Matthew: God’s Law vs.

Human Tradition: Part 4

Matthew 5:33-37
Oaths
33 “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.’ 34 But I say to
you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35
or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the
great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one
hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything
more than this comes from evil.
The practicality of Jesus’ teaching here, hits a little too close to home. Notice
these contrasts that He keeps bringing up. Christ is applying the law
specifically in the hearts of the people. He started in verses 21-26 with
murder. And again, this congregation wasn’t expecting murder to have a lot to
say to them. They were not murderers after all. And the Lord applied that
commandment in such a way that they understood that they, too, were guilty of
murder. In verses 27-32, He applies the seventh commandment, the
commandment not to commit adultery to the situations of both
immorality and of illegal marriage and divorce. And He speaks to His
disciples, applying the truth of that commandment. Now, He comes back
to the third commandment, the commandment not to take
the Lord God’s name in vain. And He applies the truth of that
word to our personal situation and our speech and to our human
relationship. The practicality of this issue is beyond all question. Jesus’ words
here hit close to home to every single one of us, because here He is calling
His disciples to tongue righteousness. He is calling on us to have godly
speech. Notice what He does in this passage as we consider it this morning.

I. False vows.
First in verse 33,
33 “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.’
He records for us what the Pharisees were teaching, and that brings to mind
two things to us: First of all, what Moses originally intended by his words;
and secondly, what the Pharisees were teaching. In verse 33, He says, again,
“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘you shall not make false vows,
but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’” Now, again, as we have seen before,
there is nothing wrong with that statement. The statement is perfectly fine.
The statement is in fact an amalgamation, it is a collection of various
statements about truth telling in the context of making promises or being
under vows or obligations in the Old Testament.
There are a few passages that I would turn you to for your attention. In
Leviticus chapter 19, for instance, in verse 12, we read this: “You shall not
swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the
Lord.” There, the stress is on not swearing falsely. Now, surely this is what
is being entailed in this teaching in Matthew 5:33. Again, in Numbers chapter
30, verse 2, we read, “If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath
to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do
according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.” Again, this passage takes
up that idea and applies it to the people of God. In Deuteronomy 23, verse 21,
we read, “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay
fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you
will be guilty of sin.

Vows were very common then, as they are now.

