Throughout the book of James we have addressed the topic of our speech a number of times. The book of James deals with the tongue and its proper government extensively. We’ve talked about rash and angry speech. We’ve talked about judgmental speech. We’ve talked about slanderous speech. We’ve talked about prayer, which is speech to God. We’ve talked about speech with each other.
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But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
James 5:12 |
This morning we again return to this theme of speech. This time we are considering the truthfulness of our speech. One pastor summarized this passage quite well by saying it deals with “Verbal integrity.”
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The passage issues forth the command “do not swear.” When he says, “Do not swear” he’s not talking about using swear words. What we call profanity or cussing. That kind of thing is evil, to be sure. But that’s not what James is talking about. James is talking about promises and oaths. It is when we agree to do something or be something.
We live in a world of make believe because so much of our world is constructed on lies and false promises. If you go to buy a car, you naturally are skeptical of everything that the salesman says. It is because the industry is notorious for pulling a fast one on you. Making the sale is more important than stating the facts. We roll our eyes at politicians because they make promises in their campaigns that they have no intention of keeping. That doesn’t stop them from trying to garner the votes.
In the marketing world, products are hyped and given an image that is far beyond their real worth. A shoe promises to make you a better athlete. A can of paint promises to make you much more sexy. The marketing world often stretches the limits of verbal integrity.
In the same way, many large corporations even have hired lawyers who will create policies and terms that have vague language or craftily worded phrases that will give them the advantage should a problem ever arise.
But this is not just “out there.” We imitate the marketing experts on our resumes when we try to make them sound a little more robust. We are promising to be something that we really are not.
They say that 63% of Americans call in sick, when they are not ill. We essentially swear that we are unfit for work, when in reality we just want to take a holiday and maybe do a little work around our house. Or, we have sworn our labor in a contract with our employer, but we have broken that agreement for our other pursuits.
We can no doubt list a gazillion examples. Promises and oaths are very much a part of our daily life. This is why we can say that much of our world is make believe. Because so much of our world is filled with lies.
In this passage, James desires to have us consider the weight of our words. He addresses the worth of what we say. In sum, he demands accuracy in our oaths. For the precision of our promises is demanded of God.
I want you to note how much gravity there is to this too. You can see in this passage how James highlights how important it is to take heed to what he says about verbal integrity.
I. The Importance of verbal integrity is Highlighted
You might be tempted to think that, “Well, this is one of the last things. He’s wrapping things up. And he throws this in towards the end and it really is kind of just filler. It isn’t really all that important. The important stuff comes first. Anyway, everyone does it.”
But notice how James emphasizes the importance of this. Here at the end he says, “Above all.” Another way you could read it is by saying, “Before all things.” In other words, this is really important and I should have said it first. James here puts a priority on this exhortation. He wants you to understand that this manner of speaking is a preeminent thing.
Then he also reinforces the importance of this by way of adding a solemn imprecation. At the end of the verse he says that if you do not follow this pattern of speaking you will fall into condemnation. He wants you to understand just how heinous this is—just how much God really hates lies and empty chatter. God hates it so much that he makes a promise. He will punish those who swear falsely and empty their speech.
So yeah, everybody is doing it. Everyone breaks their promises. Everyone goes back on their word. Everyone lies through their teeth. But guess what? There’s going to be hell to pay.
Listen to Psalm 120. It is a Psalm that deals with lying and deceitful speech. I want you to hear the severe condemnation it makes as it pronounces what is in store for those who lie.
Psalms 120:1-4 ESV
A Song of Ascents. In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. 2 Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. 3 What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? 4 A warrior's sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!
That Psalm and this passage remind us of what is said in Rev. 21: that all liars will have their part in the lake of fire.
So let’s take this to heart. James wants us to take heed to our speech and make sure that what springs forth from our lips is as solid as the gospel itself.
But now that we’ve seen some of the way James frames the discussion, I do need to make a clarification.
II. The violation of verbal integrity is condemned
You’ll notice that James gives us a strong prohibition. He says “Do not swear.”
A wrong way to interpret this verse: No oaths at all
But he isn’t saying that we shouldn’t make promises or take oaths at all. He is forbidding a certain kind of oath. He is prohibiting empty oaths. That is to say, “do not make promises that you have no intention of keeping. Do not make a promises with loopholes. Do not make lies so much a part of your life that you have to prop up your everyday speech with an oath or solemn swearing.”
