Latest / Reformed Thinking / Let Your ‘Yes’ Be Yes: Truthful Speech in the Kingdom of Christ (Matthew 5:33–37)

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Let Your ‘Yes’ Be Yes: Truthful Speech in the Kingdom of Christ (Matthew 5:33–37) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the Deep dive brought to you by Reformed Thinking.
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We cut through the noise, take a stack of sources and give you
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the essential distilled insights on doctrine and practice so you
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can be well informed quickly. So if you just, you know, look
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at the way we all communicate today, especially in public
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life, you see this kind of crisis of credibility.
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Oh. Absolutely.
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Words feel cheap. They do in politics,
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advertising, even just casual promises.
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There's a sense that they're disposable.
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Right. And because we don't trust
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simple yes or no anymore, we we pat our language, we say things
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like seriously, I swear on my life or I promise to God we have
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to. Or we have these incredibly
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complex legal contracts for everything because a simple hand
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shape, a simple word, just doesn't feel like it has any
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authority. And what's so fascinating is
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that this isn't a new problem at all.
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Not in the slightest. Jesus was dealing with a very
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similar thing. He saw these religious leaders
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who had, I mean they had perfected the art of verbal
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evasion. They have these elaborate
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systems not really to confirm the truth, but to sound serious
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while, you know, leaving themselves these huge loopholes
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to get out of their commitments. Exactly.
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And that brings us to our deep dive.
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Today we're looking at Matthew chapter 5, verses 33 to 37.
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It's the Fourth of Christ, 6 antithesis in the Sermon on the
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Mount, and it's aimed squarely at the integrity of our speech.
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Yeah, so our goal here is to understand how Jesus as the King
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just completely strips away this manipulative, loophole driven
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oath taking. And calls his disciples, calls
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us to a standard of speech that reflects the character of God
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Himself, the God of truth. So before we jump into the
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details, you have to set the scene for us.
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Where are we, theologically speaking?
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We're right in the heart of the Sermon on the Mount.
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So Matthew chapters 5 through 7, this is, you could say, Christ's
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manifesto. The ethics of the Kingdom.
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That's it. It describes what life looks
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like under his rule as king. And he establishes his authority
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right at the start. He does in Matthew 5 points in
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May, and he makes this huge programmatic statement.
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I have not come to abolish the Law or the prophets, but to
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fulfill them. So this teaching on oaths isn't
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him throwing out the Old Testament.
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Quite the opposite. It's a perfect example of that
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fulfilment. He's not getting rid of the
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standard, he's raising it infinitely higher.
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He's demanding an obedience that goes way beyond just external
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box sticking. He's.
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Going for the heart? Straight to the heart, The kind
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of inner true righteousness that the scribes and Pharisees just
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weren't interested in. He's showing the laws true
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spiritual intent. OK, let's unpack that idea of
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fulfilment because it's so central.
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Before we even get to the specific oaths he condemns, we
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really need to get a handle on where this sits in the sermon.
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Right and its relationship to the Mosaic Law.
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This is where Jesus really asserts his authority.
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Using this repeated formula, He says, it's six times.
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You have heard that it was said what I say to you, The
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antitheses. And we need to be really clear
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about what he's not doing here. He isn't pitting his teaching
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against God's law. He affirmed the law.
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Yes, that's a common misunderstanding.
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He's not against the law itself, but against how it was being
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taught and applied by the religious leaders of his day.
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The Scribes and Pharisees. Exactly.
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He's using this formula to expose how human tradition had
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well, it had domesticated the Law of Moses.
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Domesticated. I like that.
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What mean by that? Well, they had taken these huge
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moral demands from God that required, you know, inner
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purity, and they basically shrunk them down into this
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manageable list of external. Rules a checklist.
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A checklist and the result was as long as you checked the box
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on the outside your heart, the inner person could be a complete
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mess. Jesus came to restore the law to
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its real spiritual depth. He's showing that God cares
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about the intention behind what you do, and in this case, the
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intention behind what you say. And the very structure of this
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section confirms that this teaching on oaths is #4 out of
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6. The placement isn't random.
