Truth Telling, Not Swearing – Matthew 5:33-37

Someone tongue in cheek has given a formula for determining a politician’s productivity: multiply the lies by the promises and divide by the smirks. We give politicians a hard time but broken promises are definitely not the domain of politicians alone. There are two commandments out of ten that deal with this issue, and Jesus, in his amazing sermon on the mount, addresses the issue as a standard of the kind of righteousness that shows one is a kingdom member.

“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. (Matthew 5:33–37, ESV)

As he continues his exposition of the law, Jesus now makes reference indirectly to the third commandment, “You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7). This commandment doesn’t require us to take oaths, but it forbids us using God’s name in an oath as the guarantor of our truthfulness unless we follow through with our promise. If I make God the backing for my oath but don’t fulfill my oath, I have represented His name as untruthful. May it never be!

Oath-taking was a common practice in the culture of pre-printing press days and ease of access to written legal documents. If I wanted to make a covenant or contract with you I swore an oath to my truthfulness and if I made the oath in the name of my God it was taken as a sure thing. I would not risk the wrath of my God or the sullying of his reputation by lying, would I?

But of course, that is exactly what sinful humans do. We take advantage of others by sounding truthful and then failing to be truthful. We may even try to minimize our guilt by substituting something pertaining to God (His throne, Jerusalem, the temple, etc.) so that we aren’t actually using God’s name, but the whole point of using these substitutes is that they communicate that my truthfulness is tied to God’s truthfulness. Jesus calls out this subterfuge in his sermon.

Jesus wants our truthfulness to be demonstrated apart from oaths. Our faithfulness to our word should be so apparent that we only need to say yes or no without any appeal to anything else as backing. The full intent of the law is to be a truthful person. Does this mean we are obligated to tell the truth to everyone? No! We have ample examples in Scripture that indicate we are not obligated to be truthful to those seeking our lives or who threaten the lives of others. When Samuel was told by God to anoint David he complained to God that king Saul would kill him. Yahweh told him to tell Saul he was going to sacrifice to Yahweh and told him to take a heifer as part of his cover story (1 Samuel 16:1-3).

Truthfulness especially applies to the courtroom and bearing true witness there. Bearing false witness is a miscarriage of justice and a specific commandment forbids it. Jesus may be covering this command as well in his exposition. How are you doing in this area? Do people accept your yes and no, or do you feel a need to buttress it with an oath?