Your Words

Today we are looking at another one of the hard sayings of Jesus. We have watched him take on the perspectives of the day, confront the norm, and challenge the heart. In this passage we have the privilege of seeing Jesus take on our perspective of verbal communication, our words and more specifically, how we turn our words into action. How our words function in our relationships. As we have seen in our look at the law in V17-20, specifically the commandments, God places importance upon truth in our actions and communication. If you would think of God as, not just the creator of the world and everything in it, think a little bit deeper, a little bit more existential. When God created the world he also created things like space, time, matter. He made the stuff the stuff is made of! He made the when and where as well as the what. So that means that God created REALITY. He made what is and what is true and real. And when we look at the commandments when we look at God’s law, we realize that he despises artificial reality. Our biggest sin was to put ourselves in the place of God. In the garden Adam and Eve desired to be like the most high, Lucifer desired to be like the most high God. Something they were not and could never be. Neither for themselves or anyone else! Then we see the law against worshipping idols and other Gods, modern and ancient. Why? because they were not real! They were totally artificial. They could not be and could not do for us what we need God to be and do for us! Sustain, protect, provide, love etc..... It is a perversion of God’s REALITY! Then we get to lying. Bearing a false witness. Saying what isn’t true. In the same way that worshiping that which isn’t God is damning. So is saying what isn’t in keeping with reality. God condemns it. So here we have Jesus. talking about the peccability, the quality of your words. He is describing the way that His people, Kingdom citizens, should use their words.

Main Point: Your words should be a reflection of the work of Christ in you. Jesus is demanding a new ethic, one that surpassed the OT Law, one that must be written on the very heart of Kingdom citizens.

Matthew 5:33–37 “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. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

What is an oath? We think of contracts and covenants and promises. But those things are not the oath, you can sign contracts, make promises, make wedding vows.... An oath is the liability you place behind a promise. I’ll do something and if I don’t then let ..... happen to me. It is the calling of an accountability or a higher power to be witness to your guarantee. It is saying… “I am promising this in front of everyone and I want them to know it.” or “I am accountable to ...... if I do not fulfill this promise. It was supposed to make people go “wow he really means it.” It was used to emphasize the seriousness of the truth spoken.

God had given a command about it. Deuteronomy 23:21–23 “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. 22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. 23 You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.”

The Pharisees had taken this and used what was unsaid, and created loopholes. As they have done with most of the things he is addressing here. So if you swore by anything other than God, you were not under any condemnation if you broke it. Because the Law only said to fulfill your oaths to God. Jesus was pressing them for their practice of making oaths in a way that did not require them to keep it. The first thing that we see Jesus confronting in the passage is intentional dishonesty. If you could swear an oath, but the oath wasn’t technically binding, you could break it. Like if you sign a contract, and the intent of the contract is that you fulfill the terms of it, but you know that it is a weak contract, so you sign it anyway thinking, “It’s weakness will be a protection for me if I need out of it.” That’s when you have to hire a good lawyer to get you out of what you promised. So when we look at this passage we need to keep in mind that, that is the kind of slipperiness going on here and that Jesus is condemning. And this kind of dishonesty should be totally absent from a Christians speech.

Jesus tells them, “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.”

They would build elaborate formulae for their agreements, Chuck Quarles writes this. “According to rabbinic ruling none of the oath formulas Jesus listed in verse 34 included approved substitutions for God’s name.159 The objects mentioned in the oath formulas were not closely enough associated with God to serve as valid substitutions for the unutterable name of God in oath formulas. Therefore, oaths that utilized these formulas were considered nonbinding oaths in Jewish law. Breaking such oaths did not constitute an act of taking the Lord’s name in vain or misusing the divine name

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.160

an oath sworn “by Jerusalem” was nonbinding. Later Jewish commentary on this legal principle argued that a vow made “by” Jerusalem was nonbinding but a vow made “toward” Jerusalem was binding (t. Ned. 1.2.3). Evidently by facing Jerusalem, the abode of God, when making the vow, one indicated that one was making a vow to God.

Do you get a sense of the corruption? In our terms we say “I didn’t TECHNICALLY say....”

Matthew 23:16–22 “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.”

Jesus takes their formula and throws it out the window. Instead of seeing weak contracts everywhere, Jesus sees the opposite. He says you are bound to the intent of your speech. God is everywhere and everything is his so any accountability that you swear by is ultimately to him. Because reality and what is true IS HIS. Jesus is teaching us that Kingdom people don’t need the distinction of oaths. Their word does not need an oath for accountability. We are accountable to God in everything anyway. everything you do is before God regardless. Now consider that for a minute.....

Would your day be any different if Jesus was following you around? Would your words be different? What about if you lived your life on TV? How would that adjust your actions? Jesus is showing us here how God is aware of what you say and what you mean and how you live up to it. God is not sitting there saying, “well it is true he didn’t TECHNICALLY say that. I’ll allow it.” So then what standard are you really held to? The one you meant or the one you got away with? Who holds you to it? The people you duped or the God who knows all? Who’s standard matters? The suckers or the righteous God of truth?

