Mountain Top Livin' #1

Mountain Top Livin' - Keep your word.

The text for this message is Matthew 5:33-37. Here Jesus addresses the concept of honesty and truthfulness in our dealing with others. Jesus refers to a command that we are not to break our oaths that are made in God's name. Again the trouble here is that Jesus is not addressing their treatment of a single Scripture, but a tradition that looked at the Scriptures and created loopholes.

For instance, in the ten commandments God says, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor." (Exodus 20:16). In Leviticus 19:12 the command is "Do not swear falsely by my name..." In all the Old Testament passages regarding oaths and giving testimony, the spirit of the law is that we are to be truthful.

In the traditions that Jesus was addressing a system had been developed where oaths taken in God's name could never be withdrawn but oaths taken in the name of some created thing could be withdrawn at a latter time and were less morally binding. Apparently this opened the door to some trickery and word crafting that essentially worked on the side of the sly person who wished to be deceptive or half hearted in their commitment.

In response to this confusion Jesus says, simply let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no. Anything more than that comes from the evil one. some have taken this to mean that Christians can never take any oath. Others have said that placing ones hand on the Bible (a created thing) in a pledge or swearing to tell the whole truth would be legalistically prohibited. I personally don't ever see a need to place my hand on the Bible to make a promise, but I am not radially against it. On the other hand, I would not ever make a promise or statement emphasised with, "I swear to God." I think that the term, "So help me God." which a prayer for help can be suitable.

Out of this troubling tradition that Jesus responds to and based on some Bible examples, we can draw some very important truths about what we choose to say as believers. In the next few entries I will elaborate on some of those truths. Stay alert for the upcoming entries!