Let's turn to Scripture. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 5, verses 33 through 37.
That's page 760 in the Pew Bible, 760. As you know, we're working our way through the Sermon
on the Mount this fall, learning what it means to be followers of Jesus. And as we said, this
particular section of the Sermon on the Mount that we're in, roughly the second half or the
final two-thirds of chapter 5, is about whole life righteousness. Like dye in a fabric that goes
the whole way through, Jesus means for our whole lives, inside and out, to be lived in line with
His gracious kingdom. So in chapter 5, Jesus gives us a number of examples of what this looks like.
And the topic of our text this morning, the area of whole life righteousness that Jesus touches on
here today, is integrity of speech, the truthfulness of our words. So I'm going to read the text for us,
and then I'll pray, and then we'll consider it together. Let me read Matthew 5, 33 through 37.
Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely,
but 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 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. All right, let's pray. Father, would you help us this morning to not
just listen to this passage, but to hear it, to internalize it. Give us ears of faith by your
Spirit to really hear what you're saying, and give us hearts that are soft to receive
what you are saying to us. And through our time meditating on this passage, help us above all
to behold your Son, Jesus, in all His beauty, who is the way and the truth and the life,
and help us to become more like Him by your grace. In His name we pray. Amen.
Well, I wonder, have you ever found yourself wanting to make an oath? Maybe you're telling
a true story about something, and, you know, maybe on the surface that story feels a little hard to
believe, you know, the proverbial fish you caught on summer vacation or whatever. And you can start
to see the incredulity, the kind of doubtful look growing on the face of your friend as you tell this
story, and you say almost without thinking, no, I swear it's true. I swear. Or maybe you want to
underscore a promise or a commitment that you've made, and you say, I swear I'll be there to pick you
up at the airport on time, this time. And of course, sometimes we can insert things to intensify the
oath. I swear on my mother's grave. Why is it always your mother's grave? Isn't that weird?
I swear on a stack of Bibles, cross my heart, and hope to die.
Why do we have this almost natural instinct to kind of underline the truthfulness of what we're saying?
To mark it in some way, to bind ourselves to truthfulness at times?
Well, I think these questions and that experience that we all have take us right into the heart of our passage.
And on the surface, our passage is about oaths.
But under the surface, it's really about the difficulty we humans have with speaking truthfully.
So by way of outline for our time of thinking about this passage together, we're first going to
consider the nature of oaths, and then second, we're going to look at the problem with oaths.
And then finally, we're going to consider Jesus' approach to oaths altogether. You know, but the
whole time, even though oaths is sort of the surface, this whole time, where we're going to be headed
is Jesus' teaching about whole life integrity when it comes to our words, to speaking truthfully.
Okay, so first, let's consider the nature of oaths. In verse 33, Jesus says,
Again you have heard that it was said to those of old,
You shall not swear falsely, but perform to the Lord what you have sworn.
Now, we've seen this pattern already in this section of the Sermon on the Mount, haven't we?
Jesus starts by quoting an Old Testament passage, then He goes on to speak with authority about what
God's law really means and how it applies now in light of His kingdom that's arrived.
You've heard it said, but I say to you. And here in our text, Jesus is quoting not just a single
passage from the Old Testament, but a combination of a few passages. He's sort of synthesizing them.
Passages like Leviticus 19.12, which says,
That's God speaking there. Or in Numbers 30, verse 2, which says,
Or a little bit of a longer passage, Deuteronomy 23, 21 through 23 says,
Okay, so Jesus is synthesizing a number of passages from the Mosaic Law concerning oaths,
concerning vows. And you know, as we look across the whole Old Testament, we see that oaths come up
actually fairly often. And surprisingly, on the whole, they're considered in a positive light.
As we read the story of the Old Testament, we see figures like Abraham or Jacob or Joseph or Hannah
or Saul or Ezra or Nehemiah all swearing oaths or making vows.
Now, of course, you do see some examples of rash oaths.
You know, if you've ever read the book of Judges, there's that terrible scene in Judges 11 with Jephthah,
right?
But the problem there doesn't seem to be presented as a problem with oaths in general,
but with the rash sort of oath that Jephthah made.
But perhaps most striking in the Old Testament is not just the number of human characters who make
oaths, but the fact that God himself is an oath-making God. He makes oaths, he makes vows,
he makes covenants with Noah and with Abraham and with David. God swears to preserve and bless Israel.
