What was Jesus’ Problem with Swearing Oaths and Making Vows?

There is a weightiness to our words. 

With our words promises are made, vows are spoken, hearts are encouraged and wounds are bandaged up. 

With our words promises are broken, vows are misspoken, hearts are discouraged, and wounds are inflicted. 

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

Our words matter in the kingdom of God. 

Integrity matters in the kingdom of God. 

Truth matters in the kingdom of God.

So let our “yes” be “yes” and our “no” be “no”.

Jesus' primary issue with vow making and oaths in the Sermon on the Mount is that the religious leaders had developed a system where they were only accountable to God some of the time for the words they spoke.

Some statements carried more weight than others — words had varying degrees of seriousness. 

The misguided idea behind this type of religious maneuvering is that God is somehow more involved when we chose to allow him to be more involved. 

More than that, Jesus’ primary issue is that all the “swearing by” doesn’t acknowledge what’s true about the universe. 

Heaven? It’s God’s throne. 

Temple? God lives in it. 

Earth? It’s God’s footstool.

Jerusalem? It’s God’s city.

The big idea is that God is everywhere. 

And everything is His.  

We can never take God out of the equation. 

All of our vows our spoken before him. 

All of our words honour or dishonour him.

In other words…

Our words matter in God’s kingdom because they are always uttered in the presence of the King. 

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