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No, it's very intentional. You can just trace the sequence
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and you see this logical move from the outside in.
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First he deals with anger, which is the root of murder, then
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lust, the internal root of adultery, then divorce, which is
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about covenant breaking, and then we land here on oaths.
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And it finishes with retaliation and loving your enemies.
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It all flows. So the key insight here is that
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this teaching on oaths isn't some isolated rule about
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swearing. It addresses the integrity of
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our speech in the exact same way he addressed anger and lust.
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Right. He's not just regulating the
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external words you use, he's aiming at the source.
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The truthfulness of the heart that speaks.
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That's it. If the heart is deceitful, it
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doesn't matter what words you use, the tongue is going to
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follow. And that connection to the heart
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really drives us back to the Old Testament backdrop, doesn't it?
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The Mosaic Law wasn't actually against oaths altogether.
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No, not at all. In a fallen world, the law
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assumed that solemn vows would sometimes be needed to confirm
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the truth or, you know, settle serious disputes.
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So what's the moral foundation he's building on?
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It really rests on two of the big ones, the third commandment
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and the 9th commandment. OK, so the third is do not take
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the Lord's name in vain. Right.
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And that's about more than just cussing.
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It absolutely covers using God's holy name to back up a false or
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a frivolous promise. And the 9th is about bearing
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false witness. Yeah, which is this huge
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expansive command against all forms of dishonest speech,
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lying, slandering, deceiving, you name it.
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And the law itself gets even more specific.
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Leviticus 1912, for example, says not to swear by the Lord's
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name falsely. And Deuteronomy 23 gives this
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very sober warning. It's much better not to make a
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vow at all than to make one and then break it.
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So oaths were permitted, but they were serious business.
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You were invoking the God who sees everything.
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At most, seriousness was demanded.
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But if that's the standard, how did the scribal tradition
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managed to get around it? How did they create all these
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loopholes? They just shifted the focus.
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Instead of internalizing this big broad call to be truthful in
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all speech, they narrowed their focus almost completely on the
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bare technical requirement of vow keeping.
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And only certain kinds of vows, right?
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Right, only the ones that explicitly use a specific
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formula, like swearing to the Lord.
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And that narrowing of focus had a corrupting effect.
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It did, because if you only had to be absolutely truthful when
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you were swearing a very specific formal oath, well then
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you felt free to kind of shade the truth or manipulate your
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other words without feeling guilty about it.
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So they created 2 tiers of speech.
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That's a great way to put it. You have this low level
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negotiable everyday chatter and then you have the high stakes
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binding vows. And Jesus comes in to just get
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rid of that first tier. He's demanding the highest
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standard for everything you say. Every word.
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The problem wasn't the law itself, it was the clever legal
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system they built on top of it to reduce their accountability
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while still looking pious. And that distinction is the
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perfect setup for the theological anchor of all this.
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If this isn't just about good social manners, then the reason
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for this demand for integrity must be, well, divine.
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Why is truthfulness such a non negotiable command for a citizen
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of the Kingdom? Because the citizen has to
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reflect the character of the king.
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It's as simple as that. It is, The sources are clear on
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this. The foundation for Christian
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speech integrity is that it has to mirror the trustworthy,
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unchanging character of the Triune God.
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Our words have to be an ethical outflow of His divine nature.
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So the standard is God himself. It's his very essence.
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Scripture says it's impossible for God to lie.
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He's the God who never lies. And this isn't just a policy he
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adopted. Truth isn't something God tells.
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It's something he is. It's intrinsic to his being, and
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because he is faithful, by definition his word stands.
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He doesn't need to reinforce it. He never needs to back up a
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promise with a vow to prove he's serious.
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His simple declaration is enough.
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So for us, His people brought into His Kingdom, we're called
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to speak according to that same inherent truthfulness.
