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Reading Matthew 5:33-37 where Jesus talked about making oaths, not swearing by heaven or by the earth or even by your own head, but let your yes be yes and your no be no. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Jesus said, do not swear by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet. Simply let your yes be yes, and your no be no, when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ, that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we are up to Matthew 5, verses 33 -37, where Jesus talks about making oaths. I'm going to be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord.
Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. But I say to you, make no oath at all. Either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king.
Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, yes, yes, or no, no. Anything beyond these is of the evil one. There's a story I've heard about a man who was driving his Rolls-Royce through the Swiss Alps.
And in case you're not familiar with the Rolls-Royce, this is a luxury automobile made in the United Kingdom owned by BMW. Their cars can range from $300 ,000 for a low-end vehicle to as much as $13 million for their high-end swept tail, the most expensive car ever built.
If you're going to drop that kind of coin on a car, you expect it to work. Unfortunately for this man, he heard a startling twang in the front of his automobile. The front coil spring had broken. He's stranded in the Swiss Alps, but still able to get a cell signal.
So he called the Rolls-Royce headquarters in London, unsure if they'd be able to help him. It wasn't too long after his call that a plane swooped in and landed on the road. It couldn't have come from London.
That was too far away. But there are other Rolls-Royce dealerships around Europe, must have been from one of those other dealerships. Nonetheless, the man was still surprised at how quickly they were able to arrive.
The mechanics brought their tools. They put on a new spring. They got the wealthy car owner on his way. And then the plane took off. A few weeks later, the man was back in London. He expected to find a bill for this stellar roadside assistance, but he did not see one.
So he called the front office again. How's your car running, sir? They asked him. Oh, it's running great, he said. I haven't had another problem. But I was just calling to inquire about my bill for that incredible roadside assistance.
The representative said, I'm sorry, sir, what do you mean, a bill? And the man said, yeah. You had this plane swoop in, repaired my car? I mean, what does something like that cost to fix my Rolls-Royce?
Oh, there must be some mistake, sir, the representative said. Our cars don't break down. Now maybe that story is true, or maybe it's just a legend. But I think that it serves to illustrate that when you make a commitment to produce quality work, you stand by your commitment.
This is understood in the business world. A good reputation is everything. If you buy a product or you pay for other goods or services, you expect to receive what you paid for. If a manufacturer or tradesman providing a service cannot do the job that they say they're going to do, they're quickly going to lose business and fold.
If you have a good reputation, you make money. If you have a bad reputation, you lose money. If we understand this principle as it applies to good business, how much more should we understand this principle as it applies to good behavior?
There's a word that we use for upstanding moral character. It's integrity. A person with good integrity is someone who does what they say they're going to do. They have strong moral principles, and they're known for keeping those principles and living by them.
They are undivided. They are consistent, ethical. If you are known for good integrity, you have a reputation for being a quality human being. And such a reputation is achieved over time. If you were with me when we did our series through the book of Ecclesiastes, there's a verse in there that says that a good reputation is finer than a good perfume.
It is an older, seasoned, experienced man that is able to achieve that good reputation. I think we all know in our heart of hearts what it takes to develop a reputation for good character. You know what is right, and you do it.
Are you impressed with anyone who says something like, I swear I'm a good person, or I swear on my mother's grave I would never do such a wicked thing? Are you convinced by these qualifications that they're good people?
On the contrary, most of us tend to be a little suspicious when a person has to make such qualifications for their character. I swear I would never do such a thing. I swear I'm a good guy. Well, here in Matthew 5, verses 33 to 37, Jesus tells us, his disciples, quite plainly not to swear by anything.
Know what God has said, and do what he says. Mean what you say, and say what you mean. Say what you're going to do, and do what you say you're going to do. If you think that swearing by anything is going to make you, your thoughts, and your actions more righteous, Jesus straight up says what he thinks of this.
He says it's evil. So, let's consider the word of Christ that he gives here in Matthew 5, 33 to 37. Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, he says, you shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.
