On a side note and then a fore note, we should be ever so careful what we profess. Palms up – confession, palms out – profession. Are you a typical promise maker and promise breaker? If you tend to break your promises, let me suggest you do more and promise less. Better to pledge 2 things and do two things, than to pledge 10 things and do none. If someone is disappointed that you didn’t make a promise, let them be disappointed… it’s better than making a promise you knew you couldn’t keep merely to acquire their approval in the short run. In fact, if we get right down to it, James 5:12 says, “Above all, my brothers, do not swear–not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” be no, or you will be condemned.” Consider this: the more you do NOT keep your promises, the easier it gets to NOT keep your word. The inverse is true also in that the more you DO keep your word, the easier it gets to keep your word.
It’s a matter of character. Remember, it is your personal honor i’m speaking of, additionally you’re representing the Kingdom of God in the eyes of the world. If you tell someone you’re going to call, then call, even if it’s to say you’re not going to call. We can’t live our lives on, what i call, momentary promises. For many, what is true today may not be true tomorrow… that just won’t work. Good old Dan Clay used to say, “If you do, you do, and if you don’t, you don’t.” That may not make much sense to some folks, but think about it… it’s good sound wisdom. i didn’t get it for years, but i think i do now, it means “If you say “yes”, then do “yes”, and if you say “no” then do “no”, and have the grace to say “yes” when it’s appropriate, and how to say “no” when it’s necessary. Think carefully before you commit. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.
The last word in James 5:12 is the word “condemned”, which is the Greek word for “hypocrite”, which implies deceit, and if anyone in this world needs to be known as honest and reliable, it is the people of God, people of outstanding character.
Our topic is “Pledges and Affirmations”, where it came from and how do our pledges and affirmations impact society today.
i suppose it could be said, most people live at a slightly erratic tempo, of course some more than others, and most of us might even be slightly out of tune, some more than others. Even at that, everyone wants to be believed and validated in some fashion or another. What lengths are we willing to go to in order to have people believe us? Some folks want others to believe them for criminal reasons, others with the hopes of being validated, and then there are those who tell the truth for the sake of the Lord and it doesn’t matter if any person endorses or validates them because the truth, who is Christ is sufficient for them.
An oath is a promise calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear an oath is to make a solemn vow and i fully believe the Lord takes the promises we make to others seriously, that means we should too.
There are those in our society who object to making an oath or a vow, even in court, asserting that their word is their bond, and if they say “yes” or “no” you can bank on it. That, my friends, is righteous and very brave.
When people make an oath or vow, most of the time they also imply that if they fail in the accomplishing of their oath, it somehow invokes some sort of divine displeasure. The ancient Hebrews were really big on oaths and vows, even to the point of it becoming down right ridiculous.
The most usual oath or vow is the explicit “I swear,” meaning to promise something to someone, or to solemnly charge, but any statement or promise that includes “as my witness” or “so help me”, that also is an oath. Many people take an oath by holding in their hand or placing over their head a book of scripture or a sacred object, thus indicating the sacred witness through their action.
When we take an oath or “swear” something, it’s like we have taken on two masters, the Lord AND the oath. In fact, the implication of the Hebrew word “oath” could literally be taken to mean, “to fence yourself in, to limit yourself”, and the root word means, “a boundary line”. So, we’re down to a boundary line being an oath of sorts… which means the property deed you possess which defines what is yours and what is your neighbors is a type of an oath, a sworn agreement; the title to your car is a sworn agreement, an oath and vow. In light of James 5:12, do you think it’s really about a rigorous legality or is it about your character and keeping your word?
We could take James 5:12 to the point of being legalistic and never even say things which would require us to keep our word, but honestly, that makes for some very odd conversation. i knew a man who was so careful about committing himself to anything he would almost never say “yes” or “no”. Instead he said, “probably”, “more than likely”, “pretty much”, or “I think so”. That isn’t someone being careful about their oaths and vows, that’s someone who fears committing to anything. And yes, his life reflected his lack of commitment you couldn’t count on him for anything.
Oaths and vows… very tricky stuff, and our society is rife with them.