He promises, he makes an oath to send a Redeemer to raise the Davidic Messiah from the dead.
Why does God do all that?
Well, in the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 6, we read this. It says,
When God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of
his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, that is,
his word and his oath, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might
have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast
anchor of the soul. So God makes these oaths then, not for God's sake, but for ours. He makes these
binding promises for our sake, so that we and our doubts and our fears can have deep assurance
that God will do what he says we will do, what he says he will do. So in reading the Old Testament,
it seems that oaths weren't necessarily regarded as a bad thing, but they could be misused.
We see that as well. When we come to the Old Testament prophets, we see that by the time of
the prophets, they were addressing several problems related to oaths and vows that had cropped up in
the people of Israel. On the one hand, the prophets attacked the practice of taking oaths in the names
of other gods, right? Which, of course, was a stark violation of the first commandment. Remember the
first commandment, you shall know other gods before me. So, of course, the prophets were going to rail
against the practice of swearing promises by these other false gods. But the prophets also
address the problem of oath-breaking and of swearing falsely, that is, making an oath that you really have
no intention of keeping or making statements under an oath that are outright lies. So we see that there
were some problems that started to creep up in this practice of oath-making. And that leads to our second
point. Not just the nature of oaths, but the problem with oaths. Given that Old Testament background, which
seems to present oaths in a neutral, maybe even a positive light, it's a bit shocking when Jesus says
in verse 34, but I say to you, do not take an oath at all. Now, some Christians have interpreted this verse
as a blanket prohibition against every and all kinds of oaths whatsoever. If you look at church history,
the Anabaptists in the 16th century, Quakers in the 17th century, were especially known for not taking
oaths of any sort. And in the early church as well, many Christians avoided oaths on the basis of Jesus'
teaching here. But I think the rest of these verses show us that Jesus' primary concern
may not have been to create a new rule against oaths in general, but to address a specific problem
with how oaths were being used and abused in his day. Notice how Jesus goes on to say,
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's the city of the great king. And don't take an oath
by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Interesting, one commentator says,
you know, in the ancient world they did have hair dye, you know, so you could sort of make your hair
white or black. But we all know Jesus' point, right? You're not actually changing the nature
of your hair. Now, what does Jesus mean by all that? Why does he mention all these different things
that people might swear by? Well, there's a passage a little later in Matthew's gospel that
sheds some light on this. In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus in that chapter is speaking out against the
Pharisees, and he's condemning their hypocrisy and their self-righteousness. And in the middle of that
chapter, one of the things that Jesus critiques is how the Pharisees had created an elaborate scheme
of rules for oath-taking. And this elaborate scheme that they had developed had the effect
of creating different levels for how binding an oath would be. Here's what Jesus says in Matthew 23,
16 through 22,
Woe to you blind gods who say, if anyone swears by the temple, it's nothing. But if anyone swears by the
gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. You blind fools, for which is greater, the gold?
Or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, if anyone swears by the altar,
it's nothing. But if anyone swears by the gift that's on the altar, he is bound by his oath.
You blind men, for which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes it sacred?
So everyone who swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple
swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by
him who sits on it. So apparently in Jesus' day, if you were to say, swear an oath by the temple,
that wasn't as binding as if you swore an oath by the gold in the temple.
And if you swore an oath on the basis of the altar, well, that wasn't as binding if you swore
by the gift on the altar. So you see, the Pharisees had created a system whereby oaths would be less
binding in some instances and more binding in others. They had found a way, like we've seen week
after week after week, to minimize the impact, the full weight of God's law about keeping your word.
And apparently this practice had become very widespread. There were lots of rash oaths being
made because there was this system of gradation. So here was the problem with oaths. The situation
in Jesus' day seems to be that oaths were not being used to reinforce the truth, but to shade the truth.
Oaths were being made that allowed you to get out of your obligation, not to hold you to it.
The very thing that was meant to underscore truthfulness was being used to undermine it.
And if you think about it, that very practice of swearing oaths in such a widespread, casual way,
what it did was it created two levels of truthfulness.
There was one level of truthfulness when people were under an oath, and they have to be truthful.
But then there was the rest of the time, there was that other level of truthfulness,
sort of patched around by some of these faulty oaths, when people can say whatever they find convenient.
But you know, this practice of oaths did something even more dangerous.
Not just did it create sort of two levels of truthfulness,
it also seemed to communicate that there were some things, there were some words, there were some promises
that God was watching over, some things to which we were accountable to God,
and then some things where we weren't.
