You are invited to come to the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and pray. (8:30 PM EST Wed., Feb. 28, 2001)

Note time change from 7:00 PM LHF time to 8:30 PM EST (Please also note the change from LHF time to Eastern Standard time. Also, Bill Rankin will be leading the meetings and will be talking about other topics than James. I have a few more messages from James so I will continue to send them by e-mail.)

Dean

"Above all, my brothers, do not swear-- not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your 'Yes' be yes, and your 'No,' no, or you will be condemned."

"Let your 'Yes' be yes, and your 'No' no." Jesus also said this in the Sermon on the Mount. Here's the full text:

"Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." (Matt. 5:33-37)

"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it." (Matt. 23:16-22)

"Do not lie.
"Do not deceive one another.
"Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD."
(Lev. 19:11b,12)

"When a man makes a vow to the LORD or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said." (Num. 20:2)

The LORD God placed in his law these commands: "Do not lie," "Do not deceive one another." "Do not swear falsely by my name." When Jesus spoke to his disciples and to the crowds during his sermon on the mount, he said, "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all." He then listed some of the things that they were in the habit of swearing by: heaven, earth, Jerusalem and their own heads. Apparently they were swearing by these things to avoid swearing by the name of the LORD. In other words, they had thought maybe they had found a loophole.

And from what Jesus said in Matt. 23, "You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath," etc., it seems even more certain that people were looking for ways to appear to be swearing an oath without being bound by it. Jesus told them basically, that it didn't matter what they swore by because everything belongs to God. He called them blind fools.

We don't have rules like these today (except maybe when I was in the first and second grade), but we sure aren't honest. Jesus says not to swear at all and James emphasized what Jesus said by repeating it. The very act of swearing shows a mindset toward dishonesty. If your "yes" really means "yes" and your "no" means no, why would you need to swear?

No, we don't usually swear by anything in order to convince anyone that we are telling the truth, but we do deceive. Lev. 19:11 says, "Do not deceive one another." But our whole culture is built upon our "yes" meaning other than yes and our "no" meaning other than no. Haven't you heard the saying that "yes" means "maybe" and "maybe" means "no." How often, when you've invited someone to come to a meeting or some kind of get-together and they've said, "Maybe." Did you believe they would show up?

Deception is everywhere in our culture. We take it for granted in advertising and try to filter it out in our minds. We also do what can be considered equivalent to what Jesus and James were talking about when we make a true statement with words, but mislead by the inflection in our voices or by gesture or by the context in which the statement was made. We have learned to be extremely subtle and skilled in doing this. Then (at least if we don't really think it's right to lie) we kid ourselves by telling ourselves that we are really telling the truth and have done nothing wrong. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe I'm the only one that's ever done it.)

In any case, Jesus says that anything more than letting your "yes" really mean yes and "no" really mean no comes from the evil one. When you out and out lie, you may think that's from the devil, but what about when you use subtlety and manipulation to try to get someone to do what you want them to do. I'll bet you don't even know you're doing it half the time. It's so ingrained that we do it without even thinking about it.

James says, "Let your 'Yes' be yes, and your 'No,' no" so that you won't be condemned (fall under judgment - NASB). Do you ever think you may fall under judgment because of your stretching of the truth? I don't hear this preached about much, but it seems to be a very widespread problem. And it's serious. Things that come from the evil one are serious. God's judgment is serious.

What can we do about this problem? Be diligent. Pray and persevere! Ask God to show you clearly when you are letting your "yes" be other than yes or your "no" be other than no. This is also a test and the purpose of it is to make you complete and mature, not lacking anything and finally to be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Come and let's pray for each other as well as for the whole church. Come and encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Love them.

PS: If you absolutely can't make it to the prayer meeting, send your prayer requests back to me by e-mail and we'll pray for them.