There have been some in the history of the church who have taken this to mean that you should not swear oaths at all. I think that this is the view that many Amish and Mennonite take. If they went into a court room, you usually get sworn in. You put your hand on the bible and you “swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” I haven’t heard of any Amish going to court, but if they did they would politely refrain and ask that the oath not be administered.
There have been others who have likewise refused oaths on the grounds of being a conscientious objector.
Some look at this verse (and other passages like it) and say that God forbids all oaths. Never is an oath or vow ever legit to make.
However, we should recognize that the Bible does permit oath and vows, and even those kinds of oaths that involve extra solemnity.
Deut. 6:13 - Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.
Nehemiah 10:29 – The Jews who came back to the promised land “bound themselves with an oath and a curse to follow the Lord.”
There are many other examples we could look at. And we note that in the NT there are several instances where Paul himself took oaths and swore. We can even note that God himself swore an oath when he made a promise to Abraham.
God does permit oaths and solemn swearing. As we stated before, we live in a world of lies and liars. Lies are a daily occurrence. And because of this, sometimes it is necessary to take a vow and make some solid expression of verbal integrity.
When you go into a courtroom, it is a place where truth is supremely important. People’s lives and reputations are at stake. And justice is very much dependent upon the truthfulness of those who come forward as witnesses.
When you get married, you take a solemn oath. We’ve built a whole ceremony around that oath. That’s because marriage isn’t to be entered into flippantly. We recognize that marriages and families are held together by one thing: One’s words. A commitment to living faithfully and doing everything one can to preserve the bond of love. For this reason, we make a big deal about it.
When you became a member of this church, you professed your faith and made a vow. You promised to support this church in its worship and work. You pledged to submit yourself to the government of the church and admonitions of the leadership. We have a ceremony and special time dedicated to that because it is a very sacred obligation. Why do we do that? It is because it is a big deal. And we want people to recognize how important it is to keep their word and live up to their promises.
And what we find throughout Scripture is that God allows for this kind of thing.
And so, as you look at this verse, we should understand that we must interpret it in light of the many other texts that say that oaths and vows are acceptable.
And when you further examine the verse, what you find is that it does not give a blanket statement against oaths and vows. As I mentioned, he’s prohibiting a certain kind of oath taking.
It is giving a strong prohibition against empty and unnecessary oaths.
The proper interpretation: Untrustworthy speech & unnecessary verbal reinforcements
Look at the passage again. James does not just say, “Do not swear at all.” He qualifies his statement by saying, “Do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath.” He is speaking against certain kinds of oaths. It is a condemnation of the practice of making frivolous oaths or oaths that could be broken.
There was a practice that had developed in those days where you could swear by something, but it wouldn’t be binding because it wasn’t a “Real” oath to God. So someone could say, “I swear by heaven.” But he’d argue he didn’t have to keep that oath because he didn’t swear by the God who dwelt in heaven.
James is reiterating the words of Jesus here. You find the same kind of thing in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus denounced the deceitfulness of speech and evasive vows when he said, “Do not swear by heaven, for it is God’s throne room. Or by earth, for it is God’s footstool.”
Jesus comes along and says, don’t swear by either. Don’t pull your little tricks. Just be true in what you say.
That’s what they were speaking to. It was this integrity of speech. It is cutting through the tricks and the deception. They were providing what they thought to be loopholes so that they could get out of their vow.
What they were doing is creating a system of distrust. This culture of dishonesty had become pervasive.
While we may not see this exact kind of thing today, it still exists in principle. You know, they say we are a paper based society. It is much owing to the fact that a verbal contract isn’t viewed as binding. We always say, “Put it in writing.” It is because we can’t trust someone who makes a promise and we can’t take them at their word. If someone lies, we have to be able to take them to court and we need that little piece of paper to prove it.
But even today, paper is going out of style. Just because you have it in writing doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything anymore. As I mentioned, words can be crafted in certain ways to provide misdirection or ambiguity. So you can slither out. It’s all about finding the loopholes.
But even in our everyday speech, we find that we have to add certain verifications and confirmations in order to put some sort of validity to our speech.
We’ll hear kids say, “Cross my heart hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.” Teenagers will say things like, “I swear to God.” What are they doing? They are adding to their promise a extra ingredient so as to make it more convincing. Why do kids do things like that? It is because they are used to people not holding to their promises. They themselves have broken so many promises and told so many lies that they now have to reinforce what they say with a solemn oath. The promises that they have made are naturally looked upon with a degree of skepticism because they have made themselves out to be untrustworthy.
