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Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 5 - Law of Oaths

by Paul George  
3/25/2008 / Bible Studies

Matthew 5:33-37

"Again you have heard that it was said to them of old time, 'You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,' but I tell you, don't swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shall you swear by your head, for you can't make one hair white or black. But let your 'Yes be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No.' Whatever is more than these is of the evil one'" (WEB).

We live in a culture in which the truth is often the first casualty of interactions between men. We have an incredibly elaborate system of lawyers and contracts and notaries and binding signatures to ensure that we do what we say we will do, at least when it is perceived to be important enough. In addition, none of it makes people any more truthful. In fact, most people do not even believe truth is an objective reality.

As with Jesus' previous commands in the Sermon on the Mount dealing with murder, adultery, and divorce, the Law of Moses had already spoken to this issue, but the scribes and Pharisees had perverted the teaching of the Law and had missed the spirit of the Law. Throughout this sermon, Jesus is zeroing in on the spirit of the Law in keeping with its purpose as the reflection of God's holy character.

Some Christians have taken Matthew 5:33-37 to teach that we must not, under any circumstances, utter an oath or vow. Therefore, they refuse to take an oath in a court of law, in a marriage ceremony, or in any other situation. Is that our Lord's point here, to create a new prohibition that did not exist under the Law of Moses and thereby overcome men's tendency to be untruthful?

In Matthew 5:33, Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'" This statement in itself was not a distortion of the Law. The error of the Pharisees that Jesus is addressing here was not in misstating the Law; it is in mishandling the Law. They missed the point of the Law.

The Jews of Jesus' day had trouble telling the truth consistently, so in order to guard themselves against being found guilty of swearing falsely by the name of God, they swear by everything except God. They wanted to add some kind of force to their promises to make their words more credible, but they did not want to incur the judgment of God by swearing something in His name when they did not fully intend to make it good or when it was not entirely true. So they created what was in effect a lesser class of oaths, oaths that were bound to various parts of God's creation rather than to God Himself, as Jesus points out in Matthew 5:34-36, instead of swearing by God, they swore by heaven or by earth, or by Jerusalem, or even by their own heads.

Jesus' point seems to be that the swearing of oaths as practiced by the scribes and Pharisees was evil, in its entirety, because they deliberately swore their oaths by everything except God in a foolish effort to avoid their accountability to God. In Matthew 5 Jesus emphasizes the sovereign of God over all things, heaven, earth, Jerusalem, even the hairs on your head. Jesus' point is, no matter what you choose to swear by, you are accountable to Him whether you swear an oath or do not swear an oath. You are accountable to Him every time you open your mouth.

The important aspect in our passage has nothing to do with the formality of an oath or vow. The important aspect is the heart.

In concluding His statement about oaths Jesus says, "Let your statement be, 'Yes, yes' or 'No, no'; anything beyond these is of evil'" (Matthew 5:37).

The Pharisees had systematically reduced righteousness to a set of external behaviors, and those behaviors were nothing but filthy rags in the sight of God. Their oaths were no more reliable than the statement of a child who has his fingers crossed behind his back, because they were more interested in being believed than they were in being godly.

Everything that Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount comes back to the reality that God sees straight into our hearts. He sees the malice and murder in our hearts when we cling to anger toward a brother or sister. He sees the adultery in our hearts when we gaze longingly at another woman. The righteousness that comes from God cares infinitely more about what God sees than about what man sees. Our yes must be yes and our no must be no. God says to His people in every age, "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Leviticus 19:2). Jesus makes the same appeal in the Sermon on the Mount, saying, "You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Will we perfectly achieve His holiness this side of heaven, John tells us that it won't be until we see Him as He truly is that we will be like Him (1 John 3:2). However, God's holy character, revealed in the person of Jesus Christ is to be our rule of life, right here, right now. Is that a tough standard? It is, but it is what God requires of us. However, it is not so tough if we lay hold of the promise that He has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).

Finally, the standard of righteousness in this passage is God's own righteousness (Matthew 5:48). For us who are His children, our Father's words show us how to live. As children, we all start by learning how we are required to behave, then we hopefully learn to put to practice the principles we have been taught and focus on the goal of godly lives from a godly heart. Let us be truthful people because we hunger and thirst for righteousness. Let us be truthful people because we are our heavenly Father's children.

Retired pastor,Church of the Nazarene

Author of web site Exploring God's Word

www.thewordofgodonline.net

New American Standard Bible

King James Version

The World English Bible

Sermons and Bible studies preached and taught by author

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