"Oaths"

Let's turn to Scripture. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 5, verses 33 through 37.

Matthew 5:33–37

That's page 760 in the Pew Bible, 760. As you know, we're working our way through the Sermon

on the Mount this fall, learning what it means to be followers of Jesus. And as we said, this

particular section of the Sermon on the Mount that we're in, roughly the second half or the

final two-thirds of chapter 5, is about whole life righteousness. Like dye in a fabric that goes

the whole way through, Jesus means for our whole lives, inside and out, to be lived in line with

His gracious kingdom. So in chapter 5, Jesus gives us a number of examples of what this looks like.

And the topic of our text this morning, the area of whole life righteousness that Jesus touches on

here today, is integrity of speech, the truthfulness of our words. So I'm going to read the text for us,

and then I'll pray, and then we'll consider it together. Let me read Matthew 5, 33 through 37.

Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely,

but perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all,

either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is His footstool,

or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head,

for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply yes or no. Anything more than

this comes from evil. All right, let's pray. Father, would you help us this morning to not

just listen to this passage, but to hear it, to internalize it. Give us ears of faith by your

Spirit to really hear what you're saying, and give us hearts that are soft to receive

what you are saying to us. And through our time meditating on this passage, help us above all

to behold your Son, Jesus, in all His beauty, who is the way and the truth and the life,

and help us to become more like Him by your grace. In His name we pray. Amen.

Well, I wonder, have you ever found yourself wanting to make an oath? Maybe you're telling

a true story about something, and, you know, maybe on the surface that story feels a little hard to

believe, you know, the proverbial fish you caught on summer vacation or whatever. And you can start

to see the incredulity, the kind of doubtful look growing on the face of your friend as you tell this

story, and you say almost without thinking, no, I swear it's true. I swear. Or maybe you want to

underscore a promise or a commitment that you've made, and you say, I swear I'll be there to pick you

up at the airport on time, this time. And of course, sometimes we can insert things to intensify the

oath. I swear on my mother's grave. Why is it always your mother's grave? Isn't that weird?

I swear on a stack of Bibles, cross my heart, and hope to die.

Why do we have this almost natural instinct to kind of underline the truthfulness of what we're saying?

To mark it in some way, to bind ourselves to truthfulness at times?

Well, I think these questions and that experience that we all have take us right into the heart of our passage.

And on the surface, our passage is about oaths.

But under the surface, it's really about the difficulty we humans have with speaking truthfully.

So by way of outline for our time of thinking about this passage together, we're first going to

consider the nature of oaths, and then second, we're going to look at the problem with oaths.

And then finally, we're going to consider Jesus' approach to oaths altogether. You know, but the

whole time, even though oaths is sort of the surface, this whole time, where we're going to be headed

is Jesus' teaching about whole life integrity when it comes to our words, to speaking truthfully.

Okay, so first, let's consider the nature of oaths. In verse 33, Jesus says,

Again you have heard that it was said to those of old,

You shall not swear falsely, but perform to the Lord what you have sworn.

Now, we've seen this pattern already in this section of the Sermon on the Mount, haven't we?

Jesus starts by quoting an Old Testament passage, then He goes on to speak with authority about what

God's law really means and how it applies now in light of His kingdom that's arrived.

You've heard it said, but I say to you. And here in our text, Jesus is quoting not just a single

passage from the Old Testament, but a combination of a few passages. He's sort of synthesizing them.

Passages like Leviticus 19.12, which says,

That's God speaking there. Or in Numbers 30, verse 2, which says,

Numbers 30:2

Or a little bit of a longer passage, Deuteronomy 23, 21 through 23 says,

Okay, so Jesus is synthesizing a number of passages from the Mosaic Law concerning oaths,

concerning vows. And you know, as we look across the whole Old Testament, we see that oaths come up

actually fairly often. And surprisingly, on the whole, they're considered in a positive light.

As we read the story of the Old Testament, we see figures like Abraham or Jacob or Joseph or Hannah

or Saul or Ezra or Nehemiah all swearing oaths or making vows.

Now, of course, you do see some examples of rash oaths.

You know, if you've ever read the book of Judges, there's that terrible scene in Judges 11 with Jephthah,

right?

But the problem there doesn't seem to be presented as a problem with oaths in general,

but with the rash sort of oath that Jephthah made.

But perhaps most striking in the Old Testament is not just the number of human characters who make

oaths, but the fact that God himself is an oath-making God. He makes oaths, he makes vows,

he makes covenants with Noah and with Abraham and with David. God swears to preserve and bless Israel.