“But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King” (Matt. 5:34–35).
Is taking an oath the same as giving your word? Some say yes, some say no. To me, giving your word, as in, “Yes, i will be here every Tuesday to teach the class” isn’t in the same context as taking an oath, but it certainly qualifies as a vow and giving your word to do something. We must rightly divide the truth here without becoming legalistic in the process. Does God mean we should never agree to anything because it is a form of taking an oath? i think, “no”. If you pledged to open your doors on a certain day of the week to hold a home group meeting, i doubt Matt 5:34-35 means for us to not give our word or pledge to open our home. How would anyone follow us in ministry if we only used the phrases, “probably”, or “more than likely”? 1 Corinthians 14:8, “Again, if the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?” There is much to be said about giving and keeping your word.
It is sad to say that in the days in which we live, many people fail to keep their word and get downright hostile if we challenge them to do what they say. If you promised you’d show up, then show up, and if you can’t then don’t promise you will. You may mean well, but good intentions don’t count for not showing up. What’d that old saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” More and more often, people routinely break the promises they have made with little fear of repercussion. High divorce rates and political corruption testify that many are pretty unconcerned with keeping their vows, like a pledge of office, or even the covenant pledge of marriage. i believe it is apparent, that the solemnity of our sworn promises, simply, is often not taken seriously. Are all vows and oaths a bad idea though? James5:12 says one thing, but what do we do with Deuteronomy 10:20, “You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name.” Should we throw away making declarations in the name of Jesus just to conform to the law? Everyone, at some point or the other, has made promises they didn’t intend to keep. If your honest about that, you know it’s true. Many of us make vows all the while knowing that we have a way out if we want out.
However, such actions take lightly the word of the Lord. God looks upon the heart and knows whether our intentions conform to the promises that we make. 1 Samuel 16:7, “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
If you have made a promise that you did not intend to keep, think about it, why did you make it in the first place if you never meant to keep it? Say what you do, and do what you say, if you give your word then keep your word, and if you can’t keep your word, go to the person and explain the difficulty. Friend, work the problem, don’t let the problem work you.
It is unkind and disrespectful to give someone your word and then just let them hang. You know what i mean? You know, telling someone you’ll meet them at such-an-such a time, and on a whim, you decide to just not go… just letting them hang, no phone call or anything to let them know you won’t be coming. Do you believe agreeing to meet someone, although very simple, is an oath of sorts? We are acting ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, and doing what we say and keeping our word is foundational, don’t you think?
There are so many businesses today which if they find out you are a believer, they don’t want to do business with you. They say Christians aren’t trustworthy, lie, and don’t keep their word. Friends, that is sad to me, because if there is anyone on earth who should be reliable, trustworthy, and honest it is the children of God. We do our God and family a great disservice when we don’t keep our word.
An amazing number of waiters and waitresses actually loath working at their place of employment on Sunday. Why? They say it is when the “church people” come in, and for them, the crowd is often so stingy, condescending, and dishonest, a lot of wait staff won’t work on Sunday. Don’t you think there’s something wrong with that?
i knew a young man who was a waiter at a nice restaurant, he said that one Sunday he had a group of 20 come in, fresh from church. He hustled, was very polite and personable, listened, took their orders correctly, you know, all the things good wait staff should do. They on the other hand, were cold and sneering, and when they got their orders and decided they didn’t want what they ordered, they blamed him and said either he got it wrong or he had purposely switched it just to spite them. One person even asked him why he wasn’t in church that morning. Little did they know he was a believer and had gone to an early service at his church. When the crowd left, they left him a tip of a quarter paper clipped to a salvation track. It was heart breaking.
Since i heard that story, and many other stories since then, i have thought to myself, we are believers, we are supposed to represent the kindness and grace of God, it’s part of our oath to follow Jesus; we are supposed to be generous – listening to others is generous; helping others is generous; kind truth is generous; not exploiting the exploitable is generous; being generous is part of our pledge to follow and live like Jesus; we agree and have sworn to live like Jesus by not being condescending and self-seeking but to be patient and longsuffering. We pray to the Lord to open the eyes of our heart to see Jesus that we would be more like Jesus, but then to treat people like many of us do… c’mon, where is our character? i asked one man, who was especially harsh and tight fisted towards a waitress why he wasn’t more kind towards someone who was working hard to make ends meet, and he told me, “If that woman is stupid enough to work for $5/hour and whatever pitiful tips she gets, she deserves her life.” You know, i cried and thought to myself it’s no wonder some people don’t want to be involved with church people. Do you keep your word?
