³³ “You have also heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not break your vows; you must carry out the vows you make to the Lord.’ ³⁴ But I say, do not make any vows! Do not say, ‘By heaven!’ because heaven is God’s throne. ³⁵ And do not say, ‘By the earth!’ because the earth is his footstool. And do not say, ‘By Jerusalem!’ for Jerusalem is the city of the great King. ³⁶ Do not even say, ‘By my head!’ for you can’t turn one hair white or black. ³⁷ Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.

Matthew 5:33-37

Dear God, I was listening to a podcast from The Bible Project yesterday on this passage. It was very good. Frankly, all of their podcasts I’ve heard are very good. They did a deep dive on Jewish culture at the time and the cultural context within which Jesus was giving these instructions.

At the end of the day, this is about my personal integrity. Do I need to manipulate someone into believing me in a certain situation by using special words, or do I have a reputation that lets people know they can trust me no matter what? If I tell my wife I am running an errand and will be back in two hours, do I have to swear to her that I am doing something innocent or can she just assume it because she has 35 years of history of me being trustworthy? Conversely, when she gets a text from another man about something, I don’t have to read it or go through her texts because she has proven to be completely trustworthy was well. There is a lot of peace in being able to trust someone.

I have to say, the person who has lied to me the most over the course of my life–well, they are in the top two anyway–will “swear” by something (especially one of their parent’s grave) a lot when they want to convince me to believe them. It actually is a pretty good tell that you are dealing with a person who does not mind playing with dishonesty and using it as it benefits them.

Father, as for me, help me to just sink into honesty and trustworthiness today, regardless of what it costs me. Help me to be shrewd when working with others and determining their trustworthiness. What I really want is to simply represent you well. Be glorified in me. Draw others to yourself through me. I pray that you will find joy in the life I live as I do my best to submit to you. And thank you for forgiving my sin. When I lie to myself and to you. When I am selfish and even when I am deceptive, which I can be. Thank you for the ability to be here this morning.

I offer all of me to you through Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen