Human nature loves to magnify the minute and give significance to the insignificant by
the simple method of stretching the truth. An army cook, for example, feed a mob of
men with scrambled eggs, and then he sat down and wrote to his girl friend: "Dearest,
for two hours shells have been bursting all around me." What he said was literally true,
for egg shells were bursting all around him, but his true statement conveyed a picture
that was not true at all. He used the truth to tell a lie. The best lies are conveyed by the
truth, for this kind of line is technically, or legalistically, not lying, but legitimate. If you
work at it, you can get so clever that you can lie quite consistently, and always be telling
the truth.
It's like the pastor who received a poorly baked pie from one of his members. He
threw it into the garbage, and the next time he saw her he said, "I can assure you a pie
like yours does not last long around our house." He is matched, if not out done, by the
pastor who bought a new boat and named it visitation. When someone called the
parsonage his wife could say that he was not home, but out on visitation. Unfortunately,
these are not just jokes. They are real problems that all Christians face.
Jamie Buckingham was one of the great Christian authors of our day. He had books
selling into the millions. He was also one of the biggest Christian liars I have ever read.
He tells of how he got started as a boy, and lying got him out of so much trouble that he
should have punished for that he couldn't stop. He flushed rags down the commode in
college, and flooded the whole second floor of the dorm. He ruined many students
clothes, but he lied his way out of it. He went into the ministry and was very successful.
In fact, he became pastor of one of the largest Southern Baptist Churches in South
Carolina. But he could not stop lying. His self-image compelled him to lie about his
church; its size; the attendance, and youth group.
He could not tolerate to be criticized or seen in a poor light of any kind, and so he
exaggerated and twisted the facts to suit his purpose. By the time he was 35 he had been
asked to leave two churches, and his marriage was going down hill fast. Finally the crisis
became so great that he was going to lose everything. He came to the end of his rope,
and for the first time he confessed he was a liar. He told of all his fears that compelled
him to lie. He experienced forgiveness, and he gained liberty from the need to lie. He
went on to become a man greatly used of God in communicating the truth.
Jesus knew that one of the great battles of life for believers would be the battle to
speak the truth. Every source of power in man is also a source of corruption. Power
does corrupt, and so Jesus has been dealing with each of the sources of power in us, and
warning us of the danger of abusing these powers. He is trying to prevent this abuse, and
keep the power functioning in a way God intended. He has dealt with the power of spirit,
the anger and hostility that leads to the breakdown in relationships, and, thus, to murder.
He has dealt with the power of stubbornness that leads to unnecessary suffering. And
then the power of sex that leads to lust and adultery. And then to the power of
superiority that leads to abuse of one's mate and divorce. Now Jesus deals with the
power of speech that leads to lying and deception.
Everyone of these powers used rightly are blessings, but used wrongly they damage
you and your relationship to God and man. Everyone of them used as God intended is a
source of energy for love. Everyone of them used unlovingly is a source of energy for
evil. We see it confirmed in the Sermon On The Mount that sin and evil are primarily
the abuse and misuse of energy that is good in itself. Speech is a source of power that
makes man what he is in superiority to the animals. Speech is good, but there is such a
temptation to misuse this power. The two areas of life where the temptation is greatest
are politics and religion. Both tempt people to develop a clever and complex
gobbledegook that can muddy the waters of communication.
The realm of religion is full of hocus pocus jargon. Jesus is not saying anybody can be
too religious, for it is impossible to love God or man to much, and this is the essence of
biblical religion. He is saying, however, you can talk too religious. It sounds like you are
really spiritual if you are heavy on God-talk, and bring him in on every statement you
make. Some people are always saying, "As God is my witness," or, "I swear to God."
This sounds like a good habit to get people more God conscious, but Jesus says we should
not do it. It leads to superficiality, and it undermines the truly spiritual. If you swear to
everything, and use the name of God to confirm everything you say, it soon becomes a
meaningless habit, and you will not be taken seriously by anyone. It destroys your
credibility, for your words become empty sounds. People find it hard to feel you
authentic if you try to make everything spiritual. It is like underlining every sentence in
a book. Instead of emphasizing everything, it is emphasizing nothing, for there is no
distinction between the tremendous and the trivial.
This is what the super spiritual talker does with God-talk. If everything is marvelous,
then nothing is commonplace, and since everybody knows this is not the case, they can
only doubt your sincerity or your sanity. If every sermon you hear, and every book you
read, and every concert you go to, is the greatest, and you are perpetually declaring it
was the nearest thing to heaven, and it was like being with the angels, you will soon have a
reputation as an unreliable source of information. You are losing the ability to be
realistic, and you are living in a world as you want it to be, and not the real world where
we must all live.
