Speak Truth in Love
Deep Discipleship • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro:
The short story by Flannery O’Connor Good Country People is a classic if you’ve not read it. The story centers around a main character, Hulga—
Hulga is a young woman, very proud of her PH.D in Philosophy, and the fact that she’s an atheist. Hulga Hopewell is also disabled—she has an artificial leg.
The climax of the story comes when Hulga is duped by a man who poses as a traveling Bible salesman, who woos her on a picnic date, but then ends up stealing her artificial leg.
Hulga reacts by saying:
“You’re a Christian!” She hissed. You’re a fine Christian! You are just like them all—say one thing and do another.
The salesman responds by denying he is a Christian—just in the business of deception
Why am I sharing this to being a sermon?
Because if Hulga’s charge sticks at all, even just a little…that Christians, “say one thing, and do another”—that’s to our deep shame; we are in a sorry, pathetic state as disciples.
In the SOM, Jesus show us that deception can’t be the way of a disciple; Instead, The way of discipleship has to be “speaking the truth in love”
THE FOUNDATION (33)
V33: The quotation is a blend of several OT text, with Lev 19
There is also the Third Command (Ex 20:7) running in the background as well
Let’s turn to Lev 19—The holiness code
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
“You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Apply: It’s import to see what was foundational to the command—devotion to God (holiness) expressed in love for neighbor
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Apply: So as we move into this teaching about taking oaths—generally “truth-speaking” Is the question: Is is my goal love my neighbor? Is that what I’m aiming at?
**A heart of holiness with Love for our neighbor is the single acid test to see how deep (or shallow) our discipleship really is.
ON OATHS, AND OATH-TAKING (34-36)
First, what is an oath?
Simply “a solemn statement affirmed to be true before God”
The difference between an oath and vow—-the oath invokes the name of God. “As God as my witness” “I swear to God” —essentially calling on God to validate the truth; but in scripture there seems to be a lot of overlap
Now just like divorce laws in the OT—swearing oaths not commanded, but permitted.
*And the only reasons that oaths exist is because we live in a fallen world with a lot fo dishonest and broken promises; betrayal and deception so permeates much of what humans do.
Oaths are a thing because at the end of the day, people could not trust their neighbors.
Now without more of a background—(cultural and Biblically)—it seems the Jesus is prohibiting all oaths in SOM.
Culturally: The Rabbi’s of Jesus’s day did not consider it a sin to break a vow if it was not explicitly sworn in God’s name—which we have the example of: heaven, earth, Jerusalem, your head (34-36).
This led to a massive increase of trivial oaths, and encouraged people to actually not keep their word.
The system of oath-swearing was a complete racket:
E.G.
—Oaths sworn in heaven, earth, Jerusalem= not binding
(Mt 23:16)
Swearing by the temple (not binding), but by the gold of the temple
Illus: Think about it. “When my cousin said he was going to repay me by next Sabbath—-did he swear by the temple, or the gold, I can’t remember”
**With such hair-splitting difference, how could you keep track of what you said, or what was said to you??
But the whole point of an oath is to encourage truthfulness, not get around it! Jesus says plainly that our speech should be marked by truth, integrity, honesty. That is the way of discipleship.
Apply: Disciples need to be far removed from any and all forms of deception. (V37) Anything beyond that raw, simple, plain truth “comes from evil” (or, the evil one)....Satan is the father of lies (Jn 8:44)....he is the original liar.
**But then there is still the question: Is it ever ok to take an oath of any sort?
The straightfoward words of Jesus here seem to indicate it’s not.
Yet in NT letters we see there is still something of a practice of oath taking
—Paul uses the phrase “God is my witness” which is oath language: Rom 1:9; 2 Cor 1:23; Gal 1:20; Phil 1:8.
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you
(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)
For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.
Apply: So what is the teaching of Jesus aiming at? What is the way of discipleship?
