Telling the truth, Part 1

James 5:12

I’ve taught my children many things over the years, but there is one thing I did not have to teach them, and that is how to lie. They learned that from their mother. (Cue sound of cymbals.)

In our passage, between dealing with evil, and God’s right to heal, James inserts a verse that seems to be out of place.

But of course they are connected. Part of our dealing with evil is honesty, both in how we address the situation and the abuser. Part of having our prayers answered (will be dealt with next time) is honesty.

The Psalmist warns us, (Psa 66:18) If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: Now the verse in question: (Jas 5:12) But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

So James tells us not to swear, or makes oaths. But rather simply let our word speak for itself. Our yeses should be yeses and our noes should be noes.

This verse actually goes a lot deeper than it looks on the surface, and James is repeating what Jesus said in Mt. 5:33-37

The taking of oaths is a funny thing. Though both Jesus and James told us not to, this wasn’t always the case. At one time, the taking of an oath was encouraged. (Deu 10:20) Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name.

But of course, breaking an oath taken was sin.

(Lev 19:12) And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

(Num 30:2) If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.

(Deu 23:21) When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee.

See, back in the OT, vows were part of a committed life to God. But once made, they were not to be broken under any circumstances.

But, by the time the NT came around, this teaching was being abused. People were looking for ways to get out of their word.

Some teachers were saying that if you made an oath, but did not include God’s name, then it wasn’t binding and if you broke it — oh well.

There is an example in I Sam of Abner swearing by the life of the King, and leaving the Lord out of it.

(1Sa 17:55) And when Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said unto Abner, the captain of the host, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell.

So, things got out of hand. People began swearing by anything and everything and intending not to keep it. It’s like a kid promising while his fingers are crossed behind his back.

The situation was so bad, both James and Jesus simply said don’t swear by anything at all.

The idea is that we don’t need to swear to show that we are telling the truth. We need to always tell the truth.

The reason oath taking is so popular is because people are liars.

I want to leave you with a great quote from Dr. Helmut Thielicke, who resisted the compromise of his integrity during Hitler’s reign.

Whenever I utter the formula “I swear by God,” I am really saying, “Now I’m going to mark off an area of absolute truth and put walls around it to cut it off from the muddy floods of untruthfulness and irresponsibility that ordinarily overruns my speech.”

In fact, I am saying even more than this. I am saying that people are expecting me to lie from the start. And just because they are counting on my lying I have to bring up these big guns of oaths and words of honour — life can begin again.