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Exactly. And this quality isn't just
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limited to God the Father. Not at all.
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You see this perfection across all three persons of the
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Trinity. Christ himself is the visible
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standard. He says I am the way and the
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truth and the life. He's the truth Incarnate.
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He lived a life where he never lied, never exaggerated.
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His speech was always perfectly accurate.
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Always. And the Holy Spirit, who lives
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in believers to make us more like Christ, is called the
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Spirit of truth. So the integrity Jesus demands
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is a call to reflect that trustworthy character of the
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Triune God in every single thing we say.
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Which brings us to this profound idea that connects God's
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character to his total sovereignty over our speech, the
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concept of corumdeo. Before the face of God.
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Explain that that phrase really captures the whole logic of
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Jesus's critique. The teachers he was confronting,
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they were trying to create a category of speech that was, you
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know, not binding a space where they could speak cheaply without
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worrying about divine judgment. But Jesus just destroys that
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idea. He does by affirming that all
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words are spoken. Corumdeo, God's character, is
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tied to his absolute sovereignty over all creation.
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He owns everything. So there's no neutral or secular
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realm of speech that's outside of his view.
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None. You can't create wiggle room
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because the whole cosmos belongs to God.
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There's just no opportunity for calculated dishonesty or half
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truths. Every word, from a casual
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promise to a solemn vow, is heard by the King.
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So if I tell my neighbor I'll help him move next Saturday.
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Even a common promise like that, which feels totally separate
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from church or a courtroom, is a word spoken before the face of
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God. Precisely.
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And if that word is unreliable, it misrepresents the character
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of the God you claim to serve. The second you try to
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distinguish between a sacred promise and a secular promise,
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you've already basically admitted that some part of your
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life is outside God's authority, and that's just not true.
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OK, let's pivot to how this corruption was actually playing
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out. Jesus wasn't just attacking any
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sincere appeal to God, He was issuing A categorical rejection
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of the manipulative oath taking that was so common.
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Right, he targets the behavior, but also the deceptive intent
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behind it. So let's look at this case
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history of evasion as a source. Just call it How sophisticated
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was this system they developed to keep their escape routes
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open? Oh it was stunningly
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sophisticated. The whole system was designed to
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let a person make a statement that sounded like a serious
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binding promise while making sure it was technically non
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binding. An accounting trick for
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morality. That's a good way to put it.
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They taught that oaths that explicitly used God's name were
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fully binding, but if you swore by created things, that was
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considered less serious. Give us some concrete examples.
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This is where you really see the dishonesty.
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OK, so one of the most famous examples which Jesus condemns
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later in Matthew 23, is the distinction between swearing by
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the temple versus swearing by the gold of the temple.
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How did that work? The teachers ruled that if you
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swore by the temple, your oath was not binding, but if you
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swore by the gold that is on the temple, it was.
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Binding. Wait, that seems completely
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backward. Why would the gold be more more
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binding than the entire temple? Because the gold was consecrated
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to God as a gift, it was a purely pragmatic distinction,
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and it was often tied to financial gain.
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If an oath involving a financial gift was binding, while that
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encouraged more giving. I see it was a system designed
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to look pious while letting people carefully preserve room
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to back out. Exactly.
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They were aiming for technical innocence while practicing
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actual deceit. So Jesus comes in and just
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dismantles this entire technical system.
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He does by showing that everything they swear by
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ultimately belongs to God anyway.
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He just systematically lists their evasive formulas and shows
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how foolish they are. So let's walk through them.
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He condemns swearing by heaven. Right.
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And why? Because heaven isn't some
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neutral territory. It's the throne of God.
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It's his seat of government. Then he condemns swearing by the
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earth. Because the Earth is his
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footstool. It's a created thing under his
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total control. And by Jerusalem.
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Because it's the city of the great King.
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By invoking Jerusalem, you're invoking the King's authority
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over it. And it gets even more personal,
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he says. Don't swear by your head.
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Because you lack sovereign control over your own body, you
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can't even make one brown hair white or black.
