The Test of Honest Speech: James Lesson 28

 Let’s open our Bibles this morning to James 5. We are going to be looking at only one verse this morning. This verse gives us another test of genuine saving faith. We might call this the test of truthful intentions, or the test of honest speech. James writes, “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, so that you may not fall under judgment.”

 This is one of those messages that outlines rather easily in an alliterated fashion. We will see the priority of this imperative, followed by the problem dealt with by the imperative. Then, we will see the principle taught by the imperative. Finally, we will see the peril of ignoring this imperative.

 But first we need to connect the dots. We need to try to make sense of James’ flow of thought. It seems a little random that James would go from talking about being patient in the midst of injustice and suffering to instructing us regarding the swearing of oaths. It may not be random at all. It may have been that James had seen or heard of those to whom he has written swearing oaths for disingenuous purposes. It may be that some of the rich who were withholding wages from the poor were saying things like, “I’ll give you your money tomorrow. You have my word. I swear by heaven.” It may have been that some who were having trouble being patient were swearing oaths in an effort to alleviate their painful circumstances. Perhaps they were even swearing an oath to God that sounds something like, “God, if you will get me out of this difficulty, I’ll serve you faithfully for the rest of my life.”

 I remember swearing an oath to God once like this. When I was a kid my parents left my sisters and I at home and went to Muskogee. We lived at Warner. They were gone a lot longer than I expected them to be gone and I remember convincing myself that they had been in an accident and had been killed. I remember being so upset that I made a statement like that. “God, if you will just let my mom and dad come home safely I will do whatever you want me to do.” This would fall into the category of a frivolous vow or oath. So people make false vows to take advantage or frivolous vows to bargain with God.

 So it isn’t difficult to understand why James would place this instruction where it is in the flow of this letter. It isn’t surprising either that James circles back again to the topic of the words that come out of our mouths. The control of the tongue and the careful use of our words has been a common theme in this book. We have been told to use our words to ask God for wisdom we might need to endure the trials we encounter. We have been told to be careful that our words be free from evidence of doubt. We have been told to be slow to speak. We were told that the one who thinks himself to be religious, but who does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his own heart and proves his religion to be worthless. We were warned about wanting to become teachers because there is a stricter judgment for those who teach with their words.

 We looked extensively at the control of the tongue as a test of genuine faith in Chapter 3. If we do not stumble in what we say, we demonstrate a maturity level that is admirable. If the tongue is allowed to run loose, it can be as destructive as fire and a restless evil full of deadly poison. Garbage coming out of the mouth of a Christian is a contradiction likened to a fountain that sends out both fresh and bitter water. James has had a lot to say about the words we speak. Here he circles back to this prominent theme.

 There is another significant connection we need to observe. Since chapter 3, verse 13 our focus has been on the evidence of kind of wisdom that guides our thoughts, actions, and words. If we are walking in the wisdom which is from above, our thoughts, actions, and words will be characterized as those which are pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, and without hypocrisy. Those who swear by an oath and will not let their yes be yes and their no be no are full of hypocrisy. They are not walking in the wisdom from above.

 This imperative is also connected to the theme of humility we have been seeing since we got to chapter 4. In James 4:6-10 we were called to walk in humility. This humility will express itself in our dealings with others as we saw in 4:11-12, and our plans for the future, as Matthew showed us from 4:13-17. The patient endurance of injustice we learned about last week will not happen unless we are clothed in humility. To walk in the truthfulness to which we are called in this verse requires a walk in humility. As we close this study out we will see the prominent theme of humility applied to our prayer life.

 So this is not a random issue. James has strategically placed this imperative in this letter at exactly the right place. It deals with an important issue.

 Having connected those thoughts in James and setting the context, let’s look at the particulars of this verse. We see right away that James has placed a very high priority on this imperative command. He says, “But above all, my brethren…” This makes this a preeminent command. James emphasizes the priority of being careful about swearing these oaths. He is calling attention to the need to pay particular attention to this imperative.

