Being counter-cultural in Matthew 5 – Oaths

Let’s read Matthew 5:33-37
‘Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath 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. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.’

As before, Jesus referred back to the regulations given in the Old Testament, though in this case it’s not immediately obvious where he was quoting from. Nowhere in the Law of Moses do we find a commandment saying exactly what Jesus said here. It’s possible, however, that he had verses such as the following in mind:

Leviticus 19:12 Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

Deuteronomy 30:2 When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.

Now the first question we might ask is: why was Jesus so concerned about oaths?

Why oaths?

So far he’s discussed murder and adultery, which are the subjects of two of the ten commandments, and divorce, which for Jesus is closely linked to adultery. It’s obvious that these three issues all have a deeply significant impact on the lives of their perpetrators, their victims and their larger society.

Can the same be said for swearing oaths?

Typically the swearing of an oath was a way of guaranteeing that what a person said was true, or that they would keep their promise. There are plenty of examples in the Old Testament of people saying things like “As the LORD lives…” or “May God do so-and-so to me if I don’t do such-and-such” (see for example 2 Kings 2:2 or 2 Samuel 3:35).

As we can see from the two verses above from Leviticus and Deuteronomy, oaths sworn in God’s name had to be kept. To make such an oath and then fail to keep it was to insult or cheapen God’s name.

In the time of Jesus, it seems that people were trying to find a way around this, to swear an oath that sounded convincing to other people, but which could be broken if necessary without serious consequences. They did this by swearing their oath on things other than God.

From Matthew 5:34 we can see that people were swearing by heaven, by the earth or by the city of Jerusalem. Such things obviously carried great weight in that society and any oath sworn by them would be taken seriously, yet since God’s name wasn’t being invoked, these oaths could potentially be seen as breakable.

It seems that this practice may have been Jesus’ real concern here. He wasn’t outright forbidding the swearing of oaths or saying that they’re always a bad thing. In verses such as 2 Corinthians 1:18 and Galatians 1:20 we can see Paul swearing oaths, apparently as a means of guaranteeing the truthfulness of what he was writing. In Hebrews 7:20-22 God himself is described as swearing an oath.

Jesus’ concern was probably the fact that people were swearing oaths which at worst they never intended to keep at all or at best wanted the option to escape from. They were pretending to invoke holy things in order to guarantee their honesty and reliability, but were really looking for loopholes to give them an excuse to duck out of these statements or promises if things turned out not to be in their own interest.

Now, even given this context, you may still be pondering our original question: so what? Why was this such a big deal to Jesus? Why mention it in the same breath as murder or adultery?

Again, why oaths?

Telling the truth is an essential ingredient for any functioning society. A society in which people see no reason not to lie, and in which it’s very difficult to be certain who’s telling the truth and who isn’t, will fall apart. You need only look at the Western world today in 2024 to see that’s exactly what is happening.

Politicians lie. Journalists lie. Corporations lie. Many ordinary people lie. As more and more people lack a serious belief in God, there is no longer any sense of accountability to a higher power, and some people see very little reason to tell the truth if a lie can be concealed.

The real problem is, as Jesus observed, people presenting themselves in a way that convinces others they are telling the truth or are sincere about their promises, when really they have no intention of doing either.

Even a politician or a corporate head who’s been shown to have lied over and over again may still have the charisma or the popularity to convince large numbers of people to believe him.

If only there was some way to be certain that a person is telling the truth! That was the original purpose of oaths sworn in God’s name. A person who genuinely fears God will not lie or break a promise sworn by him.

In our time, fewer and fewer people genuinely fear God. In Jesus’ time, people were finding creative ways to get around that by swearing on other things instead.

That’s why Jesus included the swearing of oaths in the same list as murder, adultery and divorce. Not only does the problem of truth vs lies have a significant impact on our lives and wider societies, it’s yet another example of people claiming to be following God’s commands when really just living selfishly.

Just as a man might sit around fantasising about punching his next-door neighbour in the face, or a woman might fantasise about an illicit relationship – all the while believing they’re doing nothing wrong because they’ve technically kept the commandment not to actually murder or commit adulter – a person can easily justify lying or breaking a promise because, although sworn with an oath, the oath wasn’t done in God’s name.

Jesus’ biggest problem was always with people who insisted they were holy and righteous despite having hearts full of selfishness and greed.

What is the solution?

On the subject of swearing oaths, for Jesus the answer is quite simple. A man or woman who is a Christian and genuinely fears God does not need to swear any oaths. Why not? Because he or she should simply tell the truth all the time.

Swearing an oath may guarantee the truthfulness of the accompanying statement, but it also implies that any statements or promises not accompanied by an oath may not be so reliable.

Why be a person who only promises to tell the truth some of the time? Why not simply tell the truth all the time? What reason is there to lie? There may be some extreme situations when a lie is arguably the best approach – when Nazi officials are asking if there are any Jews hiding in your basement, for example – but these are few and far between and can never be used to justify a lie told for selfish reasons.

It seems that Jesus’ advice here is twofold.

First, if you’re looking for some loophole in God’s commandments that will enable you to deceive others for your own benefit while still being a faithful child of God, forget it. There isn’t one. Just tell the truth.

Second, when trying to determine if another person can be trusted, ask yourself how truthful you know them to be. A person who has a reputation or track record of telling the truth, particularly when doing so made them unpopular or even got them into trouble, can probably be trusted. A person who has no such reputation but relies on charisma and charm to persuade, probably should not be, even if they swear an oath.

While Jesus’ concern about swearing of oaths may seem out of place or unimportant at first glance, his real concern was that his disciples should always tell the truth and never look for a way to justify doing otherwise.