You get our scriptures. Our scripture is taken from James chapter 5 and we'll look at verse 12 James chapter 5 verse 12 But above all my brothers do not swear either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath But let your yes be yes and your no be no so that you may not fall under condemnation may God richly bless both the reading and the hearing of his holy word Now in our text James touches on a subject of There's the subject of making oaths or vows or what is Sometimes referred to as swearing So let me just be clear that when James depending on your translation when he says do not swear He's not talking about profanity In this context. He is speaking on something That is it's been a little problematic for Christians down through the years to gain a clear and consistent understanding on what is and is not for permissible when it comes to swearing or Depending on your translation taking oaths. So it seems on the surface that what James says here coupled with what Jesus says at On the sermon on the mount and Matthew chapter 5 verses 34 and 35 he makes this statement He says I say to you do not take an oath at all either by heaven For it is the throne of God or by earth For it is his footstool or by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great king And so as I said when you look at these statements what James is doing here And what Jesus does in the sermon on the mount on the surface it seems to be an an absolute and complete Prohibition against Christians taking oaths And certainly if you look into the whole of scripture you'll find a different Understanding altogether That taking oaths or making a vow are not necessarily or even swearing That it is not necessarily against the word of God So there has been a struggle throughout the history of the church To maintain consistency in both understanding and applying what the Bible allows and for bids In this subject or on this subject or of swearing or oath taking In fact, there are some Christian sects And subgroups groups that don't think Christians should Be in the military or if you are called as a witness to court that you are What have we just these clear statements for bid us from taking an oath and swearing on the Bible So what I want to do And because there are three as we already indicated there are three basic words that are used throughout scriptures That indicates that that fall sort of in the same category One is taking taking a vow Or making a vow another is taking an oath and the other one is swearing So with these three primary primary words as they are used throughout scriptures What I want to do is give an overarching two-fold definition Of what's meant by this category of words and then just kind of work through some things before we work our way back to What James says in particular so what do we mean when we talk about swearing or or taking an oath or making a vow one of two things on the one hand It could be when are to make a promise or a pledge to do something or Whether it's so so that's that's considered that's that's considered about to make a promise or a pledge to do Something or to not do something and so either it is for God Or it is for others. That's that's what we mean by a vow for instance throughout the Old Testament and particularly in the Psalms You you'll you'll hear the psalmas. I will keep my vows to God and We read in the wisdom literature that that we should not be rash in making vows to God What you vow you should keep and so so that that is a category that we see in the New Testament now there are our Old Testament And there are some some stupid vows that are made For instance Jepta he makes a vow as he is about to go out to war and he makes a vow lord if you give me Victory against my enemies then the first thing that comes out of my house. I will sacrifice it to you Well first off What came out of his house when he came back in victory was his daughter And he made a vow and he ended up killing his daughter in order to keep his vow So some oath taking or a vow making is is is is stupid to make in the first place and Also with vow making There is the tendency of superstition and by that what I mean is when we make vows if we make a vow With an implied conditionality to it Lord if you then I then that becomes superstition So there there's room for that not all necessarily but but certainly that's room so when we speak of vows We are talking about a promise or a pledge to do something or to not do something either for God or for others Now on the flip side of that when you speak of vows marriage vows That's the same thing you are pledging One to another to do something and to not do something else So whereas Jepta's vows are stupid marriage vows are sacred and so so there So that's what we mean by vows, but here's the second category a second layer of the definition And this especially applies to swearing swearing or taking an oath It is to call on something or someone That is deemed as sacred as a witness To the trustworthy or the truthfulness of what we say Or the trustworthiness of our character So to swear and especially in that sense to swear Is to is to call on something or someone That you deem as sacred As a witness to the truthfulness of what you say Or the trustworthiness of one's character Now that's that's that's really what we mean and and so when we swear by the way When it comes to oath taking an oath Taking an oath is to is to declare or profess to be willing to do something And you are swearing with God as your witness or whoever you have deemed as sacred That you will follow through on the actions that you have committed to Now in the Westminster confession of faith as well as the London Baptist confessions They speak of lawful oaths They speak of oaths that are lawful and I would argue that they divided really into two categories two categories of lawful oaths And and the first category are those that are part of religious ceremonies or religious duties That's that's a sacred oath that which is part of a religious worship Or as a part of one's religious duties wherein the person that is swearing in truth Righteousness and judgment They solemnly call God to witness what they swear to And they are calling God as judged to be a witness according to the truth Or the falseness for the truth and the falseness there And the falseness in other words that they are deemed so if they're deemed something to be false or if they're deemed something to be true In their religious service in their religious duties They are making a statement to God calling God to be a witness and I would argue that in the That that swearing as it relates to the religious duties Is is is part of it it can be both individual and corporate in other words when an individual comes and becomes a part of a congregation or a part of a church and they make a profession of faith And they are now understand what that church teaches And so for instance when we have when we extend the right hand the fellowship We open with our church covenant that says this That if we do now in the presence of God and angels and this assembly Most solemnly Enter into covenant with one another so once a profession of faith is made And an individual acknowledges that this is the place where God is nurturing them Then they make a sacred oath publicly To uphold the doctrine and the spiritual integrity of that church So that's where an individual is swearing Or making an oath to a church And brothers and sisters. I know this is a generation in which we live Where somehow many people don't think there is an over overarching authority Attached to the church, but it is It is and the church institutionally Is the overseer of your subjective and individual faith So when we come and and become a part of a local congregation Then we are swearing in the presence of God angels and the assembled That we are willing to be governed by The things that are taught by that particular church. That's one form of religious swearing And the flip side of that The corporate church has a responsibility and it swears its responsibility So when the church receives an individual into membership Then they are swearing to you The care that God has has has established for your soul given over to the church That's what they're doing. They're swearing and by the way When If and when it reaches a point Uh, and we can say it even as it relates to the ordinary It distribution from the Lord's table But if and when it reaches a point Where a person is removed from the fellowship Then the church is calling God to witness That they have done all that is required of them And they are now publicly as they publicly announce receiving this person into the fellowship They publicly announce they're no longer a part that's taking an oath So that's that's kind of what we mean that whether it's the individual church um church member Or whether it's the church acting officially Val's and swearing as a part of our religious practice And the exercise of our religious convictions is a part of us promising and committing as we understand the authority Or as we understand the word of God and therefore we call upon God as witness to our actions And clearly that's not that that is that is not prohibited by scriptures We see evidence is even throughout the New Testament of individuals within the church um making vows or swearing and by the way Covenantally or in confessional churches When a minister is ordained To the the preaching ministry of the gospel Then in a confessional church part of that ordination is that this minister Is making an oath to preach the gospel in accordance with the confession that he is a part of That's why it's none of this well, you know Lord just call me to preach and then you just get up and say well I've been called to preach. No. That's not the way it works And individual who claims to be called to preach has to submit to the church first And those whom God has placed over the church determines whether or not that individual's call to to to to preach is indeed a call to preach And then we when we ordain what what you ordain to do Which you may be licensed to do in some instances is not preach as you feel But to preach the gospel and accordance to the confession of faith That has acknowledged your calling to ministry So in all of those those are whether it's individually or corporately There is a place for swearing or making oaths On the part of the corporate body in terms of what our responsibilities are In guiding individuals and governing them according to the common convictions of the word of God And the individual members of the church Swear to uphold that particular church denomination or local body In all that they profess in their support both temporal and spiritual those are sacred oaths And that is a part of our ordinary religious activity But the confession all confessions also speak of oaths that are that are warranted by the word of God But are not a part of our religious duties Or our religious gatherings And in this we would include So if they're not religious in nature It would include pledging allegiance to a flat or a country It could include taking a sacred off for an office It could include as a police officer taking in a pledge or military If you become a part of the military where you take a pledge to defend the Constitution of the United States all of these things are oaths and pledges that we make That our confessions would call warranted now what they mean by warranted Our can our our our oaths and pledges That a do not prohibit What God has commanded In other words that they don't forbid you from doing what God has commanded And be they do not command you to do What God has forbidden So a warranted oath An oath of allegiance to one's country An oath of service to one's particular office Those oaths or the oath that is given when one becomes a witness as in a in a court of trial or an accord And you were called upon to be a witness and they asked you to put your hand on the Bible and take this oath Those are not forbidden And Christians are short-sighted When they think that we can't make an oath or we can't make a pledge because they go to again Matthew five or even the text