Let your yes be yes and your no be no

"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.'  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 5.33-37

Jesus makes it very clear here that a man’s character is important. He warns here about swearing on anything. Don’t swear of promise or take an oath by heaven, or earth, or the throne of God, or by the earth or any place or even by your own head.

Jesus’ view is that our word ought to be enough. If I say ‘yes’ it should mean ‘yes’. If I say ‘no’ it should be ‘no.’ My character ought to be such that no one can justifiably question my word.

There is not a whole lot say here. We never have occasion to say ‘I swear in the name of Jesus that I will do whatever.’ We can’t do that because we don’t really know what God’s will here and when we swear that way we presume on Him.

It’s pretty simple, let you ‘yes be yes’ and your ‘no be no’ and leave it at that. We need to men and women of our word.

On a side note I struggle with this with things like oath in court or loyalty oaths to the country or things like that. As I was mulling this over this morning the thought crossed my mind that in most cases there is not an oath, but a prayer that God will help me tell the truth. I am wondering if, the heart is right, ‘so help me God’ is a prayer and not a violation of this principle.

Either way, the principle is there. We need to be so truthful and honest that when we say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ there is no need for an oath to support it.