Shakespeare’s Hamlet said, “Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.” How right he was. Solomon asked, “But who can find a faithful man” (Pro. 20:6)? He sought for a man who was dependable, trustworthy, and truthful. That kind of person may be hard to come by in the world, but it should not be so in the church because God’s will for His people is that they be characterized by honesty and integrity (Ps. 15:1-2; Phil. 4:8; Tit. 2:7-8; etc.).
One particular area in which God desires integrity is our speech. Ephesians 4:25 says, “Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.” Solomon wrote, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight” (Pro. 12:22). Jesus also dealt with the subject in Matthew 5:33-37 when He spoke of the importance of keeping our word. People in the ancient world commonly invoked the name of a god or some object of significance in an oath in order to prove the truthfulness of their word. The Jews also made oaths on a regular basis. They would swear by all kinds of different things and occasionally invoked the name of God to become a legal witness to their claim. In fact, this practice was so common among the Jews that the Talmud has an entire tractate dedicated to it, and the Jewish rabbis eventually had to step in to decide which oaths were actually binding.
To address all of this Jesus simply said, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. But I say to you, do not wear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great King” (Matt. 5:33-35). Jesus’ point was that His followers needed to be known as people of their word. Their honesty and integrity was to be such that they had no need to invoke anything or anyone as a witness to their truthfulness, but simply to allow their word be enough (Matt. 5:37)
…Continued Next Week