33-37

The Gospel Of Matthew  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Previously

Matthew’s Gospel is Primarily Focused On the Kingdom of Heaven
And Also Heavily Focused On Jesus Fulfilling the OT to Become King
He Went Around Preaching “Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is Near!”
We are Currently in the Sermon on the Mount
This Sermon is a Compilation of What Jesus Taught Concerning the Kingdom
It’s All About Showing What Being a Citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven Looks Like
In the Section We are in Right Now, Jesus is Showing His Listeners How to Have Greater Righteousness than the Scribes and Pharisees
Only By Having Greater Righteousness than Them Can Someone Be a Citizen of Jesus’ Kingdom
They Were Masters of the Old Law, But They Misinterpreted a Great Deal of it to Mean Things that it was Never Intended to Mean
So Jesus is Showing Us How to Rightly Interpret and Apply God’s Word
So Far Jesus Has Taught Us:
“Don’t Murder” Includes “Don’t Remain Angry”
“Don’t Commit Adultery” Includes “Don’t Look at Anyone With the Intention of Lusting After Them”
And the False Idea that God Commanded Divorce
Divorce was Never Intended By God

Matthew 5:33-37

Now Jesus is Going to Address the Topic of Making Oaths and Truthfulness
When I was Little, if My Friends and I Ever Made Promises to Do Something, Especially if that Promise was Something Very Exciting…
We Knew to Check Fingers and Toes to Make Sure None of Them Were Crossed
Because if Your Fingers or Toes Were Crossed, that Meant You Didn’t Have to Keep Your Promise
That was a Very Childish Thing to Do, But Even Adults Still Make False Promises in Similar Ways Today
And the Scribes and Pharisees Would Do it All the Time
And They Believed/Taught that They Did it By the Authority of the Old Law
Matthew 5:33 (NASB)
“Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’
Jesus is Again Quoting from the OT (Not Exact in Wording, But a Paraphrase of Several OT Passages)
Leviticus 19:12 (NASB)
‘You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.
Numbers 30:2 (NASB)
“If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
Neither of These Passages Condemn Swearing or Making Vows/Oaths By the Name of God
They Only Condemn Not Fulfilling Those Promises
People Would Make Oaths to Assure Those Whom They Swore to that They Would Keep Their Word
Oaths Would Often Involve Self-Harm if the Oath Were Not Fulfilled
“I Cross My Heart and Hope to Die”
They Would Call On God as Their Witness that They Would Keep Their Word
If They Didn’t Keep Their Word, They Would Profane and Misuse the Name of God
Exodus 20:7 (NASB)
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.”
“I Invoke the Death Penalty Upon Myself if I Don’t Keep My Promise.”
Matthew 5:34–36 (NASB)
“But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.”
Jesus Then Tells His Listeners Not to Make an Oath at All
But Why?
If the Law Allows for Making Oaths, Then Why Does Jesus Teach Against Them?
He Already Said He Hadn’t Come to Destroy the Law
And What is He Talking About “By Heaven, By Earth, By Jerusalem, and By Your Head?”
To Understand What Jesus is Saying, We Need to Understand the Teachings and Beliefs of the Scribes, Pharisees, and Jewish People of that Day
The Collection of Jewish Rabbi Teachings (Mishnah) Says Quite a Bit About Oath-Taking
m. Sebu. 4.13: If a man said, “I adjure you” or “I command you” or “I bind you,” they are liable; but if he said “By heaven and earth,” they are exempt. m. Ned. 1.3: If he says, “May it be by Jerusalem,” he has said naught. m. Sanh. 3.2: If a man take an oath before his fellow, and his fellow said to him, “Vow to me by the life of your head,” R. Meir says he may retract. Rabbi Maimonides: If any swear by heaven, by earth, by the sun, etc although the mind of the swearer be under these words to swear by Him who created them, yet this is not an oath. Or if any swear by some of the prophets, or by some of the books of the Scripture, although the sense of the swearer be to swear by Him that sent that prophet or that gave that book, nevertheless this is not an oath.
Later Jewish commentary argued that a vow made “by” Jerusalem was nonbonding but a vow made “toward” Jerusalem was binding (t. Ned. 1.2.3).
Do You See All the Loopholes They Had Made?
Not All Vows/Oaths/Promises Carried Any Weight
We Also Know From Matthew’s Account that the Scribes and Pharisees of His Day Believed and Taught This
Matthew 23:16–22 (NASB)
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.’
You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold?
And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.’
You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering?
Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it.
And whoever swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it.
And whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.”
Now We are Able to Understand the Problem Jesus is Dealing With
The Jewish Leaders Interpretted the Law to Mean that One Must Keep His Oath if He Made it By the Name of God…
