Yes or No

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

YES OR NO

Matt 5:33-37

33 "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' 34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

NIV

If were to engage in a history lesson we would find the Jews had abused this concept of making oaths as a daily practice. We also find that the teachings of Jesus are usually linked to something the Jews knew from the Old Testament or for them the scrolls of old. Here we find Jesus referencing the Law.

Lev 19:12

12 "'Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.

NIV

Deut 23:21-23

21 If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the LORD your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. 23 Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the LORD your God with your own mouth.

NIV

It is not unusual to hear someone say, “I swear it is the truth” or “Please believe me”  It would not be worth saying if it was not the truth in the first place, so what is the need to swear it is the truth. But oaths come in many forms, such as, “I promise”. When we promise to do something, we have made an oath that we are going to do it. How often have we broken that oath? It seems way too easy to make some excuse why we cannot keep that oath. Another form of making an oath is the agreement we make with our employer. They agree to pay us a certain amount for our completing our part of the agreement by doing certain tasks as well as adhere to the policies of the company. In essence we have given them our word, even more, we have signed our name on the dotted line. When we slack off the least bit we are breaking our oath. If we take more than the allotted time for a break or lunch we have broken our oath. Marriage is an oath we make, not just to another person, but most of us do that in the presence of God, using a sanctuary as the place for our oath making. With what Jesus just say about divorce it would make sense he was also including that kind of oath here as well. What did we promise to our future spouse in that wedding ceremony? What words did we use? Are we keeping our oath?  The point he is making for us today is simply do not allow our yes to be anything but our yes and our no means no. Although there are areas we cannot escape making an oath, such as in a court of law, or in our employment or in a marriage, it comes down to doing whatever we say we will do. That is why it is best that in most areas of life we simply need to say either yes or no. Yes, I will do that, and then do it. This certainly applies to saying, yes, we will pray for you, then we don’t. It is always best whenever we are asked or offer to pray to do it right then and there. Let our yes be yes. If we do not want to do something let our no be no, rather than to invent some lame excuse why we cannot do it. Yet the truth remains that whatever we say with our lips is what we must do. Otherwise just keep our mouth shut. Now this especially applies to our relationship with God. How we can even say when we sin and ask forgiveness and promise we will never do that again? What, are we promising on, our good name, or looks? We certainly cannot swear by his name we will never commit that sin again. Just don’t make an oath, except those we cannot escape making in our society as we mentioned. Yet in our everyday life it still comes down to either, yes or no, and let that stand alone.