Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: Let’s be People of Our Word

Matthew 5:33-37, “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.’  But I say to you, 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 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.”

It would seem from Jesus’ specific examples here that people in Jesus’ day had a habit of taking oaths (and were pretty creative in doing so), like taking an oath by heaven, or by earth.  Why would people expect an oath as a guarantee of the truthfulness of what’s being said?  It’s probably because people were cheating one another.  There was probably a lot of deception going on.  And so, you’d want some guarantee.  And, if your aim is not to be 100% truthful about something you’re trying to sell, or about what you owe on your taxes, you’d try to make a guarantee, but in a way so as not to be under the condemnation of the Law. 

I mean, if the Law says, do not swear falsely to God, then let’s not swear to God.  Let’s swear to something else.  Let’s swear on pretty much anything else so that I’m not held liable before the Law.  That’s what’s really going on here.  People were trying to find a workaround, so that they could cheat.  

There’s a fundamental lack of integrity in the world.  What’s integrity?  Integrity is essentially this: you are the same person when you are by yourself that you are when there are others around.  You have nothing to hide.  You aren’t doing anything in private that you’d be ashamed of if it were generally known. 

Well, Jesus is calling us to be people with integrity.  He’s calling us to be a different kind of community, a citizenry of heaven.  And this new community should have such integrity that our “yeses” and our “noes” are taken at face value.  No guarantee is needed, because we are a people filled with the Spirit of God and we are people of our word.  Our word is our bond.

How do we apply this?  Well, we apply it first by simply being honest.  We should strive in all our dealings with others to be honest and forthright.  Don’t try to pull one over when you’re making a business deal.  Don’t oversell yourself either.  Have you ever been tempted to spice up your resume, when what you’d really be doing is flat out lying?  Don’t cheat on your taxes.  Don’t try to tell that officer that you weren’t speeding when you know good and well that you were doing at least 15 over.  Do you get what I’m saying?  If you’re the kind of person who likes to live in that hazy area between the truth and a lie, you’re in danger. 

Remember what we said about the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is taking what the people already know to be true, the Law of God, and he’s deepening it and internalizing it.  Why should you, as followers of Jesus Christ, concern yourself with guarantees?  You’re better than that because you’re a new creation in Christ.  We shouldn’t have to go way out of our way to convince each other of our truthfulness; we can let our “yes” or our “no” stand alone. 

For this reason, I almost never make promises.  My daughter hates this.  Sometimes she wants that guarantee.  She wants me to bind myself to a commitment to maybe buy her ice cream, or get in that little bit of extra play time.  And even when I’d like to give her that guarantee, I don’t do it, because things come up.  I never want her to see me as the Dad who made lots of promises but didn’t deliver.  However, I do want her to see me as a man of my word.  My daughter understands that if I say that I’m going to do something with her or for her, that word is good.  And she knows that even if that exact thing doesn’t happen, or if it doesn’t happen then, I’ll make a way, if at all possible, or I’ll make a good substitute for it, or I’ll reschedule.  When my daughter is older, I’d like her to look back and say, “My dad didn’t make any promises, but he did what he said he was going to do.” 

I want to be a man of my word.  I know that you want to be a man or woman of your word.  And that’s what Jesus calls us to be.  So, in this broken world where people can’t trust one another and renig on contracts and litigate first, ask questions later, let’s choose integrity.

How about we go way out of our way to be the kinds of men and women that the people of the world find odd.  Make them say, “One of these things is not like the others.  These people can be trusted.  I may not agree with them, but they have integrity.