that we're looking at and say that the Bible forbids us from taking oaths. No, it doesn't In each of the situations that we've addressed both in Jesus message in the sermon on the mount And as we will see with James those are in those passages They're talking about something in particular as it relates to oath making now. I should say this But I think that we as Christians we do have to be careful That when we make pledges Whether it's Pledge of allegiance to a country Whether it's taking an oath of office When we take pledges or make oaths That do not necessarily prohibit us from doing what God commands or they do not necessarily Command us to do what God forbids Then we must make sure that we do not exalt The organization or the individual to whom we make that oath To a level that is equal to or above God In other words we It's nothing wrong with us making a pledge or saying the pledge of allegiance to the United States There's nothing wrong with that We are citizens of the United States and we do want to uphold our nation as best we can But it would be wrong for us To elevate our devotion to nation as being equivalent to our devotion to God Because our nation can be wrong But God isn't And therefore we should never be committed to more committed or equally committed To a nation A political platform of that nation or a particular Personality of the platform of that that of of of of governing Above our duty and devotion to God So do we make oaths? I think the Bible doesn't forbid it But what the Bible does forbid is for us to recklessly, carelessly Use his name and invoke him In those pursuits That are not necessarily tied to our religious community And I would even argue sometimes within the religious community Because again on this side of heaven there is no denomination that cannot be wrong And so we should have the humility to be able to say I was wrong And so even in your in your discovery of biblical truth you may have one point believe this but you come to a different point Then if it's in conflict then if you if you cannot if you hold to something that is different from what you you held to before at a fundamental level Then you are no longer necessarily bound by conscience to that place that teaches something that you no longer hold to But you are bound to do it in a way that is consistent with the character of our God That we're not to be unnecessarily disruptive And certainly we are not to be destructive in our disagreements So our oaths possible are they forbidden? And again, we would argue that based on the whole teaching of scripture God does not forbid us from making pledges God does not forbid us from taking vows And those sacred vows we do it as a part of our stewardship and as a part of our discipleship and a part of our being submissive to his lordship And then also those non-safety vows that we take You have to be sure that we don't elevate what we are pledging ourselves to To a level that's unhealthy Let me just give three overarching observations before we look specifically at our text One Jesus words in Matthew 5 Should not be seen as a general prohibition against Christian oath taking No more than James chapter 5 verse 12 Should be taken as an overarching general prohibition Against any Christian taking an oath And it's amazing how much damage we can do with an open Bible All it takes is one person let me just show you this and they'll extract a statement out of context And then try to build a city around it So The first thing is Jesus words in John in Matthew 5 Nor James words here in in James 5 12 Our should be seen as a general prohibition against Christian oath taking Secondly When we square and take oaths outside of our religious context To reiterate something that we've just said we must be sure that we do not exhaust the office or Institution or any other individual to whom we make a pledge and we do not Elevate them to the status of being God or equals or equal to or greater than God himself And then thirdly In the language of both Westminster Confession and the London Baptist Confession We as Christians should not rashly nor carelessly nor recklessly Enter into any oath or vow We we shouldn't just One of the the arguments about people just jumping into marriage marriage includes Commitments in those commitments are expressed by way of vows And we should not carelessly jump into taking vows that that might extend beyond your temporary You know emotional high at this moment that you just want to do it I just love you to death and I just want to eat you up and I just want to live with you forever You know no no no no no no no no wait a minute because She may not and he may not be as desirable a week from now
so be careful In making a vow I would say the same thing when it comes to choosing a church Understand that when you choose a church You are taking a sacred oath You are taking an oath to be under that church's authority And you are taking an oath to support that church's teaching teaching foundation So be careful Be careful of what you commit to in both of the confessions Use language against taking rash or careless or making rash and careless oaths There's you know, I love sports and they call people love sports fans and fans the word fan is short for fanatic and sometimes we can be so fanatical About our teams That we overlook rational evidence to the contrary I can't imagine what it must have been like To be a red socks fan between like 1919 and until they recently won the world series Them thinking that they have a chance It's I mean you could I can't imagine I have a friend I can say this I have a friend who's from Boston or lives in the Boston area and He's way too smug and his fandom of his team But I can you imagine certain teams just thinking that they're and it's okay. It's okay But but here's the problem here's the problem The problem with fan with with sports fanatics Is that in order to defend our team? We will overlook a lot of truth Okay, let me just kind of keep you in on something. I was I'm a huge laker fan I grew up loving the Los Angeles Lakers and I was a A proponent of Kobe Bryant. I think Kobe Bryant was a great player But I also think that Kobe Bryant was a selfish player at times And my son and I would talk about this and we were talking about it among other laker fans and They was all you know, how could you say that all of a sudden the other and we point out evidence But the fact that they were a fan of the Lakers admit That one of our players who was an all-time great player can't be critiqued