When we ask God for mercy, do we think He extends it to us because we deserve it so much, because we are sooo worthy? No. He extends it to us because, in His Love, He is committed to us and all mankind, that if anyone will call on His Name asking for forgiveness and help, they shall be saved. God gave mankind an oath and vow of love that is binding, and God keeps His word … He will do it. The Lord is Faithful. He is faithful and we have pledged to be faithful too.
The Jews of old, when they were ever so serious about an oath or a vow, they did something called, “Seven Yourself”. Evidently, it wasn’t enough for your “yes” and “no” to be sufficient. What was meant by “seven yourself” was to bind yourself by seven things, to swear by seven planets, seven sacred items, seven sacrifices, or seven oaths – meaning you would swear your oath seven times. Abraham gave seven lambs to Abimelech at the well of Beer-Sheba, or the “well of seven oaths”; the name Bath-sheba means “daughter of an oath”, seven days of creation, seven flames on the menorah, etc, etc… i don’t know what it was, i’m sure it’s a great discussion for another time, but there was really something about the number seven. Anyway.
Doing all that swearing and oath taking and vow making, all that adjuring and charging others with pledges and affirmations really didn’t stop anyone from doing what they wanted to do anyway. And as a result, when we read James 5:12, or Matt5:34-35, the Lord is saying, making a pledge and an affirmation is a serious thing, and if you don’t have to, don’t. Let your “yes” be “yes” and show yourself reliable to do what you agreed to, well representing the honor and righteousness of Heaven lest you be found to have an empty profession of faith. Let your “no” be “no”, having the character to have good solid boundaries, and to keep those boundaries because you are a person of your word, not because you’ve gone to great lengths to make a bunch of oaths swearing on this and that. Let your word, be your word, giving people the opportunity to see that there really are Christians who do what they say in this world. James 2:14-17, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
When we give our pledge, we need to do what we say, it is not enough to profess to have faith… even in small things, like keeping your word and exercising good boundaries. That’s exactly what keeping your word is, it is the works of your faith.
As Christians, our word is to be trustworthy so that we need not swear oaths every time we make commitments and promises to one another. God calls each of us to be the kind of people that if we say we’ll do something, we’ll do it and we don’t have to swear an oath in order for the other person to be assured we will do what we say. Our word is our bond, and if we don’t keep our word, why should we be surprised if people don’t particularly believe us. If our speech is untrustworthy so that we feel the need to swear our truthfulness in all of our conversations, then perhaps we have not truly embraced the Gospel. Think about it.
John Calvin wrote that if James’ audience “observed faithfulness as they ought, in their words, there would have been no necessity of so many superfluous oaths.”
How trustworthy is your speech? Would people say you are believable, someone who can be trusted and is faithful? Do you see no harm in telling “little white lies?” Why are little lies “white” anyway? If you have been guilty of being less than truthful in your speech, making pledges and affirmations which you never really intended to keep, then go make amends with those you’ve wounded. Honesty will go a long way to making us believable, consistent and repeatable in the face of a world which is always shifting.
i’m Social Porter and this has been Outposts, brought to you by Living In His Name Ministries,
The key aspect of an oath is the intent of the heart behind it, for oaths and vows in themselves do not establish truth. Friends, your word, an oath or vow is only as good as the person behind it. Do you get my drift?
This quote from William Shakespeare in All’s Well That Ends Well captures an important insight: “‘Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth, but the plain single vow that is vow’d true.” If our word is our bond, then the promises of our mouth are not to be taken carelessly.
Be strong and courageous this week, be honest, forthright, clear eyed, and keep an ear open for the leading of the Lord. i’ll meet you again on the trail of the lonesome pine. Amen.