Now, if you have the Legacy Standard Bible or the New American Standard, then most of that verse, verse 33, is in all caps. And that signifies something is being quoted from the Old Testament. Where does this come from?
What is Jesus quoting from? It's in Leviticus 19. And verse 12 says, you shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. And you can probably guess how this text was misapplied by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, and therefore those who followed their teaching.
After all, it doesn't say you shall not swear by my name at all. It says you shall not swear by my name falsely. So the Pharisees and anyone else who was following their teaching attempted to validate the sincerity of their oaths and promises by swearing upon sacred things, believing that such swearing made their commitments more genuine or more holy.
But it doesn't add anything to the commitment at all. On the contrary, it makes the commitment less sincere. Consider more broadly the context of this law in Leviticus 19. I'm going to start reading in verse 9 and go through verse 18.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest, and you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard.
You shall leave them for the poor and the sojourner. I am Yahweh your God. You shall not steal. You shall not deal falsely. You shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely and so profane the name of your God.
I am Yahweh. You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God.
I am Yahweh. You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor.
I am Yahweh. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am Yahweh. So our understanding of this instruction that Jesus is giving here in Matthew 5 can surely change when we look at the context, right? What are the people of God being instructed to do here in this section of Leviticus 19?
The theme, if we were to map out a theme of this particular passage, the theme is love your neighbor. That's the context. Love your neighbor. Everything is with regards to loving your neighbor. Leave the gleanings of your harvest for your neighbor.
Do not steal or deal falsely with your neighbor. Pay what is owed to your neighbor. Do not mislead your neighbor. Do not unfairly judge your neighbor. Do not hate, but reason frankly with your neighbor.
Do not take vengeance out on your neighbor. Love your neighbor as yourself, as the Lord has instructed you. So now, understand the implication of this. If you think that you must swear by God, or by Jerusalem, or even by your own head to validate your commitments, you are not considering the needs of your neighbor.
You're more concerned with yourself than you are with your neighbor. Your focus is on you, not on God, by whom you have sworn, and not on the person to whom you have sworn. Again, what's happening here is that you are lowering the bar to make righteousness more attainable, which you cannot do.
Consider what Jesus goes on to say in verse 34. But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God. Hey, I mean, can you bring down the heavens, or bring God's throne down to your level?
That's even more absurd than lowering the pole vault bar, so you can break the world record in pole vault. Verse 35 goes on to say, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet. In case you need to be told, the world does not revolve around you.
Next part, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. The implication here is not that Jerusalem is in and of itself holy, but rather that God makes Jerusalem holy. So you're not making yourself more holy by swearing upon this, that, or the other.
God is the one who sanctifies. Stop trying to leverage your own righteousness. You don't have any. You and I need the righteousness of Christ. Psalm 48 .2 says, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king.
That's the reference to Jerusalem that's being quoted there. The reason Jerusalem is holy is because God is there. So likewise, my friends, you are made holy because God is there. Because God is within you.
If you are a follower of Jesus, he has given you his spirit, and you've become a temple of the Holy One. A point that Paul makes with the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 3 and 6. So let's keep going here.
Look at verse 36. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Notice that as we're progressing through this list, we've started high and come down lower and lower.
Right? Jesus started by saying, don't swear by heaven, don't swear by the earth, don't swear by Jerusalem. You can't even swear by your own self. You can't even determine your own hair color. Now I know that we live in a modern industrial commercialized age where you think that you can make your hair a different color, but you can't.
All you're doing is hiding the truth. I'm not really this gray. I'm, you know, this color instead. Hey, that's fine if you want to look younger and not like you have gray hair. That's up to you. That's between you and the Lord.
Really I'm not saying that it's wrong to dye your hair. Just don't think that you can actually reverse the fact that you are getting older. You might be able to hide it, but you'll never be able to reverse it.
You can't even swear by your own head. You can't determine your own hair color. James 4, 13 to 16 says it this way. Come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.
Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that as it is you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil.
