Wednesday after the Second Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on June 12, 2024 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 5:33-37 (NKJV)
5:33 “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.’ 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”
Devotion
The Small Catechism teaches us what God’s command not to murder means: that “we should fear and love God that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need.” Similarly, in the Old Testament laws concerning oaths, every lesser form of swearing falsely is condemned and, more, the very idea of making oaths when they’re not required is excluded. The Jewish ‘experts in the Law’ tried to twist what God had commanded into varying levels of obligation depending on the form of the oath or the things sworn (cf. Matt. 23:16-22). However, Jesus says such additions to our speech spring from the devil. As the devil did in tempting Jesus, such oaths seek to guarantee our truthfulness by promising things that aren’t ours to promise (Matt. 4:1-11; cf. Lev. 5:4-5).
The Law was added because of transgressions (Gal. 3:19); it was verbalized to show where actions had not been in accord with faith, and would point out future unfaithfulness so that we would repent. Even secular laws are increased because of transgression, and that includes perjury, so that we will be called upon to take oaths in important matters. This is not forbidden us (cf. Heb. 6:16-17), but we are to speak the truth simply and plainly so that we would otherwise be trusted without an oath, speaking every word as unto the Lord Himself.
Collect: O Lord, Who never failest to help and govern those whom Thou dost bring up in Thy steadfast fear and love: Make us to have a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
