“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 the 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,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
- Matthew 5:33-37 (NKJV)
In some Bibles, at the beginning of a set of verses is a title.
The title that prefaces these verses in the online New King James Version is “Jesus forbids oaths”.
How many times have you sworn that you would or would not do something?
Remember when we were little (and even some more recent conversations) we said things like “I swear to God!” (this by the way makes you accountable!!) or “cross my heart” or “I swear on a stack of Bibles” or on someone’s grave . . . and then when we did not follow through, we always said that we had our fingers crossed so it didn’t count? (but that is another story.)
According to the Bible, it is NOT a good thing to say.
Always keep your promises, keeping your promises establishes trust, and establishing trust builds relationships.
The inability to keep our promises and be a people of our word contradicts our character.
God expects people to honor their word and keep their promises, and He blesses us when we keep our commitments – don’t live your life as a maybe!
Remember the Dr. Seuss book “Horton Hatches the Egg”?
Condensed version, Horton was doing a favor for a friend, he was sitting on her nest while she took a break. Horton stayed on that nest through a whole lot of obstacles, never budging from the nest because: “I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful 100%”
Words are words, we should be able to take a man at his word.
We should not make them swear an oath of any kind.
A simple yes or no to our inquiry is all we should need.
Be a person of your word.
#dailybreadbykitty
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