Watch Your Tongue 3-22-09
Watch Your Tongue
Mt 5:33-37 (NIV)- 33 - “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ 34 - But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 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 swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 - Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Dt 23:21 (ESV)-21 - “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling
it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.
Nu 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.
Pr 12:22 (ESV)-22 - Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.
A pastor was out taking a walk one evening. He looked up and saw a little boy barreling downhill on his wagon. The wagon slammed into a tree, and all four wheels fell off. The boy said, "I'll be darned." The pastor said, "son, couldn't you think of something better to say than that?" As the two of them put the wheels back on, the boy asked, "What should I have said?" The pastor thought a moment and said, "Well, you could have said 'Praise the Lord. '" with tongue in cheek, the pastor added, "If you say something like that, who knows, the wagon might fix itself." The boy took his wagon back to the top of the hill. He came racing down again, slammed into that same tree. All four wheels flipped off. The boy said, "Praise the Lord," and suddenly all four wheels locked back into place, and the pastor said, "I'll be darned."
The Institute of Behavior Motivation has found that 97 out of 100 people tell lies, and on average tell about 1,000 lies a year. This propensity to lie, cheat, deceive, shade the truth, has affected how we see ourselves and how we see each other.
Several years ago the Roper Organization surveyed the public about its perceptions of who's telling the truth. In this study people said:
1) Clergy told the truth only 49% of the time,
2) doctors 48%,
3) Their best friend 26%,
4) The local newspaper 8%,
5) The President of the United States 8%,
6) Leaders of Congress 3%.
We have become so convinced that politicians and lying go together, that it has become one big joke.
I heard about a bus full of politicians that was speeding down a country road when it swerved into a field and crashed into a tree. The farmer who owned that field heard the noise and went to investigate. He then dug a gigantic hole and buried all the politicians.
A few days later the sheriff drove by and saw the overturned bus. He knocked on the farmhouse door, and when the farmer came to the door he said, "Sir, where are the politicians who were in that bus?" The farmer said, "I buried them." The sheriff said, "Were they all dead?" The farmer said, "Well, some of them said they weren't, but you know how politicians lie."
James Patterson and Peter Kim interviewed over 1,000 Americans and asked this question: "What do you want in a President?" They gave each person a detailed list of 74 leadership traits they could choose from. By far away, the highest percentage of those interviewed, 79%, said the single most important attribute they wanted in a President was honesty.
Have you ever heard anyone called "a born liar?" Well, did you know the truth of the matter is, we are all born liars.
Ps 58:3 (ESV)-3 - The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
You don't have to teach children to lie, you have to teach them to tell the truth.
We need to learn how to make sure that the words that pass through our mouth are guarded by honesty on one side and integrity on the other.
I) Let there Ne NO Dishonesty In What We Say
Mt 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.’
When someone would swear it was, in effect, to take an oath. The reason why you would take an oath is to verify that what you were saying was true. In the United States a oaths are taken every day.
Everyday people go to a courtroom and take the witness stand and "swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God." That is an oath. An oath does not keep you from perjury, but it makes you liable if you commit perjury. But that is not the type of oath that Jesus is dealing with here.
The Pharisees felt that an oath taken to God had to be kept. In other words:
· If you swore something was true by God Himself, then you had to be totally and completely honest.
· If you gave a divine oath that you would do something, you had to do it.
· If you gave a divine oath that something was true, then it must be true.
· If it was not a divine oath then all bets were off.
· It wasn't what you said that mattered, but how you said it that counted.
The Pharisees, and others like them, had forgotten the truth.
Pr 12:22 (ESV)-22 - Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.
A person of character doesn't have to use God's name to prove he is telling the truth. His own name should be enough. If you are known to other people as a person of honesty and a person of integrity, you don't need to swear to anything, because people know you can be relied upon to tell the truth.
The worst thing that can ever be said about someone is this: "You can't believe anything he says." You think about it. Would you hire someone if they had great skill, if they dressed nice, if they had good personalities, if they worked well with the public, but you could not believe anything that they said? Of course you wouldn't for that type of person causes trouble and stays in trouble.
I heard about a man who was driving a car down the road and he was stopped by a police officer. The police officer came up to the car and the man said, "What's the problem officer?" The officer said, "Sir, you were going 75 miles an hour in a 55 mile per hour zone." The man said, "No sir, I was going 65." His wife said, "Now Harry, you know you were going 80."
The officer said, "I'm also going to give you a ticket for your broken taillight." The man said, "Broken taillight? I didn't know about a broken taillight!" His wife said, "Now Harry, you've known about that taillight for five weeks."