He promises, he makes an oath to send a Redeemer to raise the Davidic Messiah from the dead.

Why does God do all that?

Well, in the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 6, we read this. It says,

Hebrews 6 · chapter mention

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, that is,

his word and his oath, 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. We have this as a sure and steadfast

anchor of the soul. So God makes these oaths then, not for God's sake, but for ours. He makes these

binding promises for our sake, so that we and our doubts and our fears can have deep assurance

that God will do what he says we will do, what he says he will do. So in reading the Old Testament,

it seems that oaths weren't necessarily regarded as a bad thing, but they could be misused.

We see that as well. When we come to the Old Testament prophets, we see that by the time of

the prophets, they were addressing several problems related to oaths and vows that had cropped up in

the people of Israel. On the one hand, the prophets attacked the practice of taking oaths in the names

of other gods, right? Which, of course, was a stark violation of the first commandment. Remember the

first commandment, you shall know other gods before me. So, of course, the prophets were going to rail

against the practice of swearing promises by these other false gods. But the prophets also

address the problem of oath-breaking and of swearing falsely, that is, making an oath that you really have

no intention of keeping or making statements under an oath that are outright lies. So we see that there

were some problems that started to creep up in this practice of oath-making. And that leads to our second

point. Not just the nature of oaths, but the problem with oaths. Given that Old Testament background, which

seems to present oaths in a neutral, maybe even a positive light, it's a bit shocking when Jesus says

in verse 34, but I say to you, do not take an oath at all. Now, some Christians have interpreted this verse

as a blanket prohibition against every and all kinds of oaths whatsoever. If you look at church history,

the Anabaptists in the 16th century, Quakers in the 17th century, were especially known for not taking

oaths of any sort. And in the early church as well, many Christians avoided oaths on the basis of Jesus'

teaching here. But I think the rest of these verses show us that Jesus' primary concern

may not have been to create a new rule against oaths in general, but to address a specific problem

with how oaths were being used and abused in his day. Notice how Jesus goes on to say,

do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth,

for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it's the city of the great king. And don't take an oath

by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Interesting, one commentator says,

you know, in the ancient world they did have hair dye, you know, so you could sort of make your hair

white or black. But we all know Jesus' point, right? You're not actually changing the nature

of your hair. Now, what does Jesus mean by all that? Why does he mention all these different things

that people might swear by? Well, there's a passage a little later in Matthew's gospel that

sheds some light on this. In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus in that chapter is speaking out against the

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

Pharisees, and he's condemning their hypocrisy and their self-righteousness. And in the middle of that

chapter, one of the things that Jesus critiques is how the Pharisees had created an elaborate scheme

of rules for oath-taking. And this elaborate scheme that they had developed had the effect

of creating different levels for how binding an oath would be. Here's what Jesus says in Matthew 23,

16 through 22,

Woe to you blind gods who say, if anyone swears by the temple, it's nothing. But if anyone swears by the

gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. You blind fools, for which is greater, the gold?

Or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, if anyone swears by the altar,

it's nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that's on the altar, he is bound by his oath.

You blind men, for which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes it sacred?

So everyone who swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple

swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by

him who sits on it. So apparently in Jesus' day, if you were to say, swear an oath by the temple,

that wasn't as binding as if you swore an oath by the gold in the temple.

And if you swore an oath on the basis of the altar, well, that wasn't as binding if you swore

by the gift on the altar. So you see, the Pharisees had created a system whereby oaths would be less

binding in some instances and more binding in others. They had found a way, like we've seen week

after week after week, to minimize the impact, the full weight of God's law about keeping your word.

And apparently this practice had become very widespread. There were lots of rash oaths being

made because there was this system of gradation. So here was the problem with oaths. The situation

in Jesus' day seems to be that oaths were not being used to reinforce the truth, but to shade the truth.

Oaths were being made that allowed you to get out of your obligation, not to hold you to it.

The very thing that was meant to underscore truthfulness was being used to undermine it.

And if you think about it, that very practice of swearing oaths in such a widespread, casual way,

what it did was it created two levels of truthfulness.

There was one level of truthfulness when people were under an oath, and they have to be truthful.

But then there was the rest of the time, there was that other level of truthfulness,

sort of patched around by some of these faulty oaths, when people can say whatever they find convenient.

But you know, this practice of oaths did something even more dangerous.