Who are you to swear even by your own integrity? I had said in the beginning that you need to know what is right and you need to do it. You need to know what is right because of what God says is right, not what the culture says is right and especially not by what you think is right.
We know what is right when we study the law of God. Yes, we are not under the law, but under grace, Roman 6, 14, meaning that we will not be judged by the law. It does not mean that the law no longer has any application.
We know what is good and pleasing and acceptable to God when we study his law. Jesus has said, love one another. How do you know what that looks like? Because this culture is going to have one idea of how you should love somebody.
I've been hit with this this week with people telling me how hateful I am and how unlike Jesus I am because I'm calling out the LGBTQ movement as abominable and they need to repent or the wrath of God is going to be poured out on them.
Repent and turn to Christ and be saved. But they say I'm being unloving because I'm not accepting or approving of their behavior. Rather I'm telling them they'll perish in their behavior if they do not repent.
So yeah, the culture has this idea of here's how you're supposed to love. You may have an idea of this is what love is supposed to look like. How do we know what love is when Jesus says love one another?
It's in his law. It's in the Bible. We know how to do this in a way that is right and honoring to God when we read his word. This is how we know what love really is in the law of God. Psalm 119 verse 9 says, how can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord.
Teach me your statutes. Remember Romans 12 too that says, conform no longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Discern the will of God how? By studying his law, which is good and acceptable and perfect. Paul had said so back in Romans 7, 12. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
You cannot be righteous by your own standard. That's called self-righteousness. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times that I've had someone call me self-righteous because I said to them what God has said is right or wrong according to his word.
I'm not the self-righteous one here. I have acknowledged that I have no righteousness. I must appeal to the word of God. If you reject God's word for your standard of goodness, it is you who are the self-righteous one.
Yet, who are you to determine what is right or wrong? You can't even determine the color of your hair. When we try to establish moral standards by human precepts, things go bad. We have to be fixed on something permanent and that someone is Christ.
Jesus is going to close the Sermon on the Mount by talking about being built on the rock of Christ. And when the storms beat against the house, the house stands firm. Our culture is in absolute turmoil right now.
Why? Because Christ is not its standard. If Jesus is the ultimate good, and he is, then of course swearing by anything else would be evil. Jesus says simply, let your yes be yes and your no be no. And again, the standard is not yourself.
This is being said to a disciple of Jesus who understands, especially by this point in his teaching, that God is the standard. He has prepared for you good works that you may walk in them, Ephesians 2 .10.
Know what Jesus has said and do what he has said, to the glory of God above. As Jesus said earlier in Matthew 5 .16, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
And I shall close with these words of Obadiah Sedgwick, 17th century English clergyman addressing the parliament at Westminster. He said the following, it is not in vain, nay, it is very good to draw near to God.
Not one prayer that gets to heaven is lost. Sometimes divine wisdom doth take respite, but at this time divine goodness made haste. You had scarce begun your prayers, but God prevented you with answers.
Our work on earth is done best when our work in heaven is done first. You plainly see that God can, and which way he can, provide for his own glory, his people's safety, and his enemies' shame. It is a superlative wisdom to interest our persons in God and God in our actions.
When we have once gained and engaged him, we are then above all the world. Heavenly Father, I thank you for what we have read here, these instructions that Jesus has given us about doing what we say we're going to do.
And what we do, may it be the will of God. If we say we're going to do something, may we have the integrity to stick with it and represent the goodness of God that is in our hearts. We don't swear by anything, we obey the Lord.
And may others see our good works, that they've been carried out in God, that it's not our righteousness that we demonstrate, but the righteousness of Christ, pointing to our merciful Father who is above.
And they will see by our works, that they match our words. What we say is what we do, taking nothing for ourselves, but giving all the praise to Christ our King. Help us to obey our King today, it's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Pastor Gabe is the author of several books and Bible studies, available in paperback or for your e-reader. For titles and more information, visit our website at www .wutt .com. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in God's Word, when we understand the text.