And even when we grow up we have certain unspoken fine print that we kind of add to our promises. We’ll say we promise to do something, but it is typically made with the unspoken specification that we’ll do it only if it is advantageous to us or if the conditions are amiable.
Let me take you to the Psalms again. Psalm 15 is a song about a man who fears God. It describes a man of real integrity. And it emphasizes his integrity of speech a number of times. And one of the things it says about this God fearing man is that when he swears, he swears to his own hurt and does not change.
In other words, when he makes a promise, it is as good as gold. Keeping that promise may be to his disadvantage. He might lose money, he might end up having to do it in the dead of night while it is pouring cats and dogs—the conditions may not be all that favorable. But it doesn’t matter. He’s made a promise and he isn’t going to change—he’s not going to go back on his word. His word is worth its weight in gold.
When you look at the man mentioned in Psalm 15 you see that he doesn’t have to “pinky promise.” He doesn’t have to prop up his speech by invoking projectiles into his eye socket.
He’s just a guy who says what he means, and means what he says. And that is the thing that James gets at in the next part of the verse.
IV. The expression of verbal integrity is proscribed
He says, “Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no.”
So he’s showed the importance of verbal integrity, he’s denounced the practices that violate verbal integrity—here we see the simple prescription. The mandate of simple and plain speech.
Your everyday speech should reflect honesty. Your words should have a dependability. Your speech should be recognized as being so reliable that you don’t need to prop it up with silly reinforcements.
James is here commending plain speech and integrity. Your words should be worth their weight in gold. They should be gospel truth.
And that is the rock bottom basis for this exhortation. As Christians, our faith is based on words. Our whole religion springs forth from a book and a God who has made a promise. He has promised to save us and give us eternal life. He’s promised to pardon or sins and give us an inheritance of a new world.
So what James advocates is that our speech replicate God’s speech and give further veracity to the truth of the gospel.
But how do we do this? This is something that I hope you find to be extremely practical and something that should effect so many different areas of your life; even every day activities and conversations.
If you agree to a job, you do that job. That means showing up on time, do the work that is laid out for you, do it diligently and thoroughly, and with a good attitude. In so far as it is possible, you execute your duties so that no one ends up questioning you or having to check up on you.
That same sort of thing translates into your homes too. You young people, are you recognizing the weight of saying “Okay”? When you say okay to your mother, is your word worth its weight? Do you mean what you say. If your mom or dad says that it is time to cut the grass or clean your room, you can say, “Okay” but not really mean that. It is an empty promise. You just continue watching the TV or playing the video game. Your saying “okay” is a promise. But you are using it more as a means of getting your mom or dad to leave you alone.
They come back in and tell you to again to go clean those dishes, and you say, “Okay!” This time you say it a little louder. But still you don’t do it? That raising of your voice is a form of swearing. It is making your oath a little more impressive—giving it that greater additive that we just talked about. But it is an empty word if you don’t fulfill your promise by getting up and going to do the dishes. It is said louder, but it is just as vain.
We can also think about parenting here. Parenting, just as much as marriage, is built on promises and plain speech. And a lot of children grow up without the benefits of discipline in their lives because the parents have not been faithful to keep their word.
So you have a parent who says, “You need to do the dishes.” “If you don’t do the dishes, you’re going to ____.” “Don’t make me count to three! One, two, two and a half!” I mean it this time! ”
Those words have become empty, haven’t they? Their yes has not been yes. Their promise of punishment has not been fulfilled.
You see the same thing when a parent says it is time to leave. They tell the kids it is time to leave, and then keep chatting for 10-20 minutes. Then they say, “I told you it was time to leave? Why aren’t you ready? And then they go back to chatting. Then they come back and say, “I mean it this time. Let’s go”
A lot of kids are told that they are bad and they never listen to their parents. Why is that? It is partially their parent’s fault. Their words have become meaningless to the child. Their threats are empty. It is not until they reinforce their words with shouting and things like “I mean it!” That is the added extra which is suppose to reinforce their promise.
We could go through many other examples to illustrate. The idea though is simple integrity of speech. The words we use should be plain and true. If our speech is so untrustworthy that we need to buttress it or reinforce it, then there is need to make reform in our lives.
Conclusion
In the end, it comes down to this: We need to recognize that ever affirmation or promise is sacred. When we make a vow, even if it is seemingly frivolous, such as saying you will meet someone at a certain time and place, this affirmation is made in the presence of God. It is just as solemn and sacred a declaration as standing in the courtroom with your hand on your Bible.