If I swear this kind of oath, then I'm really under obligation to God,
but if I swear this kind of oath, or if I'm not swearing an oath at all, God's not really involved.
But listen again to what Jesus says in our text in Matthew 5.
If you swear by heaven, or by earth, or by Jerusalem, or your own head,
do you really think you've avoided God?
Who made heaven and earth?
Who decided that Jerusalem would be His dwelling place?
Who created the hairs on your head?
God.
God is the creator and sustainer of all things.
All of our lives, all of our words are lived before Him.
Everything we do and say is done in the presence of God.
Coram Deo, as the Latin phrase puts it.
God hears every word we speak.
And the problem with oaths is that it wants to relegate God to a corner.
It wants to push God out of our everyday interactions,
push Him out of our everyday words, out of our everyday promises,
out of our everyday commitments,
push God out of our emails, out of our dinnertime conversation,
out of our social media posts.
Push Him out of those things.
But friends, our words in every instance, in every way,
are done in the presence of God.
And that's why Jesus says in His context,
don't take an oath at all.
If there's any practice that makes God small,
pushes Him to the corner of our lives,
gives us the illusion that we can live life
without reference to Him,
we should abandon it altogether.
And that brings us to our third point.
What is Jesus' response to oaths?
Well, we see it in verse 37.
Let what you say be simply yes or no.
Anything more than this comes from evil.
What Jesus invites us into is the simplicity of living our whole lives before God
and letting our words always reflect that reality.
If every word we say is spoken in the presence of God,
then we can simply let our yes be yes and our no be no.
integrity of speech and truthfulness in every situation.
What we say, we mean.
What we promise, we intend to fulfill.
Does this mean Christians should never take a formal oath in court
or before taking a public office?
Well, some Christians, as I mentioned, have taken that approach.
And I think we should respect their conscience in doing so.
By the way, I found this out this week,
that there's actually, you have a legal right
to affirm the truthfulness of your statement
and not just to sort of swear an oath by God.
And did you know there was actually a U.S. president who did that?
Isn't that interesting?
We're not sure whether he did it out of deep religious conviction
or out of guilt over some of his past mistakes.
If you know who that was, you can talk to me afterwards.
You'll get a prize.
There's a little trivia for you.
So some Christians have said,
hey, we shouldn't be taking oaths at all.
It's just participating in a system
that creates two levels of truthfulness
and diminishes our words.
And I think there's actually some integrity there.
On the other hand, you know,
most of the Reformers, for example,
thought that it was okay for Christians to take oaths
under certain circumstances,
if they were in a solemn occasion,
if occasion called for it,
so long as they weren't undermining
the very point that Jesus was making in verse 37.
Let your yes be yes and your no be no.
So frivolous oaths,
oaths that were meaningless,
this should all be done away with.
But a lot of the Reformers felt like
oaths still had a place
on the basis of that Old Testament picture
that we talked about.
But I think we all agree
that the goal here is to live
all of our life before God
and to let our speech
always be with integrity.
So in that case,
taking an oath in court
or when taking a public office
perhaps could be okay.
I think that's between your conscience
and the Lord.
But you know, the principle here
doesn't just stop at oaths, right?
These formal oaths that still sort of exist
in our culture.
It's not just about explicit vowels or oaths.
This principle goes into every area of our lives.
And I think that's really Jesus' point.
Let all of your words be spoken
with the same level of integrity.
So practically,
what might this look like for us today?
What does truthfulness
and integrity of speech look like?
Where is it a challenge for us?
What areas are we tempted
to fall into thinking
that there might be two levels
of truthfulness that are appropriate?
I think social media creates
a great temptation in this regard,
doesn't it?
Are the things that we say online
spoken with integrity?
Do we say them or write them
or post them with the same care
and regard for truthfulness
that we ought to have
as if speaking in the presence of God?
And this doesn't just apply
to negative speech or criticism, right?
How quick we are
to flatter and to exaggerate too.
This is the most amazing,
incredible, beautiful,
life-changing,
earth-shattering,
paradigm-shifting,
worldview-shaping
ice cream I've ever tried.
Really?
I mean, did the ice cream
actually change your life?
But we flatter each other too,
don't we?
You look so beautiful.
You're my best friend.
I could never live a day without you.
You're the smartest.
This is the smartest,
wisest,
greatest post I've ever read.
Really?
