Again, ye have heard that
it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but
shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all;
neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool:
neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou
swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let
your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these
cometh of evil. –
Matthew 5.33-37
Sometimes the
lessons of godly living are not deep and profound and theological. Sometimes
they are just are common sense.
This verse is
taken by a lot of folks to support the notion that no Christian should ever
take an oath to God about anything. I tend to agree with that, but that’s not
what I want to focus on. I want to focus on the very simple fact that in this
world of lies and hypocrisy and deceit and guile we ought to be different.
Jesus says
simply, ‘You don’t need to take any oaths of pledges – just let your yes mean
yes and your no mean no.’
Isn’t that
great? Just think about how different we would be if we just simply dropped all
pretence and made sure that our word was our bond. Imagine being the kind of
person who, if you said something, no one would think to question the veracity of
it.
Imagine being so
well trusted that no one ever said ‘really?’ or 'are you sure?’’
That’s the kind
of man I want to be. The only way to do that is be a man of my word. I should
never intentionally say anything to mislead anyone.
Can you imagine what
a difference we could make in this world if we always – ALWAYS – were people of
our words in a world full of lies and deceit?
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