Not just did it create sort of two levels of truthfulness,

it also seemed to communicate that there were some things, there were some words, there were some promises

that God was watching over, some things to which we were accountable to God,

and then some things where we weren't.

If I swear this kind of oath, then I'm really under obligation to God,

but if I swear this kind of oath, or if I'm not swearing an oath at all, God's not really involved.

But listen again to what Jesus says in our text in Matthew 5.

If you swear by heaven, or by earth, or by Jerusalem, or your own head,

do you really think you've avoided God?

Who made heaven and earth?

Who decided that Jerusalem would be His dwelling place?

Who created the hairs on your head?

God.

God is the creator and sustainer of all things.

All of our lives, all of our words are lived before Him.

Everything we do and say is done in the presence of God.

Coram Deo, as the Latin phrase puts it.

God hears every word we speak.

And the problem with oaths is that it wants to relegate God to a corner.

It wants to push God out of our everyday interactions,

push Him out of our everyday words, out of our everyday promises,

out of our everyday commitments,

push God out of our emails, out of our dinnertime conversation,

out of our social media posts.

Push Him out of those things.

But friends, our words in every instance, in every way,

are done in the presence of God.

And that's why Jesus says in His context,

don't take an oath at all.

If there's any practice that makes God small,

pushes Him to the corner of our lives,

gives us the illusion that we can live life

without reference to Him,

we should abandon it altogether.

And that brings us to our third point.

What is Jesus' response to oaths?

Well, we see it in verse 37.

Let what you say be simply yes or no.

Anything more than this comes from evil.

What Jesus invites us into is the simplicity of living our whole lives before God

and letting our words always reflect that reality.

If every word we say is spoken in the presence of God,

then we can simply let our yes be yes and our no be no.

integrity of speech and truthfulness in every situation.

What we say, we mean.

What we promise, we intend to fulfill.

Does this mean Christians should never take a formal oath in court

or before taking a public office?

Well, some Christians, as I mentioned, have taken that approach.

And I think we should respect their conscience in doing so.

By the way, I found this out this week,

that there's actually, you have a legal right

to affirm the truthfulness of your statement

and not just to sort of swear an oath by God.

And did you know there was actually a U.S. president who did that?

Isn't that interesting?

We're not sure whether he did it out of deep religious conviction

or out of guilt over some of his past mistakes.

If you know who that was, you can talk to me afterwards.

You'll get a prize.

There's a little trivia for you.

So some Christians have said,

hey, we shouldn't be taking oaths at all.

It's just participating in a system

that creates two levels of truthfulness

and diminishes our words.

And I think there's actually some integrity there.

On the other hand, you know,

most of the Reformers, for example,

thought that it was okay for Christians to take oaths

under certain circumstances,

if they were in a solemn occasion,

if occasion called for it,

so long as they weren't undermining

the very point that Jesus was making in verse 37.

Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

So frivolous oaths,

oaths that were meaningless,

this should all be done away with.

But a lot of the Reformers felt like

oaths still had a place

on the basis of that Old Testament picture

that we talked about.

But I think we all agree

that the goal here is to live

all of our life before God

and to let our speech

always be with integrity.

So in that case,

taking an oath in court

or when taking a public office

perhaps could be okay.

I think that's between your conscience

and the Lord.

But you know, the principle here

doesn't just stop at oaths, right?

These formal oaths that still sort of exist

in our culture.

It's not just about explicit vowels or oaths.

This principle goes into every area of our lives.

And I think that's really Jesus' point.

Let all of your words be spoken

with the same level of integrity.

So practically,

what might this look like for us today?

What does truthfulness

and integrity of speech look like?

Where is it a challenge for us?

What areas are we tempted

to fall into thinking

that there might be two levels

of truthfulness that are appropriate?

I think social media creates

a great temptation in this regard,

doesn't it?

Are the things that we say online

spoken with integrity?

Do we say them or write them

or post them with the same care

and regard for truthfulness

that we ought to have

as if speaking in the presence of God?

And this doesn't just apply

to negative speech or criticism, right?

How quick we are

to flatter and to exaggerate too.

This is the most amazing,

incredible, beautiful,

life-changing,

earth-shattering,

paradigm-shifting,

worldview-shaping

ice cream I've ever tried.

Really?

I mean, did the ice cream

actually change your life?

But we flatter each other too,

don't we?

You look so beautiful.

You're my best friend.

I could never live a day without you.

You're the smartest.

This is the smartest,

wisest,

greatest post I've ever read.