Brothers and sisters I think what we've seen in our generation That sports fandom mentality Has carried over to Christians in other organizations That to love something music can't be critiqued and we are so wedded to our vow to this platform this personality That there's no room for critique
And so therefore anyone on the other side of it Is an enemy I think part of the warnings that James And that Jesus is making concerning taking pledges And in terms of swearing That we should not be rashed in what we are pledged to I'll tell you I'm yes, I'm a raiders fan and no we haven't won the Super Bowl in a long time But you know what out Davis was he was outdated long before he died He lost control and in a sense of what the team really needed long before he died And that doesn't make me any less Of a raider fan I remember late sixties Carrying this over to other areas There was a slogan that became popular there was a lot of discourse and disruption throughout the country And there was a slogan that became popular America Love it or leave it Nobody should make that pledge
No one should make that what do you mean love it or leave it can't you love it and fix it
Can't you love it and acknowledge that it's got some flaws
Brothers and sisters when James says don't swear He's establishing the barren the parameters and the boundaries to which we are to commit ourselves beyond god himself So we have to be careful That we don't become blinded by secondary loyalty That puts us at odds with or that we've exhausted something or someone else to the status of god And it doesn't matter what it is whether it's a sports team Whether it's a spouse because some people love their spouses if they were god a child a political ideology Party platform That nothing gets in the place of God and it's for this reason That James says In essence be careful of what you swear to Now, let's look then specifically at the text And there are three things that we want to note First off in this verse James references swearing or oath making in a particular context And it seems as if the context that he's addressing is in is that of the general discourse of living in this world In other words our our general discourse our conversation our our our transactions in this world And so here's what makes me think that he's just speaking generally and so he's not referring to religious oaths Because he says let your yes be yes And your nay or your no be no as such what James is doing is affirming what should be a Fundamental aspect of our Christian witness As we are left in this world. We are left as witnesses of god Now we're not always good witnesses, but we are witnesses. We're witnesses when we're not witnessing verbally And so James in essence is saying that while we are in the world That the words that we speak Should be truthful So that people have a reason to believe us and there's nothing that we should engage in that should divorce us from truth speaking And our jobs and our homes and our communities We should at least be acknowledged as being truth keepers That we speak the truth and the truth that we speak Guides our actions So whether again We are interacting whoever it is that we're interacting with James is saying you don't have to make a big deal of it just speak truth Just just speak truth just just just tell the truth and what you say do and Don't say that Which you know you don't have a desire to do That's basically what he's saying that that we what whatever we speak it should be truthful And what we say we should be faithful to it And we should and that's what we should commit ourselves to So it seems as if the context here is just our discourse God forbid in our communities on our jobs Or in our professions that people look at us and say, uh, well, you know You know him he plays fast and loose with the truth that shouldn't be the case with the Christian
Brothers and sisters there is no business that we should be in there is no interaction And engagement that we should be in where we are at odds with speaking the truth So James says you don't need to swear you don't need to you know say oh, you know I had a cousin or friend that would you well all of us grew up probably in Intercity area or just growing up period people say well If they want to convince you or something. I swear on the stack of Bibles James says no just just do it You know just to speak the truth and you don't you don't need the whole stack of Bibles But here's the second thing What James the excessive swearing by heaven or by earth That James eludes to here when he says don't swear by heaven or by earth It seems it could be the result of one or two things In other words, he's he's addressing it for particular reason and it could be for one of two reasons And one of the reasons it could be that on the one hand Maybe it had become or was becoming normative in commerce and in ordinary social discourse To require or request an oath of some sort as a guarantee of a person's statement In other words, just maybe they went overboard In trying to validate what you said as being true Maybe you wanted a job somewhere and and and they asked at the end of it You know, are do you declare that everything that you said on this application is true? And you say yes, and then they provide a whole second form to say now Will you sign this oath to declare this is no no no no no just let your truth let your words matter So it could be that just as a matter of of discourse Maybe as a as a cultural thing It was becoming more and more necessary in order to get something done that you had to make an over the top pledge That what you're saying is true or in the spirit of what