But if He Made it By Anything or Anyone Else, He Isn’t Bound to Keep it
Just Like the Child Who Crosses His Fingers Before Making a Promise, the Jewish People Would Make Oaths that They Didn’t Have to Keep
Jesus is Condemning This Dishonest Practice
Swearing By Heaven Instead of By the Name of God Doesn’t Release You From the Responsibility of Keeping Your Word
Heaven is the Throne of God
Swearing By Earth Doesn’t Release You, Either
It is God’s Footstool (Both Refrences From Isaiah 66:1)
Swearing By Jerusalem Doesn’t Release You
It is the City of the Great King (Psalm 48:2 - It is God’s City)
Even Swearing By Your Own Head Doesn’t Release You
Your Head was Given to You By God and You Don’t Even Have Any Power or Control Over One Single Hair
“I’ll Do This or I’ll Turn My Hair Gray!”
Only God Has That Power
They Believed Swearing By Something “Near” God Would Bring a Lesser Penalty if Broken Than Swearing By God’s Actual Name and Breaking that Promise
But You Can’t Swear By Anything that Doesn’t Belong to God
So There Isn’t a Single Oath You Can Take Where God is Not Involved
They Believed if They Removed God From Their Oaths, Then Breaking Those Oaths Wouldn’t Be Such a Big Deal
But Jesus Says You Can’t Remove God From an Oath
Matthew 5:37 (NASB)
“But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”
NLT - “Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’”
Jesus Tells His Followers to Simply Be Truthful and Honest
Anything More Than Telling the Straightforward Truth is of Evil
Jesus Isn’t Contradicting the Old Law By Saying that Making Oaths is of Evil When God Allowed it
He is Teaching Against the Way Oaths Were Being Used for Deception
Oaths Were Acceptable Under the Old Law
And You Find Several Times Where Paul Makes Oaths to Churches in His Letters
But Oaths Were Never Required
Deuteronomy 23:21–23 (NASB)
“When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you. However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you.
You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God, what you have promised.”
The Original Purpose of an Oath was to Guarantee the Promise Would Be Fulfilled
But the Jews Were Using Oaths to Avoid Fulfilling Their Promises
Jesus Tells His Followers that They Shouldn’t Give an Oath, Because Their Word Alone Should Be Considered Binding
There Should Be No More or Less Obligation to Keep Our Promises Based on an Oath
Any Yes or No From the Mouth of a Citizen of Jesus’ Kingdom Should Be Considered Binding
When I was Younger and I was Trying to Withhold Information or Not Tell Someone the Complete Truth…
All My Friends Would Have to Say is, “Do You Promise?”
If I Said “Yes” They Knew I was Telling the Truth
But if I Said “No” They Knew I Wasn’t Telling All the Truth
My Childish Mind Thought, “As Long as I Don’t Say ‘I Promise’ I Don’t Actually Have to Tell All the Truth.”
According to Jesus, that is Being Dishonest
Whatever Words Come Out of My Mouth, Whether I Give an Oath or Not, Should Be Absolutely Truthful and Honest
Oaths Were Never Intended to Heighten the Obligation of the Swearer to Keep His Word
They Were Meant to Heighten the Confidence of the One Receiving the Promise
The Majority of References to Oaths in the OT are Oaths that God Has Made to Bless His People
What Was His Reason for Making Oaths?
Hebrews 6:13–18 (ESV)
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”
And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.
So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
Why Did God Swear By Himself?
Not to Place More Obligation on Himself to Keep His Word
But to Assure Us that He Absolutely Will Keep His Word
We Already Know that it is Impossible for God to Lie
That Alone Should Give Us Absolute Confidence that God Will Fulfill His Promises for Us
But He Goes a Step Further and Swears By the Greatest Thing that Exists (Himself) that He Will Keep His Promises to Us
He Did This So Our 100% Confidence in Him Could Be Infinitely Enhanced

Sum It All Up

Jesus is Teaching His Listeners How to Have Greater Righteousness than the Scribes and Pharisees
To Do That, Tell the Truth and Be Honest With No Deceptive Oath Taking or Promise Making
Just Simply Let Your “Yes” Be Yes and Your “No” Be No
He Isn’t Saying that Making Oaths is Sinful
The Scribes and Pharisees Had Made it Sinful By the Way They Were Doing it
He was Teaching Against That Type of Oath-Making
But When it Comes Down to It…
Christians Shouldn’t Make Oaths Because We Shouldn’t Have to
We Ought to Live in Such a Way That People Know They Can Trust Our Word Without Us Having to Go to Great Lengths to Persuade/Convince Them
Christians, Be Honest Just Like Our Father is Honest
When We are Honest, We are More Righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees
And We Have the Absolutely Guaranteed Promises of God Assured to Us
What are His Promises?
There are Many
But Ultimately, Our Greatest Promise is Being Accepted into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and Knowing that His Death and Resurrection Guarantees Our Resurrection to Eternal Life
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