LEARNING DAILY

 

Today is a significant day.  One year ago today the first page of LEARNING DAILY was sent out.  This is page 242 of the blog and day one of the second year.  Quite honestly, I have surprised myself at the completion of a year.  Thank you for being a part of this with me.  My goal, my prayer for this writing is not only to encourage but to teach a little about what God’s Word is saying and its relevance to the world around us.  I have wanted to challenge whoever reads this to get into God’s Word for yourself and to possibly pass the blog on to others.  So, here goes year two.

 

Matthew 5:33-37, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’  But I say to you, do not swear at all; neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king.  Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.  But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ’No’ be ‘No.’  For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”   Jesus

 

Jesus’ teaching on making oaths is the fourth of six examples in which He began, You have heard … but I say to you ….”  In this example He is addressing the matter of speech and the way Christians should speak to each other.  Once again, He is concerned about correcting false teaching.

 

Moses faced a time when men were creating chaos because they could not trust one another to tell the truth.  Is there any more appropriate message to examine in our society today!  We live in a day when we just do not know who is telling the truth – all we have to do is look at the political mess today.  I know; I have turned to take a rabbit trail.  But, honestly, just think about it.  Back to Moses.  He lived when the tendency to take an oath in the name of God in trivial matters was easy to do.  Moses was reminding Israel that everything they did and said was being seen by God.

 

The Pharisees and scribes were concerned with the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law.  They confined the entire matter to not giving false testimony while under oath.  They believed there was no harm in taking an oath as long as one did not willfully make a false statement while under oath.  This opened the door for men to take an oath at any time for any situation.  They also made a distinction between various oaths.  For example, Lloyd-Jones writes that if an oath taken by the temple it was not binding; one taken by the gold of the temple was binding.  The result was solemn oaths were being used in small conversations and for almost anything; this led to an oath not meaning much.

 

Jesus said “let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ’No’ be ‘No.’” and anything beyond this was evil.  He said making an oath must be limited so there was authority behind it.  In this way an oath would mean something when given in a very important situation.  There are some very significant reasons to what Jesus said.  First, He did not want God’s name to be used in making an oath nor in cursing (God’s last name is not Damn, by the way!).  Secondly, He was saying that oaths should not be used in everyday conversation.  We should be known to always speak truth and not have to make an oath for someone to believe us.  If in everyday conversation, our word must be supported by an oath, does that mean that there are times when our word is not good?  Do you remember when one’s promise was established by a handshake?  Not anymore!

 

The message of this fourth example given by Jesus comes to the point we are not to lie.  Everything we do as Christians is important.  People are watching Christians and a lie or wrong action could be what brings one watching to Christ or pushes them away from Him.  I am sure you have heard someone say that if that is what it is to be a Christian, I don’t want any part of it.  That is a sad comment to be said of any Christian.  Sure, we have all failed.  Yet, we need to strive to be like Christ in all we say and do.  When we fail, we must remember that the grace of God is sufficient and He forgives. 

 

It is important that Christians have such obvious virtue or qualities in their character that we do not need to add anything to our yes and no (such as “I promise”) to assure others that we are speaking truthfully and we will do what we say we will do.  That is the point Jesus was making for us today!

 

 

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