Maybe this illustration helps. I still can’t wrap my mind around this one thing: when we lived up north, during the winter some people—if they had the means and flexibility-- would make a temporary move down south to avoid snow. We called them snowbirds-
The did not want to deal with the hassle, but it was also a step of wisdom too. Way less likely to get into a car accident, or throw out your back shoveling snow.
What I found strange is that here in the South (these last two weeks as example) when snow hit our area just north, some of you all did the opposite—you drive a few hours to find the snow!
So basically there are two types of people in the US. Those who flee snow, and those who find it.
But I think Jesus’s teaching is like the snowbird—
The safest option is to avoid the stuff altogether. That’s wisdom.
Instead of “bring it on” …it’s a “beware”
If you don’t swear oaths at all, you won’t have to worry about this.
—In Matthew we see some bad outcomes of oaths, that serve as warnings:
Herod (14:6-9)
But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given.
Or,
Peter (26:72)
And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.”
Apply: IF Peter, who walked so close with Jesus could speak lies through an oath….how much do we need to guard ourselves of saying something we may foolishly regret!
Apply: Essentially Jesus teaching demands we be free from all deception, and also that we steer clear of frivolous oaths.
It would challenges us to refrain from saying “I swear to God” in casual conversation.
Now some groups have sworn off all oaths altogether
—Some Essenes in Jesus’s day (except the initial oath to join their sect)
—Anabaptist, some Quakers
Confessional Reformed have allowed peoples conscience to swear oaths in legal matters, or taking a public office, seeing that Jesus was correcting abuse.
(V37) Jesus teaching can be summed up from the phrase found in Eph “Speak the truth in love”
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
**Jesus expects his disciples to live in consistent truthfulness, and be constantly reliable
Apply:
So the question is, Am I such a person so marked by truth? Does truth and integrity mark all of my life.
Public, private. Casual, work, business, marriage, friendship, parenting.
Do people know me as man or woman of our word, keeping my commitments?
Our hearts can respond in two ways.
1) Conviction—as a professing Christian, you’ve had a pattern of “saying one thing, doing the other” Intentional lies and deception.
The Apostle Peter was broken by his dishonesty—and found a forgiving Savior who restores the repentant (
2) Commitment—Be the help of the H.S.—because we know we are helpless....be a people marked by clear, simple commitment to truth. Yes means yes; no means no.
Look back with me at v36—because here is a main lesson in this:
“You cannot make one hair white or black”
To which you may respond—yes I can. I can dye my hair either: blonde, blue, pink.
But that’s not the point. The point is our inability to control our aging.
God is actively involved in all things….including the intricate details of knowing all the words we will speak
Jesus weaves in the teaching that God rules over all domains, heaven, earth, Jersualem, own head…and obviously our Words—the same picture of God we get from the Psalm
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
—This knowledge surely extends to the time we spent in the womb (Ps 139:13-14)
As some of you are familiar, Jan is sanctity of life month. Yesterday was the March for Life in DC. Many churches set aside time, or a Sunday to focus on justice for the unborn
This year marks 49 years of legalized abortion on demand in all 50 states..
The Dobbs case that was brought before the Supreme Court in Dec may very possibly mean the end to Roe V Wade.
That does not mean abortion in American automatically goes away—but ending Roe would be great step in providing more justice for the unborn. The Supreme Court will issue a ruling sometime in June likely.
We will touch on some more sanctity of life application next Sun—but for now
The capacity for speech, that develops inside the womb—proves the unquestionable humanity of every life inside of the womb
To be God-honoring, life-affirming, supporting, rescuing....we will need to be commited to Speak Truth in Love
Conclusion:
God is a God of Truth, and the Gospel is “the Word of truth” (Col 1:4 )
In the Gospel, God has spoken truth in love to us....
The gospel does not deceive us; but tells us the raw honest truth about how bad our sin is—how holy God is.
“Sin is not simply making mistakes…Sin is having the desire in our hearts to to do the will of the enemy of God” (RC Sproul)
That in our sins we are natural born enemies.. but God is rich in mercy
…..all who put their faith in Christ have sins forgiven and inherit eternal life.
The reason we are to speak truth in love, is because God has done that to us—through the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.