Keeping Your Word Pure

Keeping Your Word Pure

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Matt. 5:9)

Matthew 5:33-37:

"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. (NIV)

As we dig into today’s reading, it becomes clear that once again Jesus is going past all the externals to go straight to the heart of the matter. He doesn’t give much attention to the various types of oaths – there were many in the New Testament culture just as there are today – and Jesus simply says “let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’ and let your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ In other words, keep your word! Don’t lie, don’t deceive, don’t twist the truth or tell partial truths. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

            In fact, the very existence of oaths is evidence that humankind are prone to lies and half-truths. If everyone told the truth all the time, there would be no need for oaths. Instead, in New Testament times people swore by heaven, by earth, by their own head, and many other things with varying degrees of seriousness. Jesus declares them all meaningless based on the idea that they all belong to God anyway and a mere human can’t change any of it.

            In today’s culture, when we go to court we put our hand on the Bible and swear to tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. What does that tell us? Why do we have to say that? Because we have learned to circumvent the truth. We have learned to say, well, you know, there's a few things I haven't told you. We twist things and tell partial truths. We let things slide by us that become lies of omission. And if we think we can get away with it, we might even be so bold as to tell some outright lies that are totally contrary to the truth.

            And here’s a scary thought – God hears every word we speak, whether it’s an oath or a casual comment. You can't go anywhere where God is not. Do you know what that means? Whatever you say, God is there. If you could get up into outer space, God's there. If you dig a hole in the earth, God is there. Anywhere you go, He’s already there. Therefore, speak as if God is listening. Let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no” all of the time, not just some of the time.

            At this point in debates over ethics people come up with all kinds of situations where it is permissible to lie – if someone’s life is in danger, is it okay to not tell the truth or maybe just tell part of the truth? If it will hurt someone’s feelings, should I still tell the truth? What if it will embarrass someone?     

Everyone wants a line in the sand or a diagram on a chart or a list in a book of when it is okay to bend the rules a little bit and fib for the benefit of everyone involved. Jesus just doesn’t even go there. He says, if you want to be blessed, if you want to have a truly happy life, be pure in heart by keeping your word pure. And as we pursue living in this way, the Beatitude will prove itself true and we will see God in ways we haven’t before.

            As we go to prayer, let’s search our hearts and reflect on past commitments we may have made. Those vows and promises that we have broken entirely – shattered completely beyond repair – bring those before the Lord and ask Him for forgiveness. Be open to His leading if He would have you call or meet with someone to ask for forgiveness for broken promises of the past.

            As for commitments and promises that are still salvageable, ask the Lord to give you wisdom and His help in taking the best course of action to be a person of your word. If it’s a situation where you made an honest mistake or even a blatant sin where you committed yourself to doing something, then ask the Lord to help you to find a way to be released from that commitment without bringing harm to those who are affected by your failure.

            Finally, search your heart and ask the Lord to forgive you for those times when you have sinned by outright lying or by deceiving others and telling half-truths. Ask Him to forgive you for those times when your “yes” has been less than “yes” and your “no” has been less than “no.”

           

Pray with me:

Father, forgive me for those times when I haven’t been truthful with others. Forgive me for the time I…continue praying as the Holy Spirit brings things to mind…

And Lord, help me to follow through and make it right on commitments I have made in the past. Search my heart, bring them to my mind, and show me any action I need to take. Forgive me for my failures, and help me to be wise about the words I say and the commitments I make in the future…

For further meditation and study, think and pray about the following:

              

The LORD detests lying lips,but he delights in men who are truthful. Proverbs 12:22 NIV

Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psalms 34:12-14 NIV

A false witness will not go unpunished,and he who pours out lies will perish. Proverbs 19:9 NIV

Please use this blog for personal devotional use and feel free to share it with friends and family. However, all publishing rights are reserved. No reproduction or publication of this blog is permitted without the permission of the author, Pastor Randy Brockett of New Song Foursquare Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. To contact Pastor Randy, email him at randybrockett@yahoo.com.