Far from dispelling solemn oaths, this passage is reminding us that every word that comes from our mouth is to be regarded as a holy obligation. And that is why the word “no” is such a vital part of our vocabulary. It is best to swear that you will not swear than to swear and not fulfill it.
We live in a world of make believe because so much of our world is constructed on lies and false promises. If you go to buy a car, you naturally are skeptical of everything that the salesman says. It is because the industry is notorious for pulling a fast one on you. Making the sale is more important than stating the facts. We roll our eyes at politicians because they make promises in their campaigns that they have no intention of keeping. That doesn’t stop them from trying to garner the votes.
In the marketing world, products are hyped and given an image that is far beyond their real worth. A shoe promises to make you a better athlete. A can of paint promises to make you much more sexy. The marketing world often stretches the limits of verbal integrity.
In the same way, many large corporations even have hired lawyers who will create policies and terms that have vague language or craftily worded phrases that will give them the advantage should a problem ever arise.
But this is not just “out there.” We imitate the marketing experts on our resumes when we try to make them sound a little more robust. We are promising to be something that we really are not.
They say that 63% of Americans call in sick, when they are not ill. We essentially swear that we are unfit for work, when in reality we just want to take a holiday and maybe do a little work around our house. Or, we have sworn our labor in a contract with our employer, but we have broken that agreement for our other pursuits.
We can no doubt list a gazillion examples. Promises and oaths are very much a part of our daily life. This is why we can say that much of our world is make believe. Because so much of our world is filled with lies.
In this passage, James desires to have us consider the weight of our words. He addresses the worth of what we say. In sum, he demands accuracy in our oaths. For the precision of our promises is demanded of God.
I want you to note how much gravity there is to this too. You can see in this passage how James highlights how important it is to take heed to what he says about verbal integrity.
I. The Importance of verbal integrity is Highlighted
You might be tempted to think that, “Well, this is one of the last things. He’s wrapping things up. And he throws this in towards the end and it really is kind of just filler. It isn’t really all that important. The important stuff comes first. Anyway, everyone does it.”
But notice how James emphasizes the importance of this. Here at the end he says, “Above all.” Another way you could read it is by saying, “Before all things.” In other words, this is really important and I should have said it first. James here puts a priority on this exhortation. He wants you to understand that this manner of speaking is a preeminent thing.
Then he also reinforces the importance of this by way of adding a solemn imprecation. At the end of the verse he says that if you do not follow this pattern of speaking you will fall into condemnation. He wants you to understand just how heinous this is—just how much God really hates lies and empty chatter. God hates it so much that he makes a promise. He will punish those who swear falsely and empty their speech.
So yeah, everybody is doing it. Everyone breaks their promises. Everyone goes back on their word. Everyone lies through their teeth. But guess what? There’s going to be hell to pay.
Listen to Psalm 120. It is a Psalm that deals with lying and deceitful speech. I want you to hear the severe condemnation it makes as it pronounces what is in store for those who lie.
Psalms 120:1-4 ESV
A Song of Ascents. In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. 2 Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. 3 What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? 4 A warrior's sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!
That Psalm and this passage remind us of what is said in Rev. 21: that all liars will have their part in the lake of fire.
So let’s take this to heart. James wants us to take heed to our speech and make sure that what springs forth from our lips is as solid as the gospel itself.
But now that we’ve seen some of the way James frames the discussion, I do need to make a clarification.
II. The violation of verbal integrity is condemned
You’ll notice that James gives us a strong prohibition. He says “Do not swear.”
A wrong way to interpret this verse: No oaths at all
But he isn’t saying that we shouldn’t make promises or take oaths at all. He is forbidding a certain kind of oath. He is prohibiting empty oaths. That is to say, “do not make promises that you have no intention of keeping. Do not make a promises with loopholes. Do not make lies so much a part of your life that you have to prop up your everyday speech with an oath or solemn swearing.”
There have been some in the history of the church who have taken this to mean that you should not swear oaths at all. I think that this is the view that many Amish and Mennonite take. If they went into a court room, you usually get sworn in. You put your hand on the bible and you “swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” I haven’t heard of any Amish going to court, but if they did they would politely refrain and ask that the oath not be administered.
There have been others who have likewise refused oaths on the grounds of being a conscientious objector.
