People of Integrity

by    4th April 2004    0 responses

Matthew 5:33-37   Expand passage

"Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, "You shall not swear falsely, but shall 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 the 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."

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If you’re anything like me, this is one of those passages in scripture which makes you think, “Ok – I can do that. But why?” What is the point of Jesus saying to us, do not make any oaths? Surely it’s not a crucial matter? And what does it matter whether you swear or not?

I believe there are a couple of reasons why Jesus makes this statement. Firstly, at the time people were swearing oaths by different things. For example, if you were to swear by one thing then you really really meant it, whereas if you swore by another thing you meant it a little bit less, and so on. If you give different levels to different things you swear by, it just makes a mockery of swearing an oath at all.

Jesus does also give some form of explanation, in that we shouldn’t swear an oath because we are absolutely powerless to do anything about it. Jesus makes it clear that we shouldn’t swear on anything that doesn’t belong to us (or, more specifically, belongs to God); also we shouldn’t swear on anything that we have no power over – which is basically everything else. Because of this, it’s quite logical to see why we shouldn’t swear oaths. If I swear an oath by heaven – what difference can I possibly make to heaven?

However, I want to explore a little bit about why it’s so important. Does it really matter to someone today, if you say for example: “I swear to you on my life that I will finish that project for you by Tuesday?” I believe it does, partly because if you start swearing oaths like that then people will begin to question whether you really mean ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and it can get a bit ridiculous; but mainly because I believe that what we say is a lot more important than what you or I may think. It all fits in with a much wider picture.

James 3:2 says, “For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.” Think about that verse for a minute. What we say has an effect on everything about us, our ‘whole body’.

Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart, so the mouth speaks.” What we say gives an insight into who we are. We need to make sure that what we say is in line with who God wants us to be. It’s a continual process, we need to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling.” (Philippians 2:12).

In this particular example, the main character trait that Jesus was talking about is integrity. In avoiding swearing oaths, we let it be known that we are people of our word. We do not need to swear oaths, because people will know that we will not go back on what we said. And I am not saying here that it is impossible to ever change your mind; that’s not the point. The point is that we should always be honest! If we always say the honest and right thing, then you won’t need to swear because people will know that you are telling the truth. Your word is all that is needed for people to know that you are not lying.

And I do believe that we also need to seek the wider context: always being truthful is not going to be much good, if you are also a gossiper or the like. I would be the first to admit that taming the tongue is very hard and I often fall down on this issue, but we do need to be continually watching out for what we say. I believe that our words have a far greater consequence than we could imagine. James 3:5 says, “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!” If we can control what we say – even the little things which we may deem inconsequential – we shall be further along the way to the goal which Paul talks about in Philippians 3:12.

I pray that we will manage to maintain integrity and use our words wisely, and in doing so glorify God.

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