we see in revelation 13 And by the way if you're following us on our Bible studies In next week Well, the message that we the lesson that we will record this week will touch on the mark of the beast and that'll record That'll play two weeks from now But but will in in revelation 13 it speaks of the second beast that rises out of the sea Who now puts a mark on anyone who wants to buy and by the way, it's very specific as to who you'll put the mark on But those who want to buy in the market or so forth that they have to bear the mark of the beast And we know that's not a physical mark know they didn't have to get attached to they didn't get anything physically on their head But maybe what they're what they're referring to Is an aspect of of the emperor worship That was part of the Roman Empire That you had to pledge allegiance to this in order to and maybe what he's alluding to Is a greater degree of loyalty And so when James says here That that you don't let let your yay be a don't you don't need to make uh And oh you don't need to take an elf you don't need to swear anything He's not just speaking generally. He's speaking contextually as a matter as apart from your religious devotion, that he's dealing with your interactions in this world, be careful of making over-the-top commitments to prove yourself. So maybe that's what he's addressing. Maybe it's some aspect of that mark of the beast as a means of loyalty. In which case, Jane says you don't need to do it, or on the other hand, maybe there was a tendency on the part of some within the fellowship to overstate their intentions with unnecessary appeals to God, grandma, grandma's grave, or anything else that they have deemed as sacred. Maybe there are some, and as a part of the fellowship that have been so caught up, that maybe in following the ways of the world, that every time they pledge something, every time they say something, it's with this great swelling over-the-top, overly dramatic appeal. I always think of my mother. She had a cousin named Bobby, not this Bobby, but she had a cousin named Bobby who was always at odds with the truth. And that's just to the point where he was just cartoonishly, he was a cartoonish liar and a rather entertaining one. And one of the things that's significant, that he was about to really tell a doozy, is that he would say, not Louise, you know, and that was my mom, you know, he would say, not Louise, you know, I swear on so and so great, and was like, you know, he's starting up the engine, you know, he's cranking up the engine, or if I'm lying, I'm flying, and now he's in full swing, all of the things that he would call on to validate what he was about to say. And I mean, we have a whole laundry list of great Bobby stories that make us laugh because they were funny, and part of what made them funny is that he tried to pass them off as being true, and we knew it wasn't possible. Maybe what James is addressing within this congregation is the propensity of some to be able whenever they got ready to say something, they had to make over the top statements, that they had to ground, whatever they were going to say, in the name of this, that, and all that is sacred, and James is saying, just let your yes be yes, and let your no be no. Well that brings us to a final thing, and that's a bottom line, and here's the bottom line, I think what James is addressing here, is that as the children of God, we have been set free from bondage by the truth that is in Christ, and the truth that we have been set free by should be the guide in all of our engagements, so that when we say, and when we pledge something, we do so intentionally submitting to the Lordship of Christ, therefore we don't need grand statements, what we need to know is what we believe, and what we believe we act on in light of what we believe, so that when we say yes in this falling, perishing kingdom, let our yes be yes, and our no, no, because all of it is under the rubric of the sovereign God who does not change, so it's not conditioned by this, that or the other, what we pledge ourselves to in this fallen world, first and foremost, is to the God who rules it, you've heard it said, and it's become a part of our regular language, or maybe up to a point where people would say, by Jove, you know, by Jove this and by Jove that, and Jove, J-O-V-E, was one of the names for the Roman God Jupiter, and what people now, it means by Jove, what people mean by that is, oh, I'm surprised, but it was what it was meant originally to mean to convey, was I swear by Jove, or I swear by Jupiter, the assumption should be for all of the children of God, that when we speak, we speak truth, the truth as we understand it, and when that truth is contradicted or overthrown, then we humbly acknowledge what was not right, because ultimately brothers and sisters, our loyalty is to God. And so when James says, don't swear, don't swear by anything that is in heaven, in other words, don't call heaven down to witness what you're about to say, but rather let your yes be yes and your no be no so that your life and your words and your actions are witnesses to the one to whom you are beholden, not the other way around, God is not beholden to you, you are beholden to Him. This for this reason that James says brothers, don't swear either by heaven or by earth or any other oaths, because what guides any of your horizontal commitments is your vertical commitment to the Lord of truth. So when you live and when you interact, let your yes be yes, you say, but people won't believe it, let them, let them not believe it, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no. You don't have anything to prove to anyone else. You don't have to do this to prove how no, let your yes be yes in your citizenship, in your relationships, in your interactions, in your business, in all of your transactions, let your word, because it's grounded in the grace that saved you, let that be your witness, so that you don't have to swear either by heaven or earth, but let your yes be yes, and your no be no, so that you don't fall under condemnation.