I mean, would your life
actually expire
if you did not know
that other person?
Is it the wisest,
most grandiloquent thing
you've ever read in your life?
Okay, but I think we also
need to be discerning as well
about the media.
We don't just create,
but we consume, right?
In adult Sunday school
a couple weeks ago,
Tyler gave an excellent lesson
about this.
It was earth-shattering.
It was paradigm-shifting.
No kidding.
He gave a really good lesson
about this.
If you missed it,
listen to the podcast.
We posted it.
You know, the rise of infotainment
is a big area culturally
where we don't live
as if our yes means yes
and our no means no.
We listen to shows
that present themselves
as news shows,
but these shows bend the truth,
they skew the facts,
they repeat the same hearsay
over and over,
and then when challenged
about the truth
of their statements,
the show hosts just say,
hey, everyone knows
this is just entertainment.
Is that how you've
presented yourself?
And as we kind of
consume that stuff
and give our implicit yes
to that kind of entertainment,
it seeps into all
of our culture, right?
Where we just sit loose
to the truth
so much of the time
and then blame others
when we get the facts wrong.
But you know,
it's easy to point the finger
at those out there,
isn't it?
Are we willing
to ask the Holy Spirit
to search our own hearts?
Are we willing
to pray
the closing verses
of Psalm 139?
Search me, O God,
and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
And see if there be
any grievous way in me.
And lead me
in the way everlasting.
Interesting.
Do you know how
Psalm 139 starts?
It starts with this
beautiful declaration,
almost an awe-filled
declaration of God's
omnipresence.
Our whole life
is lived before Him.
And then the psalmist says,
Search me, O God.
Search me.
I think if we prayed
this prayer in earnest,
we would find many areas
where our yes
does not mean yes,
where our no
does not mean no.
But why?
Why is it so hard
to tell the truth?
Why do we find
ourselves saying yes
when we should have
said no?
Or saying no
when we should have
said yes?
Why do we find it
so hard to speak truthfully?
I think underneath
a lot of it
is fear.
Fear that we won't
be accepted
by another person.
Fear that we won't
advance in our careers.
Fear that we might
hurt another person's
feelings.
Fear that we might
be rejected.
Fear that others
won't see us
as an intelligent
or good
or loving person.
And in those moments
we're tempted
to bend the truth.
But you know,
if we were to take
those moments
and pray,
I think in those moments
when we are tempted
to bend the truth,
if we pray for the Holy Spirit
to show us
what's underneath,
I think we'll often see
the idols of our hearts
revealed.
We try to live our lives
in the presence of God.
But there are deeper idols
that we still cling to.
And those things,
those things that we prize
end up shaping our words.
That's one of the reasons
why Jesus can say,
let your yes be yes,
let your no be no.
Anything outside of that
comes from evil.
And you could even translate that
comes from the evil one.
You see?
Because we're clinging
to false gods,
giving the evil one
a foothold
to be shaping our lives.
You know,
think about it.
We think,
I don't want to lose friends.
So I bend the truth
when they ask me
what I think about this
or that, right?
We think,
well,
I don't want to get behind
in my career,
so maybe we're not
completely honest
when we fill out
our quarterly report.
I don't want to disappoint
my kids.
They're so important to me.
so we tell them
a half-truth
about why we were late
to their recital.
Now, of course,
there are genuine
moral dilemmas
that Christians have faced
in the past
when it comes to truth speaking.
One thinks of Christians
who hid Jews
from the Nazis
in World War II
or Christians
who helped to free slaves
in the Americas.
Was it wrong
for Christians
to prioritize
the saving
of innocent lives
over telling
the complete truth
to the persecutors
of African Americans
or European Jews?
Which moral priority
should prevail
in that situation?
Telling the truth
or literally
saving a life?
Now, most would say
and most Christian ethicists
would say
that saving a life
takes priority
in that situation
when there is a conflict
of those values.
Menno Simmons,
one of the founding pastors
of the Anabaptists,
who held truth speaking
in such a high regard
that along with
other Anabaptists,
they would never
take an oath
and they ended up
being very ostracized
socially for that.
Found himself
in a situation
a lot like
the ones we just described.
Now, some have thought
this story might be apocryphal
but it's pretty widespread
amongst Anabaptist
historians and culture
and it goes like this.
It was illegal
to be an Anabaptist
in the Netherlands
and the authorities
had put a price
on Menno's head.