Some look at this verse (and other passages like it) and say that God forbids all oaths. Never is an oath or vow ever legit to make.
However, we should recognize that the Bible does permit oath and vows, and even those kinds of oaths that involve extra solemnity.
Deut. 6:13 - Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.
Nehemiah 10:29 – The Jews who came back to the promised land “bound themselves with an oath and a curse to follow the Lord.”
There are many other examples we could look at. And we note that in the NT there are several instances where Paul himself took oaths and swore. We can even note that God himself swore an oath when he made a promise to Abraham.
God does permit oaths and solemn swearing. As we stated before, we live in a world of lies and liars. Lies are a daily occurrence. And because of this, sometimes it is necessary to take a vow and make some solid expression of verbal integrity.
When you go into a courtroom, it is a place where truth is supremely important. People’s lives and reputations are at stake. And justice is very much dependent upon the truthfulness of those who come forward as witnesses.
When you get married, you take a solemn oath. We’ve built a whole ceremony around that oath. That’s because marriage isn’t to be entered into flippantly. We recognize that marriages and families are held together by one thing: One’s words. A commitment to living faithfully and doing everything one can to preserve the bond of love. For this reason, we make a big deal about it.
When you became a member of this church, you professed your faith and made a vow. You promised to support this church in its worship and work. You pledged to submit yourself to the government of the church and admonitions of the leadership. We have a ceremony and special time dedicated to that because it is a very sacred obligation. Why do we do that? It is because it is a big deal. And we want people to recognize how important it is to keep their word and live up to their promises.
And what we find throughout Scripture is that God allows for this kind of thing.
And so, as you look at this verse, we should understand that we must interpret it in light of the many other texts that say that oaths and vows are acceptable.
And when you further examine the verse, what you find is that it does not give a blanket statement against oaths and vows. As I mentioned, he’s prohibiting a certain kind of oath taking.
It is giving a strong prohibition against empty and unnecessary oaths.
The proper interpretation: Untrustworthy speech & unnecessary verbal reinforcements
Look at the passage again. James does not just say, “Do not swear at all.” He qualifies his statement by saying, “Do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath.” He is speaking against certain kinds of oaths. It is a condemnation of the practice of making frivolous oaths or oaths that could be broken.
There was a practice that had developed in those days where you could swear by something, but it wouldn’t be binding because it wasn’t a “Real” oath to God. So someone could say, “I swear by heaven.” But he’d argue he didn’t have to keep that oath because he didn’t swear by the God who dwelt in heaven.
James is reiterating the words of Jesus here. You find the same kind of thing in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus denounced the deceitfulness of speech and evasive vows when he said, “Do not swear by heaven, for it is God’s throne room. Or by earth, for it is God’s footstool.”
Jesus comes along and says, don’t swear by either. Don’t pull your little tricks. Just be true in what you say.
That’s what they were speaking to. It was this integrity of speech. It is cutting through the tricks and the deception. They were providing what they thought to be loopholes so that they could get out of their vow.
What they were doing is creating a system of distrust. This culture of dishonesty had become pervasive.
While we may not see this exact kind of thing today, it still exists in principle. You know, they say we are a paper based society. It is much owing to the fact that a verbal contract isn’t viewed as binding. We always say, “Put it in writing.” It is because we can’t trust someone who makes a promise and we can’t take them at their word. If someone lies, we have to be able to take them to court and we need that little piece of paper to prove it.
But even today, paper is going out of style. Just because you have it in writing doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything anymore. As I mentioned, words can be crafted in certain ways to provide misdirection or ambiguity. So you can slither out. It’s all about finding the loopholes.
But even in our everyday speech, we find that we have to add certain verifications and confirmations in order to put some sort of validity to our speech.
We’ll hear kids say, “Cross my heart hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.” Teenagers will say things like, “I swear to God.” What are they doing? They are adding to their promise a extra ingredient so as to make it more convincing. Why do kids do things like that? It is because they are used to people not holding to their promises. They themselves have broken so many promises and told so many lies that they now have to reinforce what they say with a solemn oath. The promises that they have made are naturally looked upon with a degree of skepticism because they have made themselves out to be untrustworthy.
And even when we grow up we have certain unspoken fine print that we kind of add to our promises. We’ll say we promise to do something, but it is typically made with the unspoken specification that we’ll do it only if it is advantageous to us or if the conditions are amiable.