 Why is this kind of emphasis put on this command? Why is it given this priority? The reason is simple. Nothing more clearly reveals the true nature of our spiritual character than the words we speak. The mouth reveals what is in the heart. Jesus made that abundantly clear. Matthew 12:34 says, “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” If we are utilizing an oath in a deceptive method for selfish reasons, we are revealing that our hearts are full of deception and selfishness. Dishonest speech comes from a heart full of deceit. A heart full of deceit is the heart of one who lacks genuine saving faith.

 James prioritizes this command because people use their words in an effort to cover up and conceal their dishonest intentions. Sinful man also uses words to create an illusion. A lot of people in the church are unsaved. Yet, they are able to create the illusion of being regenerate because they speak the right words in the right places. Their true character is revealed through the words they speak in other places.

Man is prone to dishonesty. Man is plagued by selfishness. Man’s problem is sin. When Satan led mankind to fall, he did so with lies. He is the father of lies and sinful mankind has a strong propensity to follow the path of deception, dishonesty, and disingenuous speech. Men are liars. The sin of lying comes easier to us than perhaps any other sin.

 By pointing out the priority of this imperative, James is calling us to look at our own hearts. Am I a man of my word? Is my life built on truthfulness, honesty, integrity of speech? Or is there a problem with deceit, dishonest motives, compromise of truth, and hypocrisy? James places a priority on this imperative because it reveals a great deal about our spiritual condition.

 That leads us to the problem dealt with by this imperative.  James says, “…do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath…” Those of you familiar with your Bibles will immediately recognize that James is borrowing this imperative from someone else. Let’s turn to Matthew’s gospel and see these words in their original context from the One who first spoke them. These are the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

 Look at Matthew 5:33-37. This passage begins with the words, “You have heard that the ancients were told…” This phrase, or the phrase, “you have heard that it was said…” is used by Jesus throughout Matthew 5. Jesus is explaining and illustrating the problem of the distortion of God’s righteous standards that are established in the Law of God. The religious leaders of Israel in the days of Jesus were, in fact, annulling the Law of God with their traditional interpretation and application of the Law. Jesus warned against annulling the Law back in 5:19. Read Matthew 5:19. This helps us understand what Jesus stated in verse 20.

 Then Jesus gives illustrations of how the religious leaders had annulled the commandments of God, beginning with the commandments regarding murder, adultery, and divorce. In each case the rabbinic traditions had changed the meaning of the commandment. They obliterated the true intention of the commandment. Jesus explained that God’s commandment regarding murder actually applies to the attitude of hatred one has in his heart, or anger with his brother. He demonstrated that lust in the heart is the real source of adultery. He establishes God’s standard for the marriage covenant.

 In verse 33 Jesus comes to the commandment of the Law regarding vows and oaths. All this falls under the umbrella of “You shall not lie” which is the ninth commandment and the third commandment which forbids taking the name of the Lord in vain. Quickly I want to read to you three O.T. verses which give us God’s expectation and standard. Read Leviticus 19:12, Numbers 30:2, and Deut. 23:21,23.

 The Jewish rabbis summarized those commandments into a simpler commandment stated by Jesus, “You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.” The religious elite had distorted the intention of the Law of God because their traditional interpretation allowed them to obligate themselves only to vows they had sworn to God or in the name of God. Clearly, God intended His standard of honesty to apply to all our dealings with everyone. They manipulated God’s intention and began to be dishonest in their use of vows so they could take advantage of others.

 Jesus spoke to this further in Matthew 23:16-22. Jesus exposes their disingenuous use of oaths. They were splitting hairs for their selfish purposes. They could lie and make a false vow as long as they didn’t invoke the name of the Lord. They could swear by the Temple as long as they didn’t swear by the gold of the Temple. From both passages we can see that the deceit involved swearing by heaven, or earth, or Jerusalem, or their own heads, or, a modern day version is “I swear on a stack of Bibles.” “Cross my heart…”

 Jesus exposed their dishonesty and condemned their deceitful practices and pointed out that the swearing of an oath to anything is foolish. He summarized God’s standard and God’s expectation in Matthew 5:37, “But let your statement be, ‘yes, yes,’ or ‘no, no;’ anything beyond these is of evil.”

