Series: Youth for Jesus
Number: Vol. 2, No. 41
“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 5:33-37NIV)
One of our customers came to our shop one day to buy certain things. While she was being attended to, she started lodging complaints about certain items she had bought from the shop and how they did not serve her purpose. Then I said to her, “Don’t worry – we will do something about what you just said.” And in response to that, she said, “Walahi (I swear to God), I am speaking the truth.” So, I was like, “Come on, I already said we will take care of your complaints. Why did you still have to swear to strengthen your statement? That was totally unnecessary.” And she said something like, “I just want you to believe me.”
Now that reminds me of what our Lord Jesus says about making and breaking oaths. He says you don’t need to swear about anything, just because you want to sound truthful; just let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’, ‘No’. In other words, build a reputation for honesty and truthfulness. Don’t carelessly make commitments. Learn not to be in a hurry to give your word about things you have not adequately thought about or considered. Otherwise you will constantly find yourself disappointing people and creating a feeling of distrust in them concerning you. Then you may have to start making vows or seeking others that would put in a word for you before you are taken seriously in any matter by anybody.
But God does not want any of us to be that way. He does not want us to be twisted in conduct or unreliable. He does not want us to rely on the power of oaths or on the reputation of others in order to be taken seriously in life. In fact, He says that relying on the power of oaths to strengthen our words, especially if we are not in a court of law, is of the evil one, for it is manipulative in character. It is like you are forcing or manipulating people to take your words as true, instead of allowing them to judge the trueness of what you have said on the basis of your reputation. And that is horribly wrong.
Therefore, what you should be doing is building your reputation on honesty. Look, if people, as in a court of law, have to first make us swear by God or any other thing before they believe us, it means that something is wrong with our reputation before them. And we need to do all that we can to correct that impression. So, going forward, mean what you say, and say only what you mean. If people won’t believe you, then, they won’t believe you. In fact, most of the people in our lives take our words seriously not because of the way we sound or look; rather, they take them seriously because we have over the time built before them a reputation for honesty. And that is what you should work on in your life. Once you give your word about something, make sure you do your best to make it good, even if doing so hurts you. That way, not only will you be building a reputation for honesty before others, you will also be training yourself not to be careless in making commitments.
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