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Swearing by yourself assumes an authority over your future that
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only God has. The point is devastating to
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their whole system. Heaven, earth, city, self,
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prime, morals, it all belongs to God.
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So invoking any part of it is in the end invoking God's domain
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and authority. There is no safe oath that is
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less binding. None.
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Which leads directly to Jesus's final, incredibly severe
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condemnation at the end of verse 37.
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Anything more than this comes from evil.
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That phrase takes this from a legal debate to a spiritual
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diagnosis. What exactly does he mean by
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anything more than this? It means any unnecessary
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addition to a simple yes or no. It's the verbal padding, the
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half promises, the clever rhetoric, the extra swearing you
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use because you know your own simple word isn't trustworthy.
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The moment you feel the need to say I swear on my mother's
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grave, something's wrong. Something is wrong with the
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heart. And Jesus says this kind of
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manipulative speech is not morally neutral.
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He ties it directly to the devil, who he calls a liar and
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the father of lies. So the impulse to protect
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yourself with wiggle room rather than just speaking with
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transparent sincerity. Is a heart that's being
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influenced by the evil one rather than by the God of truth.
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So Jesus is forbidding not just perjury, but the intent to evade
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accountability in the first place.
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Absolutely. The core intent he forbids is
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trying to relativize your obligation, obscure
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accountability, or cloak your dishonesty in religious sounding
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language. It's a failure of simple,
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transparent truthfulness. OK, so having condemned all of
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that evasion, Jesus gives the positive radical ethic for the
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Kingdom. If we're supposed to avoid all
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that padding and cleverness, what should our speech actually
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look like? The standard is just
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breathtaking in its simplicity. Let what you say be simply yes
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or no. That's it.
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That's it. It establishes this one simple,
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radical ethic of straightforward, reliable words
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that has to govern all Christian communication.
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And the Greek text actually has a repetition there, right?
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Yes, yes or no? No, It underscores this demand
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for consistency. It does.
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It's not just about using fewer words.
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It's about a maximalist approach to integrity.
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It requires A radical kind of character.
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What does that look like? It means the disciple has to
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cultivate such deep seated integrity that their simple
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affirmation or denial is fully reliable.
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Their character has to be so consistently marked by the fear
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of God that their word just is their bomb.
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Which demands a life of promise keeping, even when it hurts.
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Even when it's costly financially or emotionally, the
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goal is that when a believer speaks, other people should
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instinctively know that they mean exactly what they say
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without needing any dramatic assurances.
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The authority isn't in the extra words, it's in the speaker's
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character. So this standard goes way beyond
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the courtroom. It reshapes how we handle all
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the small compromises of daily life.
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Oh, that's where the rubber meets the road.
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It forces us to refuse the small, everyday lies the world
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accepts as normal. Like what?
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Well, think about it. The subtle exaggeration you use
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to impress your boss. The flattery you use to gain
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favor. The strategic vagueness in an
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e-mail so you can escape responsibility later.
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Or the white lies we tell just to avoid an awkward
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conversation. All of it.
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Manipulative speech is condemned because it reveals a heart that
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isn't fully transparent. Corumdeo.
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The moment we choose self protection over simple truth, we
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fall short of the Kingdom standard.
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But this brings up attention. If we're called to this high
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standard, how do we square that with the fact that Scripture
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itself sometimes shows oaths being used by God and his
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apostles? Right.
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And that apparent paradox is something we have to address to
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understand the command correctly.
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This is a really important point of interpretation.
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The command is do not swear at all, which has caused a lot of
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disagreement over the centuries. It has.
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But if we're committed to the idea that Scripture is a unified
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whole, then Matthew 5 can't contradict the rest of the
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Bible. And that commitment is really
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the cornerstone of the Reformed position on this.
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OK, so we reject the view that Jesus's command is an absolute,
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universal ban on every single oath in every situation.
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I know some groups like the Anabaptists and Quakers took
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that stance and refused oaths even in court.