 Jesus does say in Matthew 5:34, “But I say to you, make no oath at all…” Is Jesus forbidding the use of an oath at any time or under any circumstance? He is not. When we stand before God and witnesses to get married, we are making a vow and taking an oath. This is a good thing. They would be unnecessary if we did not live in a world filled with liars. If everyone stood true to their word we would not need to take a vow or make an oath. So, it is not wrong to take a vow to tell the truth if you are swearing to give honest testimony in a court of law. There are numerous examples of vows and oaths throughout the Old Testament.

 The problem to which this imperative speaks is the use of a vow or an oath which is spoken flippantly, needlessly, and with the intention of deceiving or defrauding the person to whom the vow is made. It is like saying something we know is not true but getting a pass because we have our fingers crossed. Liars are going to lie and liars are going to go to great lengths to convince you that they are telling the truth. They will say foolish things like, “I swear to God…” People would do well to remember the words of Jesus. He told us that we would give an account for every idle word we speak.

 If we are truly the born again, regenerated, transformed, sanctified, justified, adopted children of God who have been set free from the dominion of sin in our lives, we will be people who speak the truth. This leads us to the principle taught by this imperative. The people of God ought to be people who when they give their word, their word is their bond. If we say “yes” our yes means yes. If we say no, our no means no. 

 There is a crisis of truth in our culture today. It has gotten to the point that we can trust no one. People are falling victim to scams that cost them a lot of money. Liars and scammers are getting so good that even reasonably smart people are falling victim. I was almost scammed out of hundreds of dollars a few years ago trying to help my son by a four-wheeler on line. My mom got a letter promising her almost ¾ of a million dollars several months ago, and it all sounded so legitimate. I know when most politicians are lying because their mouths are moving. They are incapable of telling us the truth. Their specialty is telling us what we want to hear so we will vote for them. The dishonesty of the culture is sickening.

  But it should not be this way among the people of God. Ephesians 4:15 tells us to “speak the truth in love.” When we give our word, our word should be good. We have to have contracts and legal protections in transactions because people are deceitful and dishonest. A Christian should honor his word for the sake of his or her testimony as a follower of Christ. I’m going to say this. If we come to church and someone asks how we are doing, we should be honest. We should not feel as though we need to be dishonest in order to be accepted at church.

 Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.” Our lives should be marked by honest and integrity. When we say yes it should mean yes, not yes, unless it becomes advantageous for me to change my mind to maybe, or no. If we say no we should mean no. We should be honest people committed to integrity in all our dealings with people both inside and outside the church. That is the principle taught in this imperative. 

 Finally, there is a peril associated with ignoring this imperative. James tells us that we should not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath; but your yes is to be yes, and your no, no, “so that you may not fall under judgment.”

 The one who is habitually disingenuous in his speech, lying and deceiving to his benefit, using oaths and vows to try to cover the deceitfulness of his true intentions, this person is at great peril of falling under the judgment of God. The word “judgment” is used exclusively in the New Testament to describe God’s merciless sentence of hell to all who are unregenerate, unredeemed, and unsaved. James’ point here is that those whose pattern of living is characterized by deceitful and dishonest vows and oaths are giving evidence of an unregenerate heart. If you cannot be trusted because your yes may mean something besides yes, or your no may mean something besides no, meaning you practice deception through your speech, you are a liar. You are of your father the devil. He is the father of lies we learn from Jesus in John 8:44.  Children of the devil, who prove they are his children because of the lies they tell, will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. 

 Revelation 21:8 puts liars in the same category with some bad characters and spells out their fate. “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

 After describing the holy city of the New Jerusalem which will be the eternal dwelling place of the redeemed, John says in Rev. 21:27, “and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 22:14-15 tell us, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.”

 Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:10-12, “For the one who desires life, to love and see good days, must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

 The bottom line is that we don’t tell the truth because we took an oath and swore by the name of God. We tell the truth because we have been transformed from a lying sinner into a truth telling saint. That is what the true work of salvation produces.

When people look at you as a Christian do they ever have any reason to doubt that what they see is what they get? Are you known as a person of pure intentions, impeccable integrity, and irreproachable honesty? I pray that you are. James would have you to examine yourself to see how you do with the test of your speech.

 Let’s pray.