Really?

I mean, would your life

actually expire

if you did not know

that other person?

Is it the wisest,

most grandiloquent thing

you've ever read in your life?

Okay, but I think we also

need to be discerning as well

about the media.

We don't just create,

but we consume, right?

In adult Sunday school

a couple weeks ago,

Tyler gave an excellent lesson

about this.

It was earth-shattering.

It was paradigm-shifting.

No kidding.

He gave a really good lesson

about this.

If you missed it,

listen to the podcast.

We posted it.

You know, the rise of infotainment

is a big area culturally

where we don't live

as if our yes means yes

and our no means no.

We listen to shows

that present themselves

as news shows,

but these shows bend the truth,

they skew the facts,

they repeat the same hearsay

over and over,

and then when challenged

about the truth

of their statements,

the show hosts just say,

hey, everyone knows

this is just entertainment.

Is that how you've

presented yourself?

And as we kind of

consume that stuff

and give our implicit yes

to that kind of entertainment,

it seeps into all

of our culture, right?

Where we just sit loose

to the truth

so much of the time

and then blame others

when we get the facts wrong.

But you know,

it's easy to point the finger

at those out there,

isn't it?

Are we willing

to ask the Holy Spirit

to search our own hearts?

Are we willing

to pray

the closing verses

of Psalm 139?

Search me, O God,

and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts.

And see if there be

any grievous way in me.

And lead me

in the way everlasting.

Interesting.

Do you know how

Psalm 139 starts?

It starts with this

beautiful declaration,

almost an awe-filled

declaration of God's

omnipresence.

Our whole life

is lived before Him.

And then the psalmist says,

Search me, O God.

Search me.

I think if we prayed

this prayer in earnest,

we would find many areas

where our yes

does not mean yes,

where our no

does not mean no.

But why?

Why is it so hard

to tell the truth?

Why do we find

ourselves saying yes

when we should have

said no?

Or saying no

when we should have

said yes?

Why do we find it

so hard to speak truthfully?

I think underneath

a lot of it

is fear.

Fear that we won't

be accepted

by another person.

Fear that we won't

advance in our careers.

Fear that we might

hurt another person's

feelings.

Fear that we might

be rejected.

Fear that others

won't see us

as an intelligent

or good

or loving person.

And in those moments

we're tempted

to bend the truth.

But you know,

if we were to take

those moments

and pray,

I think in those moments

when we are tempted

to bend the truth,

if we pray for the Holy Spirit

to show us

what's underneath,

I think we'll often see

the idols of our hearts

revealed.

We try to live our lives

in the presence of God.

But there are deeper idols

that we still cling to.

And those things,

those things that we prize

end up shaping our words.

That's one of the reasons

why Jesus can say,

let your yes be yes,

let your no be no.

Anything outside of that

comes from evil.

And you could even translate that

comes from the evil one.

You see?

Because we're clinging

to false gods,

giving the evil one

a foothold

to be shaping our lives.

You know,

think about it.

We think,

I don't want to lose friends.

So I bend the truth

when they ask me

what I think about this

or that, right?

We think,

well,

I don't want to get behind

in my career,

so maybe we're not

completely honest

when we fill out

our quarterly report.

I don't want to disappoint

my kids.

They're so important to me.

so we tell them

a half-truth

about why we were late

to their recital.

Now, of course,

there are genuine

moral dilemmas

that Christians have faced

in the past

when it comes to truth speaking.

One thinks of Christians

who hid Jews

from the Nazis

in World War II

or Christians

who helped to free slaves

in the Americas.

Was it wrong

for Christians

to prioritize

the saving

of innocent lives

over telling

the complete truth

to the persecutors

of African Americans

or European Jews?

Which moral priority

should prevail

in that situation?

Telling the truth

or literally

saving a life?

Now, most would say

and most Christian ethicists

would say

that saving a life

takes priority

in that situation

when there is a conflict

of those values.

Menno Simmons,

one of the founding pastors

of the Anabaptists,

who held truth speaking

in such a high regard

that along with

other Anabaptists,

they would never

take an oath

and they ended up

being very ostracized

socially for that.

Found himself

in a situation

a lot like

the ones we just described.

Now, some have thought

this story might be apocryphal

but it's pretty widespread

amongst Anabaptist

historians and culture

and it goes like this.

It was illegal

to be an Anabaptist

in the Netherlands

and the authorities

had put a price

on Menno's head.