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And we respectfully disagree with that position based on the
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harmony of the Scriptures. An absolute ban creates
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contradictions all over the place, for example.
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Well, the Old Testament didn't just permit solemn oaths, it
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regulated them and sometimes even commanded them in serious
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covenantal situations. And in the New Testament.
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In the New Testament you have God himself confirming his
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promise to Abraham with an oath. We read that in Hebrews chapter
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6. It shows the unchangeable nature
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of his purpose. And the apostles.
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Too, Yes. Paul, for example, occasionally
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invoked God as a witness to the truth of what he was saying,
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which is effectively A lawful oath.
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If Jesus had truly abolished all oaths, he'd be setting aside a
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practice sanctioned by God himself to confirm truth in a
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fallen world. So if not all oaths are
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forbidden, what does a lawful oath look like according to the
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standard we'd find in, say, the Westminster Confession?
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A lawful oath is, first of all, not a regular thing.
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It's a permissible exception. It's defined as a solemn, rare
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act of religious worship. An act of worship.
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Why? Because it's an appeal to God as
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the ultimate witness, and because of that it should only
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be taken in matters of gravity and necessity.
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So think of courtroom testimony. Exactly.
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Or ratifying a major covenant between nations or within the
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church. And it must be taken in God's
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name, in truth, righteousness, and judgement.
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So the purpose of a lawful oath isn't to deny God's
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truthfulness, but actually to confirm it.
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Precisely. It's a gracious condescension to
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human weakness in a broken world.
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It's there to help establish peace and clarity and to end
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strife. I see the distinction now.
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Jesus isn't forbidding the solemn, necessary God honoring
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appeal to the Creator in a formal context.
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No, he's forbidding the manipulative, frivolous and
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evasive oaths that turn everyday speech into a slippery game of
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loopholes. He's aiming at the heart.
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The heart and the intention to deceive the Christians, ordinary
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yes and no, must be completely trustworthy on their own.
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A lawful oath should only ever be a rare, solemn
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intensification of a truthfulness that should already
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characterize every sentence a believer speaks.
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So when the state requires us to testify underoath, we see that
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as a necessary tool for justice in the fallen world, and we
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submit to it. That's the balance.
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The oath is for the benefit of the governing authorities, not
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because the believer needs a special formula to make sure
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they're being sincere. Their sincerity should be a
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given. OK, let's bring this home.
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Let's talk about applying this radical approach to speech
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across a disciples life. If every word is spoken
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corumdeo, this reshapes everything.
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It has to start in our personal and domestic life.
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This ethic puts a huge weight on simple promise keeping.
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So we have to scrutinize our casual commitments.
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We do. Those phrases we just throw out
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lightly and forget are no longer disposable.
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When you tell a friend, I'll pray for you or tell your kid
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we'll go to the park on Saturday.
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Those words are small covenantal acts.
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They have to stand right? And this builds A reputation for
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reliability. The goal is to be the kind of
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person whose simple word carries weight without needing all the
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dramatic assurances. And this has massive weight
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inside the church, especially with formal covenantal vows.
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Oh yes, take church membership vows.
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Those aren't suggestions. They're solemn promises made
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before God and the whole congregation to walk in unity
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and pursue the peace and purity of the church.
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So casually leaving a church when your preferences aren't met
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is a serious violation that that original, yes.
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It is. And then, of course, there's the
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most common and serious vow for many, the marriage vow.
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Till death do us part. Yes, in a culture that sees
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marriage as a conditional contract, Christ demands that
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those words spoken before God and witnesses must stand through
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sickness, through financial hardship, through conflict.
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It's a profound speech act that binds 2 lives before the God of
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truth. And for leaders in the church,
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ordination vows. Also, solemn undertakings,
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promises by pastors and elders to uphold sound doctrine and
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shepherd the flock. When leaders abandoned their
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posts. Or, you know, twist the Word to
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fit the culture. They're breaking vows made to
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the king, not just violating a professional contract.
