LIFE SCRIPTS

Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Matthew 5:33‭-‬37 KJV

In the Old Testament, people under the Mosaic law were required to take oaths in God’s name when they were making a statement. It’s much the same case as today when we take an oath in a court of law. For people to speak the truth, the fear of God had to be invoked. Christ however, depicts a higher standard here. He states that we shouldn’t swear in God’s name, neither in His city, neither by ourselves coz we can’t even create ourselves. Instead, our ‘yes’ must be yes and our ‘no’ no. In other words, when we speak the truth, we must not back it up with other statements because the Spirit of God in us convicts us to speak the truth always. What are some of the common statements we use as a truth back up to what we speak? ‘I swear’, ‘I’m telling you the truth’, ‘believe me!’, ‘I’m not lying’, ‘I’m serious’ etc. Truth doesn’t need defence. Instead it is like a caged lion. When challenged, the only thing for us to do is to open the cage and to let it defend itself. As custodians of truth, we are just the cage handlers. Our role is to open the cage gates in order to let truth speak for itself. It’s amazing how people in Palestine noticed the difference between the way Christ taught and the way the teachers of the law and Pharisees taught. Even though all of them taught from God’s word, the Torah, Pentateuch, Psalms, Prophets etc., the Pharisees were legalistic teachers trying to prove a point. Christ on the other hand taught as one ‘with authority ‘. Yet when we read scriptures we don’t see any superlatives or exagarated figures of speech in His statements. We only notice that at times seemingly mundane truths in the word of God were communicated by Him in such an authoritative way. Not only did His speech make a difference but also His body language. Picture this passage we’re reading about. He was being followed by multitude yet He chose to stop on top of the mount and teach them for a long time. To capture the attention of group of people takes effort…what about a multitude? I suspect that some of them had tracked His life and tried to find inconsistencies with what He was saying. Probably after finding none, they had no choice but to listen. Why? Because He had authority to speak into their lives. He communicated truth to them in words, actions, thoughts, attitudes and intentions. Truth is not communicated through speech alone. Remember, people are watching out for inconsistencies in our lives. If we can match the truth we speak to our actions, we would be of great impact to others. We will not need to add superlatives in our speech to convince them. Our word will be taken as it is. Our ‘yes’ as yes and our ‘no’ as no.