James series – “The Litmus Test for life”

James 5:12

Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.

The second issue is:

• The implication of individual integrity

Look a little bit farther in verse 12, “never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else.” So, what exactly is James getting at here, is he saying that it is wrong for Christians to make oaths? Well, obviously that can’t be the case because it certainly isn’t wrong to take an oath when we testify in a court, or when get married. Likewise, the Bible doesn’t forbid oaths; in fact, it offers us many examples of those who took oaths. Abraham, David, Paul and many others made oaths. The purpose of an oath was to call upon someone, or something greater than yourself as a witness to the promise you were making. By calling on the name of God in an oath, you were saying that God was a witness to your promise and, therefore, you were seriously intending to keep that promise. So to understand what James is getting at here in verse 12 it is helpful to turn to Jesus words on the matter found in MATTHEW 5:33-37. In order to understand what kind of oaths Jesus and James are forbidding we have to understand the Jewish customs in Christs day. By the time of the New Testament, the Jews had developed an extremely complex system of swearing oaths. In many ways, it was similar to our legal system today. It was extremely complex and there was almost always a loophole. So, because of the complexity of the system, there were people who would find ways to get out of nearly everything. They would swear an oath to do something with the full intention of wriggling their way out of it. It was done the same way that some shady businesses use contracts today. The contract has all the good stuff in big, bold print. But all the loopholes and legal jargon is in super fine print that you need a magnifying glass to read. Developing a deceitful contract where you have no intention of following through is the kind of swearing Jesus and James are talking about. These are words we mouth instead of words we model. Some people enter marriage with that type of attitude, saying, “Well, if it doesn’t work out, we’ll just get a divorce.” Making solemn wedding vows before the Lord with that escape clause in mind is just the kind of swearing this passage is talking about. We need to think before we make a vow. The implication of this statement really has more to do with your individual integrity than it does with whatever promises you make. If you make a promise with the intention of breaking that promise, it doesn’t matter what kind of contract it’s on. Even if you intend to keep the promise, but intentionally leave yourself a loophole, it reveals that your word is worthless. And if your word is worthless, your integrity is worthless—above all things. There are implications to your individual integrity. The implications are that if you make promises with even the slightest intention of breaking them, you have no integrity. So why do so many people feel the need to lie?

1. Self-Protection—people lie because they’re motivated by fear and want to protect themselves. Afraid of getting in trouble. Or that they will be rejected. Or caught up in the middle of a confrontation. Or they will hurt someone’s feelings. Or we’ll lose our job.

2. Self-Centeredness—secondly, people lie because they benefit from their lies. They might get recognition, a promotion, a job, a date, a credit card, or sympathy. How many people lie on their income tax for that very reason? How many people call in sick when we really aren’t? 

3. Self-Importance—thirdly, people lie because of their pride. These are the lies that feed our flesh and puff us up with self-importance. Either we lie to save face, or to cover our mistakes, or to be liked, or to appear more important, or more successful than we really are.

We have all kinds of reason to lie, but the truth is, when it comes right down to it, we lie because it is the easiest thing to do. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but the wrong thing is often the easiest thing. Satan is always tempting us with the easy way. The way of least resistance is usually a slippery slop to sin. Eventually our lies will catch up with us and our integrity will suffer. C. S. Lewis once said, “A little lie is like a little pregnancy it doesn’t take long before everyone knows.” God doesn’t call us to search out the easy way, He calls us to seek the right way, the way of truth and integrity. Our effectiveness as Christians demands that we be a people of integrity. Edward R. Murrow, an American journalist and television and radio figure in the 1950’s once said, “To be persuasive, we must be believable. To be believable, we must be credible. To be credible, we must be truthful.” You and I will only be a pervasive light for Christ if we are truthful.