Oaths

Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the Evil One." (Matthew 5:33-37)

We all swear oaths of one kind or another.  I did when I became a deacon.  I did when I married my wife in 1971.  I did when I gave testimony at a trial. Oaths sworn on the Bible or said in Church or in a court of law are to be taken seriously, although many of us don’t.  Our “yes” doesn’t mean “yes,” and our “no” doesn’t mean “no.”  We can be hypocrites. We lie, and the Evil One gets the upper hand.  We sell our souls to the Devil, consciously or not.  

Consider what Jesus said about hypocrites in Matthew 23.  He speaks to us as well.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. [But] these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel! 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean. 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing. 

So, do we (or someone we know) neglect the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity?  Are we blind guides? Are we full of plunder and self-indulgence?  Are we whitewashed tombs filled inside with dead men’s bones and every kind of filth?  Are we filled with hypocrisy and evildoing?  

Most of us would scream: “Not me!”  Let’s think again.  When we take or make false oaths and do not make good to the Lord all that we vow, then woe to us.  We become what we deny we are, and we sell our souls to the Evil One.

Deacon David Pierce