Vows were a solemn way that a person could commit himself or herself to
the performance of a particular duty.
Vows were a way of calling down a higher judgment upon ourselves than
ourselves.
Vows were a way of solemnizing an agreement, an arrangement, and a
promise. And, the Pharisees were teaching that this was very important in the
context of their testimony in court. That they were not to purge themselves.
And thus far, that was of course, absolutely true. In each of these passages, in
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the emphasis in on our being
truthful, especially when a solemn promise has been given or extracted.
To be truthful in our intentions and in our performance of our promise.
But the Pharisees restricted the scope of this commandment. They
misread it, they misinterpreted it. Jesus again contrasts their teaching:
you have heard the ancients were told, you shall not make false vows, but shall
fulfill your vows to the Lord, but I say… And His contrast is critical, not of
their teaching that we must be truthful in court, but of their restriction of that
law, of that commandment, to merely external civil legal proceedings. That
is, their restricting of that commandment just to the sin of perjury. The
Pharisees were saying, if you perjury yourself, you are breaking that
commandment, and the Lord Jesus is saying, right, and…. But the Pharisees
went no further. Pharisess stressed that this command required an
external refraining from perjuring ourselves in social, and civil, and legal
situations. And Jesus says, this commandment means much more than that.
This commandment is spiritual. It extends to the heart. This commandment
is more than merely external. It is internal. It has to do with all of our
truthfulness before the living God. And so, the Lord Jesus is derisive
(mocking or sarcastic) of the Pharisees teaching of this command. Because
they had taught the people that they could somehow keep this command,
as long as they did not perjure themselves.
II. Jesus rebukes false vows.
Furthermore, the Pharisees apparently were teaching that vows that were in
the name of the Lord were somehow more rigidly binding than vows that were
not made in the name of the Lord. And you can see their logic in the Lord’s
rebuke in verses 34 and 35, and 36. The Pharisees were saying something like
this: If you make a vow in the name of the Lord, well, then that vow has to be
kept. But if you have made a vow in the name of Jerusalem, well, maybe there
is a little more flexibility there. If you make a vow on your own head, maybe
there is a little more flexibility on whether you keep that vow or not. But if you
make a vow in the name of the Lord, that is a very serious vow. And the Lord
Jesus is derisive of that type of sophistry (dishonest), that type of playing with
the words of the living God. And so He gives His interpretation of the truth
in verses 34-37. And we see it there. “But I say to you, make no oath at all,
either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, of by earth, for it is the footstool
of His foot, 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 else beyond this, is of
evil.”
Now before we look at what Jesus means there, we have got to take a little
time to say what He doesn’t mean in that passage. There have been many
Christians who have asserted that Jesus’ teaching is that no Christian, no
believer ought to take a civil or a religious oath, or vow. They take His words,
which read, “make no oath at all” to be an absolute prohibition to
believers in the taking of civil oaths. And some of these groups, like the
Quakers, teach that Christians may not take an oath in court. That what Jesus is
saying is that no Christian should take a civil oath.
Now there are two problems with that interpretation of Jesus’ words. The first
problem is that interpretation actually assumes the same thing that the
Pharisees were assuming. That this command primarily has in view our
speech in court, our speech in contracts, our speech in civil and commercial
contractual agreements. Jesus makes it clear that His idea of this command
is much broader than that. Yes, it does include how we speak in court. But it
says much more to us about all of our communications, all of our speech,
all of our speaking. And so those who say that Jesus’ main point is to keep
Christians from taking oaths in court, somewhat miss the point just like the
Pharisees.
Secondly, it is clear from both the Old Testament and the New Testament
that righteous and holy and godly men and women do take religious and
civil oaths. In the Old Testament, you don’t have to look far before you find
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, making oaths to the living God.
In the New Testament, in Romans chapter 9, verse 1, and in I Corinthians
chapter 1, verse 23, we find Paul making oaths. His oaths for religious
purposes are recorded in the book of Acts. And in fact, we find the Lord Jesus
Himself being put under oath and responding to the High Priest. Turn
with me to Matthew chapter 26, Jesus’ trial before the High Priest in verse
63. You remember, to this point Christ had been refusing to answer the
questions of His accusers because it was a ‘kangaroo court.’ They really didn’t
want to hear what He said anyway. They just wanted to convict Him. And in
verse 63 and 64 of Matthew 26, the High Priest says, But Jesus remained
silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell
us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Now the Lord Jesus, in the next
verse, does not go on to explain to the high priest about why it is that He is not
going to take an oath and answer him under oath. The Lord Jesus, having been
adjured, having been put under oath ‘according to the living God, as God is
His witness to tell the truth’ says this: 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said
so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the
right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The Lord Jesus
answers the question under oath. He gives him the answer that he wants.
He takes the oath as it were, and He gives the answer to the high priest
and so we see by scriptural example, that even the Lord Jesus allows
Himself to be put under oath. So His point is not to prohibit all taking or
giving of civil and religious oaths.
Our very act of worship includes oaths and vows. Other views of baptism:
when parents come to have the sacrament of baptism administered to their
infants, they make solemn vows. When we are baptized as adults, never
having been baptized as children, and coming to Christ by faith, we make
vows to the Lord. When we come to the Lord’s Table, we are engaging in a
great process of oath taking. It is not oath taking per say, that the Lord
Jesus opposes. Jesus is opposing all equivocal (confusing) speech, all
speech in which the person making a promise or a commitment is equivocating
in his heart, in her heart. Jesus is opposing all those sorts of speech. Speech
which knows one thing to be true in the heart, but actually speaks another
thing. Jesus is opposing all rash oath taking. Jesus is saying, don’t make an
oath rashly. Don’t make it lightly, don’t make it quickly. Jesus is opposing
all unnecessary swearing.
You see, Jesus in this passage is teaching us several things. He is teaching us
that we ought not swear at all, except where it our duty. Where it is our
duty to give our oath, then it is appropriate to give an oath. But we are not
to be quick to multiply oaths. We ought never to swear lightly, the Lord
Jesus says. The Lord Jesus makes it clear to the Pharisees that everything
that we say, we say under God. Whether we say it is by Jerusalem or by the
earth, or by some creation or by the heavens. Everything that we say as
believers is a reflection on God, because we bear God’s name, we are God’s