You do not enhance the truth by swearing that everything you say is absolute truth.
You degrade the truth, and lower it to the level of your own subjective feelings.
Enthusiasm is good, but when it leads to excessive God-talk, and dragging God's name
into every sentence to confirm it, it is no longer a good. H. L. Menchen wrote, "The man
who boasts that he habitually tells the truth is simply a man with no respect for it. It is
not a thing to be thrown around loosely, like small change; it is something to be cherished
and hoarded and dispersed only when absolutely necessary." If you swear what you say
is true, what are we to think when you do not swear it is true? You leave room for doubt,
and so you soon have to swear about everything, and that only complicates life, and
makes the oath a meaningless burden.
We need to see that the primary problem of the Pharisees was that they were too
religious. Some people go bad because of their vices, and others because of their virtues.
The Pharisees fell into the pit of their own virtues. The Pharisees who went into the
temple to pray, and said, “I thank God I am not as other men-robbers, evil doers,
adulterers,” was being very honest. When it came to external sin they were Mr. Clean,
but the inside was sewer city. They were so proud of keeping all the external rules that
they became corrupt within, and could not see how ungodly they had become in their
cold legalistic religion. Spiritual as all get out, and God-talk in every sentence, and
swearing by God and His temple, and everything imaginable. But all of was hard,
mechanical, and so unloving.
They developed a language of loop holes, and like modern lawyers, they found ways to
get out of everything. They could swear to some commitment, and then break their word
and not feel guilty at all. It was because they never used the word God in their oath.
They swore by heaven, but they did not say God, and this was a loop hole. It would be
like we use to do as kids. I don’t know if they still do this, but we could say, “I promise to
do such and such,” and then not do it, and say that we didn’t have to because we had our
fingers crossed when we said it. This allows you to tell a lie, and not be held accountable,
for the crossed fingers canceled out the promise. When the trick was known you were
asked to keep your hands exposed when you promised, but if you could cross your legs
you still had them in your advantage. It got so ridiculous, you could get out of a promise
by having two sticks crossed in the grass.
Man is perpetually seeking ways to escape simple honesty. That is what the small
print is all about. They give you the world in bold print, and then pull the rug out from
under you in the small print that you can’t see. You get a clear impression given on one
hand, but there is a subtle way out of the commitment on the other hand. But, of course,
it is all legal, for you gave a cautious discerning person a chance to catch your deception.
Fortunate for the deceiver is the fact that most people just trust the big impression, and
never see the loop hole, and they get stung. But its all legal, and that is what really
matters-today, and in the say of the Pharisees. Our society is based on legalism. If you
give a sucker a chance to get out his magnifying glass and discover the loop hole, you are
being fair and legal.
Jesus is saying, do away with all of the loop holes. Stop all of the trick thinking that
says a promise does not need to be kept if you swear by Jerusalem, rather than by
Jehovah. Avoid the whole temptation to play tricks by ceasing to swear at all. Eliminate
the problem by going to the source of the problem, which is the abuse and misuse of
words. Cut out all of the complex trickery, and just simply say, yes I will do this, or no I
will not. Keep it simple. You talk less, but you say more, for with yes or no people know
where you are at.
Jesus says, get to the source as with all other sins. Don’t make rules about the
symptoms, but cut off the cause. The man who does not swear at all has eliminated the
danger of swearing falsely. Simplify life by ridding yourself of those practices that lead
to complexity in communication. The man who swears at all will be tempted to abuse it.
Spurgeon said, “…when a man tells a lie, the next thing he does is to swear to it.”
Therefore, Jesus says, avoid the following:
I. THE CURSE OF COMPLEXITY
The more complex any form of communication becomes the more it tends to become a
tool for deception and injustice. The curse of complexity is when it is used as an aid to be
dishonest, and unloving in your relationship to people. The Pharisees nullified the law of
God by their clever schemes with words. If a son says, “Corban,” which means that his
money is devoted to God, he does not have to honor his mother and father, and take care
of them.
There are values to complexity, and the clever use of it can be a powerful weapon in warfare.
Back in April 30,1943 a British royal marine crashed in his plane off the coast of Spain.
His body was recovered by the Spanish government, and along with it military
documents of the highest importance. Britain demanded the return of the body and the
documents, but the Spanish stalled long enough for the German espionage agents to get
the information. A letter to General Eisenhower in North Africa hinted that the allies
would be focusing their efforts on the evasion of Greece. The Germans responded by
shifting their troops to the defense of Greece. This is just what the allies wanted, and
they invaded Sicily instead. It was all carried out by a complex scheme of deception in
which a real corpse was dressed while frozen, and put into that plane and crashed. It was
a clever means of getting misinformation into the hands of the enemy, and it worked. It
helped the allies win the war.
