In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs us, His followers, what our character, and lives, should be. He gives us our “code of conduct” and helps us understand what walking with Him looks like. His teaching, though, goes deeper than our behavior – it deals directly with our heart. And rightly so, because it is out of the heart that our actions flow.
Matthew 5:33-37 says “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord’. But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool o f His feet, or by Jerusalem for it is the city of the Great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond this is of evil.”
If Jesus was saying simply “don’t use swear words”, it would be easier to abide by but that isn’t what He is teaching us. His truth is much deeper than that. And we need to look at some Old Testament passages to better understand His message.
Exodus 20:7 – This is one of the Ten Commandments and was the basis for the teaching Jesus was expounding upon : “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain”.
Leviticus 19:12 – In this verse, God explains some of what it means to take His name in vain: “and you shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God, I am the Lord”.
Numbers 30:2- Here, God speaks through Moses to further spell out what the commandment means” “If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.”
Deuteronomy 23:21- God underscores how seriously He takes what we say with this verse: “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you and the Lord your God will surely require it of you”
Three aspects to the words we say, the promises we make -Be truthful, be trustworthy, and be timely.
Our words (which includes our promises or vows) are to be truthful, without deceit, without duplicity. Our intentions should be accurately reflected in our words.
Our words should be trustworthy-our listeners should be able to depend on what we say we will do.
And finally, our words should be timely – when we say we will do something, we should not delay. Procrastination is not to be taken mildly; Scripture says it is sin.
When Jesus admonishes us not to swear by Heaven or Earth or Jerusalem or even our own head, He is revealing Truth. We should acknowledge that we are not in charge of anything…except our own character. And that is what Jesus says is the key – our lives should be free from dishonesty or unreliability or procrastination so that all we need to say is “yes” when we mean “yes” and “no” when we mean “no”. No additional words should be necessary for our message to be believed.
It’s not a matter of “cleaning up our language” – it’s a matter of our hearts. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34b)
Only Jesus can transform our hearts. Our speech will follow.