Menno was an itinerant
pastor and networker
among hidden groups
and he was very influential
so he was a prime target.
And one day
Menno was traveling
from one church
to another
riding on a stagecoach
and instead of getting
into the coach
he decided to ride
up front
up high
with the driver.
Suddenly,
the policeman
dashed up on her horses.
They were hunting
for Menno
and one of the policemen
shouted,
is Menno Simons
in that coach?
So Menno leaned down
and asked,
is Menno in there?
Someone from the inside
replied,
nope,
he's not in here.
So Menno told the policemen,
they say Menno's
not in the coach.
So foiled and frustrated,
the horseman rode away.
What a great story
that is.
In fact,
I've been told
that in the Dutch
a white lie
is actually called
a Mennonite lie
because of that story.
But you know,
if we're honest,
those situations
are not
what we face
day in
and day out.
What we're confronted
with
day in and day out,
most of us,
are not unjust authorities
but the idols
of our own hearts.
How do we live
a life of integrity
in our speech
or truthfulness
with our words
when our hearts
are so conflicted
did?
What will dethrone
the idols
of our hearts
and calm
the many fears
that make us
so prone
to bend the truth?
Well, friends,
the answer
to our
yes and no
is found
in a greater yes
and a greater no.
There is a yes
and a no
that was spoken
to you
and over you
that if you hear it
and internalize it,
it will calm
your fears
and it will topple
your idols
and it will empower
you to live
in truthfulness
and in transparency
and in integrity.
but where do we find
this yes
and this no?
In his book
The Cost of Discipleship,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
puts it this way
on this passage.
He says,
only the cross
as God's truth
about us
makes us truthful.
Only the cross
as God's truth
about us
makes us truthful.
because you see
at the cross
God says
both
yes
and no
and he means it.
At the cross
God says
no
to our sin.
The truth
of our sinfulness
is revealed
at the cross
because Christ
had to die
for our sins.
But at the cross
God also says
yes to us
even though
we are sinners.
sinners.
The truth
of forgiveness
is revealed
at the cross
for Christ
willingly dies
for us
in love.
And this no
and this yes
is spoken
by the triune
God
over you.
This
is the total
truth about you.
You are a sinner
more sinful
than you can imagine
and you are
completely
and utterly
loved
more loved
than you
can fathom.
And that
truth
revealed in full
only at the cross
will make us
truthful.
Why?
Because perfect love
drives out fear.
You see friends
there is no mistake
there is no fault
there is no shortcoming
there is no failure
that you need
to hide.
God has seen
all that
and more.
He has already
revealed it
at the cross
and it is forgiven.
And at the same time
there is no love
there is no acceptance
there is no fellowship
that you need
to fear losing.
Because God
has reconciled
you to himself.
you have his
eternal fellowship
his unbroken love.
All his promises
to you
are yes
in Christ Jesus.
A yes
that will resound
for eternity
and a yes
that he continues
to speak
even now
in every
page
of his written
word
bearing witness
to his incarnate
word
Jesus
in whose
flesh
was the
unveiling
of grace
and truth.
You see
brothers and sisters
because Jesus
lived a life
of utter
truthfulness
even unto
death
for you
you need
never fear
speaking the
truth.
You can let
your yes
simply be yes
and your no
simply be no.
You don't need
to add anything
to it.
If you are
in Christ
you live
your whole
life
before a God
who loved
you
and gave
himself
for you.
Only the
cross
as God's
truth
about us
makes us
truthful.
Do you
know that
truth?
It's here
for the
taking.
The resurrected
Jesus says
to everyone
everyone who
comes to me
I will never
cast him
out.
Let your
life rest
in him
in his
no
and in his
yes
and then
you'll be
able to
let what
you say
be simply
yes
and simply
no.
Let's
pray.
Amen.
Father we
ask
that by
your Holy
Spirit
you would
grant to
us
the one
thing
that is
most
needful
for us
and that
is to
see again
and to
receive
again
the grace
of our
Lord Jesus
Christ.
To flee
to him
and to
know that
in him
we have
what the
author of
Hebrews spoke
about.
That very
thing that
you confirmed
in two
ways by
your word
and by
your oath
that we
have in
Christ a
sure and
steadfast
anchor for
our souls.
Spirit would
you anchor
us in the
sun again
as we go
forth this
week to
be those
who live
lives always
aware of
your presence
and in the
freedom of
truthfulness.
We pray
this in
Christ's mighty
name Father
Amen.