I share this so that we see there can be blessings in complexity. Complexity can be a
legitimate tool in the battle of light against darkness. But Jesus is talking of every day
life in relationship to other people we are to love and respect. In this context complexity
is a curse. Jesus says, there is a way to prevent this curse, and it is this we want to look at
next.
II. THE SOLUTION OF SIMPLICITY.
Why is Jesus so concerned about simplicity of language, and reverence for the truth?
It is because truth is vital to relationships, and that is what this whole chapter is all about.
Cleverness and complexity are generally the tools of evil. The only reason for complexity
of language in every day relationships is to take advantage of other people. This is not
loving, and it is not the fulfilling of the law. It is designed to rip people off, and lead them
astray, or confuse them. Love is up front with people. It is simple and straight forward,
because it has nothing to hide. Love and honesty are linked as one. If you love someone,
you want to be fair and honest with them, and not deceive them.
The whole idea of oaths and swearing leads to the temptation to deceive. You learn,
that by clever use of words you can manipulate people. You can get them to do what you
want even if it is not best for them. Just as lust does not care about the other person, but
is only concerned about the self, so swearing leads you not to care about truth, and what
others think, but only about what you can get for yourself by the power of words. Jesus
is calling the Christian to a life of yes or no, or to a life of simplicity.
We need to understand that just as complexity can have its values, so simplicity can
have its defects. The simple can also be the superficial. A family travelling had a flat tire
out on a country road. When dad got out to change it, it wouldn’t come off. Then it
started to rain. He jumped back into the car, and he was angry and frustrated. He
shouted, “Now what do we do?” His 5 year old son said, “Daddy, let’s switch to a
different channel.” If you don’t like the story you are in, just switch the channel until
you find one you do. It works in the world of TV, but real life is not that simple.
Jesus is not saying that life will never be complicated if you reduce your vocabulary to
yes or no. If you took that literally, you would only complicate your life if you were asked
the age old question, have you stopped beating your wife? Jesus is simply saying, that in
relating to people the Christian must be one who establishes a reputation for keeping his
word. If you say, yes, I’ll pay you back that ten dollars on Friday, that should be good
enough. You don’t have to swear on the Bible, or call God in to witness your promise.
The guy who swears to God that he will pay it back is likely a higher risk, for men tend to
use God to cover their own weakness and self-doubt. This just magnifies the sin, for you
are then using the name of God in vain. It is not for His glory, but for your own gain.
That is one of man’s problems with oaths. You tend to use God for ends that degrade
rather than hallow the name of God.
Jesus is saying, the truly righteous man does not need to swear to God, or make any
kind of religious oath. His word alone ought to be trustworthy. The legalist looks for
loopholes, and a way to escape his word, and still be legally right. The loving person does
not want to deal on a level of deception, but is open and honest about his intentions. So
Jesus says, just forget swearing all together, and eliminate God-talk in your promises.
This only leads to complicating life.
A promise with a oath is a sacred duty. If there is no oath, it is secular, and not as
serious or as binding. We think that by exalting the religious side of life we are doing
good, but in fact, we are doing just the opposite. Christians so exalted the Sabbath or
Sunday that it was more evil to do certain things on this day than the rest of the week.
This led to people feeling free to do the rest of the week what they could not do on
Sunday. It is wrong to do in the sanctuary what it is okay to do in the fellowship hall. It
is wrong to do in church what it is okay to do at home, and at work, and so, like the
Pharisees, a legalistic religion developed. Life was put into compartments where things
were right or wrong depending on the context. This led to all kinds of loopholes, and a
complexity of life.
Jesus rejects this kind of thinking, and He says there is no distinction between a
sacred or secular promise. If you say yes, it is to be yes, whether you called God in on it
or not. If you said no, then let it be no, regardless of an oath. God practices what He
expects us to. He is not given us a Gospel that is complex and confusing, so that we can
know for sure where we stand. He says very simply, “He who has the Son has life.” In II
Cor. 1 Paul makes it clear that God does not speak double talk in Jesus, but very simply
says, yes. He says in verse 19-20, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached
among you by me and Silas and Timothy, were not yes and no, but in Him it has always
been yes. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ.
You can be assured that when you put your trust in Christ, God will keep His promise
to save you. He is trustworthy, and there is no need to fear trickery or deceit. God
means just what he says in Christ. He says, yes, I love you. Yes, I forgive you. Yes, you
are my child. Yes, you will be with me in heaven. No, there are no tricks. He who comes
to me I will in no wise cast out. There is no need for uncertainty with God. His message
is not complex, but simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Salvation is simple, and simplicity is superior to complexity as a way of life, and as a way
of communication. So if we listen to Christ we will avoid complexity and strive for
simplicity.