Let me take you to the Psalms again. Psalm 15 is a song about a man who fears God. It describes a man of real integrity. And it emphasizes his integrity of speech a number of times. And one of the things it says about this God fearing man is that when he swears, he swears to his own hurt and does not change.
In other words, when he makes a promise, it is as good as gold. Keeping that promise may be to his disadvantage. He might lose money, he might end up having to do it in the dead of night while it is pouring cats and dogs—the conditions may not be all that favorable. But it doesn’t matter. He’s made a promise and he isn’t going to change—he’s not going to go back on his word. His word is worth its weight in gold.
When you look at the man mentioned in Psalm 15 you see that he doesn’t have to “pinky promise.” He doesn’t have to prop up his speech by invoking projectiles into his eye socket.
He’s just a guy who says what he means, and means what he says. And that is the thing that James gets at in the next part of the verse.
IV. The expression of verbal integrity is proscribed
He says, “Let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no.”
So he’s showed the importance of verbal integrity, he’s denounced the practices that violate verbal integrity—here we see the simple prescription. The mandate of simple and plain speech.
Your everyday speech should reflect honesty. Your words should have a dependability. Your speech should be recognized as being so reliable that you don’t need to prop it up with silly reinforcements.
James is here commending plain speech and integrity. Your words should be worth their weight in gold. They should be gospel truth.
And that is the rock bottom basis for this exhortation. As Christians, our faith is based on words. Our whole religion springs forth from a book and a God who has made a promise. He has promised to save us and give us eternal life. He’s promised to pardon or sins and give us an inheritance of a new world.
So what James advocates is that our speech replicate God’s speech and give further veracity to the truth of the gospel.
But how do we do this? This is something that I hope you find to be extremely practical and something that should effect so many different areas of your life; even every day activities and conversations.
If you agree to a job, you do that job. That means showing up on time, do the work that is laid out for you, do it diligently and thoroughly, and with a good attitude. In so far as it is possible, you execute your duties so that no one ends up questioning you or having to check up on you.
That same sort of thing translates into your homes too. You young people, are you recognizing the weight of saying “Okay”? When you say okay to your mother, is your word worth its weight? Do you mean what you say. If your mom or dad says that it is time to cut the grass or clean your room, you can say, “Okay” but not really mean that. It is an empty promise. You just continue watching the TV or playing the video game. Your saying “okay” is a promise. But you are using it more as a means of getting your mom or dad to leave you alone.
They come back in and tell you to again to go clean those dishes, and you say, “Okay!” This time you say it a little louder. But still you don’t do it? That raising of your voice is a form of swearing. It is making your oath a little more impressive—giving it that greater additive that we just talked about. But it is an empty word if you don’t fulfill your promise by getting up and going to do the dishes. It is said louder, but it is just as vain.
We can also think about parenting here. Parenting, just as much as marriage, is built on promises and plain speech. And a lot of children grow up without the benefits of discipline in their lives because the parents have not been faithful to keep their word.
So you have a parent who says, “You need to do the dishes.” “If you don’t do the dishes, you’re going to ____.” “Don’t make me count to three! One, two, two and a half!” I mean it this time! ”
Those words have become empty, haven’t they? Their yes has not been yes. Their promise of punishment has not been fulfilled.
You see the same thing when a parent says it is time to leave. They tell the kids it is time to leave, and then keep chatting for 10-20 minutes. Then they say, “I told you it was time to leave? Why aren’t you ready? And then they go back to chatting. Then they come back and say, “I mean it this time. Let’s go”
A lot of kids are told that they are bad and they never listen to their parents. Why is that? It is partially their parent’s fault. Their words have become meaningless to the child. Their threats are empty. It is not until they reinforce their words with shouting and things like “I mean it!” That is the added extra which is suppose to reinforce their promise.
We could go through many other examples to illustrate. The idea though is simple integrity of speech. The words we use should be plain and true. If our speech is so untrustworthy that we need to buttress it or reinforce it, then there is need to make reform in our lives.
Conclusion
In the end, it comes down to this: We need to recognize that ever affirmation or promise is sacred. When we make a vow, even if it is seemingly frivolous, such as saying you will meet someone at a certain time and place, this affirmation is made in the presence of God. It is just as solemn and sacred a declaration as standing in the courtroom with your hand on your Bible.
Far from dispelling solemn oaths, this passage is reminding us that every word that comes from our mouth is to be regarded as a holy obligation. And that is why the word “no” is such a vital part of our vocabulary. It is best to swear that you will not swear than to swear and not fulfill it.