Greater Righteousness: Oaths and Honesty

Greater righteousness…

 Lesson 4: Living a life of Honesty.

In the light of verse 19, Jesus continues to explain to his disciples that his teaching does not do away with the law, rather his teaching supersedes the law. In effect Jesus is raising the standard of what it means to be a “righteous” individual. Then He illustrates this point with specific examples related to the Law. In fact, he places anger, lust, divorce, oaths, and retaliation on the same moral plane as murder, adultery, and perjury. Over the next few weeks we will go over these particulars that Jesus has given us.

Note: While Jesus raises the standard of righteous conduct in this passage, he does not reveal the mechanism by which we arrive at this level of righteousness. On its face, Jesus is placing the Kingdom of Heaven out of reach for everyone. Later passages in the New Testament reveal that the Christian’s righteousness is given to him or her by Jesus Christ and acted out in the Christian as he or she walks in the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that Christians are immune to sin, because believers can and do still sin; however, the spirit of the believer longs to not sin, that is, be righteous. A repentant heart can always find restoration to righteousness in Jesus Christ.

Speaking truthfully...

Speaking with purpose.

Mat 5:33-37 ESV - "33 "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil."

Establishing the first premise: Lying is bad.
Unfortunately, we can no longer assume that everyone is aware of the seriousness of "bearing false witness". Regardless of the cultural perception of normalcy, the Bible is clear that the people of God are to be characterized by honesty.

Now, the question is why? Why does God place such a high priority on this area of our lives?  As with many things, to find the Biblical beginning of a subject we need to return to Genesis. Read Genesis 3:1-6.

• How would you characterize Satan's initial lie to the human race?  Was it the direct opposite of the words of God or a slight distortion of God's word? 
• What are some common motives for lying?

Lying is of Satanic origin.

[Jhn 8:44 ESV] 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Apparently in Jesus day truth was measured in degrees. The object or person by which one swore was  determined the strength of the oath. In other words, it was acceptable to break your word if you had sworn by a weak object or had not sworn at all.

The Higher standard.
Jesus' call to  greater righteousness stands in stark contrast to this perception. In fact, Jesus instructs them to not take oaths at all. He elevates everyday conversation to the same standard as being under oath. In his words, our "yes" should mean "yes", our "no" should mean "no" and we let it go at that.

• Should a Christian be more truthful when under oath in court than they are in their everyday life?
• In what way should we temper our promises to others? [see James 4:13-17]
• Is a Christian obligated to be truthful with everyone? 
• Is a Christian obligated to tell everyone everything that they want to know? How do you determine this?[see Proverbs 12:23]
• What are some likely results we will see from honest speech? Are people likely to react to us the same way they reacted to Jesus?

To go to the next lesson, click HERE.