Menno was an itinerant

pastor and networker

among hidden groups

and he was very influential

so he was a prime target.

And one day

Menno was traveling

from one church

to another

riding on a stagecoach

and instead of getting

into the coach

he decided to ride

up front

up high

with the driver.

Suddenly,

the policeman

dashed up on her horses.

They were hunting

for Menno

and one of the policemen

shouted,

is Menno Simons

in that coach?

So Menno leaned down

and asked,

is Menno in there?

Someone from the inside

replied,

nope,

he's not in here.

So Menno told the policemen,

they say Menno's

not in the coach.

So foiled and frustrated,

the horseman rode away.

What a great story

that is.

In fact,

I've been told

that in the Dutch

a white lie

is actually called

a Mennonite lie

because of that story.

But you know,

if we're honest,

those situations

are not

what we face

day in

and day out.

What we're confronted

with

day in and day out,

most of us,

are not unjust authorities

but the idols

of our own hearts.

How do we live

a life of integrity

in our speech

or truthfulness

with our words

when our hearts

are so conflicted

did?

What will dethrone

the idols

of our hearts

and calm

the many fears

that make us

so prone

to bend the truth?

Well, friends,

the answer

to our

yes and no

is found

in a greater yes

and a greater no.

There is a yes

and a no

that was spoken

to you

and over you

that if you hear it

and internalize it,

it will calm

your fears

and it will topple

your idols

and it will empower

you to live

in truthfulness

and in transparency

and in integrity.

but where do we find

this yes

and this no?

In his book

The Cost of Discipleship,

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

puts it this way

on this passage.

He says,

only the cross

as God's truth

about us

makes us truthful.

Only the cross

as God's truth

about us

makes us truthful.

because you see

at the cross

God says

both

yes

and no

and he means it.

At the cross

God says

no

to our sin.

The truth

of our sinfulness

is revealed

at the cross

because Christ

had to die

for our sins.

But at the cross

God also says

yes to us

even though

we are sinners.

sinners.

The truth

of forgiveness

is revealed

at the cross

for Christ

willingly dies

for us

in love.

And this no

and this yes

is spoken

by the triune

God

over you.

This

is the total

truth about you.

You are a sinner

more sinful

than you can imagine

and you are

completely

and utterly

loved

more loved

than you

can fathom.

And that

truth

revealed in full

only at the cross

will make us

truthful.

Why?

Why?

Because perfect love

drives out fear.

You see friends

there is no mistake

there is no fault

there is no shortcoming

there is no failure

that you need

to hide.

God has seen

all that

and more.

He has already

revealed it

at the cross

and it is forgiven.

And at the same time

there is no love

there is no acceptance

there is no fellowship

that you need

to fear losing.

Because God

has reconciled

you to himself.

you have his

eternal fellowship

his unbroken love.

All his promises

to you

are yes

in Christ Jesus.

A yes

that will resound

for eternity

and a yes

that he continues

to speak

even now

in every

page

of his written

word

bearing witness

to his incarnate

word

Jesus

in whose

flesh

was the

unveiling

of grace

and truth.

You see

brothers and sisters

because Jesus

lived a life

of utter

truthfulness

even unto

death

for you

you need

never fear

speaking the

truth.

You can let

your yes

simply be yes

and your no

simply be no.

You don't need

to add anything

to it.

If you are

in Christ

you live

your whole

life

before a God

who loved

you

and gave

himself

for you.

Only the

cross

as God's

truth

about us

makes us

truthful.

Do you

know that

truth?

It's here

for the

taking.

The resurrected

Jesus says

to everyone

everyone who

comes to me

I will never

cast him

out.

Let your

life rest

in him

in his

no

and in his

yes

and then

you'll be

able to

let what

you say

be simply

yes

and simply

no.

Let's

pray.

Amen.

Father we

ask

that by

your Holy

Spirit

you would

grant to

us

the one

thing

that is

most

needful

for us

and that

is to

see again

and to

receive

again

the grace

of our

Lord Jesus

Christ.

To flee

to him

and to

know that

in him

we have

what the

author of

Hebrews spoke

about.

That very

thing that

you confirmed

in two

ways by

your word

and by

your oath

that we

have in

Christ a

sure and

steadfast

anchor for

our souls.

Spirit would

you anchor

us in the

sun again

as we go

forth this

week to

be those

who live

lives always

aware of

your presence

and in the

freedom of

truthfulness.

We pray

this in

Christ's mighty

name Father

Amen.