To Live is Christ — Say what I mean and mean what I say

When my children were small, sometimes I made excuses after one of them said, “But mom, you promised. . . .” without realizing that I may have been breaking an oath, something that Jesus says I should never do. 

But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. (Matthew 5:34–37)

The biblical notion of an oath is a promise that evokes an outside witness that supposedly makes the promise more binding. That is, someone might say, “By the name of the Lord, I will do such and such.”

The Old Testament emphasized that God hates false oaths. Ecclesiastes 5:5 says, “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.”

By the time of Jesus, the religious leaders had devised elaborate methods of taking oaths that supposedly guarded their integrity. If they used the right formula, such as swearing ‘by the earth’ or ‘by Jerusalem’ then, if the oath was not kept, they could claim that they had not swore in the name of God and were therefore blameless.

Jesus constantly cut through the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. In His Sermon on the Mount, He calls for integrity in all speech. Since God made oaths, the point of this passage is not so much about making oaths as it is about saying what you mean and meaning what you say. I am not supposed to turn a serious promise into something frivolous. Instead, I must be trustworthy and not need to add anything to make my promises more binding.

My devotional reading gives some examples. It says don’t swear on a stack of Bibles, your mother’s grave, or by God or by heaven. It adds that an oath includes “damning” something in God’s name, using Jesus’ name to endorse actions, using God’s name as an  exclamation, and even swearing in your own name.

Instead, and this seems so obvious to me, God wants me to speak simply, truthfully, and directly, to say what I mean and mean what I say. Jesus says that since God witnesses every word I say anyway, I should be able to tell the truth without having to call Him to witness by a formal oath.

Again, in those days, this was a popular abuse. People thought they would protect the sanctity of God’s name against inadvertent oath-breaking by using an object instead. Then, if they swore an oath by something like their right hand and didn’t keep their promise, they had not violated the name of God. Jesus pointed out that no matter what was used in the oath, everything was made by Him, and He hears the oath anyway. Only sin is purely secular.

Again, this issue is not the oaths but telling the truth. While God may allow some degree of deception to preserve life, how often will that happen to me? I’m more apt to do things like commit myself to meet someone at a particular time and then be late. This treats them as if their time was less precious than mine. Although this seems minor, the attitude behind it is what Jesus condemns. He wants me to be truthful and considerate in small things. Not keeping small promises can lead to breaking bigger promises, such as in business or even marriage vows.

To live is Christ means being a person of integrity. It goes beyond saying what I mean and meaning what I say. I must be conscious of God who knows my words and my heart, and conscious of others who should not have to wonder if I will keep my promises or fear that I won’t.