This is a very interesting passage; one I have not given a whole lot of thought to.
"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 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."
The obvious command is "Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'. But why? The answer... anything more than this comes from evil.
I can see that as Christians we should be a people of integrity. God doesn't have to make any kind of an oath because we know that what he says will happen. Oaths are spoken when their is doubt as to whether a party will fulfill their end of a bargain, and many times oaths are requested for purely selfish reasons. As Christians people should be able to trust us completely when we say we are going to do something. There should never be a reason for us to make an oath or "promise" to do something if we have determined in our hearts that our yes will be yes and our no will be no.
Once again, it all comes down to what is in the heart. If we say yes but really mean no then we are deceitful. We have blatantly lied and chances are for purely selfish reasons. We need to be like God. There is no room for deceit in the life of a Christian.
"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 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."
The obvious command is "Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'. But why? The answer... anything more than this comes from evil.
I can see that as Christians we should be a people of integrity. God doesn't have to make any kind of an oath because we know that what he says will happen. Oaths are spoken when their is doubt as to whether a party will fulfill their end of a bargain, and many times oaths are requested for purely selfish reasons. As Christians people should be able to trust us completely when we say we are going to do something. There should never be a reason for us to make an oath or "promise" to do something if we have determined in our hearts that our yes will be yes and our no will be no.
Once again, it all comes down to what is in the heart. If we say yes but really mean no then we are deceitful. We have blatantly lied and chances are for purely selfish reasons. We need to be like God. There is no room for deceit in the life of a Christian.
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