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Now let's apply this yes or no ethic to the workplace.
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This is where the pressure for strategic vagueness is probably
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most intense. It is that every contract, every
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report, every e-mail, every marketing claim, it all falls
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under Christ's command. Christian employees and
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employers have to refuse to participate in deceptive
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advertising or manipulated sales numbers or cookbooks.
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And this is where it can get really costly.
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It can. Following Jesus here might mean
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refusing your boss's request to sign off on a misleading report,
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or turning down a big client whose whole business model is
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based on dishonesty. Truth has to be the priority
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over profit and efficiency. I think a lot of people struggle
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with ambiguity in business. You know, in a negotiation you
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might need to be strategically vague to keep your options open.
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Does Jesus Command even allow for that?
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That's a great question. We have to distinguish between
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ambiguity and deception. Jesus forbids speech that's
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driven by the intent to mislead or evade obligation.
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So necessary ambiguity in a negotiation, like saying we're
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exploring our options, is usually fine as long as it's not
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intended to create a false impression of your commitment.
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If your words truthfully represent your current state,
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even if that state is noncommittal, you're operating
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with integrity. But the moment it becomes an
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outright lie about your capacity or intent.
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You've crossed the line. Finally, what about ministry and
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evangelism? Religious language can be just
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as manipulative as legal language.
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Absolutely. We have to guard against the
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temptation to just adjust the gospel message to what people
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want to hear, or to promise things God has never promised
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like. Prosperity preaching.
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That's a severe violation of honest speech.
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It attracts words and promises to God that he simply has not
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spoken. It functions like a false oath
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in God's name to get people to comply.
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And there's another one that's really common, the.
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Careless use of phrases like God told me or the Lord told me to
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tell you. Those function exactly like the
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oath Jesus condemned. They're an attempt to shield a
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personal desire or opinion from any scrutiny by stamping it with
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divine authority. So our proclamation of the
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Gospel must be plain, accurate, and transparent.
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No bait and switch, no emotional manipulation.
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The integrity of the messenger has to reflect the integrity of
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the message. If the minister uses
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manipulative language, he undermines the very truth he
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claims to preach. So wrapping this up, Matthew
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5.3337 really brings us before the God of truth and leaves us
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well exposed. The Kingdom ethic demands this
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simple radical integrity where yes and no are enough.
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Because every single word is spoken corumdeo before the face
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of God. And we can't soften Jesus's
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warning here. Anything more than that simple
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truthfulness. Comes from evil, and that's not
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a judgement on our social skills.
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It's a verdict on the orientation of our hearts.
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It reveals a preference for self protection over transparency.
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And if we're being honest, this standard should be crushing.
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I mean, we all remember promises we've broken, half truths we've
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told to protect ourselves, exaggerations we've used to
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impress people. Our own tongues testify against
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us every day. They do.
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The standard Christ sets reveals how radically we have all failed
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in truthfulness. But the wonder of the Gospels
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that the one who gives this standard is also the Savior.
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Christ himself is the truth Incarnate.
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He never lied. He never exaggerated.
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He perfectly embodied this integrity.
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And at the cross. At the cross he bore the penalty
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our dishonest speech deserves. The perfectly truthful Son was
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treated as a covenant breaker so that we, the real covenant
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Breakers, could be counted righteous in Him.
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So the call isn't to just try harder to grit our teeth and
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become verbal legalists. No, the call is to flee to
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Christ in repentance, confessing the sins of our tongue, and to
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rely on the Spirit of truth that He gives us to sanctify us, to
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change us. He works to create a people
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whose speech increasingly reflects his own character.
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And that has a powerful effect. In a world that is just drowning
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in spin and half truths, a Christian whose simple yes and
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no can actually be trusted, that is a powerful visible sign that
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the God who cannot lie has established his Kingdom of
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righteousness and truth in them. That's what our speech is meant
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to do. That is a challenging and
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encouraging place to end this deep dive.
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Thank you for joining us.