Skip to main content

Don't Swear!

             “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’  But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;  or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.  And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:33-37)

 

            Swearing has gotten a bad reputation but not for the reason Jesus speaks against it here. Now, “swearing” refers to any use of foul language from cursing through the less polite references to biological functions, to what Jesus referred to as swearing.  That’s not to say that cursing or impolite biological references aren’t bad. They’re just not really swearing – and we don’t take swearing as seriously as we take some of the others.  

            One of the phrases that recurs in the Old Testament is some version of “May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if…” It occurs once in Ruth, and eleven more times in I & II Samuel and I & II Kings. Sometimes, it is a tender oath spoken to someone beloved, but more often, it’s part of a declaration of someone’s angry determination to do something. That’s a little wordy. Eventually, such sentiments were shortened to “By God,” “For Christ’s sake,” or “For Heaven’s sake” or even “For Pete’s sake,” and “By all that’s holy…”  And let’s not forget the “With God as my witness…”

            This is the sort of thing Jesus is teaching that we shouldn’t use, and I wonder why. The first reason that leaps to mind is that when we swear by someone or something, we’re trying to manipulate the person of thing we’ve sworn by. It’s not about having faith. We’re effectively playing God and telling others and God that He is going to back us in whatever. We’re also manipulating the person we’re speaking to. If we swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us , God – that doesn’t mean we plan to tell the truth, but we expect the people who hear us to believe that what we say must be the truth because otherwise we’re risking God striking us with lightning for swearing falsely. A third possible reason is that if we fail to do what we have sworn by God to do, we or the people who see our failure are likely to blame God for the failure even though He had nothing to do with it. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more