No Promise Needed

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

NO PROMISE NEEDED

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

After checking in with our scholars of old and finding their research, we can now know that the Jews had taken liberty with the law, even expanding it well beyond the intent of God. The point Jesus was making was dealing with the common practice of the Jews using created objects to swear by in the course of daily conversation. Their oaths or swearing by the temple, or their head, had nothing to do with the law regarding not making an oath to God, for no man can keep his oath perfectly. The law said that whatsoever our lips utter, we need to make sure we do. Because we do not make oaths, we would have to update this by using the word, promise. To make a promise is at the core of what Jesus is teaching. We may use this word, promise, a little too liberally. We hear it movies, or television programs when one of the characters promises another that no one is going to hurt them. Our culture may have taken promises as lightly as the Jews took oaths. We use it in our daily conversations as if it is the with ease that we can promise we will do this or that, or in some sense promise we will not do something. It is not good to make a promise about something we may not have any control over. In some sense when we engage in a contract, such as on a home or car loan, we are promising to make the payments on time. In that type of legal contract, we must make those types of promises, but Jesus is speaking to what we say to each other. When we are asked is we will do this or that, we simply need to say either yes or no. If we are pressed to make a further commitment to ensure we will do something, like asking us to promise we will do it, then we simply need to remind them, we cannot, because Jesus told us to simply let our yes be yes and our no be no. Let that people asking us to promise deal with Jesus. We have heard someone promise on their mother’s grave, to do something. We cannot understand how that will make or break a promise. A promise is binding simply because it is a promise. The problem is we may not keep those promises all the time, every time. So then let us forget about making any sort of promise, and simply let our yes be yes and no be no. that is enough said. If we say said, then do what we say, if we say no, then do what we say. No promise needed.