THE fourth illustration which Jesus uses to show the defective teaching of the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law is concerning the matter of taking oaths. Again Jesus illustrates here how the Pharisees were content to latch on to a particular letter of the Law of God, and if they had kept that,and they were meticulous in honouring that letter, they felt they were sinless as concerning the matter being considered, and so could say they had kept God’s law perfectly and were sinless before God, and worthy of approbation from God. This is still the case today, and is how sinful humanity thinks. The average person in the world today considers him or her self as perfectly acceptable to God because no particular outward sin like murder or adultery has taken place. Jesus is at pains to point out that such an attitude will not do, and illustrates it again in this matter of taking oaths.

The exact interpretation of the Law which Jesus speaks about in verse 33 is not found in this exact form in the Old Testament but it is based on teaching found there. The passages are as follows - Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30:2; and Deuteronomy 6:13. Jesus is not saying that taking an oath is wrong in every case, but rather correcting two misconceptions. The first misconception is that the only oaths you need to keep are those laid down by the Teachers of the Law. Jesus points out the evil way the Teachers of the Law were dealing with the matter of oaths in Matthew 23:16-22. The second misconception was that some oaths were meant to be kept and others did not matter. Jesus is making it clear in these verses of the Sermon on the Mount before us that no one should make an oath carelessly, and the reason is that an oath is a very serious matter and is binding. He is also enforcing the truth that lying is evil and a sin.

The whole matter is important because of the tendency of fallen human nature to lie. Because of this and the fact that because lying is so common people tend to be distrustful of others, people seek to enforce their assertions by oaths, and often this is to convince people that the lie they are telling is the truth. The Law given by God in the Old Testament was given to curb this tendency to lie, and enforce lies by oaths, and so regulate society and make it more tolerable.

That oaths of themselves are not prohibited is made clear in the Bible because we read of Godly people in the Old Testament, such as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, also Joseph, David and Jonathan, all used an oath in a particular and serious moment. Jesus did not condemn the High Priest at his trial for saying “I charge you under oath by the living God: tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” In fact Jesus broke his silence and answered truthfully that this was true. Jesus honoured the oath made before God and obeyed it. We have examples of oaths being right on occasion in the New Testament epistles, and the argument in Hebrews 6:16ff is based on the fact that God swore by himself in order to affirm the truth concerning Christ.

Jesus, however, in these verses from the sermon on the mount condemns the evil way oaths were being handled by the Pharisees and the Teachers of the Law, and by this condemns any taking of oaths lightly, or using the name of God to enforce statements in a vain way. The fact that Jesus indicates here is that whenever we make a promise or an assertion, we are making it not just before a human being, but we are making it before God. Therefore to break ones word, or to lie, is not just wrong towards the one being spoken to, but is a sin against God. Jesus takes us even further by indicating that it is not just the outward words that we say that are important, but also the intent of our heart as we speak. It is easy enough to even tell the truth in such a way as to suggest what is untrue. It is also very common for human beings to justify something by some sort of double thinking and casuistry.

The truth of the matter is that God hates lying of any kind, and this is true even when we lie to ourselves. This lying to ourselves is at the very heart of our sin. We are so good at seeking to justify actions and thoughts, so that we are able to hide from the fact that they are wrong or unworthy of God’s holiness. Because we want what is evil, we easily justify our actions, just as the Pharisees were doing concerning the matter of oaths.

For the Christian Jesus lays down how we should behave, speak and think. We should only say yes or no. By this Jesus means we should be so truthful and honest that it should never be necessary to enforce our words with oaths. We should be so honest before all people that people will know that our word is sacrosanct, and can be relied on, and we are to be trusted. We should never have to find it necessary in normal living to have to take an oath as we say anything.