people, we are Christians. And therefore, all of our speech, is under God. All
of our speech is a vow to the living God, and so we are never to swear lightly.
There is nothing we can say, such as “I swear on my mother’s grave” is
less binding than “I swear in the name of the living God.” No, the Lord
Jesus says. Every promise is made under God. Every promise is a vow before
the Lord even as it is a vow to a person.
Jesus goes on to say that we ought to be careful of making promissory oaths.
We need to be careful about making promises to fulfill certain vows that
we are not able to keep. This comes upon us frequently in our own lives. The
Proverbs warned about it. You remember the Proverbs warn you about signing
for another person. Any of you Bruce Williams fans? Do you listen to that
radio program where he gives great financial advice to people. Did you hear
the fellow call up one night, “Bruce, I have a problem. I cosigned for my
cousin and he cosigned for a car for my cousin and he skipped town and the
bank is after me for the money.” And Bruce said, “And what is your problem?”
And he said, “I don’t have the money.” He said, “Well that is a problem.
Because you are liable for it.” He said, “But I want to get the car and give it
back to them, but they don’t want the car, they want the money, but I don’t
have the money.” He said, “Well, you shouldn’t have signed.” And he said,
“Well ,thank you very much, good bye.” It is dangerous to cosign. Because
when you cosign, you have made a promissory commitment, and the Lord
Jesus is saying, be careful before you make that type of commitment. He wants
us to recognize that all of our speech is in the sight of God.
There are two great points that Christ makes in this passage, and the first is to
recognize that every commitment we make, no matter what terms we use,
every commitment we make, every commitment is a commitment in the
name of the living God. Every time I say, yes, yes, or every time I say no,
no, I am representing the living God. Jesus is reminding us that the third
commandment is at stake every time we speak, why? Because the third
commandment says that we are not to take up the name of the Lord our
God in vain. And therefore when we speak, we speak as representatives of
the living God. We are Christians, we are followers of Christ. We are ‘little
Christs.’ We are those who are the people of Christ, the people of God,
and when we speak, Christ’s reputation is on the line. And when we are
untruthful in speech, we bring dishonor on the living God, we bring dishonor
on the name of Christ, and therefore we take up God’s name in vain, because
we bear that name. And the Lord Jesus is saying, all speech must be treated as
sacred. When we make a commitment, we must mean it. Yes, yes, and no, no.
Because we are representatives of the living God.
He also stresses secondly, that our speech must look out for the best
interest of our neighbors. Why is it that people lie? Why is that people lie?
Well, some people lie in order to take advantage of you. Some people have
malicious purposes in their intentions. They actually desire to defraud you of
things that belong to you. They desire to trick you into making agreements
which would not be to your own advantage and so they deliberately lead you
into the belief of a falsehood through their speech. I would propose to you, that
though there may be many here that struggle with that type of lying, many
more of us struggle with a different type of false speech. What makes you
lie? Well, there area many things. Sometimes we lie to flatter. We see an
outfit that is horrendous, and we are asked, what do you think? Oh, it is
beautiful. And we are lying. Why? Because we want to flatter them. We don’t
want to discourage the person. And we flatter them. Other times we fear the
consequences of our speech. We fear if we admit what we have done, we are
in big trouble. And we would much rather lie and avoid those consequences
than face those consequences.
But, children and adults do that. We fear telling the truth. Perhaps disclosing
something about our past, we think, will lose us friends. Perhaps disclosing
what we are really like will cause us to be rejected. Perhaps the consequences
of our behavior are just too much to take and so we will lie. We will refuse to
tell the truth. Young people, it is vital that you not enter into that type of
behavior. You will be tempted to hide things from your parents so that you will
not be punished, and I promise you that even if they never catch you, the
consequences of your not telling them, will be eternally far more severe and
damaging than the consequences if you would confess.
Our former minister shares with many people in this congregation the words of
Suzannah Wesley about child nurturing, and one of those words that she
shared is that whenever her children would voluntarily come and confess to
her their sin, truly repentant of it, she would always spare them
punishment. Why? Because she wanted to teach them the value of telling
the truth. And she wanted to show them the reward of telling the truth and
she wanted to inculcate in them truth telling. That is a good pattern. It may
perhaps not be universally applicable, but it is a good pattern to instill in our
children the recognition that truth telling is always to preferable to them and to
us, in obscuring the truth. But adults need to learn that lesson just as well as
children.
In other cases, we perhaps have a fear of being rejected, or desire to be
accepted, and so we do not tell the truth. All of these are ways in which we
are tempted to be untruthful and Christ is telling us that God demands godly
speech.
Now Christ’s words have application to us, no matter who we are, no matter
where we are. No matter how old we are, no matter what circumstances we are
in. For unbelievers, Christ’s words are a reminder to you, that you need the
grace of God. You need the grace of God to spare you from your sins. Because
you are locked in a pattern of untruth. Lying destroys human relationships.
Internationally, socially, family, all relationships are destroyed by lying.
Because it breaks down the capacity of another to trust us.
Unbeliever, if you have engaged in the sin of lying, you know treacherous it is.
You know how it wraps itself around you and you know how one lie lead to
another, which leads to another, which leads to another, which leads to
another, which leads to a life of self delusion and ultimately of isolation
and rejection. Christ is reminding you that the patterns of lying teach you that
you are a sinner. And the fact that you are a sinner teaches you that you need a
Savior and He stands before you in His grace to say, I can liberate you from
the dominion of sin, even a lying that has destroyed your life.
To believers Christ is saying this, you are not perfected, you are not
entirely sanctified, you are not free from sin, and the continuation of
struggling with tongue sins which reeks so much havoc in the life of the
congregation, both in families and in the congregation itself, reminds us
that we need to grow in the Lord. We need the continuing sanctifying work
of the Spirit in our life and we need to run back to Christ and we need to say,
‘O Lord, as I have looked at myself, I have not come into accord with the
standards of Your word. My speech has not been perfectly pure as You
require. By the Spirit, by grace, work in me righteousness. Deliver me, O Lord
from a continuation in sin.’
Christ’s words are for both believers and unbelievers. For unbelievers, a
diagnoses of your condition and a reminder that you need grace.
For believers, a reminder that you need humility, for we all fall short, a
reminder that we live a life of repentance and a reminder that we must
always be involved in an ongoing quest of sanctification. Striving after that
which is right depending upon the grace of God in Christ. Let us look to the
Lord in prayer.