Above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. Your yes must be yes and your no must be no, so that you won't fall under judgment.
James 5:12
One of the things that I love the most about studying one book of the bible, is the ability to focus on just one scripture and have it pulled apart, dissected and explained to me. The issue of this one verse that we are studying today appears to be an issue of simply staying true to our word.
In Hebrews 6:13, how does it say God is unique regarding oaths?
He has to swear to Himself because there is no one greater than Him.
Deuteronomy 23:21-23 says that if you make a vow to the Lord and are slow to pay it, then you are guilty of SIN. Whatever you vow, you are to do it fully and quickly and only make vows you willingly intend to keep.
That is a pretty powerful scripture. Especially when it is considered sin to break a vow. This causes me to think about whether I have made promises I haven't been able to keep. Perhaps it is because I have children who often ask for things and my standard answer is "We'll see," but I cannot think of any. I try very hard not to say yes to something I cannot follow through on.
Satan gets great joy out of seeing us go back on word, even when it seems to be something insignificant to us. Why do you suppose that is?
Because it gives him a toe hold and keeps us on the spectrum away from God.
In Matthew 23:16-22, Jesus tells us to forgo swearing all together and James echos the same thing. We simply need to let our word be our truth and do the things we say we will do.
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