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.” But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply “Yes” or “No”; anything more than this comes from evil. — Matt. 5:33-37
Excerpts from the book:
Page 290: Jesus teaches that truth is precious. All of us agree with this when we are being lied about. The most relativistic professor in the university, who scoffs at the concept of truth in the classroom, will be indignant if his electricity bill is false to his disadvantage. He will call the utility company and complain that there is some mistake. He will not think it funny if the voice on the other end says, “It’s a mistake in your view, but not in our view.”
Page 291: Those who mock the concept of truth are people with power who do not (at the moment) need to appeal to truth for their lives. Totalitarian despots do not care about truth, because they have power to create the reality they want—for a fleeting moment in history. Tenured professors may not care about truth in the classroom because they have the power and security to entertain their students with academic games without being forced to apply their
foolishness to their own real lives after they go home at night. But for most of the world, truth matters. And they know it. It matters ultimately. Their lives depend on it.
Page 291: Jesus loved truth and hated deceit. He confirmed the ninth commandment, “Do not bear false witness” (Mark 10:19). He warned that “deceit” comes out of the heart and defiles a person (Mark 7:21-22). He considered religious hypocrisy a hellish form of lying (Matt. 23:15) ................Lying originates with the devil, and those who turn away from speaking truth join forces with Satan....... Jesus came into the world to reveal the truth about God and man and salvation and what is right and wrong.
Page 291: At the end of his ministry, when he was on trial for his life, he said to Pontius Pilate, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37). Like many modern cynics, Pilate responded, “What is truth?” and turned to go without waiting for an answer.
Page 292: But we know the answer he would have received....... “I am . . . the truth” (John 14:6).......... When he speaks, there is no error or falsehood. He said of himself, “The one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood” (John 7:18)............. when others did not believe what he said, he did not consider changing the message to win a better hearing. If truth was met with unbelief, the problem lay with the unbelieving heart, not the truth. “Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me” (John 8:45). Jesus said that people turn away from the light not because they think it’s false, but because they love darkness (John 3:19).
Page 292: When Jesus left the earth he promised to send a Helper. He called him “the Spirit of truth.” “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26). This Spirit of truth will help us know the truth and be changed by the truth. So Jesus prays before he leaves and asks the Father to make the truth effective in our lives: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). So we can see how supremely important truth is to Jesus, and how destructively evil is the impulse to deceive and mislead and speak in devious ways.
Page 292: ......Therefore, it is not surprising that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus overturned one of the subtle practices of his day to avoid truthtelling and promise-keeping. When a promise is not kept, it becomes a lie. And when a promise made with a public oath is not kept, we call it perjury.
Page 293: When I was growing up we joked that if you had your fingers crossed when you made a promise, you didn’t have to keep it. We also had our own youthful ways of reinforcing our distrusted word: We said, “Cross my heart and hope to die.” What we meant was: I am speaking from my heart, not just my lips, and if what I say is not true let me die. Jesus was not happy about either of these devices—the crossing of the fingers to escape a promise and the crossing of the heart to reinforce a promise. (Matt. 5:33-37)
Page 293: Jesus is demanding two things here: First, he demands that we not use verbal evasions to escape promise-keeping; second, he demands that we be so truthful that oaths are superfluous.
Page 294: Jesus rejects that kind of evasion. He points out that everything you swear by has God behind it one way or the other. Heaven is his throne. Earth is his footstool. Jerusalem is his city...........your problem is your small view of God and truth. You think truth is insignificant and can be manipulated to your liking. And you think God is off in a corner with little concern for your truthfulness until his name is mentioned. In these two things you are wrong. Truth is precious beyond your ability to imagine, and God is behind every molecule in the universe and is always concerned that his creatures be truthful.
Page 294: Jesus encountered this evasive strategy in the Pharisees in Matthew 23:16-22. His indignation is unmistakable.......It is almost incredible that the Pharisees not only use evasions like this, but teach them...........Perhaps it is not a direct quote but rather the upshot of what they say. In either case, Jesus is furious at the way truth and God are belittled here. Gold is esteemed above God’s temple. Sacrifices are esteemed above God’s altar. Heaven is esteemed above God who dwells there. All this evasiveness ignores the fact that the holiness of heaven, altar, and temple come from their connection with God.
Page295: But this means little to those who are bent on finding ways to make peace with falsehood. What alternative did Jesus demand to these manifold ways of evading the binding claims of truth on our lives? To that we turn in the next chapter.
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