Next we find in V 36. Don’t swear by your own head. You think that surely it’s not blasphemy to swear by my own head, SURELY I have authority over that. This is the equivalent of our modern saying “cross my heart and hope to die”.

Don’t hold yourself accountable to yourself because you are not a sufficient enough power. It’s like he’s saying “come on, how much power do you think you have anyway?”

You are not the creator of your head and you can’t hold back age or death or hold onto youth or hair. The same God that made reality made you.

Then he says, Say yes and mean it or say no and mean it. You should be trusted without an oath. Oath taking should be unnecessary. This is Jesus mandating, “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” No loophole double talk, no omission of valuable information. Straight forward simple truth. Say what you mean and mean what you say. He says that anything other than this is from evil. If you find yourself or someone else who is, stretching or embellishing, or omitting information… there’s a reason. And Jesus says here that it’s never a good one. It is usually out of fear, or insecurity. Or we will speak in a way that makes us look better, more important, wiser, than we are. We will use our words to validate ourselves an secure our position in the eyes of others. We can do these things and not TECHNICALLY be lying. Here is where we see this passage really preach to us. Speaking with Kingdom citizen integrity means that we have put away our pride and fear and insecurity. I will bear the consequences of the truth by the grace of Jesus. Whether it condemns me or vindicates me. This is a call to speak simply and courageously... whether you make the deal or close that sale or not, whether you look stupid or not. It means that my financial well being, my ego, my business, my reputation, are all in God’s hands. I need only to speak the simple truth, and to the best of my fallible ability, do what I intend.

Kingdom people live lives of integrity because we are un-threatened by the truth. If God is for us who can be against us.

Ask yourself, What loopholes have you left in your own life? Do you employ speech that protects you from the consequences of the truth? What about in other things? Do you leave the back door cracked for sin? The work of Christ in us should have a sealing effect. It should close the cracks in our conduct and set us on solid ground of integrity and faith. It should make our words solid and our actions intentional. This is a part of Christ making us new.

This kind of an attitude towards truth and uprightness means that we lean even more on God. I have seen my own validity, I have seen my own wisdom, I have seen my own security. If I am to secure any of those things apart from Christ I’m gonna have to lie about it.

Here is the attitude we should have when we come to stating our intent.

James 4:13–16 “13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

Humble submission to the will of God and a dedication to integrity of speech are synonymous. To be submissive to God is to be humble and sincere in your speech.

What about an oath you made in error? Or if the terms of the oath become untenable? Or I just don’t have the ability? The un-avoidability of these situations is a large part of why you shouldn’t invoke an oath. Think about Jephthah and his daughter. Salome and King Herod. Which was the greater sin?

Don’t cause yourself to sin by oaths. There will be a situation where it will be more sinful to keep an oath than to break it.

James 5:12–13 “12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

If you have given your word in a situation that you have come to see as errant or even sinful. Or the reality of it was quite contrary to the intent. Here’s a couple things for you.

Condemnation of some kind always accompanies an oath. If an oath is sinful or wrong, when you repent and break it. You will be condemned by the people you broke faith with. Whether they be misguided or not.

If you find yourself bound to a situation that is dishonest, or marriage that is adulterous or abusive. Or the good faith of your word is being used in unethical ways. You will be condemned by the other party for leaving that situation. A condemnation always goes with it. Whether the other party needed to be disappointed or not. But who do you fear, who do you want disappointed in you? God or man?

If you have broken your word in the past, it is just as any other sin. Go to God in repentance. We are not talking about a sin that God says, “i’m done with you” over. Jesus is just showing us ANOTHER area that we are deficient in apart from him. As Jesus has done over and over again in this sermon, we are gently being shown how we cannot add up apart from his sacrifice.

Jesus requires that kingdom people be dedicated to integrity. An integrity that glorifies God and shows the work of Christ in His people.

The need for oaths at all is because of sin. Because of our constant failure or inability to carry out what we say. Other wise it would be total nonsense to call to witness a dead relative or a needle in the eye. We say these things to others because they know, “they might not do it and I’ll be up a creek.” The necessity of an oath comes from the agreement that “I’m a scoundrel and you are too so make me an outlandish promise so I know you mean it.”

But a NEW creature should not need to resort to such things. We have no condemnation over us and only freedom IN truth.

The Integrity of God’s Word

Jesus was God’s word made flesh. The promised one to save mankind. God’s word lived and walked among us, accountable to God for our sin. And he took the punishment for our falseness to our creator. You see God can swear an oath, we see it in the Bible. But it is not to bolster his integrity, it is to support our faithlessness. And he is the highest authority and dictates all truth, so to swear by his own name is appropriate. When he made the covenant with Abraham, He was the only signator, Abraham was knocked out in the corner. And when the time came he took the consequence of our falseness, Jesus took the “cross my heart and hope to die, nail me to a cross, scourge me and spit on me” because they cannot bear the accountability of their spiritual perjury, so I will. Jesus is the integrity of God’s word in flesh, and action.

How you handle the truth is a window into your spiritual well being. Do you need to prop yourself up? Are your words a reflection of you or who you hope people think you are, or are they a reflection of Christ in you?

Ephesians 4:15 “15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,”

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