The officer said, "Well, I'm also going to give you a citation for not wearing your seatbelt." The man said, "Oh, I just took it off when you were walking up to the car." The wife said, "Now Harry, you know you never wear your seatbelt." Well, at that point the man had it. He turned to his wife and said, "Sarah, would you please shut your mouth!" The officer turned to the woman and said, "Ma'am, does your husband talk to you that way all the time?" His wife said, "No, only when he's drunk."
You see, you should take very great care to either speak the truth or not speak at all.
But I don't want to be misunderstood about this matter of honesty. You should always be totally honest in what you say, but you don't always have to say what is totally honest. In other words, you don't always have to express your honesty.
You know there are some people who pride themselves on being "brutally honest." Many times I have found that people are more brutal than they are honest, and there are times when making no comment is better than making an honest comment.
Let me illustrate. A woman was trying on different dresses at the mall. She found one dress in particular she just loved, but she was afraid it might make her look too big. Well, her husband was shopping with her. She said, "I need your opinion on something." She went into the dressing room and got into this dress and came out and turned this way and that, and said, "Does this dress make me look fat?" The husband said, "No, honey, that dress doesn't make you look fat-it's your hips that make you look fat."
II) Let There Be NO Deception In What We Say
Mt 5:33-36 (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.’ 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.
Remember The Jews divided oaths into two classes: those you had to keep and those you didn't.
· If it contained God's name you had to keep it, but if not, you didn't have to.
· If you didn't invoke God's name in the oath you didn't have to mean it, and you didn't have to keep it.
When we were kids we used to have a little trick that we would use when we wanted to lie-we would put our hand behind our back and we would "cross our fingers." This was their way of crossing their fingers.
· It was more than just being dishonest, it was being deceptive.
· What was even worse, they weren't even accomplishing their purpose of getting God out of the picture.
· Jesus said:
a) If you swear by heaven it's God's throne;
b) If you swear by earth it's His footstool;
c) If you swear by Jerusalem it's His city;
d) If you swear by your head; He's the one that put the hair on your head to begin with.
We live in a day of double talk; putting a spin on something, the forked tongue, "it all depends on what the meaning of is' is." We just can't tell it like it is. We just can't speak honestly, simply, and plainly. For example:
· Governments never raise taxes, they just "enhance revenues."
This is what Jesus was dealing with, saying that it's just as wrong to be deceptive as it is to be dishonest. Lehigh University Economist, Robert Thornton, came up with some clever ways to recommend people you work with that you would like to get rid of. For example:
· For a candidate that you just don't like, he suggests saying this: "I am pleased to say that this person is a former friend of mine."
· For the lazy worker say this: "In my opinion, you will be very fortunate to get this person to work for you."
· For the criminal you can say this: "He's a man of many convictions," and "I'm sorry we let him get away."
· For the untrustworthy employee you could say: "Her true ability is deceiving."
· For the inept worker you can say, "I most enthusiastically recommend this person with no qualifications whatsoever."
In God's eyes a half truth equals a whole lie. A white lie is black in God's eyes. In fact, one of the seven things that God hates is a lying tongue.
Pr 6:16-19 (ESV)-16 - There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17 - haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 - a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 19 - a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.
· Don't be dishonest in what you say.
· Don't be deceptive in what you say.
III) Let There Dependability In What We Say
Mt 5:37 (ESV)-37 - Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
Jesus was talking about two things, not just one.
A) He was talking about honesty. Let me tell you what honesty is. Honesty is saying what you mean, and meaning what you say; when you understand that your word is your bond. That's why again if your word is good you don't need to swear; and if your word is not good it's no good to swear.
For example, if you borrow money from someone you don't need to say, "Just as surely as God is in heaven, as the sun rises in the East, as the Pope is a Catholic, as it's great to be a Tide or Tiger Fan -I'll pay you back." You just simply say, "I will pay you back." Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.
Honesty pays. It pays big. The two fastest animals in Africa are the gazelle and the cheetah. Do you know why in a race the gazelle never loses to the cheetah? Because cheetahs never win.
B) He is talking about integrity. What is the difference?
Integrity is saying what you will do, and then doing what you will say. When people can say about you, "What you see is what you get," and "You can depend on anything he tells you," you have honesty and you have integrity.
Steven Covey said it this way: "Integrity includes but goes beyond honesty. Honesty is telling the truth-in other words, conforming our words to reality. Integrity is conforming reality to our words-in other words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations."
Adam Clark, was a sales clerk in a store that sold fine silk to people of the upper classes in London. One day his boss showed him how he could increase sales and profits by stretching the silk as he measured it out, and giving less silk for more money. Young Adam Clark looked his boss straight in the eye and said, "Sir, your silk may stretch, but my conscience won't." You listen, and listen carefully. Every time you either stretch the truth or you speak an untruth, you stretch your conscience.